Travel & Lifestyle

Adventure Junky app unites thrill-seekers from all over the globe

Adventure Junky, an Australian travel tech start-up, has released a world-first app that allows for adventurers from all corners of the globe to share their experiences over a new social network where they can play, compete, connect and gain rewards. In one easy-to-use forum, the app offers over 500 different adventures, ranging from the more…

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Best things to do in Sydney this weekend (11th-13th March)

This heat isn’t going anywhere, which is perfect since A Moveable Feast will be making it’s long awaited debut on Bondi Beach this Saturday, adding to the rich stock of events happening around the city that also include four-day food and drink festival Taste of Sydney, a heap of events as part of Spectrum Now,…

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STRIKE A POSE! After-Hours Pop-up Fashion Party to be held at Madame Tussauds (Sydney)

Have you ever wanted to compare outfits with Lady Gaga? Have a drink with Marilyn Monroe? Or perhaps attend an outrageous party with Andrey Hepburn à la Breakfast at Tiffany’s? Sydney’s fab Hijinks is returning to let you do just that STIKE A POSE! is the latest in the events series down by the harbour,…

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Nike Sportswear’s Air Max Lab pop up to open in Surry Hills (Sydney)

To celebrate the 29th anniversary of the Nike Air Max 1, the  Air Max Lab is set to open in Surry Hills, where Nike Sportswear will hold a month-long program of footwear-related events. The Lab will open on the 12th of March with a Q&A session with local sneaker-heads like Christopher Kevin Au, Jazz Bonifacio and Sneaker Freaker…

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OzHarvest’s Annual CEO Cookoff in Sydney raises over $1.5M in support of Australia’s most vulnerable

Celebrating its fifth year, the somewhat bittersweet and momentous occasion that is OzHarvest’s CEO Cookoff took place this week in the palatial grandeur of The Cutaway at Barangaroo Reserve. It was a day that resulted in a record $1.5 million being raised for OzHarvest, with funds still climbing. 2016 has been the biggest year for…

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Wine is Coming: Game of Thrones themed wine festival “Game of Rhones” returns

After sell-out events across Australia and New Zealand last year, Game of Rhones will make it’s noble return as it tours Adelaide, Perth, Brisbane, Melbourne, Sydney, Auckland, and Wellington once again this year across May, June, and July. Obviously inspired by HBO smash Game of Thrones (for which the season six trailer can be found…

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The new venue space “Chelsea Lane” opens between The Mercure and Ibis Hotels in Brisbane

Chelsea Lane opened at Mercure Brisbane last month. The new venue space situated between The Mercure and Ibis Hotel, adds a stylish, urban alfresco environment to a laneway once used for taxi and bus drop-offs and pick ups. With a budget tipping $200k, Chelsea Lane has been transformed into a hip, retro industrial styled venue, ensuring a relaxed…

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P&O Cruises partner with Glandore Estate Wines to open a new on board Cellar Door

Australian owned P&O cruises have introduced its new Cellar Door aboard its cruise ships. P&O Cruises have partnered with Glandore Estate Wines, a boutique winery from the Hunter Valley in NSW, to provide guests, and woo wine lovers with, two tasting menus offering 14 Glandore Estate wines. Guests can taste wine, and test their knowledge with interactive tablets offering…

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A brief history of Auckland’s stylish High Street (New Zealand)

The old-world charm of Auckland’s High Street often puts the strip on the lips of travelers just returning from a New Zealand trip, championing the bespoke, the hip, and the craft that characterise the distinctive slice of the city’s cultural scene. It seems every city is now pushing it’s own “hipster” area in order to…

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Nine ways to survive the annual SXSW film & music conference in Austin, Texas

This Friday, the SXSW (South by Southwest) Film and Interactive conference and festival kicks off in Austin, Texas… then the Music Mayhem starts next Tuesday! We’re just days away from flying to the great city ourselves for the 7th consecutive year of coverage, so we thought we’d share with your our top nine festival tips in this…

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Best Western gives Glebe guesthouse a multi million dollar makeover (Sydney)

The Haven Inn, on 196 Glebe Point Road, has been given a roughly AUD$3 million facelift by Best Western Hotels & Resorts .  This makes Best Western Haven Glebe the hotel group’s fifth Sydney hotel, alongside the Best Western PLUS Hotel Stellar in Sydney CBD and Best Western Twin Towers in Artarmon. Listed as a 4-star boutique hotel, the Best Western Haven…

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Port Macquarie’s annual Blues & BBQ Festival returns for beats, barbecue, and beer (NSW)

Following the sell-out success from Sydney’s very well-received Meatstock festival, event organisers Simon Luke and Jay Beaumont have turned their attention back to Port Macquarie for the third annual Blues and Barbecue Festival, a lake-side, two-day event that plans to dish out beats, barbecue, and beer until you can’t meat-sweat no more. The event also…

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Spiegelau goes for elegance with new Perfect Serve Collection

Award winning bartender and mixologist Stephan Hinz, the brains behind renowned stylish drinking den Little Link in Germany, has teamed up with German glass manufacturer Spiegelau to create a new line of glassware designed to perfectly suit cocktails. Dubbed The Perfect Serve Collection, this new series of four stemmed glasses, four tumblers, and two mixing…

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Waterman’s Lobster Co. will pop-up at Young Henry’s in Newtown for Easter (Sydney)

Heard of Waterman’s Lobster Co. and their Maine and Connecticut style lobster rolls but aren’t keen on leaving the inner-west bubble? We’ve got some good news for you. The increasingly popular Potts Point joint will be bringing some of their delicious rolls for a little two-day pop-up towards the end of this month, setting up…

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Accomm Review: Gumtree Cottage at Peppertree Hill (Mudgee, NSW)

The big city is where you’ll often find the more ‘standard luxury’ when it comes to accommodation but, in Australia at least, you need to think regional if you want to experience unique stays with charm and character, the type you’d get from independent owners rather than big, often inattentive brands that can get a…

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Exploring the historical city of Melaka: Jonker Walk and the Jonker Boutique Hotel (Malaysia)

The narrow streets are lined with charming and colourful boutiques, spilling out onto the busy paved footpaths. They are housed in decorative terrace buildings that have their detailed pre-war architecture vividly painted. This is what it’s like walking up, down, and around one of the most famous areas in the Malaysian city of Melaka. Inside…

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Recap: March Into Merivale’s “Wok On” packs Establishment with Asian eats and hip hop beats (Sydney)

The current March Into Merivale festival continued throughout this past week, with the strongest event being Wok On, one of the signature events of Merivale’s massive food and wine festival, and once again amongst the most wildly popular of the extensive program. Establishment was packed out early for the three-hour event, which called upon the…

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Good times for a good cause: Bars March returns to celebrate bar culture and animal rights

Here’s something to raise your glass to: Bars March, a month-long event that will make any bar aficionado happy, is back in 2016, and it’s all for raising money for animal charities. More than just a celebration of bar culture, Bars March brings together over 50 venues across the city, helping to raise money for the Animal Welfare League…

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Glenfiddich teams with five Australian chefs to create an elaborate Whisky degustation dinner in Centennial Park (Sydney)

In one of the year’s most exciting Whisky events, Glenfiddich will be bringing back their popular “Glenfiddich Culinary Challenge” in the lavish dining room of Centennial Parklands Dining this month, calling on chefs all across Australia to offer up dishes, each using a different expression of Glenfiddich as a main ingredient for recipes inspired by…

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On the Shelf: The Art of Wholefood’s Wellness Jellies

Australian owned and operated small business The Art of Whole Food have been around for two years now, founded by Nutritionist Samantha Beard who, after years of studying nutrition and herbal medicine, drew on her passion for cooking to start speaking to those who were wanting healthier alternatives to palatable foods. Beard went on to…

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Review: Juicy Lucy – Surry Hills (Sydney)

There has been an explosion of chicken in Sydney as of late; see newbies Butter and Thirsty Bird, established favourites like Chicken and Sons and The Chicken Institute, and now Juicy Lucy, the second venue from the crew behind highly reputable, Thai-inspired restaurant Sugarcane. Things are a bit different here though; rather than ride the…

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McDonald’s have released a range of pyjamas for people who are really, really obsessed with Maccas breakfast

Move over Peter Alexander because McDonald’s are now getting into the sleepwear game, announcing a limited edition range of “All Day Brekkiewear” to celebrate the fact that all-day Maccas breakfast is now a thing all over Australia. Kanye West’s favourite Australian designer Emma Mulholland has designed the range, which will be available from 2pm AEDT…

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Cumberbunnies: The Benedict Cumberbatch Easter chocolates you always dreamed of

Jen Lindsey Clark and her team over at UK-based Chocolatician seem obsessed with capturing Benedict Cumberbatch’s likeliness in all it’s deliciousness, last year proving themselves as a mix of Willy Wonka and Madame Tussauds with a Belgian chocolate modeled after the Brit actor, called the “Chocobatch”. Now they are taking things a little further with…

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Qatar Airways launches direct flights between Sydney and Doha

Part of a bigger expansion to their network, the awarded Qatar Airways will be taking a big step into Australia’s most competitive travel market with daily flights between Sydney and Doha beginning from this week. Announced at a press conference earlier this week, the Oneworld member is set to bring AUD$240 million to the local…

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AccorHotels partners with Avista to manage three hotels in Phuket

AccorHotels, which currently manages 16 hotels across Southern Thailand, will now manage three properties in Phuket after signing an agreement with Avista Resort and Spa Patong Company Limited. The resort to be rebranded as Novotel Phuket Kata Avista Resort and Spa offers 143 rooms, one restaurant, two bars, two meeting rooms, a business centre, a…

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The Schaller Studio Hotel and Masons of Bendigo restaurant join to create a regional food and wine experience

The Art Series Hotel Group’s The Schaller Studio has partnered with the award-winning restaurant Masons’ of Bendigo to create the authentic From Market to Paddock to Plate food and wine experience in central Victoria. Mason’s international chef Sonia Anthony takes guests in groups of up to eight people on a personalised tour of the community’s…

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Spotlight on Canberra: Truffles, Markets, Museums and Hotels – Oh My!

Most who went to primary school in Australia will vaguely remember their sixth grade trip down to the nation’s capital; a trip that had the unintentional consequence of coating our perceptions of Canberra with a dull, dry colour, by focusing on the layers of Australian society which many kids just don’t find engaging at such…

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Photo Diary: My Tanzanian Journey – From Zanzibar to Arusha, the Tarangire National Park and beyond…

My Tanzanian journey begins in Zanzibar, a small island that sits off the east coast of the Tanzanian mainland. The Zanzibar you see in photos is predominantly of beach resorts and blue waters. So with this mental image, driving into Stone Town is immediately confronting. It’s vastly different from this mental image – small, unsigned…

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Wellington’s Weta Studio Tour have been listed as ‘one of the 10 film wonders of the world’

New Zealand has a hidden gem for movie lovers around the world. The Wellington-based Weta Workshop‘s filmmaking facilities has been listed as one of the top 10 film studio tours worldwide. They have  proven to be extremely popular with over 100,000 people attending the workshop since the beginning of April last year. The Guardian ranked the…

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Recap: Felix, Ash St. Cellar, Bistrode CBD and more showcased at Merivale’s European Laneway (Sydney)

We continued to march on into Merivale and its aptly named festival this year with the hotly anticipated European Laneway, fashioned as a feast under the stars. After a series of successful events in previous years, the laneway was once again choc-a-block of the best food and drink the Merivale group has to offer, all…

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