Travel Magazine Australia

WALK FROM BONDI TO COOGEE BEACH

Walk from Bondi to Coogee Beach and be greeted by fantastic views, beautiful beaches, cliffs and even an old cemetery (Waverley) with unimpeded views out to sea. Tamarama, one of the places you will come across, has a café very close to the beach and is a good spot to rest along the way. Allow three to four hours and take your time. Note the lack of fences between Bondi and Coogee Beaches so please keep a close rein on the kiddies.

For a view whilst munching head for the southern end of Coogee Beach for breakfast and lunch. Be prepared to wait for a table if you arrive after 10am at weekends.

On the north side of Coogee Beach you’ll find the Beach Palace Hotel. If you can still do it without paying, climb to the top bar of the Beach Palace Hotel, get a cold drink and sit yourself down on the veranda and enjoy the view out to sea and across Coogee Beach. Ah..the way life is meant to be – no worries.

For music fans the Coogee Bay and Beach Palace Hotels cater for you with all kinds provided it’s loud and usually involves jumping around a lot. For the brave there’s a kebab shop directly opposite the Coogee Bay Hotel open till very late.

Health Notes:

If you are heading to Australia and travel with asthma then be aware that Australia has some of the highest incidences of asthma in the developed world.

Have you ever considered going to Alice Springs and using it as a base to Ayers Rock? Many traveller just pass straight through but there is plenty to do at ALice. Here is a list we have made:

- Reptile Centre

- Aboriginal culture centre

- Emu centre

Alice has plenty of decent hotels and guesthouses too to hang out in.

Best time to visit would be the winter time as it is pleasently warm by day and cool at night. Over summer you will fry there!

If you are looking for the best backpacker travel insurance for Australia then ensure it covers any activities you have in mind.

Byron Bay is cool man! It attracts everyone from  frugal backpackers to rich older people, and everyone else between!

Cape Byron is the first place on the Australian mainland to be bathed in sunshine every morning. Do it first in Byron!! With its numerous famous beaches, great dive spots, fantastic scenery, unique rainforest and relaxed friendly atmosphere, Byron Bay is a very popular tourist destination that`s full of surprises.

Byron Bay is Australia`s most famous surfing beach. It has been a favourite holiday destination since the 1960`s. It offers a huge range of activities, attractions and fun things to do – surfing, fishing, cruises, sailing shopping, windsurfing, kite-surfing, clubbing, hanging out at the surf side pub, diving, canoeing, whale and dolphin watching, gliding, family beach trips, tours, dining, or just relaxing on its array of glorious beaches.

Byron is the place to do it all or just relax doing not much, really. Byron Bay is located just off the Pacific Highway, about 180 km south of Brisbane. It is close to both Ballina airport (30mins south) and Coolangatta airports (60mins north).

The Gold Coast has lost one of its biggest winter festivals!

Port Macquarie has rocked its event hosting credentials to a new level by securing the 10-day Wintersun Festival in June 2011, after a 15-year history on the Gold Coast. In a massive boost for tourism around 60,000 people will attend, injecting around $25million into the local economy.

Port Macquarie-Hastings Council and Events NSW worked in partnership to secure the Festival which is Australia’s leading rock ‘n’ roll nostalgia retro event – a celebration of rock ‘n’ roll music, all things Elvis, classic cars and great dancing.

There is no more iconic sight in Australia than the biggest rock in the world, Ayers Rock!

The great monolith of the Red Centre, Uluru / Ayers Rock stands a whopping 348 metres above ground and reaches twice that below, revealing only part of its undulating beauty. For the local Aboriginal people, the Anangu, the World Heritage listed Uluru-Kata Tjuta National Park holds a special cultural significance. Join an Uluru guided tour to learn why Uluru is regarded as such a sacred place and listen to dreamtime stories about Ayers Rock’s creation many thousands of years ago.

There’s plenty to do at the base of Ayers Rock. Flat desert plains highlight the overwhelming size of Uluru / Ayers Rock which can leave visitors feeling dwarfed as they walk the 9.4km trail around the base. Get up close to the flora and fauna on an Uluru camel tour, or participate in the local Aboriginal culture during dot painting workshops with local artists, held at the Uluru Cultural Centre.

Sunrise and sunset present the best photographic opportunities, as the sun casts a rainbow of reds and purples across the icon’s craggy face. Take in the picturesque landscape over a champagne breakfast or sunset canapés by the BBQ.

Consider taking out travel insurance over 60 if you are heading to Australia.

The summer is an awesome time to visit Australia and to immerse yourselves in the excellent festival scene. Here is Travel Magazine Australia’s guide to summer festivals in OZ.

JANUARY Start the year at Summadayze, which plays in Melbourne, Brisbane, Perth and the Gold Coast in the first week of January. Or join thousands of other sweaty, music-mad Australians at the epic Big Day Out shows, held in Sydney, Melbourne, Adelaide, Perth and Gold Coast in January/February.

FEBRUARY Get your summer groove at Good Vibrations in Sydney, Melbourne and Brisbane in February. Get more intimate with your music at the St Jerome’s Laneway Festival, held in the inner-city streets of Melbourne, Sydney, Brisbane and Adelaide the same month. The Soundwave Festival brings louder and harder music to Sydney, Melbourne, Adelaide and Perth at the end of February.

MARCH / APRIL The Future Music Festival whirls dance and electronic acts around Melbourne, Sydney, Brisbane and Adelaide in February/March. Australia’s V Festival hits Sydney, the Gold Coast, Melbourne and Perth in March/April, while

MAY / JUNE We Love Sounds plays in Brisbane, Perth, Sydney, Melbourne and Adelaide in May/June. A Day on the Green runs vineyard-based events in wine regions across the country.

Has Australia ever been this expensive? The high Aussie dollar and over inflated local prices is making Australia an extremely expensive place to visit for people from the USA and UK.

The rising Australian dollar tops the list of issues worrying the Australian tourism industry as more operators get set to shed jobs, according to a new survey of businesses.

The latest TTF-MasterCard Tourism Industry Sentiment Survey, conducted on behalf of industry group Tourism Transport Forum, found tourism confidence had improved but jobs were still under threat.

Respondents flagged the fresh challenge of the rising dollar hot on the heels of the global financial crisis and the H1N1 outbreak, noting it made Australia more expensive for international travellers and encouraged Australians to spend their travel money overseas.

The proposed push for Australia to increase its proportion of global medical tourism profits has been given the go ahead. The inaugral Health and Wellbeing Conference resulted in the issuing of a joint declaration of intent to focus on Australian medical tourism.

The 60 plus conference delegates from tourism, health, medical and government sectors heard international experts discuss the growing opportunities available in the Australian health and wellness travel sector, covering anything from surgery to spas.

The conference ended with the issuing of the Cairns Declaration, a statement outlining Australia’s planned entry into the increasingly lucrative medical tourism sector, which Australian Tourism Export Council (ATEC) managing director Matt Hingerty has deemed a “landmark document for the Australian inbound tourism industry.”

Hingerty spoke of countries such as Singapore and Dubai investing billions into healthcare to cater for the “forecasted boom in medical travel in the decades to come”, saying that it was “time Australia did the same”.

It is hoped that Australia will become South-East Asia’s biggest player in the medical tourism industry. The comparably low rates for medical treatment in Australia could also make the country a key destination for Americans seeking treatments abroad.

However the Australian Medical Association (AMA) have warned that the push to attract “high-spending” overseas medical tourists could lead to a bidding war for medical services, with the AMA’s Steve Hambleton warning against encouraging “doctor shopping”. There are also concerns that this new tourism drive could lead to medical costs rising for Australians and inappropriate treatments.

Australian tourism is to be rebranded with a new image, moving away from the tired campaigns of beaches and bronzed beauty towards a new brand for the country.

Minister for Trade, Mr Crean, announced that the Federal Government would spend $20 million on encouraging advertising firms to come up with a new brand for Australia, capturing the “essence” of the country as a key destination for trade, education and investment in Asia.

This new advertising drive follows two significant failures for the Tourism Australia brand – last year campaigns surrounding the release of Baz Luhrman’s film Australia failed to attract significant numbers of visitors due to the films lack of box office success.

Additionally the $180 million “Where the Bloody Hell Are You?” 2006 tourism campaign, which Prime Minister Kevin Rudd has described as a “rolled gold disaster”, caused widespread controversy, being banned or withdrawn in some countries. Tourism figures also indicated it was generally a failure, and recent figures show overseas visitor numbers down two per cent.

Keen to avoid such errors, Mr Crean talked of finding a “better way to define our identity and brand it”, selling Australia as more than just an idyllic holiday destination, and instead encouraging investment to capitalise on growing South-East Asian markets.

Todd Sampson, chief executive of advertising agency Leo Burnett Australia, said Australia needed to “stand for something” in the eyes of the international public, aside from koalas, kangaroos and beaches.

The Australian government will open applications for the four-year campaign to advertising agencies in the next fortnight, locally releasing the campaign in February 2010.