FAMILY HOLIDAYS

 Escape with the family to one of these five destinations. By Alissa Jenkins FRUITY ESCAPE, QLD Where? // Rossmount Rural Retreat is two hours north of Brisbane. Why? // This 35-acre exotic fruit farm has numerous bush trails to explore, fresh tropical fruit to pick, and native wildlife to spy on (including a resident platypus). There’s a lake that’s great for swimming, fishing and canoeing, while a 20-minute drive will take you to Tin Can Bay, where you can feed dolphins. How much? // Two-bedroom suites from $130 per night. rossmountruralretreat.com.au HANDS-ON FARM STAY, SA Where? // Narnu Farm is...

Overnight stays at zoos are becoming popular for humans, too. Laura Boness finds out why... A panic button is not a feature of most hotel bathrooms. But this bathroom is in a canvas lodge close to African savannah and sharp-clawed carnivores. It’s 2pm and we’ve just checked into the Zoofari Lodges at Western Plains Zoo in Dubbo. These African-style lodges are located at the back of the zoo, offering visitors the chance to stay overnight and go behind the scenes with some of the keepers. Actually booking our stay at the lodges proved to be a challenge. Using the online...

Make life easy and think like a kid on your next school holiday, writes Sydney father of two Jeremy Chunn. School friends of my two kids, age 7 and 10, have been to Los Angeles, Aspen, Rome and Paris, and I pity them because, when you’re that age, Paris is, like, very boring. Stuck for a new way to thrill my two for a whole week during the last school holidays, I figured I’d try to think like a kid thunk. If long trips can be excruciating, make the journeys short. If a whole week in one place can be...

Where is it? Freshwater lakes and rivers on the eastern side of the Great Dividing Range. They’re elusive critters, these monotremes, so it’s not easy to spot a platypus in the wild. Good spotting spots include the southern Blue Mountains of NSW, Eungalla National Park near Mackay in Queensland, and the Warrawong Earth Sanctuary in the Adelaide Hills. Lonely Planet’s Tony Wheeler says his most rewarding platypus-spotting experiences have been in Tasmania. The best time of day to spot one is after dawn and dusk, when they are at their most active....

 Where is it? 140km south-east of Melbourne, Vic. They spend their days at sea, so you don’t often get to see these cute little creatures up close, doing penguiny things like grooming their blue feathers, socialising and stretching to their (maximum) 33cm height. “I did this with my grandparents when I was little, and the memory still makes me smile. A great family experience.”  Elisabeth Knowles Phillip Island is one of the best places to observe their nightly return to their burrows on shore. Watch from a special stand as, one by one, the penguins pop up in the surf,...

Experience No.011 in Australian Traveller Magazine's 100 Greatest Australian Gourmet Experiences. She’s Australia’s foodie fairy godmother, and in our books Stephanie Alexander can do no wrong. Proving her right to self-appointed “champion of the quality and diversity” of our nation’s good grub, Stephanie Alexander’s Kitchen Garden Foundation has changed the landscape of the schoolyard forever. Growing, harvesting, preparing, sharing is the motto of this project and hopefully one day a way of life for a new generation. In 2001 Collingwood College’s concrete-slab play area was turned into a bountiful vegetable garden. Corn, carrot, tomatoes and lettuce were brought in alongside...

Ten Things To Do Before You Turn Ten: As a young Australian, there are certain staples you should have ticked off by now. And as a parent, these are the experiences that shape your children, so that hopefully they’ll grow up to be just like you. Only better with computers. By Dorian Mode   1. The World is not enough: Theme Parks Dreamworld is probably the pick-o-the-bunch here for the sole reason that it’s shrewdly aligned itself with Nickelodeon, the TV channel they’re all glued to under the age of ten. At Dreamworld, Junior can enjoy the SpongeBob Square Pants ride...

Dorian Mode writes a feature about exploring Norfolk Island Mutiny of the Budget Jazz pianist by night, culture vulture by day, AT’s Dorian Mode takes his shoestring approach to travel (and his feebly protesting family) to Norfolk Island to fish, play music and rub shoulders with the friendly decedents of the Bounty mutineers. “That’s an awfully small trombone, champion,” the Norfolk Island customs official says, scratching his belly. “Fishing rods,” I smile. For when not penning this Cultural Traveller column for yorlyi (that’s Norfolk patois for “you all”), I am a working pianist (with a “t”) – and I’m here...

 Family holidays for water babies. "Swim with dolphins & see if they’ll talk to us."   For all the Water Babies If your budding marine biologist says he or she wants to swim with the denizens of the deep next holidays, you’re definitely living in the right country. There are literally hundreds of operators out there waiting to take your family out for a face-to-face encounter you’ll not soon forget. And best of all – as three-year-old Sophie from Torrens Park most wishes for – when it comes to dolphins, they will talk to you. Whether you can understand them is another...

AT reviews Australia's leading theme parks for kids "Water-Sisters-Movie-World!"   For Disney seekers It’s inevitable. Once your child hears the words “Disney Land” whispered for the first time, they’ll want to go there as soon as is humanly possible. Sooner, even. And the great thing is there’s no shortage of theme parks in Australia to fill that urgent, urgent need. We present for you a taste of the best known, and some others you may not have heard of. “My best holiday would to go to Water-Sisters-Movie-World. This is a theme park that my friends and I made up. It...

 Weird and wonderful Aussie lodgings that will appeal to both parents and kids "I like pink hotels."   For the lovers of bizarre lodgings There are plenty of weird and wonderful lodgings around the country that appeal to kids. Here we find some perfectly bizarre spaces for the ideal fantasy sleep-over. “Um, swimming in the pool. Um, making sandcastles at the beach. Um, staying in a pink hotel because I like pink hotels and eating lots of breakfast. I want to go with Liam, too.” - Ava, aged 4, Mosman NSW “In a tree house. And there would be a beach...

For family-friendly animal encounters, Australian zoos provide great holidays with kids "They won't eat me, I'm Tuff."   For the Wild Animal Lovers It seems there are hundreds – probably thousands – of kids out there who want nothing more than to roam around in the bush or on a farm, looking under rocks for things that crawl or leap. But if you’re worried about your budding lion-tamer getting on the wrong side of some sharp teeth, there are literally hundreds of places in Australia where the wildlife experience can be had safely. Here’s a wander through some of the...

Take the kids on an adventure holiday across Oz that will fulfil their wildest fantasies. "Meet the real Santa Claus."   For the Adventurous Dreamer For the little ones with their heads in the clouds who want to experience the unheard of, go for it: just close your eyes and conjure up the ultimate. We’ll help you get there. “My best holiday ever would be to go to the North Pole because you could meet the real Santa Claus and have a ride on his sled. I’d get Christmas presents early and see the baby seals and penguins. And that...