Travel Lifestyle

The "Travel Lifestyle" category is all about enhancing every aspect of your travel experience. From airports and lounges to travel money, tools, and cruises, this section covers it all. Whether you're planning a luxury getaway or a practical trip, you’ll find valuable tips here. Explore articles below on how to elevate your travel lifestyle.

How to avoid Jet Lag

Jet lag comes part and parcel with long-haul travel and for some people can be a major nuisance. This week our members discuss how they try to avoid jet lag when moving between time zones. A popular strategy is to adjust to the local time zone before boarding the aircraft, and trying to sleep accordingly. … Continued

31 Jan 2015 Travel Lifestyle

TripAdvisor: valuable resource or waste of time?

If you travel regularly, the chances are that you’ve used TripAdvisor, one of the world’s largest travel websites. This week our members discuss how they use TripAdvisor, be it for researching hotels, restaurants or otherwise. Many people find the website a particularly valuable resource for finding or checking out hotels as the reviews are from … Continued

Making free calls overseas over WiFi

Using your mobile phone overseas can be an expensive exercise. Phone service providers often charge exorbitant rates. And although some now offer special global roaming packages, they are still generally poor value when you compare them to other options out there. One option to bring down the cost of overseas calls is to buy a … Continued

Getting into a spin over baggage

Our members often muse about baggage, and what makes a good purchase. If you only travel once in a blue moon, spending good cash on a suitcase may not make sense. For instance, if you have looked closely at a Japanese tour group, you will not their baggage often looks similar. That’s because they often … Continued

Finding cheap flights

From time to time, we get inquiries from members struggling to find a cheap flight using points or cash. While the normal online tools, such as Skyscanner etc often work, sometimes they just are not good enough. In this case, it was a flight to South America, which seemed to be coming up very expensive. … Continued

Cairns gets more international flights

While the rest of Queensland enjoys an economy that has until recently done well, things have not been so rosy up north. With what some would say is an over reliance on tourism, the businesses of Cairns and its environs have suffered in recent years. News this week that a new international carrier would soon … Continued

Getting creative with Airline Lounge food

One of the more popular topics to be found on our community discussion board is anything to do with food or wine. The way to a frequent flyer’s heart does appear to be via the stomach. While the inflight choices may be limited, our members also often spend a lot of their time in airline … Continued

Goodbye to the Australia Network

For many years it has been a sight for sore eyes. Whether you travel for pleasure or for business, it’s always been a welcome addition to a hotel’s TV programming. We are talking about the Australia Network, a cable TV channel mainly offered in Asia that featured the best (and sometimes the worst) shows from … Continued

The loving and loathing of passport stamps

For some time now, Australia and New Zealand authorities have not stamped the passports of residents when they travel overseas. If you are a frequent traveller, a passport can soon start to fill with all those stamps. Often that means an expensive replacement well before the expiry of the original passport. While the move does … Continued

20 Sep 2014 Travel Lifestyle

When Duty Free is Gold

Airports are mistakenly thought by many to be there to service the airlines and its travellers. While that may have been the case up until late last century, the privatisation of the major airports has seen a quantum change in the focus of many airports. Thanks to their slightly different planning laws that generally are … Continued

Work in Iraq: Invaluable opportunity or lunacy?

Faced with the prospect of being relocated to Iraq for work, one member seeks advice as to whether this is a wise idea. Our member “Yo Yo Ma” seeks our other member’s views, ideas, and opinions. A resounding “No” can be heard throughout the forum when answering the query about relocation. Most members feel that … Continued

11 Sep 2014 Travel Lifestyle

When fashion means trouble!

If you don’t travel overseas often you might not realise that sometimes it is the little things that can make a lot of difference. It might be the simple gesture of a handshake with the wrong hand offered causing offence. Or it could be the action of taking photos of the local females going about … Continued