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] ]]> amandak 2009-10-22T14:05:11-05:00 http://www.jaunted.com/story/2009/5/20/122338/654

Non-breaking news for everyone: iPhone applications are the new black, and especially so for tourism offices seeking to keep their visitor numbers up during the recession. The newest office to jump on the iPhone bandwagon is the Queensland state of Australia, one of our favorite vacation destination and one with which we'll now be navigating via handheld device.

The free application can be downloaded at their website, and includes all the tools you'll need to not get lost in the Outback:

It displays accommodation, events, attractions and information etc, no matter where you are. Click through to a detailed view of the operator: there's descriptive content and an active phone number, email and website link — so you can connect directly. Several top 10 lists of the most popular Queensland holiday products ... are regularly, automatically updated to show the most popular viewed products in Queensland.

There's also the typical tech options of an RSS feed to stay abreast of travel deals, and an e-newsletter for the same if you prefer to receive updates the old-fashioned way.

Related Stories:
· Queensland Holidays [Queensland Holidays]
· Queensland Travel Coverage [Jaunted]rr

[Image: Queensland Tourism]]]> JetSetCD 2009-05-20T13:46:58-05:00 http://www.jaunted.com/story/2009/4/7/8117/76380

Virgin Blue taketh away--the Aussie low cost carrier cut 28 flights from high frequency routes recently--but they also giveth. Jaunted tipster Tuddy let us know that Virgin Blue started flying five new routes this week.

Four of the routes are out of the northern Queensland city of Townsville, heading to other Queensland destinations Cairns, Rockhampton and the Gold Coast, as well as down to Aussie capital Canberra. They've also started flights on the Canberra to Hobart route.

These new routes are a big deal for Queensland tourism and especially for Townsville--overnight there are almost 70% more possibilities for flying out of town. We're wondering if Virgin Blue knows something we don't know and Queensland is about to become a despite-the-recession tourist hotspot. With route opening specials as low as A$46 ($33) it's very tempting to try it out ourselves.

Related Stories:
· Virgin Blue Launches New Townsville Flights [news.com.au]
· Virgin Blue Flying A Bit Less Often [Jaunted]
· Queensland Travel Guide [Jaunted]

[Photo: JamesDPhotography] ]]> amandak 2009-04-07T16:06:34-05:00 http://www.jaunted.com/story/2008/12/5/21730/2620

You might not know about the cheesy 1980s marketing pitch for the north-eastern Australia state of Queensland: "Beautiful one day, perfect the next."

While tropical storms and embarrassing politicians might have spoiled this image of perfection, you can't say Queensland's not trying in the tourism game. They've even got an official Facebook page and we actually like it.

It's a lively page with people leaving messages on the "wall" (usually Queenslanders giving a really biased opinion), competitions to enter and useful info on festivals and events taking place around the state. And last time we checked, Queensland was the proud owner of 2,128 fans.

According to this Facebook page, Queensland's current logo is "Where else but Queensland?" A risky marketing strategy because actually, there are plenty of alternative answers to this rhetorical question. We'll be generous enough to leave it unanswered.

Related Stories:
· Queensland on Facebook [Official Site]
· Queensland Travel Guide [Jaunted] ]]> amandak 2008-12-05T09:30:25-05:00 http://www.jaunted.com/story/2008/10/17/52332/487

So, we're sure your momma told you not to pee in the swimming pool--but did she also tell you it's bad to pee in a lake? Down in Australia, the beautiful Basin Lake on Fraser Island off Queensland isn't doing well these days, and one of the causes is high levels of urine in the water.

The official word is that too many tourists are using the lake as a toilet and that's led the Queensland Parks and Wildlife Service to consider closing one of the access tracks to reduce visitor numbers.

Right now 35,000 people visit the lake every year and since there's no in- or outflow from the lake, whatever goes in, stays in. Our alternative suggestion is to simply stick up a big notice advertising the current urine levels in the lake. We're fairly sure most people would skip the swim.

Related Stories:
· Sunscreen, Urine Damaging Fraser Island Lake [ABC]
· Queensland Travel Guide [Jaunted]

[Photo: John Brennan]]]> amandak 2008-10-17T09:00:46-05:00 http://www.jaunted.com/story/2008/9/22/223342/721

Flying 'roo Qantas can't catch a break at the moment. Sure, there was brief excitement when their first A380 plane arrived in Sydney, but it didn't take long for everyone to find something to complain about again.

This time it was an airport evacuation of the Qantas terminal at Brisbane Monday afternoon, all because three Qantas passengers managed to wander into a secured area without being screened. Better safe than sorry, Qantas decided to evacuate the whole terminal and re-screen everybody.

As you'd expect, this took more than a couple of minutes, and twenty Qantas flights were delayed by up to an hour. And that means there are hundreds more anti-Qantas thoughts being thought today.

Related Stories:
· Brisbane Airport Evacuated After Security Breach [ABC]
· A380 Planes: Flying Kangaroo is Next in Line [Jaunted]
· Brisbane Travel Guide [Jaunted]

[Photo: tripletrouble]
]]> amandak 2008-09-23T09:30:32-05:00 http://www.jaunted.com/story/2008/7/14/74510/2755

Although V Australia still hasn't started service from the United States, it's never too early to start planning what to do when you finally arrive Down Under. In fact, you can continue the full Richard Branson experience by using Virgin Blue to fly to Hamilton Island from cities across the nation. The island destination is the largest inhabited island of the Whitsunday Islands off the eastern coast of Queensland.

Visitors can also get there by ferry. Upon arrival there's no need to swing by the car rental counter and decline the damage waiver, since mainland vehicles aren't allowed on the island. Golf carts, or buggies, are going to be your best bet.]]> kjb 2008-07-14T12:30:16-05:00 Search Jaunted string http://www.jaunted.com/search/