Travel for the Over 30s

Well that’s what the local tourism industry is hoping anyway. Darwin features in Baz Luhrmann’s movie Australia and Darwin has been spending some money on its waterfront. The historic Stokes Wharf, the same one that was attacked by the Japanese during WW2, is being re-developed with the nearby Darwin Convention Centre recently opened. Further developments will include more shopping, apartments, a safe swimming lagoon and a cruise ship depot.

Darwin doesn’t have much left in the way of historic buildings - the whole town was flattened in in 1974 during Cyclone Tracey - which hit the town on Christmas Eve. The Darwin Museum is excellent and has a great display showing film shot during the cyclone and other displays showing life in the early days of Darwin.

If Tourism Australia’s latest advertising campaign works then lots of overseas visitors will be arriving in Australia to see where Australia the Movie was made. The problem will be for visitors looking for the best flights into Australia most will look little further than Sydney - and its around 5 hours flying time from Sydney to Darwin and 5.5hours from Sydney to Perth: Australia is a LARGE country.

Internal flights outside of the hot markets of the east coast are pretty high too. You won’t find any discount airlines flying into Kununurra as only SkyWest flies the route - so you pay the price or drive for days from either Darwin or Broome. Darwin does have international connections through to Asia - which can be cheaper if you add up the internal airfares top a flight to elsewhere in the country. Flying to the East Coast of Australia your alternative centres are Cairns in far north Queensland (which could be a good option to get to Darwin from too) which is only a day or so drive from Bowen the small town used a subsitute for Darwin in the Australia movie. Brisbane is in the far south of Queensland and has international connections to North America and New Zealand.

Flying from the west to Perth you will get connections from the Middle East (Emirates) and various ports in Asia (Singapore, Bali Kuala Lumpur). Air Asia X and Tiger Airways are both good Asian no-frills operators which fly into Perth and also onto Melbourne - for a good price - but generally as the red eye special (4 hours flying time plus 2 hours time difference = not much sleep but cheap option).

Plan your Australia trip so you don’t back track- although there are currently promotional fares for the trans-Pacific route from LA to Sydney or Brisbane because the route has just be (partially) deregulated you actually get a better price by flying a circle into the east coast and then ex-Darwin north to Asia and then making a connection home that way.

Useful websites for checking internal Australian airfares:

webjet.com.au

Qantas and their budget airline Jetstar

VirginBlue - the local version of Virgin

Well I am following James around the world this week, after he escaped from the filming of Quantum of Solace in the remote Atacama desert, Chile he gets diverted by the marble quarries of Carrara and the rooftops of Siena, Italy. Well in the movie this is the opening sequence, but these things get shot in a completely different order of course. The chase sequence was in fact planned to be shot on the sound stage at Pinewood studios, London, but in the end the fantastic Siennese (what is the adjective to describe Siena?) landscape was too hard to reproduce and Daniel Craig had to do some pretty death defying shoots across medieval roof tops and narrow streets - which don’t look that narrow from three-stories up!

Italy as a travel destination is hardly undiscovered, but smaller towns such as Siena certainly give you a whole different experience of Italy vacation. Although the biggest monuments and most impressive museums are certainly to be found in cities such as Rome and Naples and Venice, you will actually get an insight into the Italians and their lifestyle if you hire a car and take off into some of these less well touristed small towns. Siena of course is well known, and but the lake in Quantum of Solace is the spectacularly beautiful Lake Garda is perhaps less discovered by foreigners.

If you are planning an Italian vacation then 2009 may be a great time to go. Italy is crazily popular with Americans, so many of whom have Italian roots, but the current economic meltdown means that many will be staying at home. This will have a huge effect on Italy and I’d predict some great travel bargains to be had on everything from airfares to accommodation. More importantly you may experience that rarest thing of all in Europe, fewer people at the sites!

Photo Credit

Not heard of the Atacama desert? Well you are not alone, but this undiscovered beautiful place is about to be discovered big time. Why - because some of the more dramatic scenes from the new Bond Movie: Quantum of Solace were filmed in the remote Chilean Desert. This high desert stood in for Bolivia in the movie but in real life is Atacama has more dramatic scenery than that of the Bolivian Antiplano. Dramatic knife edged mountains background the spectacularly coloured salt lakes and the world’s highest geysers.

The vegetation? There is none: the only other place you will find such a barren landscape would be the Antarctic. There is no precipitation and most of the Atacama is at over 2000m so the air is incredibly thin and clear. That’s why one of the world’s most important optical telescope is here: another location used by the Qantum of Solace crew. So not a great destination for botanists or birdwatchers - but a great one for amateur geologists and star-watchers!

The main town in the Atacama is the 16th century village San Pedro de Atacama is something out of the Middle Ages with narrow streets and adobe buildings. Although there is plenty of cheap and mid-range accommodation, if you want a true 5-star hotel in the Atacama check out new and spectacular Tierra Atacama Hotel and Spa

Baz Luhrmann’s epic movie Australia is due out the end of November and there is more than usual riding on it. The movie, which is STILL in post-production, also has the hope of Australia’s tourist industry riding on it.

Lord of the Rings kick-started New Zealand’s tourist industry as the movie, set in Middle Earth drew thousands of curious tourists to see the real scenary behind the fantasy movie.

The same, it is hoped by Australia’s Tourist Board, will happen to Australia’s northern tropics when Australia movie is released. The movie is set across the broad cattle country of Western Australia’s Kimberleys, as well as Darwin and the small, quiet Queensland town of Bowen.

Bowen stands in for Darwin in the movie. The film features the 1941 bombing of Darwin’s harbour. Unfortunately between bombings and the 1974 earthquake there is little left of historic Darwin, though there was some filming done on site as well, noteably the bombing scenes.

The remote and beautiful Kimberley region is the real star of the movie. Remote to this day the environment is still the boss in this part of the country. The movie’s filming schedule was put back weeks when unseasonal rains delayed shooting at the set constructed for the cattle station.

Locals still talk about the Hollywood excesses which came to town with the Sydney-based production, with every 4WD rented to the production team for weeks, as well as all the local helicopters. Stars stayed in local luxury Kimberley accommodations but production crew took over most of Kunurras accommodations as well.

The Kimberleys are startlingly beautiful - I just hope that the timing of the release of the Australia movie doesn’t sink the Australia tourism campaign as well, the Kimberleys are well worth the long journey to see them. Though you will need a boat, 4WD or a helicopter to get very far.