Travel Wires

Virtually back to Dreamworld

What would it take to get you — or your grandkids — back to Dreamworld? The Gold Coast theme park is banking on a new virtual reality ride that will have thrillseekers swooping, diving, gliding and jetting over iconic Aussie sights like Sydney Harbour, Surfers Paradise and the Barossa Valley. The $18m Sky Voyager ride is an “immersive live-action adventure” giving the sensation of flying, with the first of many new rides and attractions being rolled out over the next 12-18 months. Readers may not be surprised to learn the park suffered a dramatic drop in visitors following four deaths in October 2016. The coroner’s inquiry continues.

Best in the wide world . . .

Sipping champagne in the limo from the airport, greeted with garlands, dining beneath frangipani trees while being served the best in Balinese, Western and Chinese cuisine, then slipping into the plunge pool with its spectacular waterfall. Sound like a bit of you? That’s why Bali’s Awarta Nusa Dua Luxury Villas & Spa was named the world’s best boutique hotel. A selection of other winners from the awards, from more than 300 nominees in 80 countries: best beach or coastal hotel, Reethi Faru Resort, Maldives; most stunning views, Hanging Gardens of Bali; best honeymoon hideaway, Drake Bay Getaway Resort and best family hotel, Blue River Resort and Hot Springs, both Costa Rica. Some months apart, presumably.

Safest in a smaller world

Iceland is the safest place to holiday followed by the UAE, according to Which? Travel, a UK-based consumer watchdog. Its study covered crime rates, risk of natural disaster, health issues and likelihood of a terrorist attack. Best of the rest: 3 Singapore, 4 Spain, 5 Australia, 6 Canada, 7 Japan, 8 Morocco, 9 Jordan, 10 Barbados. However, it’s not exactly authoritative — they checked only 20 popular destinations and guess which country, where the greatest worry is over-exuberant hobbits, was not surveyed? At the other end of their scale, South Africa was lowest, Turkey and Thailand next.

Titanic, the sequel, on track

As noted recently, Aussie zillionaire Clive Palmer is going full steam ahead with his plans to float Titanic II. This week he announced the Chinese-built replica will take to the high seas in 2021, reprising the original voyage (well, the first stage thereof) and then sail around the globe. It reminded Travel Wires of a T-shirt seen in the north of Ireland: “Belfast — the only place and people on Earth that could build an unsinkable ship.” And on the back: “And then it sank.”