CAMPING HOLIDAYS

Personal butlers. Five-star dining. Drink umbrellas. There are a trillion-and-one ways to define luxury, but sometimes the best things in life are the simplest. Like when you find yourself alone on a beautiful beach. Or accidentally falling asleep in a hammock. Or when you’re so far into holiday mode, that you find yourself wandering around with no shoes on. And no make-up on. And maybe even no pants on. With all that in mind, we’ve scoured the country for nature’s most luxurious spots: hidden hideaways and picture-perfect retreats just begging for you to pitch a tent in, boil the billy...

The traditional family camping trip: bonding experience or blinding headache? Does it build character or breed contempt? Dorian Mode heads to the Snowy Mountains to find out. “Unfortunately we’re full. But you could try camping down the road at the human hovel.” I stared at the phone. “Sorry, did you say the human hovel?” “Yes.” “You’re suggesting I camp at the human hovel.” “Correct.” “Is it popular?” “Very,” she sighed. “The human hovel?” “Yes.” She was becoming annoyed. "Is it busy at the moment?” “No.” Surprise, I thought. “So, you’d recommend the human hovel?” “I’m sure you’d find it suitable.”  Now,...

 Heidi Gill gets back to basics in Kakadu and finds there's nothings better... I wake up covered in sweat and engulfed in humid tent air. Ah, this feels good – like being on a health retreat but cheaper. The air is not so muggy outside, instead I am greeted by the sparkling orange yellow sun and the beautiful orange sand that Australia’s Outback is known for. A slight breeze tickles the sparse eucalypts - I breathe it in. I head to the ‘shower’, which is water I bucket over myself from a single bore water tap. Nothing has ever felt...

Living proof that great views and comfortable lodgings need not cost the earth, here’s a selection of AT’s favourite holiday and caravan parks in Australia . . . Conjola Lakeside Van Park From the decks of brightly painted cabins, sprawling lawns extend to tree-shrouded Lake Conjola on the NSW South Coast. Self-contained cabins have TVs, DVDs and kitchen facilities, with a golf course and bowling club nearby and cattle grazing on the hills adjacent. The hosts are local, and a great source of info on the best of the region’s national parklands. From $26-$250, www.big4.com.au   Boathaven Holiday Park Albury-Wodonga...

Sydney-based author and satirist Brendan Shanahan is a self-confessed man of the city. So, in the name of short-break research, AT asked him to set off on a camping trip – without leaving the city limits. His experience has shown that to expand your horizons, you don’t necessarily need to cross one. Since my first experience in a tent at age 12, protected only by a thin Mr Man sleeping bag which was to prove as futile a defence against the Canberra winter night as it was to the merciless mockery and beatings of my classmates, camping and I have...

Many of today’s caravan parks are eco-friendly, plonked on some of the best coastal or inland real estate in the country, and offer facilities bordering on resort-level quality. As an option for travellers on a budget, they are not to be mocked. Here’s AT’s pick of the parks that are doing it properly. By Kate McKinlay. New South Wales  Blue Dolphin Holiday Resort, Yamba Yamba, known to most as a quaint fishing village and surf spot, is becoming famous for its caravan park. Topping most travellers’ lists as the ultimate caravan park to spend a family holiday, the Blue Dolphin...

With holidaying 1960s style back in vogue, Susan Hall discovers that it has somehow become cool to tow a vintage caravan behind your old Holden. Time Machines With holidaying 1960s style back in vogue, Susan Hall discovers that it has somehow become cool to tow a vintage caravan behind your old Holden.  Every year for one weekend in October, the seaside camping ground at the small town of Coledale near Wollongong, NSW, becomes a living museum. Most of the campsites are booked out weeks in advance by a group of vintage caravanners. They recreate an iconic scene from the past...

Come Camp with BIG4 is a free camping night that will be held nationally with campers camping out at national BIG4 Holiday Parks Something For Nothing  BIG4 has proved that the best things in life really are free. So grab the family for some free camping and fun this November with Come Camp with BIG4.  Camping enthusiasts, it’s time to grab your tent and sleeping bag and prepare for the biggest night of free camping -- the 2008 Come Camp with BIG4. Thousands of campers will swarm to over 150 BIG4 Holiday Parks around the country on Friday, November 7....

The longest of Australian Traveller's epic burshwalks, the Heysen Trail is named after Australia's most famous euculyptus admirer and painter. The trail’s best sections are its bookends: the northernmost 60km between Parachilna Gorge and Wilpena Pound Resort, and the southernmost 60km between Cape Jervis and the holiday town of Victor Harbor. The longest and most committing of the four routes is SA’s Heysen Trail, stretching 1200km from Cape Jervis, south of Adelaide, to Parachilna Gorge in the Northern Flinders Ranges. Constructed throughout the 1970s and 1980s, it takes its name from Sir Hans Heysen, the artist whose paintings so popularised...

A humorous insight into the world of caravanning for beginners. Top Ten Tips for Caravanning    Thinking of joining the ever-increasing number of Aussies hitting the open road with a caravan in tow? Here, then, are the Top Ten things you should know before pulling into your first tourist park*. *By Emma Siossian, currently in a very small caravan somewhere on the big lap around Australia.  1. THERE’S NO SUCH THING AS SLEEPING IN People in caravan parks like to rise early. They have places to be and they need to get there ASAP. I know, I know, they’re on...

Australian Traveller looks at the country's most extravagant and expensive Bush Palace campsites. Bush Palaces If you want to take your hairdryer and don’t want to fashion a peg out of some twigs when you camp, then lucky you’re in Australia. Blessed be the campers and credit cards that get you to these luxury sites . . . 1. Longitude 131 (NT) It’s the granddaddy of stylish camping. Perched on a ridge overlooking Uluru, you can sit in your king-sized bed beneath the ubiquitous “crisp white linen sheets” and watch the colour show as the sun rises and sets over The...

AT endeavours to conclude which is roomier, faster and ultimately better in the ultimate road test. Winnebago Vs Maerati It’s on. Which is faster? Which is better? Which is roomier and has far more cupboards? All is revealed in AT’s ultimate road test. Holidaying in a rented Winnebago is like taking your lounge room for a drive. Presuming your lounge room also has a shower, toilet, stove, sink, fridge, a couple of beds and gigantic wing mirrors. You can pull over literally any time you want for a cup of tea, a sandwich and a game of Scrabble. You’ve got...

It may be sleeping in a swag, gazing at a billion stars. It may be spending a week learning to be a jackaroo. It may be attending an Outback rodeo - jeans, boots and belt buckle included. It may be sitting on the bank of an Outback dam, fishing for yabbies, cold beer in hand, or visiting a series of working homesteads, meeting the people who work on Australia’s land. “Messy, inconvenient, dirty, ants, grit in your food, rock-hard ground, no powerpoints, no email . . . this is how Australia started. A refreshing, clarifying, levelling week.” - John Borthwick...