IT PROBABLY GOES WITHOUT SAYING

that we could all do with a weekend away after the year we have had. There is something deliciously special about the thought of stealing away for a few days. Maybe it’s because the concept of a weekend away or short break seems to be much more focused on indulging in some serious ‘you’ time as opposed to a long-haul holiday, where the aim is often to pack as much as possible in. I don’t know about you, but I regularly feel like I need another holiday to recover from the one I just had. But after a few days spent eating, drinking and relaxing, I’m raring to go.

Of course, that doesn’t mean that you can’t be a bit intrepid when it comes to a short break – the main thing is that wherever you end up should provide enough of a circuit breaker from the everyday to leave you feeling renewed and reinvigorated.

For this reason, we have constructed a magazine filled with weekend-away ideas that go beyond just holing up in a hotel and ordering room service. We have set out to discover destinations that are not on the usual short-break lists like Gundagai in NSW (page 46) and Deloraine in Tassie’s Heartlands (page 96), as well as those you have to work a little harder to get to, such as Esperance in Western Australia (page 106) and the Gawler Ranges in South Australia (page 76). We haven’t made the assumption that everyone taking a short break is doing so from a capital city either, so what seems far-flung to you might be close and easy to someone else.

We have book-ended these locations with the sort of practical information you also need to make a weekend away super easy to execute, like where to stay, what to do, where to eat and what to pack. During our research, writing and designing on the issue, all of us on the

Australian Traveller team were inspired by the destinations we were reading about, places like Bunya Mountains in Queensland (page 60) and Dunkeld in Victoria (page 70), which have both rocketed to the top of my weekends away list. For our deputy editor Imogen it was Nitmiluk National Park (page 86) in the Northern Territory and our art director Anita is already planing an escape to Lon Retreat in Victoria (page 72).

I can feel myself relaxing already. Enjoy!

CLOCKWISE FROM TOP LEFT: Stop at Gundagai’s famous Dog on the Tuckerbox, p46; See a band at Castlemaine’s Theatre Royal, p66; Hang out with the emus of the Gawler Ranges on p76; Slow down, Magnetic Island-style, on p56; Meet Manuel Pamkal of Top Didj Cultural Experience on p86.