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Traveller is the essential resource for Australians who love to travel. We are dedicated to providing the best travel advice by offering the perfect mix of inspirational content and comprehensive destination guides with things to do and places to stay. Most importantly, Traveller is your daily escape to dream destinations. Be transported to the wild Kimberley Coast of Western Australia or a sun lo

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09/10/2025

Ten years on, iconic Oxford Street venue reopens as upscale hotel.

In a city where drinking options were then dominated by pubs and clubs, the Grand Pacific Blue Room was one of the frontrunners of the small bar scene, paving the way for a pinot, pint or Pimms without the pokies.

The long-gone glam bar/restaurant’s home – a curved 1911 former movie theatre at 1 Oxford Street on the corner of South Dowling Street – had been empty since 2015. But it is set to be a Sydney landmark once more, perhaps even a go-to again, with the opening of 25hours Hotel The Olympia behind its Art Deco facade.

The hotel has been a long time coming – the owners have been working on its construction since 2018 and there have been significant delays.

But with its opening on Thursday, Sydney’s east will at last see an Oxford Street icon spring back to life.

The 105-key hotel’s scheme, by Melbourne-based multi-sector architects Woods Bagot (recent hospitality work includes Adelaide Marriott Hotel and The StandardX Melbourne) is set around the building’s picture-theatre past, in particular. The hotel is even named for its cinematic connection, having been the Olympia Theatre in that incarnation. The lobby pays tribute to its history, with a collection of VHS tapes available for guests to play in their rooms.

Inside are room styles titled “Renegade”, for a moody, dramatic aesthetic, and “Dreamer”, with a softer look, the typical categories falling within those decor styles, putting the young and the young at heart who might identify as either of those things firmly in the hotel’s sights.

A significant component of the property is its food and beverage outlets, four in total, three on street level. Open to the public, these are the creations of critically acclaimed London-based Studio Paskin.

While the hotel runs the fourth F&B space, Monica, a rooftop affair, the Paskin operations are the Sydney versions of existing London restaurants The Palomar (Spanish and North African) and the wine bar, The Mulwray. The third space is Jacob the Angel, named after the Neal’s Yard coffee shop in Covent Garden.

07/10/2025

Can I request not to sit next to a man on my flight?

"I’m a solo female traveller and after a few recent experiences, I find it problematic to sit next to male passengers on aircraft. Can I request a seat next to another woman at the check-in desk?"
- Traveller reader K. Richards, Victoria

Tripologist Michael Gebicki responds:
While mainstream airlines don’t assign seats by gender (though low-cost Indian carrier IndiGo has this option), most check-in staff are aware of such concerns and are likely to be sympathetic to your request. Get to the check-in desk early and you’ll have a better chance of success.

Some airlines provide a “special assistance” box that you fill out when you make your booking, and you could use this to request a seat next to another woman. However, don’t rely on this strategy, you need a back-up plan and that means selecting a seat when you make your booking. A window seat gives you more control over your personal space, however some women find aisle seats, with easy access to the aisle, a better option.

03/10/2025

I got along well with my fellow travellers. Then we started talking politics.

Sailing a river cruise on my own, I buddy up with another solo traveller. There’s a married couple with whom she and I get along famously, so the four of us begin to sit together for meals.

We discover we all have the same raucous sense of humour, a love of life, food, and travel. We’re all interested in what makes people and places tick.

Soon, however, the conversation turns to politics, and I quickly discover that’s where our similarities end. All three of my dinner dates are diametrically opposed to me in matters of the ballot box. And feeding our preferences are wildly disparate philosophies.

Maybe it is the force of numbers, but I find myself staying schtum while the other three at the table express their political views unfettered.

I don’t lie. I just don’t say anything. But I do go to bed feeling a bit uncomfortable. And disappointed in myself.

Nick Enfield, Professor of Linguistics at the University of Sydney, says those feelings are normal.

“You’ve only got a certain number of minutes in the day in which you can allocate your attention,” he says. “And you want to enjoy your holiday, but your attention is being sucked away, and you’re sitting there, sort of trapped.”

One way is to think of such encounters as learning opportunities. “It’s an opportunity to study people that you don’t usually get to talk to,” says Enfield.

“You might have a gut reaction that says, ‘I hate this type of person’, or ‘I don’t like what they’re saying’. But the thing about free speech, and people saying what’s on their mind and possibly offending others, is that it’s actually useful to hear things that people really think."

- Julietta Jameson

30/09/2025

Expedia booked us into a hotel that didn’t exist, leaving us terrified

I would like to share a problem that we faced during our recent trip to Victoria Falls, Zimbabwe. I had booked accommodation at the Outlook Hotel there from July 24 to July 27. After making the booking through Expedia, we received a confirmation from the hotel. But when we tried to check in to the hotel on the evening of July 24, it was nowhere to be found.

Terrified in the darkness at this unknown place, we called the number provided, with a person informing us that the hotel was still under construction and that he would provide alternate accommodation. We instructed a taxi driver to take us there and it turned out to be a house in a remote area of the town.

The person present showed us a room which was not at all up to the standard for which we’d paid and unsure of our safety, we refused to stay there. I had to find another hotel and paid a premium for it. I complained to Expedia and after several calls and follow-up emails I received a refund, but I wanted to share this experience – people should be careful when booking online, even with known companies.
- Traveller reader Raja Nagaraja, Florey, ACT

25/09/2025

Wider seats, bigger overhead bins, free Wi-Fi: New Qantas Airbus’ first flight takes off.

Qantas customers may note some nifty new features on board domestic flights from Thursday as the first two of its new Airbus A321XLR aircraft enter commercial service, part of the Qantas Group’s multibillion-dollar fleet overhaul.

The long-awaited next-generation planes, christened Outback Way (VH-OGB) and Great Ocean Road (VH-OGA), took to the skies today with an inaugural Sydney-Perth (departing at 10.46am) and Sydney-Melbourne service in the evening (6.50pm).

The new planes replace Qantas’ ageing Boeing 737s, and feature wider economy seats, larger windows and fast, free Wi-Fi. The aircraft also addresses a common passenger pain point: new larger overhead bins feature 60 per cent more baggage space.

Five metres longer than its 737 predecessor, and with lower carbon emissions per seat, the new A321XLR can carry 197 passengers. It has 20 business class seats (up from 12) and 177 economy seats (up from 162), marking an overall 13 per cent increase in seat capacity.

The additional capacity hasn’t eaten into space between seats; economy remains unaffected, while business customers come out ahead with 66 per cent more legroom.

Business class seats have a pitch of 37 inches (94 centimetres), with a recline of five inches (12.7 centimetres) and a width of 25 inches (64 centimetres, eight centimetres larger than on the 737s) and a six-way adjustable headrest, calf rest and footrest, with a 2-2 configuration. The seats feature reddish-brown leather covers, wireless charging pads and dual USB A and C charging ports, as well as an extendable cocktail table and in-arm tray table with built-in tablet holder.

Economy seats are wider than those in the 737s at 17.6 inches (44.7 centimetres), up from 17 inches (43.2 centimetres), with a pitch of 30 inches (76.2 centimetres), in a 3-3 configuration. Seats feature extra cushioning, six-way leather adjustable headrests, drop-down device holders, adjustable meal tables and dual USB A and C charging ports.

23/09/2025

It’s a holiday not a ‘vacation’: The Americanisms taking over travel.

I say holiday, and you say vacation? And what about store, sidewalk, pants and French fries? Americans speak a language all its own, similar to ours but different in, oh, so many ways. This can lead to confusion when Americans hit the road on vacation, and find they’re not in Kansas any more.

In Traveller Letters, readers have been venting over the American fondness for the word “bathroom” when what they want is the toilet. When they need to go, Americans are curiously prudish when it comes to bodily functions and they have evolved a rich lexicon of words that skirt the realities of what goes on behind the toilet door. “Washroom” is common while saying you’re visiting the powder room might invite suspicious looks thanks to its double meaning. The “little boys’ room” is just twee, but “comfort station”? Please, no.

“Air rage”, “flightmare”, “jumpseat”, “jetiquette” and “unbundling” – a bare-bones flight at the lowest possible cost – all originated in the US, as does “deplane”. Is there an uglier term to describe the act of exiting an aircraft? “Deplane” raised its head in the 1990s and while flight crew on Australia’s airlines enjoyed a brief flirtation with the word – “Ladies and gentlemen, thank you for flying with us, we now invite you to deplane via the forward exit” – it quickly lost traction, unlike in the US where it continues to offend my pedantic ears. What’s wrong with “disembark”, or even the no-nonsense “leave”?
- Michael Gebicki

22/09/2025

After a scheduling and rebooking stuff-up, Qantas staff could only laugh.

"Our recent trip with TripADeal and Qantas (owner of TripADeal) highlighted how far customer service has fallen. On our day of departure to Cusco, Peru, Qantas rescheduled our flights, meaning we missed the first night and day of our tour. They also left my wife’s suitcase in Melbourne and mine in Santiago. They booked a connecting flight from Lima to Cusco that left before we were scheduled to arrive.

Customer service from TripADeal consisted of AI-generated email responses, with no meaningful assistance. Qantas staff laughed, saying that it constantly happens. If it wasn’t for our tracker tags, and following up directly ourselves, we would still not have our suitcases."

- Traveller reader Anthony Jeffs, Croydon, Vic

19/09/2025

Best of the best: Traveller Awards for 2025 announced.

Awards are nothing new in the travel space. But what’s different about Traveller’s awards, now in their second year, is that they’re extremely personal selections from our expert writers – people who travel a lot, and know a good thing when they see it. We asked them to nominate a favourite place or experience from their past year of global travel, and then a senior panel of editors chose 10 winners in each of 12 categories.

The choices are not necessarily the latest opening or newest launch, but they do come highly recommended by a profoundly knowledgeable team. Of course, in a world of chatbot hallucinations and paid influencer content, expert advice and opinion from independent writers on the ground is increasingly valuable. (Some of our travel is sponsored, but we never promise positive coverage in return.) We hope you enjoy reading about these bucket-list experiences, they really are the best of the best.

Hit the link in the comments for the full collection of this year's winners.

16/09/2025

It might be ‘the world’s best airline’, but its lounges certainly aren’t.

Qatar Airways’ lounges are hardly next-level. We used to travel about once a year with Qatar (named world’s best airline for the ninth time at this year’s Skytrax World Airline Awards), as it flies direct to destinations in Europe that we visit.

The lounge at Doha, while large and seemingly impressive, is not traveller-friendly. The seats in the lounge are uncomfortable so we sat in the business centre which has a small lounge with better chairs. While my husband was treated respectfully in queuing for the male showers, being notified when one was free, the opposite was true for me.

I did write to complain, hoping that they might improve things for future travellers, but got a complete brush-off from the (male) customer service person.
- Traveller reader Erica Smith, Newington, Vic

15/09/2025

Five dumb things tourists do that I'm guilty of:
Scammed in Vietnam: The first time I went to Asia was on a solo trip to Vietnam when I was 24, and I fell for a scam within about four hours. There I was, sitting by Hoan Kiem Lake, pondering my good fortune at even being there, when a young guy approached me and talked me into joining him for lunch. Long story short, it cost me $US100.

Photographing every sunset: I still, to this day, feel the urge to photograph sunsets. I know I won’t get the perfect photo. I know I’ll keep shooting with every new colour that emerges in the sky because I want to get just the right shot. I know I should put the phone down and just enjoy it. But the same thing happens every time.

The Singha singlet: That same first trip to Asia, I decided it would be really cool to collect beer T-shirts from every destination. Now I look back at photos and there I am roaming around South-East Asia with my Tiger shirt, my Beerlao shirt, and most dumb-touristy of all, a Singha singlet. Cringe.

Drunk in Europe: It’s true: I’ve pushed things a little too far in many destinations where residents just don’t get that boozy. I went on a Contiki tour when I was 17. I backpacked around Western Europe when I was in my early 20s. I worked for Topdeck in my mid-20s. I did a lot of stuff that I would definitely not want to do any more.

Macca’s in Jaipur: Despite the advice you will read here, I have been known to visit a certain American fast-food chain while travelling. Most memorably, I went to Macca’s in Jaipur, India to escape some guys who were trying to scam me, and ended up eating terrible food in a place famous for its cuisine.

- Ben Groundwater

10/09/2025

Mistakes I keep making on flights: talking to the person next to me.

Chatty Cathy regret: You start talking to the nice-seeming person next to you before take-off but several hours in, they consider themselves your new best friend and are still telling you about their divorce when you arrive at the destination.

Cool-air regret: The air-conditioning is arctic, the blanket’s thin as rice paper, and you’re dressed for your destination, Thailand.

One-for-the-road regret: You had a glass or three of sparkling wine to relax and celebrate taking off. Now the bubbles are trapped in your gut, and you’re squirming in your seat.

Hydration regret: You didn’t drink enough water.

Toilet regret: You drank too much water.

Toilet regret (No. 2): You forgot to bring your slippers and now the floor is so sticky you have to walk on your heels.

- Lee Tulloch

09/09/2025

AirTags will be useless if airport security keeps doing this.

"I recently returned from Wellington, New Zealand. After checking in my luggage I received a call from security to retrieve items that needed to be removed from my suitcase. After spending some time locating the security officer, I was asked to put my hearing aids in my hand luggage and told that a rechargeable hair dryer could not be taken on board at all.

Fair enough. But while waiting at Sydney Airport I tried to check my luggage’s location using my AirTag. My suitcase arrived in Sydney, but the AirTag was removed in Wellington. No one mentioned this. Apparently, it’s to do with the battery. Does this mean AirTags cannot be used on checked in baggage? Has this happened to anyone else?"
Traveller reader Jane Ellis, Cremorne Point, NSW

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