Blog

Apr

Why now is the best time to visit Afghanistan: The World Awaits podcast

Come to Central Asia’s forgotten country, Afghanistan.

I’ve long been fascinated by Afghanistan, since I first read historian William Dalrymple’s inspiring book In Xanadu; A Quest, and followed Irish travel doyenne Dervla Murphy, who cycled through Central Asia in the 1960s.

So I am very proud to bring this interview to you on my travel podcast, The World Awaits, about travelling in Afghanistan.

If you asked, “Why, of all times, would you run a story about the region now?” I’d respond, “If not now, then when?” Australia’s government foreign advisory

website Smartraveller has kept its advice, ‘Do Not Go’ unchanged for 20 years.

My guests are James Willcox of extreme travel group Untamed Borders, and also author of the new Brandt guidebook to Afghanistan, and Fatima Haidari, Afghanistan’s first female tour guide.

From Herat and now living in Italy, Fatima leads virtual tours through Afghanistan, a tribal country with enormous diversity. She talks not only about the tours, but the impact tourism has upon her country, from the natural beauty of Bamiyan, chaotic, crowded Kabul and the poetic heart of Herat.

“Isolation is the worst way to punish a population,” says Fatima, who shares the profit from the tours with a women’s education charity she established in Afghanistan. “Because the media is so heavily censored, tourism is one way to help open up the country. It helps local businesses and helps us to get out of isolation just a little bit.”

Listen on Apple Podcasts , Spotify or via our website https://theworldawaits.au

You can join Fatima’s virtual tours here https://untamedborders.com/itinerary/virtual-tours-with-fatima-afghanistan/

And take a tour with Untamed Borders https://untamedborders.com/

The Bradt guidebook to Afghanistan https://www.bradtguides.com/product/afghanistan-pb/

Champions of the Golden Valley https://www.championsofthegoldenvalley.com/

Secret Marathon Film https://thesecretmarathon.com/

Untamed Borders’ founder James Willcox

Podcast links

Spotify https://open.spotify.com/episode/5eRb6ckSE286bxJugtDuRf?si=48279324689b4b0a
Apple Podcasts https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/ep-141-travelling-in-afghanistan-keeping-your-eyes/id1689931283?i=1000760319714

Apr

Navigating the unknown – travel during the Middle East crisis & Australia’s best runway rooms

Travel has taken a huge hit with the Middle East crisis now entering its fifth week, and it can be challenging to keep up with what you should and shouldn’t do with travel plans during these significant and devastating world events.

This week on The World Awaits, my co-host Kirstie and I are sharing our Hot Take on the travel situation, bringing you the good and the bad news to help you navigate this uncertain time when it comes to travel plans – with some positive solutions.

Our tip is for all the the aviation geeks out there. We’re sharing the best runway rooms at Australasian airports; so if the sight of a plane taking off gets your blood pumping, this is the list for you. I’ve personally tried and tested a few, in fact, we recorded last week’s podcast in a suite on the eighth floor of the Novotel Melbourne Airport!

If you like the look of this super convenient hotel, jump on our giveaway to win a night at the Novotel Melbourne Airport – just enter via our instagram or facebook post – simply follow The World Awaits and the hotel, like and tag a friend for an extra entry.

And if you can’t get enough #avgeek, listen in for Belle’s tarmac tour of Melbourne Airport; the airport does occasionally offer similar tours, see melbourneairport.com.au/community/airport-tours

Download the SAILY app in your app store and use our code ‘theworldawaits’ at checkout to get an exclusive 15% off your first purchase; see saily.com

Listen to The World Awaits on all major platforms, including

APPLE PODCASTS https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/ep-140-hot-take-navigating-the-unknown-travel-during/id1689931283?i=1000758697943

SPOTIFY https://open.spotify.com/episode/6vZaYF3Dbrzb2uWzkm5A4L

and via our website https://theworldawaits.au

Apr

Escape to the country, within the city limits: Marnong Estate, Victoria

Review of Melbourne hotel Marnong Estate, on the northern fringe of the city.

As a travel writer, I’ve got to say that it’s hard not to get gloomy when we see how the world has changed in the past few weeks – the whim of an orange man and his handlers changes our lives – and that’s not counting the human cost.

It’s kind of like COVID all over again, isn’t it? We suddenly find our wings clipped – whether we’ve planned to fly to Europe via the Middle East, or if the soaring cost of fuel has limited our local driving holiday.

So I bring you a timely story about a country escape within Melbourne’s city limits; Marnong Estate is many things; a vineyard, restaurant, cafe and farm, and also has stylish accommodation, making it the ideal place to sneak away overnight.

It’s my second time staying at Marnong – I reviewed the property when it first opened. Then, there were just four beautiful suites in the original bluestone homestead, which dates from 1840s.

This time, I stayed in one of the much, much newer 10 contemporary cabins; each cabin has a studio bedroom and a one-bedroom suite which are completely separate (or you can link the two up, if you’re travelling in a party – and Marnong caters for groups beautifully).

I reviewed the cabin accommodation for the Traveller section of the Sydney Morning Herald and The Age’s Traveller section. To read the full feature, click here.

Mar

Why Ramadan is a season to travel in the Middle East: Canberra Times

We’re just about at the end of Ramadan – the Islamic month of prayer, fasting and reflection – with Eid forecast for later this week, and my story about best countries to experience Ramadan as a traveller.

It’s a chance to wander back in my mind about nights spent by the Nile, tables laden with small dishes of deliciousness, the ornate lanterns, song and shisha until first light.

Read the story here.

In a piece of dire timing that I’ve come to expect writing about travel in the Middle East, it was published in the Canberra Times and the ACM network of rural newspapers across Australia on the same day the US and Israel started bombing Iran. So while most are trying to flee the Middle East, I tried to convey that (when it’s safe!) far from a season to avoid, for the traveller, Ramadan can breach the divide between tourist and guide, between Muslim and non-Muslim, between them and us.

And, surely, that is needed now, more than ever?

Have you spent Ramadan in a predominantly Muslim country? Any favourites? For those who know me well, my bias toward Egypt is clear (but, as I argue in the piece, well founded). And a friend of mine based in Doha, Qatar, says she finds it’s absolutely the season for networking! While iftar, the meal breaking the fast at sunset is a place to gather and eat, it’s also become a place to do business. Whether doing deals is in the spirit of Ramadan is to be argued, it’s undeniable iftar is a time of togetherness.

Feb

The top travel destinations for 2026: ABC Radio, 3AW Radio clips

To misquote Taylor Swift, January slipped away like a bottle of wine – I spent a lot of time on radio and podcasts, chatting about the travel trends of 2026.

My big takeaways;

Egypt: A radio announcer said while he was introducing me that no-one is going to the Middle East right now. Hello, Egypt? With the Grand Egyptian Museum finally, fully opening in late 2025, all that pent-up demand for Egypt has broken, like the Nile in flood. New Nile cruisers of all persuasions, from petite luxury to giants jostling for space at the docks – it’s all happening this high season.

Every tour company scared off by the disaster happening next door as Israel continues to bomb a population of old men, women and children into oblivion has, of course severely (and deliberately) damaged the tourism industry in the region over the past two years, but with ‘ceasefires’ and the like broken, Egypt is working on a new normal.

Central Asia: Uzbekistan is the ultimate dinner party brag destination right now, and this trend is only going to grow, with all the five ‘stans, including deeply weird Turkmenistan, getting more tourists, more trains and infrastructure as we come for the plov and the turquoise mosques , madrassas and public squares.

Japan: More than a million Australians a year are heading to Japan, it’s not stopping any time soon. Cherry season, ski season, summer, winter – it’s an all-rounder.

Australia still loves Bali as hard as ever, Paris still the top city for visitors, Italy hot as ever while we chase our euro-summer… Canada and Mexico will benefit from the 2026 FIFA matches – it remains to be seen what happens with the third host country, the US, given a high proportion of attendees will not be US citizens. That’s just me slipping the boot in here.

I could go on, or you could simply tap into some of the radio interviews I’ve done recently for ABC Adelaide, ABC nationwide summer, 3GB…

I also had a fun chat with Rory McLaren on ABC Adelaide about travel experiences you can’t have these days – think climbing Uluru (thankfully, because this sacred rock and icon of Australia doesn’t need any more poo on it), inflight cockpit visits (mourning this one) and smoking on trains/flights/most places. Any you’d like to add? I’d love to hear in the comments below.v

Take a listen: https://soundcloud.com/user-367644299/abc-adelaide-radio-lost-travel

ABC Adelaide Radio - lost travel experiences Rory McLaren

In the meantime, travel well!

Dec

Tea drinkers, unite! The plight of the tea drinker in luxury hotels

Tea drinkers, come join my tea party!

“It’s a sultry morning in the Maldives and the mechanic is sweating as he tinkers with the sparkling La Marzocco espresso machine. All the while, hopeful guests watch, desperate for a morning hit.

“We’ve flown the mechanic in twice this month, as the humidity plays havoc with the machine,” explained the suave French general manager of this boutique, no-walls, overwater resort.

Unperturbed, I order my usual cup of tea. Earl grey, no lemon, no sugar and absolutely no milk on the side, thank you.

Unlike the coffee, the tea arrived moments later; a pot of hot water and two budget supermarket-brand tea bags languishing, insouciant as a couple of down-at-heel gatecrashers, by the pot.

Not leaf tea. Not even a decent bag, but the sort of pesticide-laden, waterproof tea bags that make you want to thump your head on the table in the midst of breakfast service. Reader, this particular resort cost $1000 a night.”

And so sets up my campaign for good tea.

Is it a crime to want a decent cup of tea? I love great coffee as much as anyone, but my start to the day is gentler, and more simple. Tea, hot water, cup. No expensive machinery required. And yet, hotels still fob tea drinkers like genteel Austen readers, mild-mannered to the point of insipid. Foolish, even.

The story has galvanised tea drinkers sharing their plight and the ways to negotiate travel (even luxury travel) while the world conspires against us. Many, like me, carry tea bags, or cheerfully pocket a rare, quality bag of tea in their hotels. Some travel with mini hot water elements to avoid using hotel kettles. Others pack tea cups to avoid the inevitable, hard-to-break, thick-lipped mugs forced upon us in hotel rooms.

“I ordered tea in a Hotel in Colombo and was served Lipton teabags in a tea pot, in a country which produces great loose leaf tea.”

“Well said! Am so over begging baristas in hotels and resorts for a tea pot so I can give my leaf the respect it deserves. And as for respect, be great if these venues could show a little to tea drinkers. Infuriating that I need to bring decent tea to kick start the day while coffee drinkers around me are indulged with flat whites, macchiatos and double shot espressos.”

How many times have you been in a cafe, your partner orders a cappuccino and you order an English Breakfast tea. For the same price they get an expertly barista crafted espresso and you get a cup of barely hot water with a no-name brand tea bag and tiny thimble of milk.

Hotels, restaurants and cafes will finesse the espresso, coo over the pour-over, obsess with the cold-press. Meanwhile, the rusted-on tea drinker is ignored.

You can read the full story, printed in the Sydney Morning Herald and The Age newspapers, here:

https://www.smh.com.au/traveller/inspiration/i-didn-t-want-coffee-so-my-1000-a-night-resort-gave-me-cheap-tea-bags-20251107-p5n8h9.html

Some readers told me to get a life (and stop paying $1000 a night for a hotel) but that’s the job! To review hotels, and to call them to account, from the $20 guest house to the $2000 a night Maldivian overwater villa.

There was also a lot of debate about tea bags, but I maintain that Singaporean brand TWG does an excellent tea bag (albeit at a price), but I will also pay homage to the tea counter at Harrods when in London, and Mariage Freres in Paris

What do you think? Are you a tea drinker?

Nov

Walking, wine and wombats: Tasmania’s lake lodge you need to visit; Australia’s best cellar doors & save on Swiss rail passes

In Tasmania’s Central Highlands, in Australia’s deepest lake, that’s where we’re all going this week, for walking, wine and wombats at Pumphouse Point.

Stuck at the desk? You can still come along to Tasmania via our latest episode of The World Awaits travel podcast. Jump on the pod to hear this week’s chat, (which I recorded while sitting on the floor of the business centre at Niyama Private Islands in the Maldives, while my co-host Kirstie Bedford was packing for Athens. If you’re going to be in a business centre anywhere, I thoroughly recommend this one, because you can look at at a turquoise lagoon in the Dhaalu Atoll while you’re working)

Listen via Apple Podcasts
Spotify
or via our website https://theworldawaits.au

Set in the glacial Lake St Clair, the lake lodge has recently opened its new Retreats, beautiful cocoons amidst the remote wilderness. The central highlands also a hub for walkers, wine and wombats; https://lnkd.in/gpia2S9N

Also, leading wine reviewer the Halliday Wine Companion reveals Australia’s top cellar door to put on your travel list https://lnkd.in/gVXNehpf and we’re sharing some great tips to save when travelling around Switzerland on its Swiss Rail Pass, https://lnkd.in/gAwp-_9p

And a spot of trivia; what do you think is the most expensive thing left in Brisbane Airport’s Lost & Found? Lloyds Auctions recently put all the items under the hammer, including one pretty surprising, pretty pricey item that would be hard to forget…

Nov

Belinda Jackson wins Travel Writer of the Year 2025-26

I am so pleased to announce that I’m the Australian Society of Travel Writers’ new Travel Writer of the Year!

The awards were announced at a gala celebration hosted by the City of Greater Bendigo, and I couldn’t be more proud. It is the second time I’ve won this prestigious award, the last time was two years ago.

The three stories in my portfolio were drawn from Saudi Arabia, Oman and southern Spain, places I love equally, and were published in the Traveller section of the The Sydney Morning Herald and The Age, and in Luxury Escapes‘ glossy Dream magazine.

Traveller: AlUla, Saudi Arabia with The Royal Commission for AlUla Read the story here
Traveller: Southern Spain train odyssey with InnTravel Read the story here
Luxury Escapes: Heaven Scent in Oman, with Emirates, Anantara Hotels & Resorts and Shangri-La Group

The very generous prize is two business class tickets on Virgin Australia‘s domestic and short-haul international network – I reckon they’ll be easy to use!

Thank you to the Australian Society of Travel Writers, to the editors including Paul Chai, Craig Platt, Anthony Dennis, Jane Reddy and Trudi Jenkins, and to the tourism companies that continue to help travel journalists and writers produce detailed, quality (fact-checked) features, and to the public relations professionals who support and back us, even as budgets tighten and soundbites shorten. Huge thanks to Barking Owl Communications, Julia Spence PR, Lara McCabe at Burson, Nick Flynn, Zoe Shurgold and of course the sponsors, Virgin Australia

And a shout out to the team at Niyama Private Islands Maldives where I’m currently working on my next story (yep, it’s as tough as it sounds), who baked me the most beautiful cake when they heard the news.

Oct

Best things to do on the Great Ocean Road with Lonely Planet

The Great Ocean Road is Australia’s most iconic road trip, running along the coastline of Victoria. I wrote this guide to the drive for Lonely Planet, sharing some of my favourite stops along the Great Ocean Road, with tips on the best places to eat, my favourite swim spots and some of the new, beautiful architecture along the way.

The route starts west of Melbourne at Torquay and ends at Allansford, on the way to Adelaide. Buckle up for 243km of heart-burstingly beautiful surf strips and quiet coves, pine-lined beach towns and country roads fringed by forests.

You can read more about the Great Ocean Road, the best walks along the route on the Lonely Planet website, or see more on the official website of the road here: https://visitgreatoceanroad.org.au/

and you can see more on Tourism Australia’s website: https://www.australia.com/en/places/melbourne-and-surrounds/guide-to-the-great-ocean-road.html

To read the full story, visit https://www.lonelyplanet.com/articles/guide-to-the-great-ocean-road

Oct

Roadtrip to Uluru and Australia’s Red Centre, Michelin Keys now rate the world’s best hotels & dogs on planes

As Australia celebrates the 40th anniversary of the Uluru Handback, host Belle Jackson shares how you can take a bite of the red dust on a roadtrip around the Red Centre Way.

From Alice Springs/Alice Springs to Watarrka/Kings Canyon and Uluru, here’s your list of where to stay, what to eat and some of the best experiences on a drive holiday in the Northern Territory.

Also, the world’s best hotels are recognised in the new Michelin Key hotels guide; Australia’s Lizard Island is the only the three-key hotel, with Longtitude 131 near Uluru, Southern Ocean Lodge on Kangaroo Island and Drift House in Port Fairy, Victoria. Click here for the full list.

And dogs on planes – are you on board? Virgin Australia has become Australia’s first airline to allow dogs in the cabin, launching its new trial, as well as more generous carry-on limits.

Belle’s recommendations on the Red Centre Way include:

Ooraminna Station, 40 mins from Alice Springs, https://www.ooraminna.com.au/
Ormiston Gorge, West Macdonnell Ranges https://nt.gov.au/parks/find-a-park/tjoritja-west-macdonnell-national-park/ormiston-gorge
Kings Creek Station https://kingscreekstation.com.au/
Ayres Rock Resort, https://www.ayersrockresort.com.au/
Standley Chasm, West Macdonnell Ranges, https://standleychasm.com.au/
Northern Territory Tourism https://northernterritory.com/

Other places mentioned:
Melbourne Winery https://www.melbournewinery.com.au/
Virgin Australia https://www.virginaustralia.com/au/en/

#northernterritory

‹ Prev 123 4 5 Next ›Last »

Follow

BLOG