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Traveller is the essential resource for Australians who love to travel. We are dedicated to providing the best travel advice by offering the perfect mix of inspirational content and comprehensive destination guides with things to do and places to stay. Most importantly, Traveller is your daily escape to dream destinations. Be transported to the wild Kimberley Coast of Western Australia or a sun lo

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09/12/2024

Bogan-free parts of Bali: Amed, Karangasem Regency.

This string of fishing villages along the north-east coast near Amed Beach, holds a South-East Asia beachside vibe of yesteryear. The main road has cafes, warungs and dive shops hidden in the tropical greenery and affordable accommodation overlooking the black sandy beaches.

Amed’s protected marine area has helped firm-up its reputation for excellent scuba diving, snorkelling and free-diving. The coastline’s sunken ships, including Japanese Wreck on the black-pebbled beach of Banyuning Bay, and The Liberty wreck at Tulamben, are easily spied with a snorkel and mask. Hire wooden catamaran reef boats to explore dive sites further offshore.

Break up the drive with lunch at beautiful Bali Asli, in Gelumpang village, 30 minutes from Amed. It’s an enchanting restaurant serving Indonesian cuisine in a pavilion with views over the rice fields to distant mountains.

Villa Adi, with rooms and family-sized pool villas, is just one offering of smaller guest accommodation close to main road shops and amenities. Head south along the coast for more resort-style options including Aquamarine Beach Villas which has its own beachfront and trattoria serving excellent Italian. Visit in the dry season (April and October) for calmer waters and clear visibility. Amed is a 98-kilometre, three-hour drive from Bali airport.

05/12/2024

Need some Christmas gift ideas for the travel-lover in your life?

How about a neck pillow? There are some who swear by the Trtl travel pillow, and though I’m not one of them, I understand their appeal. There are other options out there too, many of which will make life far more comfortable for your travelling gift recipient. Try the Cabeau Evolution s3, the Ostrichpillow Go Neck Pillow, the Snoooze Travel Pillow, or – if you’re feeling hilarious – the Ostrichpillow Original. - Ben Groundwater

04/12/2024

Following nearly six years of development, the Snowies Alpine Walk in NSW’s Kosciuszko National Park, set to rival Tasmania’s Overland Track, is now complete.

The final 12-kilometre section of the 55-kilometre trail – running from Perisher Valley to Bullocks Flat – has just opened, offering hikers the chance to immerse in the ever-changing terrain and views of the so-called “roof of Australia”.

More than 28 kilometres of new tracks have been added as part of the $27 million project, with upgrades to many pre-existing tracks including the Porcupines walk, Illawong walk, Main Range loop and the Kosciuszko Summit – the latter upgrades designed to protect threatened alpine grasses.

There are already several guided tour options available in time for the peak summer travel season, with travel operators including Thredbo Resort, Australian Walking Holidays and Women Embrace Adventure offering multi-day hike packages that provide a way to participate while enjoying the hospitality and creature comforts of resort hotel facilities.

03/12/2024

You’ve probably heard of egg rolls, a staple of American-Chinese cuisine, thanks to US TV shows and movies. You can picture the scene: the chop suey in the classic “oyster pail” container, the fortune cookies in their shiny wrappers, and the egg roll poking out of a paper packet. It looks like a spring roll, the egg roll, but it’s different.

It’s bigger. Its filling is mostly shredded cabbage, with some chopped meat, a few other vegetables and spices, it’s deep-fried, and … whoa, it’s a Chiko Roll! An egg roll is a Chiko Roll. It’s basically the same. An American cultural icon, a proud staple of a distinct cuisine, and someone in Australia, independently, created it too.

Also, an egg roll contains no egg, just as a Chiko Roll contains no chicken. Another similarity!

02/12/2024

Budget carrier Jetstar has backed up last week’s “Return for Free” Black Friday sale with another major sale for 48 hours from Monday morning, offering network-wide Cyber Monday discounts for international and domestic routes. Among the best deals are one-way Sydney to Ballina (Byron Bay) fares from $35, and one-way Melbourne (Tullamarine) to Ho Chi Minh City (Vietnam) from $189.

28/11/2024

Australians will soon need an electronic travel authorisation (ETA) to enter the UK. This is a visa waiver, similar to the ESTA system introduced by the US in 2008.

ETAs will be required for travellers with Australian passports starting January 8, 2025, but you can apply now if you're travelling next year.

The ETA costs £10 ($19) and the fastest way to apply is via the UK ETA app, available from the App Store and Google Play. You can also apply online.

Applicants need a valid biometric passport and an email address. To submit an application, you need a photo of the data page of the passport you’ll be using to enter the UK. You also need to upload a selfie, answer some questions (including name, date of birth, nationality and details of any criminal convictions) and pay the fee. Your travel information is not required. The Home Office will then carry out checks related to identity, crime, immigration history and security. According to the UK government, you can expect a response within three working days.

Once granted, an ETA allows you to stay in the UK for up to six months – the same amount of time Australian passport-holders have been permitted to remain previously.

26/11/2024

There must be more than 1000 people crammed into one section of the small arrivals hall.

We are log jammed in the entrance, going nowhere for 30 or so minutes, until a kind of line forms and those ahead start shuffling, inch by inch, to a destination I can’t see from the back of the line.

It’s hot, there’s no water, and someone ahead in the line, who seems to be experienced with this airport, says it might take three hours to reach the immigration desk.

It takes more than two.

Some airports are notorious for their disorganisation. Others process so many people that even orderly lines take an hour or so.

But I did not expect Tokyo’s Haneda Airport to offer the worst airport experience I’ve had for a long time.

It seems Japan is becoming a victim of its own success. Australians have had a long love affair with Japan. It remains one of the most magical places in the world to visit – with a graciousness that the Western world can’t match.

More than 3 million international travellers entered Japan in August this year, up 36 per cent from the year before. I hope Haneda isn’t the tip of the iceberg – evidence that Japan isn’t coping well with the numbers. - Lee Tulloch

25/11/2024

The top countries for foodies in 2025: New Zealand.

Our Kiwi neighbour has long been known for its myriad tourist attractions, but it has rarely been considered a culinary destination. That’s about to change with a band of talented chefs and cooks revolutionising the approach to cuisine and putting the focus on seasonality, sustainability and locality. Probably the most famous is Vaughan Mabee, whose Queenstown restaurant Amisfield is attracting worldwide attention.

Other notable food mavericks include Giulio Sturla, who is reinventing the concept of the restaurant itself at Mapu, his tiny eatery outside Christchurch; Asher Boote, whose plant-based menus at Wellington’s Hillside Kitchen relies on foraged ingredients; and Monique Fiso, whose restaurant Hiakai closed earlier this year, though she’s bound to pop up again somewhere soon.

22/11/2024

The best countries to visit in 2025: Mexico.
You’ve probably heard about Mexico’s mystical Mayan ruins, the Yucatan Peninsula’s pristine beaches and the country’s exuberant Day of the Dead festivities. But what about its high-end culinary scene? Last year, Michelin launched its first Mexico guide, awarding stars to 16 restaurants. Or how about its flourishing wine industry? The country has 14 wine regions, the most popular being Baja California’s Valle de Guadalupe, which has more than 150 vineyards. Visit one of the country’s 170-plus Pueblo Magicos for a unique cultural offering, or head to Copper Canyon to see legendary long-distance runners the Tarahumara Indians.

20/11/2024

The mad scramble to remove laptops and other electronic devices at security checks will soon finally be a thing of the past for passengers of Sydney Airport, with the long-awaited arrival of next-gen security scanners at Terminal 2.

A $200 million redevelopment of Sydney Airport’s T2 domestic terminal, which hosts Virgin Airlines, Jetstar and regional airlines, will also introduce new time-saving self-serve bag-drop technology and a new terminal layout, designed to speed up checks and improve efficiency for the 17 million passengers who pass through each year.

The new CT scanners, which aim to cut wait times by 50 per cent, won’t be implemented in time for the busy peak summer travel period, which ramps up from next month, with upgrade works set to commence in 2025.

The federal government first mandated the installation of the new scanners six years ago. Melbourne Airport’s Terminal 4 has had them in operation since 2019.

The changes will enable 95 per cent of passengers to travel kerbside to airside in less than 15 minutes, according to Sydney Airport.

New self-service kiosks and bag-drop technology will speed up bag processing capacity from 1500 bags per hour during peak times to 1800 by 2026.

20/11/2024

How many countries still use hard-copy immigration forms? How often these days do you have to pull out a pen and fill out a form on the plane before you can go through immigration and customs?

Almost never. There are a few hold-outs, of course, and some countries are still nightmarish to enter.

But of the developed nations, where old-school paper-based bureaucracy is mostly a thing of the past? I can’t think of any. Not the US, not the UK, not anywhere in Europe. Even Japan has done away with paper forms.

You know which one is the hold-out, right? The country with the yellow forms, the one that still forces passengers to dig around in their bags and then scribble out all of their arrival information in a way that I’m certain almost no one can properly read?

It’s Australia. We still have hard-copy incoming passenger cards (IPCs). But that should soon be a thing of the past.

Australian Border Force (ABF) is currently trialling a digital travel declaration: certain adult passengers flying from Auckland to Brisbane on Qantas flights can now fill one out via the Qantas app, and use the SmartGates at the airport to proceed with only a QR code. The trial will soon include other NZ departure hubs.

This is good news. The days of filling out those yellow IPCs will eventually be a thing of the past. But there are plenty of other areas our airports could improve. - Ben Groundwater

19/11/2024

Pompeii is huge. Comprising nine regions across 66 hectares it would take two to three days to see it all.

Before you enter, pause to think about the estimated 2000 people who died at Pompeii and as many as 16,000 within the Gulf of Naples, not by lava flow, but from asphyxiation caused by a lethal cloud of ash and gas. The Garden of the Fugitives (Region I) holds the largest number of victims, where 13 people perished while attempting to flee. Plaster casts made from the impressions of their bodies in the ash show the horror of their final agonising minutes. Visit the Antiquarium to learn how these plaster moulds were made.

The blanket of ash that destroyed the town is also what preserved it. And few places are better preserved than the thermal baths, the ultimate testament to Roman engineering and culture. If the Stabian Baths are the oldest thermal complex, the Forum Baths (Region VII) are the most elaborate. Look up at the arched ceilings, admire the frescoes depicting gardens and mythological scenes and be stunned at the technical ingenuity of the underfloor heating system known as hypocaust. And ponder why the men’s facilities are more elaborate than the women’s (the answer: Pompeii was a strictly patriarchal society).

18/11/2024

What did you have for breakfast today? Bacon and eggs? Toast and Vegemite? A bowl of cereal? All decent options. But then, check out what they’re having in Malaysia: nasi lemak. Now this is how you start your day right.

Nasi lemak translates to “rich rice” and, at its most basic, that’s what it is, just rice cooked with coconut cream and pandan leaves. And that would be enough for a hearty breakfast.

But then you add the classic condiments: small, dried anchovies called ikin bilis; crunchy roasted peanuts; slices of cooling cucumber; a boiled egg, peeled and split in half; and sambal, a fiercely spicy and highly addictive chilli-based sauce.

And you’re still not done because a classic nasi lemak will often be served with yet another hearty dish, sometimes beef rendang, or fried chicken, or chicken curry, or even squid with chilli. Now, how’s that toast and Vegemite looking?

15/11/2024

The world's best places to do nothing: Aitutaki, Cook Islands.
You can do nothing on beaches anywhere, but Aitutaki takes it to the extreme, with a pace so slow you’d swear time was suspended. Even better, you won’t feel compelled to do or see anything on this glorious island, surrounded by what is surely the world’s most dazzling and bluest lagoon.

The lagoon edge runs for 45 kilometres and is sprinkled with tiny motu or sand islands, so hire a boat, pick a spot, and you’ll have paradise all to yourself. Go barefoot, twang on your ukulele, have a swim, say hello to the hermit crabs. On the island, all there is to do is drink beer on a verandah, chat with a passing local, or fish from a jetty.

Maina Motu has coral formations that are great for snorkelling. You’ll probably have company on One Foot Island, but it couldn’t be better for a Robinson Crusoe walk and dip in peacock-coloured water. Mainland Ootu Beach beckons with more sand-flopping under the coconut trees, while Maunga Pu peak is the perch for sunset.

14/11/2024

The Middle East's first bullet train does 300km/h through Saudi Arabia. The journey between Islam’s two holiest cities, Medina and Mecca, is now best done by bullet train. The Haramain High-Speed Railway line links the two cities via the Red Sea port city of Jeddah. The leg from Medina south to Jeddah’s Al-Sulaymaniyah station it takes just under two hours to cover 420 kilometres. The Chinese-built line then continues west for another 40 minutes to Mecca – off limits to non-Muslims, although the train is open to all comers. The 13-car T350 high-speed trains , by Spanish manufacturer Talgo, are the same as those used by the Spanish government’s Renfe lines, but modified to run in up to 50-degree heat.

The seats throughout are airline-style, with tray tables. In business, the formation is a single on the window and a double on the opposite side, while economy has doubles on either side of the aisle. Each carriage includes two sets of four seats around a table.

The business-class ticket includes a meal served by the cabin attendants from an airline-style trolley. The tray includes a croissant with cheese and what appears to be beef Spam, a plain white roll, another roll with cream cheese and chives, a muffin and a bowl of cut fruit. We’re in the Middle East, so there’s also a serve of hummus on the side. I’m offered a choice of juices, coffee or tea by the charming attendants – remember, alcohol is illegal in this kingdom.

Tickets are $95 to $200, depending on class and time of purchase.

13/11/2024

Eighteen months in the making, Bluey’s World Brisbane has opened in a custom-made pavilion in the riverside suburb of Hamilton, on the city’s north side, with a blue carpet ceremony.

Visitors to the 4000 sqm attraction are taken on a 60-minute tour of Bluey’s house, initially guided by a fairy (from the Fairies episode) and then a garden gnome (from the Hammerbarn episode).

Encompassing a supersized version of the show’s pastel-coloured Queenslander home, the tour takes in the living room, Bluey and Bingo’s bedroom, the kitchen, playroom, and backyard (for a game of Keepy Uppy), as well as a few other surprise locations.

Naturally there’s a gift shop, with exclusive Bluey’s World merchandise, plus a food outlet modelled on the Chinese restaurant in Takeaway.

Kids can follow the clues to find Bluey and Bingo, and a certain obnoxious hand puppet popular with viewers makes a prominent appearance.

Fans can keep their eyes open for lovingly recreated details from choice episodes such as the Duck Cake from "Duck Cake", the swing seat from "Flatpack", and the stump from "Stumpfest".

Tickets are $49.90 midweek and $64.90 on weekends (children under 2 years free).

11/11/2024

The availability and delivery of in-flight Wi-Fi varies a lot. For many airlines, it’s another service that enables them to make a few more dollars from their passengers. A user-pays structure typically delivers better speed since it reduces system requirements, and Wi-Fi bandwidth via satellite is limited.

But Qatar Airways has just lifted the stakes as the latest airline to do a deal with Elon Musk’s Starlink satellite-based internet. The airline is promising ultra-fast Wi-Fi at streaming speed, available from gate-to-gate with no blank spots thanks to Starlink’s worldwide coverage. It’s also free for all passengers.

Several other airlines have also signed up to use the service including Air New Zealand, United Airlines and Air France. It became available on all of Hawaiian Airlines’ Airbus planes in September, again for free.

Starlink’s a game-changer since in-flight Wi-Fi does not usually become available before the aircraft crosses the 10,000-foot threshold. It also promises to override constraints that limit Wi-Fi delivery, such as the number of passengers using the system, where the aircraft is in relation to the satellite or ground station and atmospheric conditions.

08/11/2024

Sorry, cruise ship haters, I just want my holiday hassle-free and lazy.

Detractors say cruising is for those who don’t want to be challenged, and they’re right. I don’t want my holiday to be taken up by logistics, least of all in Pacific islands, where airports are hot and bothersome, flights depart at awkward hours, and road surfaces can jolt the teeth right out of your mouth.

And yes, I want to be lazy. I want to step straight into lovely places without bothering about how to get there. Someone else can organise my plunges into lagoons. And if all I have to do for a cold beer is signal at a friendly passing waiter from a lounge chair, then why not?

Pacific islands are glorious, but interisland transportation is difficult and, once there, visitors are often isolated in resorts and seldom see much else. A cruise is different. It has me on the move, with a new destination to explore almost every day, and I’m magicked there while sleeping. Everything is made easy.

Does that mean never being challenged? No. The lack of logistical hassle means I have all day long to do what I want in port, and if that includes hanging off a 235-metre zip line, swimming with reef sharks, or hiking up a volcanic peak, what’s stopping me?

Here’s another thing I like about South Pacific cruising: it frees you from bucket-list sightseeing. There are holidays when I’m keen to experience another cathedral or temple. Then again, there are times when I don’t need to be challenged by must-dos and queues, and the South Pacific doesn’t have any.

Does that mean it’s an inferior destination? Of course not. Every traveller should see these Pacific islands. They’re easily among the most beautiful places on the planet. Their joy lies in the slow pace of life, the friendliness, the grinning kids, the green jaggedness and blue horizons. - Brian Johnston

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