Everything You Need To Know About . . . Travel

Sydney Morning Herald

Thursday January 1, 2009

JOHN SHARPE

Farewell five-star It's back to basics for Aussie travellers this year as the economic crisis hits. Marble spa baths and strawberries in champagne at swanky resorts are gone. Brace yourself for long walks down the long paddock, boiling the swag and humping the billy. Grey nomads will be fighting in-the-red nomads for the last caravan site in the holiday park.

Budget hotels Beat those big-city hotel rip-offs. If you drink and don't shower, you can hang around in downtown doorways and get a free night at a charity hostel. But guard your wallet - you might be sleeping next to a merchant banker.

Fishing holidays These take on a new urgency - if you don't catch, you don't eat (unless you have leftover bait). If fish are scarce, try a kendal kirby 3-0 hook in a hot chip to catch seagulls. They taste like fishy chicken and are easy to field-dress.

Cruise control Since no new cars will be sold in frugal 2009, special cruise deals will be available on those roll-on, roll-off car carrier ships. Plenty of room to party but the view is terrible. If that's too expensive, why not work your passage on the Manly ferry?

Ultra low-cost airlines What next? Airlines will offer fares by which you are lightly sedated, shrink-wrapped with your suitcase, loaded by caring baggage handlers into the hold and, on arrival, inserted directly into your capsule hotel by forklift. The capsule or pod hotel is the 2009 equivalent of sleeping in the back of your Falcon wagon.

Space travel This will soon be universal. For the price of a second-hand Ferrari, you can boldly go to infinity and beyond on the Virgin Galactic spaceship and probably return in one piece. There's no toilet but the spacesuits are absorbent. The craft has already flown and Sir Richard Branson will be up there soon. And, yes, you can use frequent-flier points.

Alaska This one will be big because people want to visit Sarah Palin and field-dress a moose. But remember to clean the area around the animal so you have room to roll out the entrails.

© 2009 Sydney Morning Herald

Back to News Index | Back to Home