Flights To Fancy

Australia is a haven for tourists who like variety in their experience. From natural attractions, culinary adventure, and culture - you can find it here!

Skyzone Miranda: Awesome School Holiday Fun

Sydney Fashion Hunter: Skyzone Miranda - Entrance

It’s school holidays in Sydney. Again. I mean, do these kids ever go to school? You may think that given my ‘boys’ are well past their high school days that this wouldn’t even be a blip on my radar. Not so. By virtue of the fact that I had my kids young and my friends didn’t, I often find myself surrounded by ankle biters and having to work in with the school calendar, so yes, I am acutely aware of when school holidays roll around. Well that, and the fact that I never book my trips in school holidays as it’s virtually impossible to score a bargain flight (read more of my tips on that here). It’s not all bad, I do genuinely like hanging out with the rug ruts as it keeps me feeling young. My friends are always looking for something new, fun and exciting to amuse their offspring so when the opportunity was presented to me to visit Skyzone Miranda shortly after their grand opening, I jumped at the chance. Literally! So what is Skyzone exactly? And what did the kids think of it? Read on for all the details …

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Gold Coast QLD: From A Veteran

Sydney Fashion Hunter - Gold Coast - Surfers Paradise Beach

The Gold Coast is an Australian tourist mecca. Almost 12 million visitors a year are drawn to this 57 kilometre stretch of coastline and like me, many return again and again. I was just sweet 16 when I first visited after convincing my Mum to take one of my friends and I up for a week of fun in the sun. In those days flying domestically in Australia was prohibitive and for most ‘normal’ families a homegrown holiday meant a good old fashioned road trip and sleeping in a caravan park. My Mum however, was quite a new (and nervous!) driver and was less than thrilled about driving the 12 or so hours to our destination, so we took the train. The next time I visited it was on my very first couples trip with my now husband. We were 19 and not so nervous about driving so we packed up my bright yellow Datsun 200B and hit the road. When my kids were little they loved the place and for a while we were visiting every year until I longed for a change of scenery on vacation. For many young Australians the Gold Coast is their first taste of freedom and holidaying without the ‘rents when they attend the madness that is Schoolies Week. The Gold Coast is brash, bold and quite frankly a little tacky but I wouldn’t have it any other way. With so much on offer it can be daunting navigating the possibilities but never fear as I’m going to share everything I have learned as an (almost) 30 year veteran visitor. Read on for all the details …

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Novotel Canberra: Escape To The Capital

Sydney Fashion Hunter: Novotel Canberra Room

The Hubs and I recently spent a long weekend in Canberra. Why Canberra? Well, The Hubs had a rare weekend off from his grueling roster and he wanted to escape on his beloved BMW two wheeler (more about that in my Biker Chick post here). The maximum amount of time that I can stand sitting on the back of the bike is 2½ hours so we stuck a compass in Sydney and looked at every place within the allotted radius. We discovered we had been to the vast majority of places within our search area and nothing appealed quite as much as Canberra for a return visit. When we discovered that our visit coincided with Enlighten Canberra it sealed the deal. It’s been more than a decade since we have been to Australia’s capital so we made sure we did our research on Agoda before choosing the Novotel Canberra as our home away from home for the two nights. Read on for all the details …

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Surfers Paradise QLD: 16 Rainy Day Ideas

Sydney Fashion Hunter: Things To Do In Surfers Paradise In The Rain

On thing you can’t always control when you travel is the weather. Queensland is touting as being “Beautiful one day, Perfect the next” and boasts an impressive average of 261 days of sunshine a year. We must have visited on one of the other days because we recently spent a rather damp long weekend in Surfers Paradise on the Queensland Gold Coast. We were determined not to let the weather get the best of us and made the most of the odd bursts of sunshine to get out and about and sought out some wet weather activities for when the heavens opened. Finding things to do in Surfers Paradise in the rain is not that hard if you know where to look. Read on for all the details …

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Lake Conjola NSW: A Hidden Gem

Lake Conjola

I bet you have never heard of Lake Conjola right? I’m not surprised! Despite living in Sydney all my life, I only discovered this little gem last year myself. Lake Conjola is about 2 ½ hours drive south of Sydney near Ulladulla and is the perfect place for a weekend escape with a group of friends. It is by no means a bustling metropolis, in fact if you blink you are likely to miss it, but there is a serene beauty to the place that makes it very attractive to those looking to escape the city for a spell. There are plenty of activities of offer for those that want to partake, but the real draw for me is doing not very much at all. Read on for all the details …

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Dracula’s Comedy Cabaret Restaurant Review

Dracs_ Cast2

You will have no doubt gathered from my previous post that I snagged a long weekend out of the Australia Day holiday on Tuesday and took the opportunity to sneak in a quick break on the Gold Coast with The Hubs. While up North, we were treated to a fabulous night out at Dracula’s Comedy Cabaret Restaurant. Dracula’s is a Gold Coast icon that has been entertaining guests for more than 30 years so you just know they must be doing something right. If you are looking for things to do in Surfers Paradise, you should definitely pencil in a night at Drax. Read on for all the details …

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Ultimate Girls Weekend in Melbourne

Sydney Fashion Hunter: Girls Weekend In Melbourne - View from 28 Floor Crown Towers

As this post goes live, I’ll be in Surfers Paradise on the sunny Queensland Gold Coast. I promise there will be more about that on the blog later, but today I want to tell you about my recent girls weekend in Melbourne. I travel to Melbourne regularly for work. In fact, I’m down there so often it’s like my second home. The thing with work trips though, is that they tend to be super hectic and you don’t get a lot of time to see much except the office and the hotel. Given I was down last week on a Thursday and Friday, The Enabler flew in so we could make a weekend of it. And boy did we make every single one of those 48 hours count! Read on for all the details …

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Hunter Valley NSW: Simply Breathtakingly

Long Weekend in the Hunter Valley: Vines at Tyrrell's Estate
I have just spend the most awesome weekend with three of my very favourite ladies visiting The Hunter Valley, a spectacularly beautiful part of NSW about 3 hours drive north of Sydney. We were predominantly here to attend the Cold Chisel Last Stand Concert at the Hope Estate on Saturday night. The Hunter Valley is wine country and some of Australia’s very best wine come from the vines here and it is exported all over the world. We did our fair share of sampling the local drop at some excellent cellar doors but we also found time for some fine (and not so fine!) dining, supporting the local economy (i.e. shopping) and interacting with the wildlife. Let me tell you all about it …