All posts tagged: featured

Dublin Cool: The Dean

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We were in Dublin for a good time, not a long time, so The Dean was the perfect place to elevate our stay in one of the coolest cities in Europe. As much as we would have loved to stay longer to linger on the rooftop balcony over a few Guinesses and try the brunch menu at Sophie’s upstairs, or sample an Irish whisky at the entry bar, we found this place helped us to stay in style, while also hopping about Dublin easily. Definitely a superior crash pad, and one that we imagine would have some pretty awesome post-rock show parties. The Dean was so damn great because of the attention to detail – the room card that was ‘The Key to A Deadly Time’, the cheeky do not disturb signs, the Smeg fridge and subway tiles in the bathroom, the vinyl player with well curated records (Chemical Brothers! Van Morrison’s Astral Weeks!), the craft beers and ciders and boutique snacks not to mention barber products, the punchy prints, bright rug and those blue …

36 Hours in Bangkok

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I was all gearing up to host my Wanderlust 5 year anniversary show on Bondi Beach Radio when I got a call from AirAsia – want to come to Bangkok next week to help celebrate the fact we’ve flow half a billion passengers? I hit pause on the playlist prep, packed my passport and that was that. Show? What show?! Arriving in Bangkok, after getting a pretty decent sleep on a Premium Flatbed (which, BTW, is the way forward when it comes to flying overnight to Asia), I was reminded of the few days I had spent in the Thai capital many years before. There was the chokey traffic and wide, in-progress highways, as well as humidity and haze, but as the cityscape flickers by you also glimpse the tops of Buddhist temples and signs with curly-edged Thai script. It has an exciting energy and I couldn’t wait to see how much I could ram into a short (two days and one night!) stay. Shopping at Siam Square I’d been reading about the cutting-edge fashion …

The Garden Isle: Kauai, Hawaii

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The most spectacular green-ridged peaks, lazy ocean-side walks, canyons, food trucks and palm trees everywhere you gaze: Kauai is proper paradise. By law, no building can be higher than the highest coconut tree, which means you see lush vegetation and sky wherever you look – gaining it the name of the Garden Isle, which is apt my friends, very apt. We stayed on the south end of the island at Koa Kea Resort near Poipu Beach, so all of the exploring mentioned below began by driving north, usually through Old Koloa Town. Old Koloa Town When heading through the South (or exiting to explore North as we commonly were), it’s worth a stop off at Old Koloa Town, even if just for the coffee – seriously the best we found on the island! This is an old sugar plantation town from the 1830s, and the best way to arrive is through Malahui Road where you’ll drive beneath a luscious green Tree Tunnel. But back to the coffee – Aloha Roastery sits in the Waikomo courtyard …

Hawaii Cool: Surfjack Hotel, Waikiki

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Aloha bitches! What if I told you there’s a renovated hipster hotel in Waikiki with 1960s surfer vibes, a killer restaurant by one of the hot names in the Hawaii food scene, and that it’s reasonably priced – oh, and just a couple of blocks from the beach?! Nobody told me any of that, but when trawling online through all the hotels available in Honolulu, I was left feeling pretty uninspired. It was all flashy chain hotels (apart from the glorious Royal Hawaiian Hotel in which we were to spend our first night) or places that looked like they lacked character, especially for the hefty price tags. So to not only discover this relatively new and stylin’ hotel The Surfjack, but discover that it had the name of one of my favourite songs emblazoned on the bottom of the swimming pool, it was definitely a no brainer for me. We arrived here for the last few days of our honeymoon, just fresh from 5 nights in Kauai. Having only spent one night in Honolulu on …

Wild Wander in Berowra: Camping and Hiking Near Sydney

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New hubby Phil keeps telling me I shouldn’t post about this wild little gem of a camping spot, because why give away a secret sanctuary on the edge of the city that we can keep to ourselves? We even scored a spot here for New Years Eve – two days before the fact. In his ‘shush’ request, I think he’s (wildly) overestimated my influence, my ability to keep travel secrets and to hold on to my photos for no one to see. Sweetie! *newlywed gush*. OK, back on topic. The campground is called Crosslands Reserve and is tucked into the back of Hornsby Heights, down in the Berowra Valley National Park. It took us less than an hour to get there from central Sydney. INTERESTED IN HIKES NEAR SYDNEY? Here’s 3 more for your nature fix: Wild Wander: Bundeena Wild Wander: Kiama Coast Walk Wild Wander: Burning Palms The site is essentially a couple of adjoining parks down in a bush-clad valley with a skirting creek along one side. It was New Years Eve and …