Paul Harding

As Aussies, we love Bali, and whilst love for it hasn’t changed over the years, Bali has.
Yes, you can still find budget losmen (local guesthouses) and old-school hotels in Bali, but now they sit alongside boutique hotels and luxurious resorts bigger than some Balinese villages. Deciding where to stay is a whole adventure – Bali’s neighbourhoods are all super different.
Let’s get into it!
Choose your tribe…and vibe
WHERE TO STAY IN BALI
Bali has a beach (or inland) scene and a wide range of h...

Travelling in Bali can be a lot of fun, especially once you get away from the main tourist areas.
But it can be busy too – traffic gets heavy around Denpasar and the Kuta-Canggu beach strip, as well as on the narrow country roads to Ubud. And while Bali looks small on a map, you will still need to know how to get around. Here’s how.
Apps for the road
Smartphone apps like Google Maps work fine in Bali if you have data or Wi-Fi on your phone. A good traffic-based free app is Waze, which provide...

Beautiful beaches, wonderful waves, dense jungle. Bali is a paradise for nature lovers and a haven for outdoors enthusiasts.
Exploring the natural side of Bali is the perfect tonic to boost your wellbeing. We’re talking jungle hikes, cycling tours and treks up active volcanoes. Yes, we said active. Let’s check out the best outdoor activities in Bali.
Take a walk on the wild side.
When to go
DRY OR RAINY – IT’S UP TO YOU
Visit in the dry season from April to September and Bali is your playgrou...

Surfing in Bali is spectacular. The waves, the beach, the surfers. It has it all. And it’s a year-round swell machine – you can catch a wave whenever you hit Bali.
Kuta Beach, is widely regarded as the birthplace of surfing in Southeast Asia. Surfers have been surfing it as far back as the 1930s. Today the world-class surf breaks of southern Bali are still the most popular in Indonesia and can get crowded at times. Beginners, intermediates, advanced old hands, and pros alike can easily combin...

If you have ever dreamt of spending a night on a kettuvallum (rice barge) houseboat, cruising the backwaters while an on-board chef prepares fresh barbecued fish or a succulent Keralan curry, you’ve already got the Kerala bug. But there’s a whole other Kerala lying north of Kochi that is only just starting to capture travellers’ imaginations.
The beaches, backwaters and wildlife sanctuaries in the southern half of the state are now established stops on the traveller trail, but those in the kn...

Contemplating spending Christmas in India? With a hot and tropical climate during December, India’s premier beaches, a famous party culture, and a Christian population that celebrates the Christmas season with feasting and festivities, Goa should be high on your list of winter travel destinations. Here’s our guide to spending the festive December period in Goa.

Why Christmas in Goa?

India’s smallest state draws big crowds during the Christmas-New Year period, who come for Goa's unique take on...

At the western edge of the ‘Pacific Rim of Fire’ Vanuatu is a land of rumbling active volcanoes, 80-plus lush islands, fringed with deserted beaches, and a fascinating ancient culture where the majority of the population still lives a village lifestyle. There is much to experience and explore here and your timing is perfect, with the country largely recovered after Cyclone Pam blew through in March 2015.
Many visitors come to Vanuatu by cruise ship or resort holiday, jumping off in Port Vila ...

Pocket-sized Belize may be small in area (second only to El Salvador among Central American nations) but it’s big on adventure. Whether you wish to be Indiana Jones for a day and explore mysterious ancient sites or strap into a fast-paced zipline harness to get your heart racing, the Cayo District is Belize’s undisputed inland adventure hotspot.
If you can drag yourself away from the reef and the dazzling cayes off Belize’s Caribbean coast, Cayo District rewards you with the opportunity to de...

Dusting off dinosaur bones in the remote Australian outback may not be everyone’s idea of a holiday, but for amateur palaeontologists, forensically-minded fossil finders and dinosaur lovers the world over, this is the mother lode.

Most of us have had at least a fleeting fascination with dinosaurs. The Jurassic Park films (1993) made more than $2 billion in cinemas and the latest movie instalment, Jurassic World (2015), is set to make box office (pre)history. But where do you go to find real d...

Writers
Paul Harding, Brett Atkinson, Andrew Bain, Cristian Bonetto, Samantha Forge, Anthony Ham, Trent Holden, Anita Isalska,
Anna Kaminski, Tatyana Leonov, Virginia Maxwell, Hugh McNaughtan, Kate Morgan, Charles Rawlings-Way, Andy Symington, Steve Waters