Travel for the Over 30s

New Year’s eve is a bit of an odd holiday as far as  I am concerned - the 31st isn’t actually an Australian public holiday  anyway though quite a lot of people will get extra leave days between Christmas and New Year especially if the holidays are split from the weekend.  The action is all in the evening usually accumulating in a big count down and a fireworks display. Sydney is the most famous place to catch the fireworks where the Sydney Opera House and Sydney Harbour Bridge make a beautiful background to the show.

Either way - given that it is supposed to be summer its always a laugh seeing all those people rugged up against the cold in the northern hemisphere. If you are visiting Australia  at this time of the year then expect to find a lot businesses closed down, particularly in the CBD. In contrast the coastal towns will be humming, with camp sites at a premium.  I predict the combination of a significant drop in the price of petrol and economic worries will see even more people holidaying at home.

So if you haven’t  booked like 3 months ago what is a visitor to do if they want to travel the popular east coast I’d suggest suggest checking out hostels and buying a cheap tent and being prepared to camp in un-powered sites - even the powered camp sites get booked out!

Have a fantastic New Years

Are you thinking about taking a 2009 Adult Gap Year? Taking a year out of real life – and hitting the road? Why not indeed – particularly if you can wrangle a “voluntary” redundancy why not? Get some cash and head out into the big world – most of it costs a lot less than the cost of staying at home really!

In uncertain times a lot of people try to cling to their existing lifestyles – but there is probably no better time to really look at what you want to do for the next 12 months. Think of it this way you work all week to earn money, then you spend it all and then you have nothing at the end of the week.

Alternatively you could stop working, reduce your living expenses by 90% and still be pretty much ahead of the game – and living not just working. Volunteering for a role which gives you lodgings and food may well see you further ahead than working a normal job – makes you think doesn’t it!

If travel is your thing – and I imagine that it might be if you are reading this, then think out of the square and take on the world in 2009, the time has never been better to look at taking an adult gap year for the over 30s

What’s going to happen with the Australian travel industry in 2009 – in light of the economic crises both within and outside of Australia? Well my picks are severalDomestic Australian Travel Up in 2009

The domestic travel industry is going to encourage Australians to travel t home to make for the short fall of overseas visitors who will be scared off over worries for their jobs and the high Australian Dollar against against the US$. The easing of petrol prices may well see families brushing off their camping gear and actually getting the 4WD off-road to take classic Australian drive. This year could be a good year for campgrounds and camping stores!

Excellent Deals to Asia 2009

Australian will possibly respond to the excellent cheap air deals being offered by Air Asia and Jetstar to Asia, with the full service airlines having to match prices.

Good Deals to Europe in 2009

Interestingly there are some good deals to Europe for cruising and coach tours for the 2009 season. it seems that Australians are being lured to book early, to avoid higher prices because of the drop in the A$ – but the reality is that Europe – particularly places like Italy – are going to be suffering from a downturn in American travellers – 2009 could be the best deals to Europe for some time

Well I don’t expect a whole lot of traffic this time of the year so I am just spreading some linkluv around. Midlifetravel was my very,very first website. I had a blog at blogger - but this was a real, fair-dinkum websites. It was the website that I had to write! Some people have a book in them but I had a website that needed writing!

I hadn’t figured out at that stage that the easiest and cheapest way to have a website is to use WordPress, even for a website which doesn’t look like a blog - say my portfolio site so I bought Dreamweaver and spent the quite time of this time of the year to work on it and and produce my very own website!

The idea was to write down all the travel advice I kept on giving people over the years, friends of friends got sent to me for travel advice so I figured that it might be useful! I spend days and days writing it all down and then figuring out how to upload pages to my server.  I like the name: it was like a midlife crises - but for the traveller! It couldn’t have the word traveller in it though because the American’s can’t spell traveler properly.  It had the same target group as this blog: those people who are not on their  gap year travels for first ever big OE - there are lots of sites which cover that market well. Instead  I wanted the  advice for people who were maybe being told to take a tour but had a gut feeling that independent travel was cheaper and more fun!

Well I wrote the website, and that was it really! I had no idea how to promote it or how to make money from it. I could traffic to it now I think - but to be honest I am still unsure how to make money from it - its still a fairly broad topic!

This time last year we were home in New Zealand - and the weather was really,really unusual - it was perfect. There was no wind! It was sunny! There was NO wind! ALL day! There is always wind in Wellington - because we cop the wind tunnel effect between the North and South Island. Wellington is as close to a home that I have and I can assure you on good day its absolutely gorgeous: the compact city is built on the sides of the hills that surround the pretty harbour. The trouble for many tourists that there just aren’t that many good days in Wellington! If its miserable - check out these photos and then find a nice warm coffee shop -we do those rather well too!

I took a whole lot of photos intending to do a piece on the interesting sculptures around town. I never got around to writing the piece but the photos are generally self-explanatory so I thought it was time they got dug off the hard drive and published somewhere!

Yes the 26 December is Boxing Day in Australia, New Zealand, UK and probably a few other ex-colonial spots.  The 26th in Australia is very closely associated with sporting events. The Boxing Day Test is a game of cricket which lasts 5 days (sometimes) and starts on Boxing Day.

The Sydney to Hobart yacht race also starts on Boxing Day too.  Although Christmas is supposed to be the start of summer the race has regularly lost yachts and even had fatalities because of summer storms. It makes for spectacular TV though.

For locals Boxing Day is often a beach day - either your local beach: which will be quite a party anywhere the weather is good, or packing the car and driving a longer distance.  Camping grounds, especially those near large cities tend to be packed from now through to mid-Jan  and busy all the way into February.  Most schools are off until very late January so travelling at this time of the year can be more expensive and more crowded particularly in Tasmania, Victoria, NSW and southern Queensland.

Have a great Boxing Day where ever you are - cheers mate!

Merry Christmas from Australia ! Christmas is a bid weird in Australia. I mean its 40C plus outside and the malls are coated in fake snow, and carols talk about a “white Christmas” - only if you count sand mate!

A lot of Australians, particularly in large cities such as Melbourne and Sydney come from the European tradition of actually celebrating Christmas Eve and Midnight Mass rather than the more English custom of church in the morning and then Christmas lunch - usually from about 2pm on.  In fact I would hesitate a guess that only the minority got to any type of church these days and instead we focus on the over-eating and over-drinking side of events.  And if the mercury does hit 40C - well we don’t even need to worry about drinking too much before we are knocked out!

More than anything in Australia and even my home, New Zealand, Christmas represents the start of the long summer holidays and a different pace of life!

This is a scheduled post - and no I am not blogging on Christmas - not because  it has any huge  religious significance to me - but because we are on a road trip across theNullarbor and  I doubt that  I will have online access! Subscribe to the blog if you want to know how we get on - I’ll post about in the New Year!

A lot of people seem to be concerned about the concept of carrying lots of cash safely with them when they travel overseas.  It really isnt’ a big deal people - there seems to be a concern that’s its somehow illegal. Carry cash is one of my favorite ways to save money traveling

For almost all countries its not illegal to carry large amounts of cash but there are a few rules:

• many countries will ask you to declare sums of cash over $10,000 or so - I know Australia does- this is presumably because of money laundering concerns, you don’t loose it you just have to declare it on arrival or departure. Lets face it most of us aren’t carrying that much cash!
• a lot of countries have restrictions on carrying their own cash in or out of the country. This is rarely actually enforced and I got a great rate for Syrian dollars on the Turkish side of the border - its your call on the risk here
• a lotof currencies are plain worthless outside the country - Vietnam’s dong and Cambodia’s reals are two that spring to mind immediately - avoid having any left when you leave - particularly if you are flying out.  That’s why backpackers are willing to sell you dong and reals in Bangkok- they stuffed up basically! Bargain with them too!

What currency you carry is up to you but US$ , Euros and pounds are the most accepted.  In the Americas its really only US$ that matter while in parts of Affrica and Asia any of the three will do.  Australian dollars are not much use further from Australia than Bali or SE Asia.

I am starting to see lots of good news for those who want to get a travel bargain in 2009.

The recent political trouble in Thailand, which led to the peaceful occupation of the Bangkok airport seems to be having a terrible effect on the Thai tourist industry.

Air Asia has been offering free seats to Thailand from its other Asian destinations.

This should be peak season for Thailand but luxury hotels are reporting occupancy rates of less than 20%! Locals say its worse than Christmas season the year after the Tsunami - probably because the airport sit-in happened so recently. Its  crazy that foreigners are staying away though - I mean only in Thailand could protesters occupy an airport for weeks and when they left even the government admitted there was no damage done! Can you imagine that happening at Heathrow or JFK airports!

Grab a deal or upgrade yourself anywhere in Thailand: my favourite are the islands but Bangkok is a fun city too.   With so few tourists I would probably just grab some tickets and get accommodation once you arrive - be prepared to bargain - hard! After all getting something for a room is better than getting nothing!

Photo Credit

This last trip to Melbourne we decided to stay down-town but needed to be near the Hisense Arena too. The closest accommodation: Mantra on Jolimont were charging $180pn for which proved to be shabby rooms, a bad restaurant and no kitchenette just a jug.

In contrast we were paying $120-$140 pn (higher on the weekends) at the City Edge Apartments. 20 Bourke St, just round the corner from Her Majesty’s Theatre. The queen studio room was small but very well-designed and included a breakfast bar, fridge, microwave, toaster and jug. They also supplied cereals, bread etc for a make your own breakfast which was very convenient. The bathroom fitting where retro - i.e. original but all were very clean, worked well and even included a tub. We were on the top, 8th floor, with view of the roof tops.

There are the usual Foxtel channels, a pay laundry for guests and broadband available for $9.90/24 hour period. Rooms are serviced daily which is not common with serviced apartments in Australia.

Right on the edge of China Town there were a huge collection of eating and drinking options within staggering distance and the circle tram and Parliament underground train station were also only about 3 minutes away.

You can book through their own website - but I got a cheaper deal with using an online booking consolidator.