Travel | GlobalSalsa: travel writer Belinda Jackson

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?

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

Old Salt, Pier Runner, Wellness Cruiser: What’s your cruise personality?

From pier runners to the bargain hunters, which one of these 10 cruise personalities are you?

My story in the Australian Financial Review’s High Seas magazine decode the most common ocean journey archetypes, including the Old Salt and Round-the-World Devotees, and why you should google upside-down pineapples before you cruise. There are the wellness cruisers, the hypermilers, and the round-the-world devotees.

Click here to read the full story and to see if you are, actually, a Pier Runner. Thanks to Simon Leitch for the great illustrations.

In this edition, I also got to put the case for why sea days are the best days on ship, in a cheeky little essay recalling my mum’s inability to find a glass of water on an epic Seabourn cruise.

Click here to read the full story, where you can forget the destination, cruising is all about the journey. Watch the ocean, soak up the sun and enjoy the curious sensation of seeing nothing on the horizon.

Jul

Hotel Review: Mandarin Oriental Costa Navarino, Greece, Dream by Luxury Escapes magazine

The dream assignment: go to Greece, stay at the new Mandarin Oriental Costa Navarino, on the Peloponnese coast. Reader, I acquiesced.

The hotel is about 3.5 hours’ drive south of Athens – hello, hire car/wrong side of the road/wrong side of the car dramas! But I’d seen the photos of this luxury hotel, and I knew I could survive Athens’ traffic jams to get there.

It was worth it. The location, its history and its mythology pervade all aspects of the first Mandarin Oriental hotel in Greece, from its spa to the ultra-Hellenic breakfasts, even the hotel’s architecture. Despite being a global group, it’s as Greek as yiayia’s meatballs.

I wrote about the new hotel’s opening for Luxury Escapes magazine, take a look.

For more great travel inspo, head to https://luxuryescapes.com/inspiration/

Jun

Strauss has Vienna in a spin, again; 200 years of the waltz in Vienna Austria: Australian Financial Review

Erotic, rebellious, scandalous. A dance to induce ecstasy, an exuberant resistance to state oppression. Yes, it’s that saucy dance with the devil, the waltz.

A staple in today’s reality TV dance competitions, the waltz was a simple peasant dance until the cosmopolitan Viennese gave it an urbane makeover in the early 1800s. Women fainted, welded-together couples scandalised – the ‘wicked’ waltz of Vienna’s 1800s was a fast and furious dance.

This year, Vienna celebrates 200 years since the birth of its ‘Waltz King’, Johann Strauss II, best known for Vienna’s unofficial anthem, The Blue Danube.

I spent a few weeks exploring Vienna, the grandest little European city, which is once again in Strauss’ grip, and wrote about it for the Australian Financial Review newspaper. To read my story in the Australian Financial Review, visit https://www.afr.com/life-and-luxury/travel/how-the-dance-of-the-devil-s-violinist-came-to-define-this-city-20250417-p5lsny or see AFR Austria, Strauss

For a quick recap: Strauss was born and died in Vienna, and this year the city celebrates his bicentenary. Even if you weren’t a mad classical music fan, his life story is so full of drama (fought with his jealous dad, jealous brother burnt his original manuscripts, wives with seven children of dubious parentage, rewrite of his history by Nazi Party etc) and the digital exhibitions so good, you’ll be hooked on waltz as a political statement against authoritarianism. There are several new galleries and exhibitions in Vienna, including the interactive New Dimension exhibition, I also visited the nearly new House of Strauss, took in a dinner & rather cheesy, but fun show at the Prater. There are 65 productions and 3 exhibitions at 71 different locations throughout the city in 2025. https://www.johannstrauss2025.at/en/

For more Strauss events, visit-
Johann Strauss Museum – New Dimensions: The shiny new permanent city centre exhibition, which opened last November, is a fascinating multimedia deep dive into Strauss’s private life and loves. He once wrote 150 love letters to Olga, who he dumped after his mother disapproved. He had three wives, Jetty, Lily and Adele, and no children. Brothers Josef and Eduard were involved in the business but in a tragic twist Eduard burnt hundreds of Strauss manuscripts. Don GPS-enabled audio headphones and compose your own waltz with technology https://www.johannstraussmuseum.at

The House of Strauss – a museum and also a concert space, where the Strauss family used to perform. The museum tour is narrated by Thomas Strauss, the great-great-great-grandson of Johann Strauss II; https://www.houseofstrauss.at

Johann Strauss Exhibition: This vibrant exhibition which opened in December at the Theatermuseum Vienna showcases the glamour of the Strauss era. Original objects from performances are on display and include the score from Die Fledermaus. Until June 23. theatermuseum.at

Wien Museum: Reopened in 2023, it has a chronological tour of the city including Strauss connections, free. wienmuseum.at

May

Visiting Vietnam’s underrated regions: travel tips, budget airlines and hot hotels: Canberra Times

This trip to Vietnam, I’ve turned my back on the big cities – Ha Noi, Ho Chi Minh City, Da Nang; even tourist-loving Hoi An, and definitely Ha Long Bay.

Instead, I’ve begun my exploration of Vietnam’s waterways in the imperial city of Hue, in central Vietnam, continuing south to the fishing village of Ke Ga, and further south again to Can Tho, in the Mekong Delta.

For a floating breakfast with a difference, I’m on a boat cafe in the Mekong Delta, continuing my exploration of Vietnam’s breakfast soups. This morning, it’s a bowl of bún nước lèo, a deep broth with prawns, calamari, noodles, shredded banana blossom – to name a few things – on a pink boat at Can Tho’s early morning markets.

In Hue, I take a step back to 1930s Vietnam, where whitewashed columns and geometric tiles meet claw-foot baths and four-poster beds at the Azerai La Residence. There’s a flair and love of embellishment here that sings to me – the round windows and curved balustrades, the high ceilings and dark timber floors. We’re on the Perfume River, home of the last imperial family of Vietnam, which the sun sets over as dragon-headed longboats sail by. Yep, it’s hot. This is low season in central Vietnam but, selfishly, I’m ok with that.

And for the most beautiful tropical modernist hotel, try the Azerai Ke Ga Bay, on Vietnam’s southern coastline. It’s only 180km east of HCMC, but once off the freeway, the pitted local roads are a danger to loose molars.

To read more, see my feature for the Sydney Morning Herald/The Age newspapers’ Traveller section, visit https://www.smh.com.au/traveller/inspiration/i-skipped-the-big-cities-for-vietnam-s-charming-less-visited-waterways-20250423-p5ltq9.html

If you’re after more Vietnam travel tips, I’m also sharing my great hotel tip, which offers cultural tourism without the hefty price tag, and another budget tip of new flights from Melbourne into Hanoi with Vietnamese low-cost carrier VietJet, azerai.com, vietjetair.com – you can hear more on this episode of my travel podcast, The World Awaits – just click on this link or the player below.

Dec

Australia’s newest ‘Great Walk’ goes to Flinders Island, Tasmania

The warm turquoise waters are so clear that every ridge in the white sand floor is visible. Tea trees line the shore for a distinctively Australian look. Is this the Whitsundays? Maybe Rottnest Island? The dead giveaway is the orange lichen garnishing the granite boulders. Yep, it’s Tasmania. And that’s me, swimming in Bass Strait – the strip of treacherous water between mainland Australia and Tasmania. Flinders Island is not so cold, not so barren.

An hour into my week-long walking holiday, Flinders Island has kicked the stereotype of the Bass Strait islands being cold and barren.

“It’s the jewel of Tasmania,” the pilot shouts as our eight-seater Airvan chugs noisily away from Bridport, on the state’s north-eastern coastline. Below us stretch the low islands of the Furneaux Group, remnants of the mostly submerged plain that once linked Tasmania and Victoria.

On the west coast of Flinders Island, my guide Matt describes the land as “the Bay of Fires on steroids”. On this trip, we climb Mt Killiecrankie (fun to say, almost as much fun to climb) and I swim every day bar one, in spectacularly turquoise seas, making this a walk-swim-walk expedition.

https://www.smh.com.au/traveller/inspiration/australia-s-newest-great-walk-truly-lives-up-to-the-name-20241129-p5kunw.html

Dec

Travels in mainland Greece with ABC Radio

Whenever anyone talks of holidaying in Greece, the islands tend to get all the glory. But what about the mainland?

Athens has everything to offer as a global city and holiday destination, but to my mind, the real story is Greece’s second city, Thessaloniki. The home of souvlaki, bougatsa and the frappe, Thessaloniki has done the impossible and makes instant coffee taste good! It’s the birthplace of Kamal Ataturk, and has been corralled into empires from the Hellenic to Ottoman, so expect great history, fantastic food and a waterfront location designed for post-prandial perambulation.

I joined Philip Clark on ABC Radio‘s national evening program, Nightlife, to tell of the wonders of mainland Greece. You can listen to our chat here, and tune in to ABC Radio every Monday night for his Monday Night Travel segment, which goes out to the world from 10pm.

To listen to the interview, visit this link: https://www.abc.net.au/listen/programs/nightlife/nightlife-travel—greece/104675428

On this trip, I drove from Athens airport south to the Peloponnese peninsula, to stay at the new Mandarin Oriental Costa Navarino – I’ll post a review here shortly. Then I drove back up to Athens (Athens traffic – ayeeeee!) and from there, joined Eurail, the European rail pass company, using their tickets to travel from Athens north to Thessaloniki, then crossed the border into Bulgaria, on to the capital, Sofia and then to its second city, Plovdiv. I have stories coming up in the Sydney Morning Herald and The Age newspapers, which I’ll post here as they’re published. To learn more about Eurail, visit eurail.com

Oct

Best places for stargazing, aurora hunting & dark sky sanctuaries

When was the last time you really soaked up the night sky? Went stargazing? Spotted a full moon? Admired the Milky Way? Saw an aurora?

Marnie Ogg joined me on The World Awaits podcast to talk about astrotourism – where people travel the world to see the best dark skies and celestial phenomenons.

Marnie designs and leads stargazing tours, and she is also the founder of the Australasian Dark Sky Alliance, which educates people about light pollution.

She loves going into the long polar night in Scandinavia, we talk about the Atacama Desert in Chile, which is renowned for its clear, dark skies with little light pollution, and her own pet project back here in Australia.

So stay with us to learn the best places on Earth to go stargazing, aurora hunting and spotting all sorts of celestial bodies. See darkskytraveller.com.au

We also reveal the best little town in Australia: it’s official, with the winner of the Top Tourism Town Awards, and we’ve got some tips about how to make the best memories when you travel. See toptourismtowns.com

To listen, visit https://www.theworldawaits.au/

Apple Podcasts https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/the-world-awaits-travel-tales-to-inspire-your-wanderlust/id1689931283

Spotify https://open.spotify.com/show/5RcDD9u7ZyvBmA3yFxJAGv

Oct

Should I swim with whales? An ethical debate

A few months ago, I jumped in the chilly waters to swim with whales, as a pod of over-excited humpback whales were tearing up the NSW South Coast on what’s known as the humpback highway.

Swimming with whales in Australia is still a fledging tourism activity – should we even be doing it?

This swim with whales is run by Jervis Bay ecotourism company Woebegone Freedive, and we also had whale scientist Dr Vanessa Pirotta on board, and together, we teased out the ethics of whale swimming and interaction, for this feature in the Sydney Morning Herald and The Age newspapers’ Traveller section.

For some whale background, every year, thousands of humpback whales migrate from the chilly waters of Antarctica to southern Australia, where the split around the continent – some going to the western coast, and others up the east coast, where they find their favourite creche to nurture and teach their babies about life on the humpback highway.

Interestingly, one of those creches is near Fraser Island, where I also spent my childhood. We never knew anything about whales, because by the 1960s, we’d killed most of them for a lucrative whaling industry.

Thankfully, Australia banned killing these marine giants, and the population has begun to swell again. Some scientists put the population at about 40,000, so now we can see them in places like Fraser Island, Warrnambool in Victoria and Albany in Western Australia which, ironically, was the site of Australia’s last whaling station. It now makes its money from tourism, as people come to see the majesty of the animals we used to slaughter.

The trip was hosted by Bannisters Hotels, which offers a stay-and-swim Mollymook Migration package https://www.bannisters.com.au/mollymook-migration/

To read my discussion about whether we should swim with whales, jump to https://www.smh.com.au/traveller/inspiration/i-swam-australia-s-humpback-highway-but-should-i-have-20240917-p5kbb7.html

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