(hand Luggage)
The Sunday Age
Saturday October 12, 1996
ROMANCING THE COAST.
THE Freycinet Peninsula on Tasmania's east coast is one of Australia's undiscovered tourist gems. And it boasts excellent accommodation at the Freycinet Lodge, a sympathetic development overlooking broad Coles Bay.
The Lodge is offering a Romantic Package deal which comprises two nights' accommodation in a spa cabin, arrival champagne, breakfasts, a gourmet picnic hamper and his and hers gift packs. It costs $136 per person per night, with extra nights available for $80 per person.
All lodge facilities are included in the package, such as guided walks and 4WD trips to local beauty spots such as Cape Tourville lighthouse and Sleepy Bay. Cruises are available on a 10-metre catamaran - for fishing, scuba diving or simply sightseeing. Tel: (002) 57 0101.
FAIRSTAR'S FINAL FAIRWELL.
P&O Holidays is offering 20 per cent discounts on two of Fairstar's final cruises before its retirement early next year. The discount is available for departures on 11 and 24 November, with savings of up to $1352 per couple.
The 13-night cruise from 11 November visits Boulari-Havannah Passage, Vila, Dravuni Island, Suva, Mystery Island and Noumea. A saving of up to $676 per person is available for a twin cabin on Saloon Deck, with fares for two-berth cabins with facilities from $1768 per person, a saving of $442.
The 24 November 10-night cruise visits Amedee Island, Noumea, Lifou, Vila and Boulari-Havannah Passage. The saving on a twin cabin on Saloon Deck is $532 per person, and on two-berth cabins with facilities $346, with fares from $1384 per person. Tel: 13 2469.
SKIERS LOOK NORTH.
EARLY spring snows have prolonged the skiing season in Australia well into October, but the focus soon will turn to the northern hemisphere. Club Med has launched packages for its resort at Copper Mountain in Colorado, priced from $950 per person for 10 days.
The early season price includes accommodation, lift tickets, ski and snowboard tuition, two meals daily, aerobic classes and evening entertainment. The deal is available from 28 November to 8 December.
A seven-night package in January and February costs $1625 for adults and $1045 for children aged three-11 years. All prices do not include international air fares. Tel: 1800 807 973.
PACKAGE FOR LOVERS.
IT MAY be a little early to be thinking of Valentine's Day, but the Hyatt Regency Coolum has put together a holiday to entice people north next February. The deal costs $699 per person for three nights' accommodation and a host of added extras and is valid from 10-21 February.
It includes breakfasts, admission to the spa, daily shuttle to Noosa and a choice of activities such as a skin analysis workshop, make-up classes, tennis clinic, canoeing and guided rainforest walks.
By arrangement with Cointreau, there is a Valentine's pack in each room and a free cocktail at a selection of bars. If the stay includes Valentine's Day, there is a cocktail party and a nightclub party.
Tel: 13 1415.
BOOK 'EM DANNO.
AMERICAN Hawaiian Cruises has free island hotel stays, shipboard credits and other incentives for bookings on the SS Independence. The ship sails from Honolulu weekly for the islands of Kauai, Maui and Hawaii.
Book a nine-day multi-island special and you will receive two nights' accommodation in Honolulu or on an outer island (with free air fares), plus two days' car hire. The offer is for travel until the 14 December cruise.
Sailings between 4 January and 29 March attract two free nights in Waikiki plus $US100 in shipboard credits. Fares cost from $1979 per person twin-share. Air fares are excluded, but discounted air fares are available. Tel: (02) 9262 6956.AT CLUB Med's Byron Bay Beach Club, a three-night stay is priced from $537 per person twin-share, including air fares, until 19 December. The resort is situated on the ocean and offers studio, villa and chalet accommodation behind sand dunes, three minutes' walk from the beach.
There is a nine-hole golf course, tennis courts, two pools, even a rainforest. For children (and adults) over eight, there is one of Club Med's famous trapeze and circus schools, and other supervised children's activities. Tel: 13 1344 or 1800 028 927.
PASSAGES.
Jonathan Raban goes walking in beguiling Doha, Qatar.
I went out to look at the place for myself. It was at that moment in the evening when the low sun goes squashy in the Gulf and coats everything with a soft thick light the color of broom. It gilded the wailing six-lane highway. It gilded the sandy roadside where I walked. It gilded the long trail of garbage - the crushed Pepsi cans, discarded Frigidaires, torn chunks of motor tyre, cardboard boxes, broken fan-belts lying in the dust like snakes, the building rubble, polystyrene packing-blocks, and a rather long-dead goat. So many cars had been junked at the side of the road, and reared, rusting, on their axles, that it seemed legitimate to wonder whether people here threw Pepsi cans out of cars or cars out of Pepsi cans. There were ruins, but they were not picturesque: squalid little rectangles of mud whose walls had fallen out, leaving a pathetic detritus in view - a few stained and ripped cushions, a child's graffito, a wrecked tricycle. A very pregnant, yellow, vulpine bitch - a degenerate descendant of the Saluki family - bared its teeth at me from the heap of rubbish it was defending; and a rat the size of a domestic cat ambled cooly through a pile of fluttering multi-colored rags.
From 'Arabia Through the Looking-Glass'
5 minute guide
ADELAIDE.
Walk on the mild side.
So, Adelaide. Churches, idiot football supporters, good food and more churches.
That's a little harsh. Adelaide cops a lot of flak for being dull, but it's actually quite a pleasant place. I agree about the footy fans.
You wouldn't go there for a wild weekend, would you?
Perhaps not. You would go for delightful parks, outstanding colonial architecture, good museums - and excellent food.
But what do you do?
I'd start with a leisurely walk through the gardens to soak up the genteel atmosphere, then jump on a Popeye cruise boat along the Torrens before wandering into the city.
Then what?
Visit the Migration and Settlement Museum, which is one of the finest museums in Australia. It looks at how we have treated migrants over the years, so it's not always comfortable viewing, but your time there will be very rewarding. Then wander through the SA Museum (wonderful Aboriginal collection) and the Art Gallery.
And in the city?
Have a stroll along Rundle Mall, have a "Two Dogs" in the Bull and Bear Ale House (that's where it was invented) and check out the Tandanya National Aboriginal Cultural Institute, where there are usually interesting displays.
It's a bit, umm, hick, isn't it?
If that's your way of saying Adelaide is a bit like an overgrown country town, you're probably right. Some of the streets south of Victoria Square, which is the real heart of this regimentally laid-out city, have a lazy, wide-verandah quality that does evoke the bush.
The food is good, isn't it?
Yes it is. Try the Red Ochre Grill for arguably the best bush tucker-influenced food in Australia. The menu changes regularly, but you can always get the Kangaroo Island chicken breast with wattle-seed coriander crust, wild-mint harissa glaze and preserved wild lime. Yum. Nediz tu for fabulous east-meets-west, and Blake's at the Hyatt Regency for the big night out. Casual eating is good along Hindley Street and in North Adelaide.
North Adelaide. Is that Adelaide's Carlton?
Sort of. It's where the cool young things tend to go. There are lots of good bistros and pubs (try the Oxford in O'Connell Street), and the suburb has real character.
Worth a wander?
Indeed. There are some magnificent homes in North Adelaide, many built in that warm, rich sandstone for which Adelaide is famous. Have a walk and discover its treasures.
Where do I stay?
The Hyatt Regency is the flashest of the five-stars, but I particularly like the North Adelaide Heritage Apartments. These are self-catering places, cottages as well as apartments in notable buildings, with real charm and period quality. The Friendly Meeting Chapel, once a Foresters Lodge meeting hall, is probably the most intriguing. It's now a romantic open-plan room for two.
And out of town?
Head for the hills - the Mount Lofty range is a particularly appealing retreat in the hot mid-summer. The Barossa, the Clare or McLaren Vale for great wines and lovely settings. The Fleurieu peninsula for lovely, uncrowded beaches. And don't forger Glenelg, a beachside suburb, but remote from the cares of the city.
© 1996 The Sunday Age
