Blog

Sarah – Brisbane

You may not be able to travel to Germany for Oktoberfest, but you can attend one in Australia this year!

I was 23 when I went to Germany for Oktoberfest. We were gutted we couldn’t get an ‘inside’ table and ended up outside near some ‘old’ people.

They were German and taught us the true way of Oktoberfest and we had the best time. They shared traditional foods with us we would never have bothered with, taught us phrases to use and generally shared their culture with us.

Later we befriended some younger Germans and somehow ended going back to their house for dinner!

And in my drunken stupor I walked away with a great souvenir!!!!

Emma – Brisbane

My romantic travel story
On a night when I wasn’t even planning on going out, my friends dragged me to the local pub , after way too many and lots of laughs I bumped into my now husband.
He was from Arizona , and traveling in NZ playing rugby with some of his uni/rugby friends.
He was only going to be in the country for 2 weeks and we saw each other on and off during that time.
He left and I wasn’t sure if we’d see each other again, but we spoke on the phone and wrote letters .
We flew back and forth for a few years before he moved home with me and then we traveled together around the US before settling down and having kids – we celebrate 21 yrs of marriage in July
How different our lives would be if I hadn’t gone out that night and we had never met .
The universe has a very funny way of delivering to us exactly what we need when we need it .

Louise – Melbourne

Making your children’s dreams a reality.

Still on a high from this trip to Venice Beach and Palm Springs with Henry as his 21st birthday present. I took Sean to NYC for his 18th and Maxwell and I did the Camino in Spain in 2018. Henry is crazy busy with work and uni and a gf and lots of friends. I was so worried I’d never get the special one on one trip with Henry. But we made it happen. We carved out those precious 5 days and it was unbelievably good. He went on to Cuba, Mexico and Guatemala with his gf and they came back on the 1st Feb! They’d heard about corona virus and joked about it as they drank a Corona in Mexico. Phew. We all got back in time! After Palm Springs I went to NYC for thanksgiving with my bf Garry. 5 really luxurious days of theatre and restaurants and galleries. My heart breaks for NY now.
After a 0515 start to see the icy cold sunrise in the park, a once every ten years visit to International House of Pancakes is a must!
We got up in the dark and drive to Joshua Tree national park to see the sunrise. It was icy icy cold and so surreal and beautiful. Precious precious memories. The moral of the story is grasp your opportunities. There’s rarely a perfect time but if we waited for the perfect time we’d never go anywhere.

Phil – Central NSW Coast

Not all travel goes to plan!

Many years ago in Rome had my stuff stolen at the beach. I had to beg for some money…a nurse gave me 10 000 lira for transport home. Up the beach they were filming ancient Roman film…I needed clothes….one of the actors kindly gave me his clothes to get back to to my hotel…he went home in his costume togo! (I returned the clothes the next day to Ostia film set. (The pic is not pretty, so you ain’t seeing that! But another example of a bad situation, there are always kind people!

Lynley – Perth

The best road trip, travelling through the USA.

The moment before Kody dropped our New York pizza on the street! It’s the funny stories that make the memories 😂

Made it to New Orleans which has been On my bucket list ever since reading Anne rice books as a teen.

Wendy – Sydney

Architecture is a favourite reason to travel to many destinations in the world. Don’t forget our own country too!

Being able to visit Fallingwater, a Frank Lloyd Wright house in rural Pennsylvania …. sighhhh 🧡

Darlene – Brisbane

Of course this was a trip fully booked through my favourite Travel Manager!
In 2017 we drove to Yosemite National Park. It had been snowing two days prior, so we decided to drive up to Toulumne Meadows in the hope of my kids getting to see snow for the very first time.
We packed a picnic lunch, found a beautiful spot on the side of the road and had snow fights and built our first snowmen. We played for ages and worked up an appetite, so we found a clearing to have our picnic.
It was a beautiful sunny day, not another soul in sight. It felt like we owned that mountain!
About half way through lunch, my youngest daughter asked me why the park visitors can’t leave food in their cars. I explained that bears roam the woods and can smell food miles away. In the past, the park allowed the bears to wander around campsites, thinking it was cute to see them cohabitating with people, until they became totally reliant on human food and started breaking into tents, cars and cabins to steal whatever they could get their paws on. It became a great lesson in the preservation of wildlife and the damage of human intervention.
I was so proud that we had followed all the signs everywhere in the park and carefully removed every last trace of food, (including breath mints!) from our hire car to comply with park rules, until my son pointed out that if bears can sniff out food in locked cars, why aren’t they drawn to picnic sites?
I don’t think I’ve ever moved so fast! …I peered over my shoulder to make sure there wasn’t some hungry bear watching us from behind a tree!
I grabbed all the food, rounded up the kids and rushed everyone in a flash to the safety of our car!
In the mad rush to protect my family, I left my favourite beanie sitting on the log we were sitting, never to be seen again.
Whenever I tell this story, my kids love to remind me that some huge bear in the Yosemite mountains is very cosy, roaming around, parading in my warmest trouper hat!

Julie – Sydney

Definitely a memorable holiday to Spain.

Our Spain and Portugal trip we booked through you was absolutely amazing. The highlight for us was visiting The Alhambra, I can’t begin to tell you how beautiful it was and definitely the most memorable experience of our life.

Jim & Meg – Bowral

The one I have chose to recount is probably the one that is on everyone’s bucket list and that is our trip to Tahiti staying in an overwater bungalow. Can it get any better? Rhetorical question because the answer is definitely no!! I have also attached some photos but of course they are really insufficient for the purposes of describing our experience. This one began with flights to Tahiti via Auckland and then staying overnight in a fabulous resort on Papeete before crossing the strait the next day to the island of Moorea. After checking in we were escorted to our bungalow. The very sight of it literally took my breathe away. Once we entered it, it truly was heaven, with a glass table that let you watch the fish swim under the unit, to the outside deck that let you dive deeply into the warm and clear waters of the lagoon and the super comfortable king size bed where one could relax after a full day of sightseeing, fabulous dinning and watching the most fantastic sunsets imaginable. Soon it was time to do something I never thought I would, and that was to ride a jet ski over to a separate part of the island and swim with the sting rays and reef sharks. I wish i could describe the sensation we felt doing this but I can’t. It was simply an out of this world experience. One I shall never forget. Tahiti, being French Polynesia gave us the chance to speak a little of our high school French and at night sample some truly delicious and authentic French cuisine. The resort itself was just wonderful with 3 different dining options, an infinity pool, canoes and other water equipment and evening entertainment that included Polynesian music and dancers. So much packed into such a short time but in my opinion just a sampler to tempt me back. I will succumb.

Thank you for letting me recall this most wonderful of trips and I look forward to booking a trip again very soon through Merran at TravelManagers.

Jacquie – Canberra

When English is the only language you speak!

My favourite travel story is borrowed from Michael…
Visiting Germany, he parked his car and diligently took a picture of the street sign to ensure he could find his way back later…

Leslie – Gold Coast

A wonderful holiday with friends at the Amalfi Coast, Italy.

This is Lyn her husband Charlie my husband Glenn and myself. This was in the garden restaurant in our beautiful hotel in Sorrento we met each other there and were so excited to spend our holidays together.

Raelyne & Michael – Portland, Victoria

The Amalfi Coast, a favourite for many travellers.

Atrani (on the Amalfi coast) – watching the sun rise, hearing the church bells and the sound of the waves from our little house every morning was just amazing and then we would have breakfast in the garden and listening to the sounds of the Italian neighbourhood waking up around us (just thinking about it I want to go back).

Manu & Leigh – Sydney

Travelling before starting a family.

One of my favourite travel story was a road trip around Corsica with Leigh, before Adeline was born. It started with a laugh, continued with glamour, there was surprises, adventures, unexpected and magical moments along the way…

John & Jenny – Canberra

Luxury in the South Pacific.

We went to the private island in Fiji after a rather disastrous start with the flight on Qantas eventually being cancelled and we were put on a later Fiji Airways flight, causing us to miss the connection. The Royal Davui Island was nice and the food exceptional. The Staff were brilliant, and our unit was overlooking the water. From our balcony we could see baby sharks circling he island. Apparently, it is a shark kindergarten. I saw one up close when snorkelling in the shallows. Jenny went on a more daring snorkelling expedition and saw a huge shark.
We had a very relaxing time and only exerted me once by trying to scale a hill which was almost vertical. This old bloke got about ¾ the way up and said “Yeah… Nah” . Recommend Bati Rum liqueur – fantastic. I got to play guitar with one of the staff who was entertaining the guests. Only 16 villas on the Island.

Anne-Marie – Beaconsfield, Victoria

Oh the joys of the The wonderful natural beauty of both Kangaroo Valley NSW( the escapement particularly) and the Dargo RiverVictoria. Both of these destinations come with some wonderful memories of happy family time whilst enjoying the wonders of nature in these two destinations.

Tom & Elaine – Wollongong

We will cruise again!

We flew to Tokyo May 2019 to join Queen Elizabeth on a 28 day cruise from Japan to Vancouver.

There were lots of Highlights but the bus trip at Icy Straight Point to hunt for bears was exciting as it was the beginning of the season and we saw 3 Bears, 2 were in the bush a short distance away which was disappointing at the time, after all the excitement we hopped back on the bus and only 5 minutes down the road the driver yelled “BEAR” there he was slowly walking across the road in front of us and into the grass at the side of the bus which had stopped and with excitement in the air and cameras clicking lots of great photos were taken, we just so lucky.