When it comes to Australian wines, there’s one big-name, bewitching, badass behemoth that gets all the attention: Barossa. But this week, Jaunted Special Contributor Eric Rosen takes us on a tour of a few of Oz’s lesser known wine regions, many of which are within a few hours of the continent’s major cities. So drop that bottle of Shiraz and join us as we take a tour of Australia’s “other” wine regions.

For the final installment in this week’s look at Australia’s other wine regions, we travel to the far corner of the continent to visit what has to be one of my personal favorite places of all time: Western Australia’s Margaret River.
Never Heard of It?
That’s okay, I kind of want to keep it that way since this place is so special, not to mention remote. It’s located about 3 hours southwest of Perth, so it’s literally the end of the earth, with nothing between you and Africa but an uninterrupted stretch of Indian Ocean.]]> EricRosen 2011-06-03T12:45:47-05:00 http://www.jaunted.com/story/2009/8/11/6520/43447

It's hard to know whether the experts are giving you useful information or just the same old song and dance. That's why we're introducing Guidebook Says to commend or correct other travel media. Feel free to commend or correct us in the comments below! This week, we zero in on Perth, the quiet but cool capital of Western Australia.

Guidebook Says: "This sunshine capital is also home to a thousand mining and exploration companies, which bring a touch of the Outback to the city. It's a friendly city, partly because of the outdoor openness and partly from the Outback influence." -- Frommers

Jaunted Says: Fact: Mining and exploration companies abound in Perth. Fiction: we've never found the touch of the Outback they bring. They seem to be about flashy skyscrapers and rich fly-in, fly-out workers and we seriously doubt any tourist would take much notice of them. The Outback's about as far from Perth as Uluru is from the ocean (that's pretty far), so we really don't know what this guidebook writer was on about.]]> amandak 2009-08-11T13:34:33-05:00 http://www.jaunted.com/story/2009/8/6/85847/06482

You know how some people consider golf as just a nice walk? Down Under they're talking the walk to an extreme with the Nullarbor Links golf course, and you might not want to spend the day strolling along this course, with or without your clubs: it's 848 miles long.

That's more than just a pretty long hunk of green; in fact it's the world's longest golf course.

Granted that all distances are big in the Australian outback, where the Nullarbor Links is located, but perhaps this is taking things a little (literally too far). Stretching from Kalgoorlie in Western Australia across the desert to Ceduna in South Australia, the idea is that you purchase your score card at one end or the other, and play each of the 18 holes as you drive across the desert. They suggest the game will take you about four days to play.]]> amandak 2009-08-06T09:07:22-05:00 http://www.jaunted.com/story/2009/7/21/9653/97845

When in Paris, visit Jim Morrison's grave; when in Perth, visit Australia's most visited grave: the final resting place of Bon Scott, the AC/DC front-man who would've turned 63 this month.

But there's much more to an AC/DC pilgrimage than just visiting a grave—they've just launched a Highway to Hell Tour to show you all the AC/DC sites of Fremantle, the port town to Perth where Bon Scott grew up.

The tour takes in Scott's childhood home and schools, the Fremantle Prison where Scott apparently had a brush with the law, a commemorative statue the town's put up and finally, his grave. At the moment, the A$25 ($20), 90-minute tour only runs on Sundays (but it does so three times) and the operators hope to increase the frequency as it gets more popular.

One thing we especially like about this tour is that the tourists get to choose the playlist for the bus-ride. We're pretty sure we'd be belting out "It's A Long Way to the Top" the whole tour long.

Related Stories:
· AC/DC Fans Follow Bon Scott's Adventures [The West]
· Western Australia Travel Guide [Jaunted] ]]> amandak 2009-07-21T16:29:21-05:00 http://www.jaunted.com/story/2009/6/22/31233/8892

The coast of Western Australia is getting busy: the whale watching season is underway and early sightings suggest that not only has the season started early, but there are more whales than there've been in decades.

Commercial whaling in Western Australia finished up in 1963 with just 500 humpback whales left in the waters, but estimates now put the number of whales that will swim the 8,000 miles from Antarctica to the north of the state at around 17,000. Good work, whales!

Whale watching trips run all up and down the coast and from the capital Perth, too – grab a two-hour trip from Hillarys Boat Harbour for A$62 ($50), or head south to Albany for three-hour cruises that let you come on board again in the unlikely event of no whales showing up.

The only thing that seems to be growing faster than the whale population is the population of whale-watchers. Tourism peeps in West Oz say tourist numbers are growing by 15% every year so you need to hurry to avoid the crowds.

Related Stories:
· Early Signs Show Whale Watchers In For A Treat [The West]
· Big Fish Show Up Early at Ningaloo Reef [Jaunted]
· Western Australia Travel Guide [Jaunted]

[Photo: wouter] ]]> amandak 2009-06-25T16:16:43-05:00 http://www.jaunted.com/story/2009/5/21/51035/3470

Winter in Western Australia isn't the cold and blustery season people in other parts of the world are accustomed to—in fact, it's more like spring. So it's little wonder that from June to September, tourists arrive by the plane-full to check out the state's famous wildflowers in bloom.

Western Australia's a pretty big place—think more than three times larger than Texas—and the tourism peeps there have designed a bunch of itineraries best suited to self-drive vacations.

With over 12,000 species of wildflowers to be spotted, we're talking more than just a quick trip to the florist. Cool ones include everlastings (they feel like paper and last, well, forever) and kangaroo paws, twisted red and green blooms which could belong on kangaroos if you use your imagination.

The season winds up with the Wildflower Festival in Kings Park, Perth, in September. As well as going haywire on the wildflowers, the park gets pumping with a music festival, cultural shows and related exhibitions. So if you're taking a Down Under winter vacation but want to skip the snow, start geeking up on your wildflower knowledge or at least getting your camera ready.

Related Stories:
· Wildflowers Western Australia [Official Site]
· Winter Down Under Starts Early at Mount Buller [Jaunted]
· Western Australia Travel Guide [Jaunted]

[Photo: vagawi] ]]> amandak 2009-05-21T12:56:57-05:00 http://www.jaunted.com/story/2009/3/16/831/00401

The east coast of Australia is (understandably) proud of its Great Barrier Reef but the west coast is equally pleased with its lesser-known Ningaloo Reef, a 180-mile long fringed reef running close to the coast which is most famous for being a place that whale sharks like to hang out.

The good news is that the whale sharks are back. These amazing creatures--officially the world's largest fish--have just started showing up for the season along the Ningaloo coast, 750 miles north of Perth. This is a bonus for tourism because the whale sharks must have misplaced their calendars--they're early.

Most years they turn up sometime in April, but there have been sightings since last week already. Since the Ningaloo Reef is one of the few places in the world where you can reliably spot whale sharks so close to shore, we figure it's a place worth getting to, any time from now until July when the creatures usually get on their way again.

Related Stories:
· World's Largest Fish Make Early Splash [WA Today]
· Sammy the Whale Shark No Longer A Prisoner [HotelChatter]
· Western Australia Travel Guide [Jaunted]

[Photo: mjwinoz] ]]> amandak 2009-03-16T15:26:21-05:00 Search Jaunted string http://www.jaunted.com/search/