Australia Travel Guide
Tags: Christmas Alternatives / Sydney Travel / Australia Travel / New Years Travel / Holiday Travel / Travel Deals / → All Tags
We're Dreaming Of A White (Sand) Christmas Down Under
Think a white, sandy Christmas might be better than a white snowy one? All you northern hemisphere people can be guaranteed a very different experience if you decide to celebrate Christmas in Australia, where temperatures can easily reach over the century mark and a swim at the beach is way more likely than a snowball fight.
The nice thing is that it's not even too late, if you decide skipping the drag of family festivities is what you want. There are still plenty of packages available to get you Down Under for a few days around Christmas time, including heaps of lastminute.com travel packages from LAX to Sydney, including airfare and accommodation for a week for around $2,000 for a five-night stay.
Tags: Airline Safety / Qantas / Airline Hell / Airline News / → All Tags
Qantas Blames 'Cosmic Rays' For Last Year's Roller Coaster-Like Flight
We have a pretty decent respect for Aussie airline Qantas, with its better-than-average safety record and generally trouble-free flights (of course, we're not impressed by the recent beer ban on some flights, but it probably was in the name of safety, so who are we to complain). And now we can feel a little better about last year's mid-air drama over Western Australia, because investigators are blaming cosmic rays.
You might vaguely remember that in October last year, a Qantas flight from Singapore made an emergency landing after some rollercoaster action: it suddenly plunged 650 feet, got back up again then fell 400 feet. This led to some serious passenger injuries (no deaths, though) and a whole lot of serious questions. At the time, a lot of people were blaming passengers using laptops and other electronic devices.
Tags: Airport Check-In / Airline News / Airport News / Airports / Qantas / Australia Travel / → All Tags
Frequent Flyers On Qantas Can Simply Swipe And Fly In 2010
With the rise of LCC (low cost carrier) airlines and their love affair with new technology, it seems like the airport check-in process is becoming the least time-consuming and easiest portion of catching a flight. There's the touchscreen kiosks, dedicated bag drop counters, and even the ability to check-in and print your boarding pass online.
In Australia however, Qantas is still the gold standard, and luckily they're just as into updating the check-in process as we are. Focusing on cutting check-in time for their domestic passengers in half, Qantas is rehauling their system with the "next generation of check-in."
What that means for you Qantas flyers out there.
Tags: Best Job in the World / Ben Southall / Australia Travel / Hamilton Island / Tourism Queensland / → All Tags
Is Queensland's 'Best Job In The World' Really The Worst?
The now very-well-known tourist board campaign which recruited Ben Southall for the Best Job in the World—experiencing and blogging about life on the paradise of Hamilton Island in Queensland, Australia—apparently earned the state about $360 million worth of publicity (not bad for a $2.2 million outlay). Now that everyone knows that Queensland is a great place to go thanks to Ben's twitter pictures and blogs, there's one big problem: nobody's going.
Despite the massive interest in Queensland, international tourist numbers dropped by almost 8% over the last year, and almost 14% fewer international business visitors arrived. Of course, the global economic crisis can probably take a fair bit of the blame for that, but Queensland is still worried.
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The Top Five Aussie Foods To Try Down Under
Being a country mostly made up of immigrants, Australia is not renowned for having its own incredible foods the way, say, somewhere like Italy is. But that doesn't mean that there aren't some very important Aussie foods to try on your trip Down Under. Okay okay, so everyone's knows (and possibly sticks their nose up at) Vegemite, but you can't deny it when in the country; you've got to try it.
And without further ado, we present the list of The Top Five Aussie Foods To Try Down Under:
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Qantas Has Issues And John Mayer Tweets Them
The flying kangaroo, AKA Qantas, has got problems. As if banning beer on some flights wasn't bad enough, the planes and the pilots have been misbehaving too.
Last week, there was the case of the pilots who forgot to put the landing gear down on their way into Sydney, forcing the pilots to abort the landing and go again later. Those pilots have now been suspended although the lack of landing gear is being put down to a "brief communications breakdown" by Qantas.
Tags: Celeb Travel / Britney Spears / V Australia / Music Travel / → All Tags
Britney Spears Is A Virgin Girl For Her Australia Tour
Boy oh boy, it's been awhile since Britney Spears did anything notable, let alone something travel-related, but last week she flew right back onto the scene and it was on a V Australia plane. BritBrit is currently playing to somewhat sold-out crowds around Australia on the Down Under portion of her "Circus" tour, and V Australia was chosen as the official airline partner of the tour.
What does that mean? Well, first it meant that Britney and all of her dancers, band, set designers, tech people and assorted crew headed to Oz on a V Australia plane on November 3. About that flight, Britney tweeted: "Longest flight ever but we had a great time. Really cool plane and the V staff took great care of us. So excited to be here!" She wrapped up the first concerts in Perth over the weekend, and now she'll be flying on Virgin Blue to upcoming dates in Sydney, Brisbane, Adelaide and Melbourne.
Tags: Qantas / Australia Travel / Beer Travel / Drinking Travel / In-Flight Drinks / → All Tags
Beer Ban On Select Qantas Flights Is Un-Australian
Aussies are definitely not impervious to the charms of a cold can of Fosters; after all, they do have record-breaking pub crawls and boats made of beer cans. But if you're flying on a domestic Qantas flight Down Under, there are a few less beers going round these days.
Citing unruly behavior, mostly from drunken mine workers heading home after a couple of weeks working in the desert, Qantas has banned full strength beer and spirits on all flights within Western Australia. This follows existing bans on sales of spirits on intrastate flights in other parts of Australia.
Tags: Australia Travel / Spring Festivals / Spring Travel / Horse Racing / → All Tags
Down Under Gears Up For The Melbourne Cup
It might be fall in States, but spring has just sprung up Down Under and we're ready to get out and play at some of the continent's best seasonal festivals. The biggest event this season is definitely the Spring Racing Carnival in Melbourne. You might wonder that a bunch of horse races grabs the attention of so many Aussies and anyone visiting at the time, but the highlight of the carnival—the Melbourne Cup—is correctly dubbed "the race that stops a nation".
And you don't have to know the slightest thing about horses to get involved. Come next Tuesday afternoon, you won't be able to get service in any shop in Australia as everybody will have their eyes glued to the TV to watch the Melbourne Cup race. Over 100,000 people attend the race in person, and most of them get dressed up either in their best dress or a crazy costume; like at the Kentucky Derby, the most important thing is to have a great hat.
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V Australia Can't Wait To Get You Down Under With An Aussie Rock Band
The always spunky Richard Branson and his Virgin team are no slouches at putting together clever promotions, and this time his Aussie long-haul airline V Australia has got a smart one going called Jet with JET.
One jet, of course, is the plane that V Australia is going to fly you in from Los Angeles to Sydney. The all-capitals JET is the great Aussie rock band that will be on the plane with you, and then will perform at the Homebake Music Festival once they back to Oz.
Tags: Australia Travel / Extreme Sports / Stunts / Queensland Travel / → All Tags
Queensland Will Let You Act Out The Movie Stunts Of Your Dreams
When we're on vacation, being set alight or jumping off tall buildings is not exactly high on our list of must-dos. But everybody's different, and if you've dreamed of performing stunts like you see in the movies, then on the Gold Coast in Queensland, Australia, you can find just the right place to spend a day.
The Movie Stunt Experience is a day out that still has the thrills and spills of a typical Gold Coast theme park, but you're the one doing the spilling. If you book the A$299 ($275) full day program, experienced stunt people will first teach you and then let you try film fighting choreography, flying on a wire, commando-style abseiling, falling from a pretty great height and, perhaps scariest of all, being set on fire. So far, every tourist has come out alive. See if you can break the record.
Related Stories:
· Movie Stunt Experience [Official Site]
· Move Over Lara, This Is My Scene [The Age]
· Queensland Travel Guide [Jaunted]
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Get Comfy En Route Down Under With Qantas' Biz Class Sale
Australia seems like a long way from just about everywhere, right? (Maybe not from New Zealand!). So if you want to get there in a bit of comfort, it would be great to splash out on a business class seat. Aussie airline Qantas wants to make this financially easier for us for a while, with a 40% off sale on business class seats from Los Angeles, San Francisco or New York down to Sydney or Brisbane.
Business class is certainly a nicer way to travel on those long, long-haul flights, although the funny thing is that Qantas claims to have invented business class back in 1979; if you prefer to believe Wikipedia, it was actually British Caledonian in 1978.
