1. Fresh oysters and champagne for breakfast: Coles Bay, Tas

Imagine standing knee-deep in a stunning wetland sipping champagne and tasting prized Pacific Ocean oysters. Guests at Saffire-Freycinet can opt to don a pair of waders and do just that. Have a go at shucking and gain an understanding of the local ecology. But if oysters aren’t your thing there’s a bevy of other experiences where you can wine and dine – learn the art of winemaking, watch a cooking demonstration or join a mixology cocktail class. And, with contemporary furnishings, generous views, plush bedding, locally-sourced gourmet cuisine and a delicious spa menu, if you just want to hibernate inside for the weekend, we don’t blame you.

Location: Saffire-Freycinet is just over two hours from Hobart. 2532 Coles Bay Road, Coles Bay; 03 6256 7888; saffire-freycinet.com.au

Details: From $1350 per night (oyster farm visit complimentary).

2. From French bubbles to natural springs: Mornington Peninsula, Vic

Tussie Mussie is a Pinot Noir and Pinot Gris vineyard with beautiful boutique accommodation hidden up a long driveway flanked by olive trees and vines. Spend two nights in The Old Laundry wrapped in luxe sheets, or by the cosy wood burner, and enjoy the local produce. An iced bottle of French champagne will greet you on arrival, followed by a gourmet breakfast basket each morning, then indulge in a three-course dinner with matching wine at the hatted Lé Patanque French Restaurant. A double pass to the Peninsula Hot Springs will give your palate a rest… for a couple of hours anyway.

Location: Tussie Mussie Vineyard Retreat is located one hour from Melbourne. 206 Bittern-Dromana Road, Merricks North, Victoria; 0408 976 410; tussiemussie.boutiqueretreats.com.au

Details: The Le Weekend Package from $1500 per couple.

3. Sauerkraut, chocolate and wine… oh my: Hahndorf, SA

Australia’s oldest living German settlement, Hahndorf, is a quaint village located in the Adelaide Hills. The town retains its German heritage with many historic ‘Fachwerk’ buildings (with traditional German timber frames) lining the main street – one in particular is the 1839 German Arms Hotel; a great spot to feast on German fare and a stein of beer. And for a fully indulgent experience, The Manna of Hahndorf, a boutique hotel right in the heart of the town, offers a package including breakfast, a cheese platter and a ChocoVino experience at Hahndorf Hill Winery, where you match wine to chocolate. An extra hole in the belt is probably a necessity by the end of the weekend.

Location: The Manna of Hahndorf is 35 minutes from Adelaide. 25 Main Street, Hahndorf; 08 8388 1000; themanna.com.au

Details: From $425 per couple for two-night accommodation package with breakfast, cheese platter and ChocoVino experience. For information on the German Arms Hotel visit germanarmshotel.com.au

4. Pub grub like no other: Dunkeld, Vic

The Royal Mail Hotel is not your average country pub – this one wears three well-deserved hats. The award-winning tasting plates should definitely have you rethinking pub food. To truly appreciate the first-class cuisine – which is created from local organic produce collected straight from the kitchen garden – the hotel offers a ‘Dine and Unwind’ package that includes a tour of the garden with accommodation, handcrafted chocolate, dinner for two with matching wine, breakfast and a late check-out. And to work it all off, you can explore the many walking trails leading to the nearby Grampians National Park.

Location: The Royal Mail Hotel is 3.5 hours from Melbourne. 98 Parker Street, Dunkeld; 03 5577 2241; royalmail.com.au

Details: Dine and Unwind Package from $945 per couple.

5. Have your own private whisky tasting: Margaret River, WA

The Grove is a winery, distillery, brewery and accommodation all in one. Located in the beautiful Margaret River region, the three simple and self-contained accommodation options come with private jacuzzis and gas log fires; a great option for a get-together with a group of friends. Why not add a private whisky tasting to your stay… set up in the Whisky Room, you will be expertly guided through the one-hour tasting of The Grove’s own whisky and a single malt selected by the The Scotch Malt Whisky Society. Finish off with a freshly roasted coffee – you may need it.

Location: The Grove is three hours from Perth. Corner Metricup and Carter Roads, Wilyabrup, Margaret River; 08 9755 7458; thegrovevineyard.com.au

Details: From $780 for three nights. Private whisky tasting is $110 per person.

6. Follow the Strange Bird: Granite Belt, Qld

For wine tasting with a difference, take the Strange Bird trail in the Granite Belt boutique wine region. The trail is dedicated to alternative grape varieties like Petit Verdot, Viognier and Barbera. To be considered ‘alternative’, a variety must not represent any more than one per cent of the total bearing vines in Australia, according to the Australian Wine and Brandy Corporation, so you know these drops are pretty unique. Located near three of the wineries on the trail (Tobin Wines, Ballandean Estate and Golden Grove) is Azjure Studio Retreat; modern, self-catered accommodation with a beautiful backdrop.

Location: Azjure Studio Retreat is three hours from Brisbane. 165 Sundown Road, Ballandean; azjure.com.au

Details: Azjure Studio Apartments from $320 per night. For information on the wine trail visit granitebeltwinecountry.com.au

7. Hold a dinner party to remember : Bowral, NSW

Always wanted to throw a dinner party but not so sure about the actual cooking part? No worries – the Blue Bowl Brown Sugar Cooking School in Bowral offers experiences where you host a dinner party, and they teach you and your guests how to cook each course. They will help you design a menu and will bring the ingredients and equipment to your chosen venue. As for the venue, we suggest booking out the Seidler House for a weekend: this divine award-winning home overlooks the gorges of Wingecarribee River – but more importantly, boasts a large kitchen and a huge entertaining area with fireplace. Perfect for entertaining.

Location: Seidler House is 1.5 hours from Sydney. contemporaryhotels.com.au/southern-highlands/seidlerhouse

Details: Seidler House from $1500 per night (maximum eight people). Blue Bowl Brown Sugar Dinner Party Cooking Lesson from $160 per person for cooking class (6-12 people, available Saturdays); 0414 855 087; bluebowl.com.au

Celebrity chef – is it a modern-day ‘chicken or the egg’? Once the elusive celebrity factor kicks in, what keeps the juggernaut going – the quality of the food or the celebrity status?

For some, it’s certainly the latter. But here, thankfully, it’s not all catchy jingles or verbal abuse. Although his boundless energy and sweet lisp are a part of his trademark, Jamie Oliver’s reputation rests squarely on the plate.

But to get to the plate, first you have to get through the door.

Whether it’s the personality or the produce, the months of talk swirling around the new Jamie’s Italian inPerth’s CBD have generated an honest-to-goodness foodie frenzy. After finally opening its doors in late March, tables are now booked up months in advance and walk-in wait times are upwards of two hours. So armed with comfy shoes and emergency snacks, my partner and I dutifully take our place in line.

As it turns out, the wait out front isn’t for a table… it is to put our name on the list to get a table. The infinitely patient and impossibly cheerful staff member, assigned to assuage the hungry public, informs us that it will take 30 minutes to get our names on the list, and another 90 minutes for a table (as it turns out, the reservation system can only hold 200 names – hence the lineup – but a system upgrade is underway).

A quick peek into the bar area – a stylish space with dark wood and polished concrete setting off the cool, sea green-tiled splashback behind the bar – and we decide to wait elsewhere. It wasn’t the crowds that made us retreat, it was the moreish-sounding bar snacks.

When you offer up ‘famous’ polenta chips ($8.50), pumpkin and smoked mozzarella nachos ($7) and crispy stuffed risotto balls ($9.50) before dinner, dinner will never happen. But ninety minutes later, our table is ready. A genius design means that though the room is very full, you don’t rub elbows with your neighbours. A large chandelier dominates the centre of the room, but it’s hardly the focal point. In fact it’s hard to find one since there’s so much to look at.

Fresh, golden brown loaves of bread (supplied by a local artisanal baker) are on display in baskets bolted to walls and pillars, while fresh produce, cured meats and lengths of garlic and chilli hang over the antipasto counter at the far end of the room. And though it’s expected, the product placement is surprisingly unobtrusive. But the most eye-catching of all is the army of staff (we lost count at 29) zipping around the floor like cheerful, over-caffeinated bees, adding to the joyous, exuberant vibe in the room.

Generous portions are the norm here and every dish is truly reasonably priced. It’s all a part of Jamie’s cult-like ethos of fresh, inexpensive, good-for-you food. But it makes decision-making difficult, so we lean towards a more-is-more ordering scheme. A complimentary basket of bread (yes, really!) appears as we order and the simple gesture is a clever one. Why did these go out of fashion, again?

There are three ‘planks’ on the antipasto menu – meat, fish and vegetables – that are priced per head. Set atop a couple of tins of diced tomatoes, our vegetable plank ($10 per person) is laden with goodies and stretches the complete length of the table. Tender balls of buffalo mozzarella; olives, caper berries and green chillies; aged pecorino with a smear of just-spicy-enough chilli jam on flat ‘music bread’; a salad of julienned root vegetables with mint and lemon; mini bruschetta; and a dish of marinated and chargrilled seasonal vegetables make for one serious starter.

Aside from the crunchy salad, which is a little on the wet side, each component is bright and punchy with the total effect of a scrummy mix of textures and flavours. To round out the first course, an order of crispy squid with garlicky mayo ($12) has a lovely crisp coating, but that doesn’t disguise its slightly rubbery texture.

Filled with slippery mushrooms and luscious ricotta, the wild mushroom ravioli ($19) is addictive. With all pastas made in-house, the hearty serve of perfectly al dente pasta swims in a meaty mushroom and tomato sauce with just the slightest kick of chilli. A little on the salty side perhaps, but as close to divine as pasta gets.

The creamy blue swimmer crab risotto ($26.50) is equally good. Instead of delicate slivers of crab flaked over the top, big hunks of rich meat are swirled throughout. Hits of lemon, chilli and salty, crispy samphire accompany every bite.

While the famous part might be overstating it, the crispy polenta chips are worth the wait. Woody rosemary and salty half-melted parmesan add superb flavour and unami to every bite – although a touch more rosemary would have made them perfect.

Despite our full bellies, it doesn’t seem right to order only one dessert each. As it turns out, too much of a good thing is just the right amount. The tiramisu ($9.50) comes with a twist of coffee-flavoured trifle and orange mascarpone, but works better on paper than on tastebuds. The lemon meringue pie ($8.50) – laced with limoncello, scattered with mint and candied lemon peel, and topped with a crispy pistachio brittle – is just the right balance of crunchy, soft, sweet and slightly acidic.

But the hero of dessert is the warm, gooey chocolate brownie ($9). A burst of amaretto contrasts nicely with tart raspberries and smooth vanilla ice-cream. Suffice to say, next time there will be only one dessert on the table.

And there will be a next time. Although the famous name might bring the hordes in initially, it’s the food that will keep them coming back.

The details

The verdict: It’s exactly what you would expect from Jamie Oliver – fresh, enthusiastic, youthful and seriously delicious. It doesn’t have a restaurant chain feel, which is impressive.

The score: 16/20; great

We rated: The value-for-money portions and quality, and the innovative kids’ menu (the menu is cleverly displayed on a low-tech, immensely fun viewfinder).

We hated: The wait for a table – but this will only be a problem until Perthonians latch onto the Next Big Thing. In the interim, there are plenty of shops and bars nearby to make the wait for a table pass quickly.

Where:140 William Street,Perth,WA (in the CBD, next to the Perth underground train station).

Contact: (08) 9363 8600; jamieoliver.com/Italian/Australia/perth

The AT scoring system: Our review scores are based on a series of points, awarded across a number of categories including service, amenities, design, location, value, food and beverage offerings, and that elusive wow factor. 19-20 exceptional; 17-18 excellent; 15-16 great; 13-14 good; 11-12 satisfactory. Bias free: All AT reviews are conducted anonymously, and our writers pay their own way – so we experience exactly what you would.

The modern Indian menu also comes with a selection of matching wines by head sommelier (and 2013 The Age Good Food Guide Sommelier of the Year) Travis Howe.

Executive chef duties are taken up by Adam D’Sylva and Michael Smith is head chef.

See tonkarestaurant.com.au

Tune Hotels, with links to AirAsia (and AirAsia X), has released a $49 promotional rate for its property in Carlton, Melbourne, due to be opened in November this year. The hotel will serve as the company’s operational headquarters for the Australian and New Zealand.

“The next city in Australia that we are in seriously involved in is Sydney,” said a Tune spokeswoman.

“We are also exploring opportunities in other key Australian cities and our sister company, AirAsia X, already flies into Melbourne, Sydney, Gold Coast, Perth and hopefully soon Adelaide.”

After the promotional rate finishes, standard double rooms will be priced from around $65.

For more information see www.tunehotels.com

The new train is the fifth since the Hammon family opened the attraction in 1945. The railway, which descends 310 metres into the Jamison Valley in Sydney’s Blue Mountains, has carried around 25 million passengers during that time.

There is the choice of the 64-degrees-incline ‘Cliffhanger’ ride or the ‘original’ 52 degrees.

And yes, it still holds the world record for steepest railway.

See scenicworld.com.au

I am in love! Her name is ‘Bimbadeen’ and she is a wheelchair-accessible property in Merimbula on New South Wales’ Sapphire Coast.

Bimbadeen is an Aboriginal word meaning ‘beautiful views’. And, for the first time, I was not forced to choose between a nice view and accessible accommodation.

It is a two-bedroom, self-contained apartment complete with kitchen, living room, laundry and bathroom, all fully wheelchair-accessible.

Unlike many so-called wheelchair-friendly accommodations, there are no slap-dash modifications here; the apartment was designed by Australia’s leading disability access architect, Harry Sprintz, and built with unerring attention to detail: durable, easy-to-clean bamboo flooring, textured paint and strong walls that can cope with additional bumps from wheelchairs.

On arrival, we were greeted by the owner, Alex Cochran, who showed us around and provided us with all manner of local knowledge.

First order of the day for my family is to choose our beds for the night. The first bedroom has two single beds, one of which is a hospital-type bed with a hoist. My husband and son decided to claim that as the boys’ room, leaving me with the luxurious solitude of the queen bed and a lovely view of the garden and lake.

The fully equipped kitchen and laundry (complete with extra toilet and basin) have quality appliances fitted at heights suitable for easy access – not that I had any intention of doing laundry while on holiday.

The bathroom is an absolute joy for wheelies, with slip-resistant vinyl flooring, stainless-steel grab rails and bars, soap dispensers, heated ladder towels, a huge shower with a gutter drain and even a portable shower/commode chair.

Everything about Bimbadeen is smart, including the apartment’s lighting system; from the bed, I could reach a control panel that allowed me to activate the bedroom, patio, bathroom and reading lights and even turn them all off at once by pressing the ‘goodnight’ button.

My husband and son headed out for a visit to Magic Mountain, just a short drive away. While not as large as some similar fun parks, there were enough rides and slides to keep them both amused for a few hours, with very few queues.

Bimbadeen is in a quiet, suburban street but on the flip side, you will need a vehicle to drive the short distance down the hill into town – unless you are a wheelie with some serious upper body and arm strength (and a daredevil attitude) there really is no option. Fortunately the driveway is level and wide so loading and unloading a wheelchair is no problem.

We tried a number of Alex’s suggestions for eating out and were extremely happy with his recommendations, particularly the Waterfront Café, open for breakfast, lunch and, seasonally, for dinner. We are all book lovers and my husband enjoys good coffee so Booktique, which combines both, became another favourite.

I was able to get my wheelchair into most places around town that I wanted to look at. Merimbula’s main street is quite level at one end and then rises up the hill, which is no problem for a motorised wheelchair or a manual wheelchair with a carer to push, but could be a little challenging if you are self-propelled.

My husband and son had fun at Bar Beach, a few minutes’ drive from town, where they body surfed on the outgoing tide, followed by snacks and drinks at the popular Bar Beach Kiosk. The owners aim to provide coffee and food that would be at home in a lane-way cafe in Melbourne.

Despite some overcast weather, we were all able to enjoy the Merimbula Boardwalk, which runs for 3.4 kilometres beside the lake and provides signs about the local marine life and vegetation. The slatted timbers of the boardwalk were fine for my wheelchair, but again, we needed the car to make it to the start of the walk.

After waking to the delightful calls of the bellbirds each morning, then getting ready in comfort and ease before heading out each day, Bimbadeen instantly jumped to the top of my list of favourite places to stay.

It will be the standard by which I judge all future properties and should be viewed by the entire travel sector as a shining example of what accessible accommodation is truly all about.

St Ali Roasters, South Melbourne

Here customers can sip house-roasted coffee by 2013 Australian Barista Champion, Matt Perger. There’s also a healthy all-day menu to sink your teeth into, while their factory across the road runs workshops from roasting to latte art. stali.com.au

Campos Coffee, Newtown, Sydney

Campos made headlines when a New York Times journalist declared their coffee was worth the 22-hour flight. Now the flagship store includes an espresso bar downstairs and a cupping room upstairs, where you can sample various brews and pick up a bag of your favourite. camposcoffee.com

Merlo Coffee, Bowen Hills, Brisbane

Coffee roasting has long been in the Merlo family with the founder’s father, Gino Merlo, reportedly bringing the first espresso machine to Queensland in the 1950s. Merlo now has five torre faziones (Italian for coffee roasting house), but at Bowen Hills coffee-lovers can pick up a fresh brew, snacks and tour the factory too. merlo.com.au

Seven Seeds, Carlton, Melbourne

Named after the cargo that Baba Budan smuggled out of Yemen and into India in the 1600s, Seven Seeds is situated in a converted warehouse in the CBD. As well as a tasty day menu, the café offers free cupping sessions and DIY tools from brewing systems to milk jugs. sevenseeds.com.au

Ristretto, Northbridge, Perth

Among Ristretto’s three Perth cafés is the newly opened roasting lab in Northbridge. There they run a hole-in-the-wall coffee bar down a laneway, where customers can see the roasting process taking place behind expert baristas. ristretto.com.au

The iPad mini is what the original iPad should have always been. And I can say this without any equivocation. I can’t see myself returning to the original (big) iPad.

Why?

Size:

I don’t know what to say, but the iPad mini is more ergonomic than the original iPad. Which I will now refer to as the ‘maxi’. But compared to the mini it’s cumbersome and big. Plenty others disagree and love the size of their iPads. Some people even go to the trouble of setting up blue tooth keyboards.  But by the time you set all that up, why not use a laptop?

The idea of the tablet computer after all is portability. And, in the case of Australian Traveller, how suitable it is for travelling. And in that regard the iPad mini is excellent.

The iPad mini is the perfect size for throwing in a bag. Any bag. Any time. After a while it becomes a bit of a competition with yourself…

Could I possibly fit my iPad into this already impossibly small camera bag along with memory cards and a notepad? No worries.

What about that little pocket on the outside of a laptop bag or almost any piece of overhead luggage? No worries.

Surely it doesn’t fit in the document pouch of this moleskine notebook that’s isn’t even the size of an A4 page? No worries.

In the portability stakes the iPad mini wins hands down. It will almost fit in a pocket, but it will fit in almost ANY bag without many problems. And when travelling, portability is everything.

Typing

Oddly enough, it is easier to type on the iPad mini than it is on the full size ipad. It sounds weird, but you can use the keyboard like you are using an oversize iPhone. Typing feels more like texting. And because it’s that little bit smaller, it’s easier on your wrists meaning you can type on it for an extended period of time.

Conventional wisdom has become that the iPad is a contention consumption device and not a content creation device. For instance, this article has been entirely written on an iPad mini. The image at the top of the article was done on a desktop computer. Not because you can’t do that on an iPad. It’s just easier to do photo editing on a desktop PC. But the point is you can create content on the iPad.

But load yourself up with a basic apple app like pages and give it a go. You will be pleasantly surprised.

Reading

This is where the ipad truly shines. Because of its size, the mini is great to read books on. Trying to read a book on the old iPad maxi just feels awkward now. It just doesn’t feel right. It feels top heavy. On a long haul flight the mini is so much more enjoyable to read for an extended period.

There are now plenty of great books available from iTunes. In the past Amazon was a better bet to purchase your books on but the pricing between the two seems to be reaching some sort of parity. However, the fact that your books purchased from iTunes are in Apples proprietary format is concerning.

The world of apps

We don’t need to tell you about all the great apps for travel, but apps work beautifully on the iPad mini. As time progresses, these apps will only get better and better. For instance, some camera manufacturers offer wi-fi in the camera, so it can talk to the ipad. You can then sort, delete or move the images on the cameras card from your iPad. Some will even mirror the screen on the back of the camera and let you control the camera using the iPad! These amazing implementations of already existing technology are sure to continue and the iPad mini will be great for these types of apps.

Drawbacks

Many of the issues with the iPad mini stem from the Apple iOS operating system rather than the device itself. And the problem is 3G, wi-fi and the iCloud in general. As apps move to become service based, they are relying on a constant internet connection. And when travelling in Australia or overseas that can be a bit of a joke.

The problem is developers develop their apps in an environment with strong wi-fi and 3G signals. They also have extravagant data allowances. Americans, for instance, are still coming to terms with the concept of download limits on their broadband connections! The upshot of this has been a proliferation of “cloud” based services. And in outback Australia the concept of clouds only applies to rainfall. And that, like 3G and wi-fi access, hardly ever happens.

So Dropbox doesn’t really work well when travelling. Evernote won’t work unless you upgrade to premium. TripIt won’t open properly without trying to call back to it’s mothership. And the list goes on. Hell, Apple even have their own iCloud now! As it becomes more of an issue, I am sure the problem will be resolved. But for now, there will be frustrating times when apps simply won’t work correctly because there is no signal.

Which one to buy?

Get the mini. The good news is you don’t need the 3G models. You don’t need to be paying for an internet connection with an expensive 3G sim card dedicated to your iPad. The smart thing to do is upgrade the data plan on your phone and pair it with your iPad. And when you are travelling, you can use the hotel, Starbucks and McDonald’s wi-fi.

Unfortunately, that only covers your travel in the western world.

A survey has revealed that the elevator is the most common initial hook-up spot for singles during a hotel-based wedding.

In second comes the relative seclusion of the conference room, followed by late-night favourite the pool.

About three quarters of single respondents to travel-dating site MissTravel.com’s poll said they had hooked up somewhere besides the hotel room.

Sixty-seven per cent admitted to getting together even before the cake was cut, presumably when it is done at the end of the evening.

“Attending a wedding alone means two things for singles: open bar and an all day reminder that you’re still single,” says Brandon Wade of MissTravel.com.

“But many seize this opportunity to find a new connection, with a like-minded single who is more receptive to finding a new love interest, even if just for the night.”

One in three said they have taken the hook-up through to its ultimate conclusion.

We’re told plans are underway to grow the Tiger fleet of 11 to 23 by 2018.

Watch this space. See tigerairways.com