Features // Australia

As we celebrate 40 of the world’s greatest road trips, Alasdair Baverstock recounts a memorable drive down Australia’s Great Ocean Road. Watching carefully for kangaroos, Mike weaved the car’s wheels through dense rainforest, past ocean-front communities and alongside a furious Southern Ocean. We were only a few kilometres into one of the world’s most stunning…

In a country where a small spider can kill you it’s reassuring to know Mother Nature has a softer side. Hidden in the prehistoric valleys of the Blue Mountains National Park in New South Wales are hundreds of plants used by Aboriginal peoples to cure everything from earache and fevers to snake bites and colds. The best chance…

Have you ever been somewhere really hyped up and just found it a bit average? Bundled yourself off somewhere on the recommendations of friends, forum users or travel mags to find it’s just a bit, well, meh? Every regular traveller tends to have one place that didn’t stand up to expectations, and for me it…

If you like getting up close and personal with the animal kingdom on your travels, these trip ideas should appeal. From alligators to zebras – via reindeer, cheetahs, baboons and gorillas – we’ve herded together a veritable wildlife park to inspire you. See wildlife in Gabon The jungles in Gabon have the highest diversity of…

Don’t go to Japan or Australia if you’re looking after your pennies. A new poll from the Economist Intelligence Unit has placed Tokyo and Osaka as the first and second most expensive cities in the world, followed closely by Sydney, Oslo and Melbourne. Personally, I didn’t find Oslo too bad, but as a Londoner I’m…

A visit to Queen Victoria Market, or “Vic Market”, located on the northern fringe of the city centre, is a superb introduction to Melbourne’s vibrant food culture and will have you rubbing shoulders with everyone from government ministers to the city’s best chefs. Running for 128 years, it’s one of the oldest markets in Australia…

Enjoy a more eco-friendly stay in Mumbai with our green guide to the city, taken from travel bible Great Escapes. Explore Aboriginal Sydney Many people think Sydney’s history began with the arrival of Captain Cook in Botany Bay in 1770. Take a boat cruise with Tribal Warrior (www.tribalwarrior.org) around the famous harbour, however, and while…

For all the media’s focus on big-money events, it’s often weird local games or odd new hybrid events that really capture the joy of sport across the world. So we asked the authors of The Rough Guide to Cult Sport to select their ten favourite strange sports from the book (with apologies to the likes…