HOW IS THE WEATHER?
With so much recent travel, my backlog of work has really piled up. I was only at a press conference in New York City two weeks ago; the weather was great as were the restaurants and shopping. I then jumped on Amtrak’s Acela Express and two and a half hours later
I found myself in the sweltering heat of Washington D.C.. Wow, what a powerhouse capital it is with so much history amid a rising tide of cool.
A five-day USA travel conference and a long flight later and I’m back to Sydney’s mild winter weather, only to turn around and chase the tail of a typhoon into Hong Kong.
As I write, I’m now a guest of Hong Kong’s newest five-star hotel, The Kerry Hotel, by the Shangri-La group. From my window, Hong Kong’s neon vistas get more spectacular and the city has only just got over said unexpected weather, leaving some pretty powerful thunderstorms in its wake. Sightseeing has to wait, as I’m forced to bunker down in a ‘dry’, luxury hotel and plough through work, completely uninterrupted.
Weather controls our lives, sets our moods and can make or break our travels, so how do you like your vacation, hot or cold? Considering Australians are one of the biggest international visitors by numbers onto the USA ski slopes, we’ve dedicated several pages for our ski partners, bringing readers closer to the chilly locales, and all of skiing’s enticements.
The South Pacific is getting hotter for Australian travellers, as we rediscover the convenience of having New Caledonia, Vanuatu and
Fiji a few hours away, running at their own pace and delivering unique ‘wind down’ experiences.
In Asia, we see Beijing through the eyes of our writer returning ten years after he first set eyes on it. We also uncover an oasis within Bangkok where the pace of life is peacefully greener.
Everyone travels for different reasons and in each edition we focus on special interest travel, be it skiing, hiking or visiting far-flung European battlefields where our forefathers rest.
Cruising keeps on getting bigger as do the ships. Within this issue, we focus on two smaller ships, including Silver Discoverer’s voyage from Bali to Broome, where we access remote locations and delight in the wonders of Indonesia’s Lesser Sunda Islands and the breathtaking Kimberley Coast of Western Australia. To add another dose of tropical island delight, we board Windstar’s Wind Spirit, an elegant four-masted yacht as she sails Tahiti’s unforgettable shallow lagoons.
To add further magic to our pages, we visit Amsterdam, our own capital Canberra, the beautiful Fraser Island, and go animal at Sabi Sabi Private Reserve in South Africa.
If all of the above isn’t enough to choose from or you simply need more travel information, then visit our website and sign up to our weekly newsletter, ‘V&T Sunday Traveller’.
Safe travels,