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Sydney Finally Gets a Foursquare City Badge While NYC Adds Another

Another week, another small new batch of Foursquare badges you can earn through traveling this fine world of ours. This time, it's Sydney finally getting its own city badge, while New York City gets another for exploring all five boroughs.

How to get the badges: First, follow 4sqCities, and just to be safe, it wouldn't hurt to also follow the individual city list for Sydney: here. For the New York badge, you must follow NYCGov on Foursquare. Then travel to Sydney or New York and clickety-click to check-in to the places on the recommended lists. Five places earns the badge.

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Mardi Gras Travel / LGBT Travel / Sydney Travel / Australia Travel / Celeb Travel / Gay Travel / Party Travel / Events / → All Tags

Everyone Loves a Flashy Parade...Especially Australia

Around this time of year, most talk of Mardi Gras parties primarily in The Big Easy. If you are lucky enough to travel a bit further south and take part in Carnival celebrations in Brazil, we will happily admit our envy. Either way, you're pretty much assured to have experiences of a lifetime...plus brags all over Facebook.

On the other hand. Let's just say you have some frequent flyer miles to burn and desire to celebrate Mardi Gras in an English-speaking country. Australia is the answer to your travel conundrum. More specifically, Sydney. The city plays host to a full month-long schedule of events culminating in a colorful parade and high energy dance parties.

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New Year's Travel / New Year's Eve / Australia Travel / Sydney Travel / Melbourne Travel / Brisbane Travel / Perth Travel / Holiday Travel / → All Tags

Australia on New Year's Eve: How Aussies Will Boogie Down, Down Under

New Years Eve plans don't have to include ways to stay warm while singing Auld Lang Syne, or fighting for a cab in a snowstorm. it's summer down under in Australia! And some time spent with friends and family on a beach or dining alfresco while watching a fireworks display of Olympic proportions can surely be on your December 31st agenda.

Australia is one of the first countries to ring in the new year. Each city center hosts a myriad of events showcasing the individuality of each region, while drawing domestic and international visitors alike.

Please make sure you leave the fireworks to the professionals, however, as they are illegal throughout the country. Here's what's going on, plus our own tips for what to go if you find yourself in Australia this weekend:

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Airline Lounges / Qantas / Sydney Travel / Airlines / Photo Gallery / Australia Travel / SYD / Business Class Travel / → All Tags

Inside the Qantas Business Lounge at Sydney Airport

Last time we were at Sydney Airport, we took you inside the Qantas First Lounge, with its living plant wall, Neil Perry restaurant, and Payot spa. You didn’t think it was the only Qantas lounge at the airport, though, did you? Oh no—the airline seems to love its airport lounges almost as much as we love visiting them. That’s why, when we were passing through recently, we dropped by Qantas’ Business Class Lounge to spend a few hours working, wine-tasting and washing up before our big hop across the Pacific.

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TV Travel / Oprah / Australia Travel / Oprah Winfrey / Celeb Travel / Bridges / Sydney Travel / → All Tags

Oprah Took 249 Audience Members on Sydney's Harbour Bridge, Didn't Break It

So, do all the stories about Oprah's adventures in Australia make you want to book a trip Down Under yet? We're betting that answer is "nope," but obviously the Aussies are betting that it's "ohh yeahhh" instead. Thanks to Winfrey's galavanting around—from helicoptering out to see the Twelve Apostles in Victoria to hosting her show at Sydney's Opera House, she's really aiming to give those who watch her final season a good look at Australia's greatest sites.

Tour operators are gearing up to offer Oprah-centric packages in January, when the Aussie episodes air. Surely her most recent escapade (and world record) will be included: Oprah took 249 of her audience member trip buddies up onto the walk of the Sydney Harbour Bridge with her, creating a record and some photo ops in unflattering grey jumpsuits. It looks scary and thrilling, but it's kinda like a walk through Times Square—we don't know anyone who's ever been to the city who hasn't done it, whether they wanted to or not.

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Celeb Travel / TV Travel / Sydney Travel / Australia Travel / Oprah Winfrey / → All Tags

From Travolta's Qantas Jet to Private Helicopters, Oprah's Audience is on the Move

Oprah has left the building. In fact, Oprah is finally down under in Australia, after announcing to her audience back in September that they'd all get to go the other side of the world to celebrate The Oprah Show's final season. So how are things going? Well, aside from the fact that the Travolta jet was cancelled on account of his child being born, Oprah isn't wasting any time. She's got 300 people with jet lag, and they're out helicoptering around.

According to Australia's International Business Times (who are bothering with Oprah why?), Winfrey and the gang are traveling in style: "nine helicopters have left Essendon Airport this morning to pick up Oprah and her lucky audience from Melbourne to be flown to the Great Ocean Road in Victoria. They will be touring Twelve Apostles which is only accessible by air."

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Active Travel / Sydney Travel / Bridges / → All Tags

Sydney Harbour's Express BridgeClimb is Made for Travelers with Little Time

One of the most sought-after tourist experiences in Sydney, and one that almost every visitor seems to do while in town, is climbing the iconic Sydney Harbour Bridge with BridgeClimb. But it’s not just international travelers that come to admire the breathtaking views from the top of the “Coat Hanger’s” arch. Thirty-five percent of the over 2.5 million climbers who've scaled the structure since BridgeClimb began in 1998 have been Australians. Yeah, they seem pretty proud of it.

However, during a recent visit to Sydney, we were hesitant about booking a climb ourselves since the two traditional experiences—the classic Bridge Climb and the engineering fantasist’s Exploration Climb—last a whopping 3.5 hours. That’s a pretty daunting prospect for the small of bladder and the short of time. So imagine our excitement when we learned that the newest climbing experience at BridgeClimb, the Express Climb, takes only two hours.

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Airport Lounges / Photo Gallery / Qantas / First Class Travel / SYD / Sydney Travel / Airports / → All Tags

Inside the Qantas First Lounge at Sydney Airport

As we continue our Airport Lounges Series, we bring you an inside look at Qantas’s much ballyhooed First Class Lounge at the Sydney Airport.

Not only is the luxury oasis a sprawling complex of comfort with two deluxe snack bars, a restaurant helmed by one of Australia’s most famous chefs, and a spa with complimentary treatments designed to ease the stress of long-haul air travel, but the place is also just plain cool to hang out in thanks to its design by Australia’s golden boy designer, Marc Newson, who’s also responsible for the streamlined look of Qantas’ new A380’s.

On our way back from Sydney to Los Angeles last week, we got the chance to go inside the First Lounge and take a look around. Then we made ourselves comfortable, tried out a spa treatment, ordered practically everything on the restaurant menu, tasted all the Australian wines, and played around on the lounge’s free wifi. Yeah, we were a little early. So what? We did it all for you, and we’ve even got a photo gallery to prove it, as well as a video walk-through.

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Prime-Plane-Spotting-Map / Plane Spotting / Australia Travel / Qantas / Sydney Travel / → All Tags

Take a Dip at This Beach Down Under for the Best Plane Spotting

Headed down under? While it's the thick of winter in our hemisphere, they've got the sun of summer coming down on beaches like the ones at Botany Bay, which happen to be positioned within awesome viewing proximity to the jet action at Sydney's Kingsford-Smith Airport.

Pack your camera, swimsuit and towel and head to the following prime spots to catch A380s landing and taking off, and a whole slew of Qantas planes. After the jump!

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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.

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Airport News / Sydney Travel / Customs / Immigration / Technology / Passports / → All Tags

Facial Recognition Technology Will Check You Out At Sydney Airport

Sydney Airport has just gotten smarter: passengers with modern e-Passports arriving in Sydney now have the option of going through SmartGate, which means they can go through passport control without speaking to a real person.

At the 12 SmartGate kiosks now operating at the airport, travelers can insert their e-Passport to be scanned, then answer the standard declaration questions on a touchscreen. After that they are issued with a ticket, take it to the exit, insert it there and then the camera scans them to check they are the person shown in the passport.

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Food Festivals / Sydney Travel / Australia Travel / Events / Food Travel / → All Tags

Sydney Takes 'Shrimp On A Barbie' Seriously During International Food Fest

No visitor to Sydney will go hungry next month: October is the Sydney International Food Festival and there will be numerous ways to satisfy your foodie cravings.

What used to be the local newspaper's Good Food Month has now become something grander. But not too grand; being Aussies, they're kicking off the festival with a free barbecue at lunchtime on Saturday, October 3 in Taylor Square and at the same time, a not-quite-free barbecue which they're calling an Opera Beer-b-cue because it takes place near the Sydney Opera House and your A$12 ($10) charge includes a barbecue plate "matched with a beer".

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