It List: The Best New Hotels 2011 | Travel + Leisure
From a pioneering farmstead in South Africa to a sexy Manhattan skyscraper, these are the year’s best new hotels.
Photo: Saffire Freycinet | Tasmania
Photo of the Day | The Twelve Apostles | Victoria, Australia
Photo by Neil Creek via ysvoice
Source: ysvoice
Hottest Travel Destinations of 2011 | Travel + Leisure
The magazine highlights Lhasa (Tibet), Kimberly (Australia), Zambia, and San Miguel de Allende (Mexico).
Top 10 Cities for 2011 | Lonely Planet
Hey, another totally arbitrary list of places to visit in 2011! Must be that time of year. A pretty wide range of cities are offered up by Lonely Planet, but my favorite is Newcastle, Australia, if for no other reason than because of the response it receives from readers in the comment section. Lonely Planet says of the Australian city:
Is it Australia’s most underrated city? Anyone surprised to see Newcastle on the list of 2011′s hottest cities (and there’s a few of you, right?) probably hasn’t pulled in off the Pacific Highway, or at least not for a while. Newcastle flies under the radar of Aussies and international travellers in part because it’s overshadowed by its bigger, bolder and better-known sibling, Sydney, 150km south. But, at around one-tenth the size, Australia’s second-oldest city has Sydney-like assets: surf beaches, a sun-drenched subtropical climate, and diverse dining, nightlife and arts. Not only is Newcastle ideally located just two hours by road or rail or 30 minutes by plane or seaplane from Sydney, it’s less than an hour’s drive west to the Hunter Valley wineries, south to sailboat-filled Lake Macquarie, north to whale-watching and sharkfeeding at Port Stephens and to sandboarding at Stockton Beach (the southern end of the 32km-long beach is a five-minute ferry ride across Newcastle’s harbour).
Sounds great, no? And maybe it is; I have no idea. But it’s not all that if my favorite comment (from dbetros) is to be believed:
Obviously the writer got laid in Newcastle. The place is a dump.
The 10 Best Beach Holidays | Conde Nast Traveller
Speaking of beaches, Conde Nast Traveller* has a much more reasonable list of tropical locales to consider when spending your vacation time and dollar. If you’re thinking about an escape and don’t want to worry yourself with checking off some arbitrary bucket list, they’ve got you covered from Tasmania to Thailand.
Photo: Birkenhead House | Hermanus, South Africa
* Incidentally, that extra “l” in Traveller denotes the UK version of the publication.
Photo of the Day | Maria Island | Tasmania, Australia
Source: flickr.com
Source: Flickr / aga76
10 Best Adventures in South Australia's Outback | Frommer's
Lately I’ve been daydreaming about pulling up stakes and just sort of wandering around Australia. It’s mainly because I’ve never been, and I enjoy fantasizing about getting lost in unknown lands. Next week, it’ll probably be somewhere else. Like Jordan or Micronesia or one of those vaguely sinister sounding Russian territories on an old Risk board. But if I ever do meander off to the Outback, this article from Frommer’s seems a useful starter’s guide.
