Swan Valley – Australia Travel and Tour Information

Archive for August, 2008

Canberra, the largest inland city of Australia is a great place to spend your vacations. Canberra is ideally situated at the northern end of north-east Melbourne and south-west Sydney. Canberra is a home to many cultural and social institutions like the National Museum of Australia and National Gallery of Australia. There are a large number of accommodation options in Canberra where you can stay during your vacation to this most fabulous city in Australia. The Canberra hotels are extremely luxurious and therefore make your stay a satisfying one.

The various hotels in Canberra can be categorized into luxury hotels and budget hotels. You can choose to lodge in any of these category hotels depending upon your requirement and budget. The hotels in Canberra can be further be classified into five-star, four-star, three-star and two star hotels.

Speaking of the luxurious hotels in Canberra, they have well decorated and well appointed guestrooms. These rooms are beautifully arranged and decked up. All the rooms in these hotels in Canberra offer a grand view of the surrounding area. The luxury accommodation in Canberra is done up in soothing tones to create a comfortable and cozy ambiance overall. Each of the rooms at these hotels is spacious and provides you with comfort that you can possibly think of. The rooms in these luxury hotels in Canberra are equipped with all the modern facilities and amenities which make your stay a hassle free one. The room facilities include centrally air conditioning facility, satellite television, international and direct dial telephone, ceiling fans, attached bathrooms, tea and coffee making facilities and others. You can also find a well-stocked mini bar where you can try some refreshing drinks. Read the rest of this entry »

Sailing on the lake or ocean on any attractive day can prove out to be of great fun and exciting experience for any one. If you are an outdoor loving person and also if you love playing and like to have fun in water, then you are highly recommended for this. However, a lot of people think that this adventure can be expensive and hard but it is certainly not at all.

In order to start this just look for a boat or Marina school in the area near your residence and take a small course or guide tour. These schools can make you learn many techniques and tips to advance your ability and you can even get your own boat and participate in local sailing contests.

There are many sailing forums available which can guide you for the adventure. You just need to register yourself and then start getting tips, from the persons all around the world who are expert in this field and take it as an adventurous part of their life.

These forums will just make your dream come true and guide you until the date of resigning from the forum. In the forum you can also help others by solving their queries and problems. So don’t hesitate to register yourself in Sailing Forum and watch your dream becoming true.

When compiling a list of things to do on a luxury travel itinerary, a visit to an organic spa would come somewhere close to the top and generously interspersed throughout, depending on the length of your travel. Well, the choices are many at most luxury travel destinations. Here’s why a trip down under to Australia is worth serious consideration.

Ask anyone who has travelled to Australia and they’ll have tales to tell of the tough immigration policies that won’t even let you bring along a wad of gum from abroad. While immigration officials are not the friendliest of folks, they most certainly do not derive any perverse pleasure from denying you the right to bring along a pretty orchid from Singapore or your pet tarantula from Africa just to see the gloom flood your face. They are merely doing their job. And it is their job to protect the fragile ecosystem of this unique landmass, down under, from foreign organic matter that may disrupt or even destroy the delicate balance.

For 50,000 years or more, the aboriginals have inhabited this part of the world and lived in harmony with the land, the water, the vegetation, the seasons, the wildlife, the rain, and the rock. They left no footprint on any of these elements unless it was a playful hop, skip, or jump that benefited both ways. They lived off the land, on the land, and by the land, as one with the land. They didn’t have hypertension, strokes or diabetes. What they had was clear skin and eyes that shone. They were Dreaming; the eternal truth that links the past, present, and future, and the people to their land.

Now what would this have to do with luxury travel, you might well ask. Having come to the sad conclusion that the faster the rat race the wearier the soul, people embark on luxury travel as a means of solace away from it all. They eagerly look around for new outlets, fresh pastures, and healthier alternatives to achieve that nirvana. The good news for all is that the Dreaming has been re-discovered here in Australia. More and more people are turning to the ancient earthy wisdom of the aboriginals to figure out modern ills. What was once considered good at best for some novelty value has now come to be recognized for its intrinsic truth. Now isn’t that the final destination of all travel?

The wisdom of the aboriginal way of life is now increasingly adapted to main stream life, but nowhere as much as in the world of luxury spas. The word organic that was bandied about as casually as bananas by monkeys, has now assumed its true significance. It has taken on its authentic avatar in the organic spas that are now standing apart from the crowd with their understanding and adaptation of the Dreaming. Luxury travel has now found its newest pasture one that has fresh, natural, and least processed products that your skin and soul will be grateful for. Read the rest of this entry »

One of the greatest pleasures of a visit to Melbourne is the opportunity to sample its cosmopolitan offerings. Where else in the world can you sip an espresso in Little Italy, shop in Chinatown and wander through Little Vietnam all in one morning? And you still have the rest of the day to dine at Greek restaurants and savour Turkey, India and the Middle East in the Brunswick district.

To say that Melbourne is cosmopolitan is an understatement. For one thing, Australia’s second-largest city is home to more people of Greek descent than any other city except Athens. In fact, nearly a third of Melbournians were either born overseas or have parents who were born overseas. What this means to you the holiday maker is the chance to savour a uniquely international Australian experience. So what are some of the more interesting ethnic quarters?

The city’s Greek Precinct situated in and around Lonsdale Street has its origins in the 1930s. Today the area is home to Greek restaurants, cafes and cake shops along with travel agents, book and music stores, and specialised shops that provided wedding and christening garments..

Melbourne’s Chinatown is Australia’s oldest, dating back to the 1850s gold rush years. It began as a few shops and boarding houses in Celestial Avenue to cater for arrivals from southern China. Today’s Chinatown is a vibrant, colourful place jammed with shops and restaurants.

There’s a Chinese Museum in Cohen Place with five floors of exhibitions and the Tianjin Garden houses a Chinese pavilion, rockery and water garden.

Italian immigrants once favoured the inner-city suburb of Carlton. Though many have moved to the suburbs, this leafy stretch lined with Victorian terraces still house scores of Italian shops, cafes and restaurants. It’s a fine place to go for an espresso or a full Italian meal.

The Vietnamese have made Victoria Street into their community and the area’s famed for its good, cheap food including pho (noodle soup) and spring rolls.

If you arrive in Melbourne during one of these many festivals you’re in for a special treat. Chinese New Year is a time of gongs, fireworks and gambolling dragons, Divali the Hindu festival of lights a time of flickering candles and oil lamps, and the Lao have their own dignified Buddhist celebrations. Melbourne’s Italians hold the Lygon Street Festa every October which features the Italian waiters’ race and a spaghetti-eating contest.

If you want to learn more about Melbourne’s cosmopolitan history, visit the Immigration Museum. Here you can find out all about the city’s multicultural past and present. The museum is located in the restored Old Customs House building which was formerly the gateway to a new life for those who aspired to make Melbourne their home. Melbourne’s multicultural makeup adds a tremendous zest to the city.

Another of the city’s joys is the fine range of accommodation. Among the fine range of Melbourne City hotels are the Comfort Inn and Suites Flagstaff City Melbourne and the HarbourView Apartment Hotel Melbourne.