This Random Acts of Kindness Day, plan one of these acts for your next holiday and make the world a better place.
On Random Acts of Kindness Day the message is clear: do something today (and every day) that will make someone’s world just a little bit better. And what better time to spread positivity than when you’re on holidays around the country, living your best life?
If you need a little inspiration to provide a ray of sunshine, try one (or all) of these acts of kindness.
1. Pay it forward
There are plenty of easy ways to pay it forward on your holiday, both to locals and to other travellers. Go out for a nice breakfast (as if we need to encourage you) and buy a coffee, or a meal, for the person in line behind you. If your accommodation doesn’t have a laundry and you visit a laundromat for a quick clothes wash, leave a few extra coins around for someone else to use on their wash. If you’re on a road trip, leave a gift voucher for petrol at the petrol pump with a sign for the next car that drives up to use it. You get it, if you can, give it to someone who might not be able to.
Buy someone else a coffee when you grab brekkie. (Image: Thai Liang Lim)
2. Give compliments
When we receive genuine compliments from strangers, that aren’t overstepping or about another human’s body, it has the ability to completely turn a bad day around. Tell someone you love their style, or they parked really well, or maybe they have a delightfully contagious laugh. whatever it is, just make it positive and true.
Just be nice.
3. Share positive feedback
On holiday, we encounter even more customer service professionals than in regular life. As a former customer service worker myself, I can promise you that those professionals have heard just about every complaint there is, but people just really don’t go out of their way to share positive feedback. Time to change that fact. If you get great service at your hotel, a restaurant, while doing a little vacay-shopping – whatever it is, take an extra five minutes to tell them, or their manager or name them in a positive online review.
If someone makes you the best coffee ever, tell them. (Image: Crew)
4. Say ‘hi’ to a stranger
The best thing about being on holiday is all those social walls coming down. I know that I’m definitely about 30 times more open to conversations with strangers the second I leave my home city. Harness that carefree attitude and say hello to a stranger. Who knows, that chat might be their only one for the day.
5. Practice self-kindness
Perhaps the easiest person to show kindness to (in theory), is yourself. And, if you happen to be on holiday, the best time to lean into treating yourself. Book an experience you really love today, whether it be a massage or a long hike. Maybe try writing a gratitude list as well, to really lift your mood. Trust me, they’re easy to do on holidays.
Treat yourself to Australia’s incredible views. (Image: Chris Fuller)
6. Clean up
What better way to give back to the place you chose for your getaway than picking up a few pieces of rubbish and putting them in the bin where they belong? This is especially amazing when you’re in a protected beach or camping area.
Love the beach you’re holidaying on? Take a piece of rubbish away with you. (Image: Niklas Ohlrogge)
7. Leave a big tip
Tipping culture might be growing in Australia, but it’s definitely not common or expected. So maybe give someone an extra treat today whether they served you coffee or cleaned your hotel room.
8. Put your phone away
Speaking of self-kindness, have you ever had a day away from technology? As someone who is very plugged in, I can assure you it’s an incredible feeling. If you can’t put your phone away for the whole day (and if you can’t on holiday, then when can you?), then be sure to put it down when spending time with your fellow travellers and give them your full attention.
Do your loved ones the kindness of putting down your phone. (Image: Dan Gold)
Kassia Byrnes is the Native Content Editor for Australian Traveller and International Traveller. She's come a long way since writing in her diary about family trips to Grandma's. After graduating a BA of Communication from University of Technology Sydney, she has been writing about her travels (and more) professionally for over 10 years for titles like AWOL, News.com.au, Pedestrian.TV, Body + Soul and Punkee. She's addicted to travel but has a terrible sense of direction, so you can usually find her getting lost somewhere new around the world. Luckily, she loves to explore and have new adventures – whether that’s exploring the backstreets, bungee jumping off a bridge or hiking for days. You can follow her adventures on Instagram @probably_kassia.
Slow down and find your rhythm on a Murray River journey through time and place.
Trust is a funny thing. It seems not that long ago that my mother was insisting on pouring the milk into my cereal bowl, because she didn’t trust me not to slosh it over the table, and yet here I am on the Murray River at Mildura in far north-west Victoria, being handed the keys to a very new and very expensive luxury houseboat.
After a crash course in how not to crash, I’m at the wheel of the good ship Elevate – pride of the All Seasons fleet – guiding her upstream past red-ochre cliffs as pelicans glide above the rippled river and kookaburras call from reedy banks. There’s a brief moment of breath-holding while I negotiate a hairpin turn around a jagged reef of skeletal, submerged gum trees, before a cheer rings out and calm descends as the timeless river unfurls in front of us.
The Murray River winding through Yarrawonga. (Image: Rob Blackburn)
Setting sail from Mildura
Home to a large number of bird species, including pelicans. (Image: The Precint Studios)
A journey along the Murray River is never less than magical, and launching from Mildura makes perfect sense. Up here the river is wide and largely empty, giving novice skippers like myself the confidence to nudge the 60-tonne houseboat up to the riverbank where we tie up for the night, without fear of shattering the glass elevator (the boat is fully wheelchair accessible) or spilling our Champagne.
My friends and I spend three days on the water, swimming and fishing, sitting around campfires onshore at night, and basking in air so warm you’d swear you were in the tropics. The simplicity of river life reveals an interesting dichotomy: we feel disconnected from the world but at the same time connected to Country, privileged to be part of something so ancient and special.
Stop one: Echuca
A historic 19th-century paddlesteamer cruises along the Murray River. (Image: Visit Victoria)
The six-hour drive from Melbourne to Mildura (or four hours and 20 minutes from Adelaide) is more than worth it, but you don’t have to travel that far to find fun on the river. Once Australia’s largest inland port, Echuca is the closest point on the Murray to Melbourne (two hours 45 minutes), and you’ll still find a plethora of paddlesteamers tethered to the historic timber wharf, a throwback to the thriving river trade days of the 19th century. The PS Adelaide, built in 1866 and the oldest wooden-hulled paddlesteamer operating in the world, departs daily for one-hour cruises, while a brand-new paddlesteamer, the PS Australian Star, is launching luxury seven-night voyages in December through APT Touring.
The town is also a hot food and wine destination. St Anne’s Winery at the historic Port of Echuca precinct has an incredibly photogenic cellar door, set inside an old carriage builders’ workshop on the wharf and filled with huge, 3000-litre port barrels. The Mill, meanwhile, is a cosy winter spot to sample regional produce as an open fire warms the red-brick walls of this former flour mill.
Stop two: Barmah National Park
Camping riverside in Barmah National Park, listed as a Ramsar site for its significant wetland values. (Image: Visit Victoria/Emily Godfrey)
Just half-an-hour upstream, Barmah National Park is flourishing, its river red gum landscape (the largest in the world) rebounding magnificently after the recent removal of more than 700 feral horses. The internationally significant Ramsar-listed wetland sits in the heart of Yorta Yorta Country, with Traditional Owners managing the environment in close partnership with Parks Victoria. Walkways weave through the forest, crossing creeks lined with rare or threatened plants, passing remnants of Yorta Yorta oven mounds and numerous scar trees, where the bark was removed to build canoes, containers or shields.
The Dharnya Centre (open weekdays until 3pm) is the cultural hub for the Yorta Yorta. Visitors can learn about the ecological significance of the Barmah Lakes on a 90-minute river cruise, led by a First Nations guide, or take a one-hour, guided cultural walking tour along the Yamyabuc Trail.
Stop three: Cobram
Yarrawonga Mulwala Golf Club Resort. (Image: Visit Victoria)
Continue east to Cobram to find the southern hemisphere’s largest inland beach. Swarming with sun-seekers in summer, the white sand of Thompson’s Beach is shaded by majestic river red gums and dotted with hundreds of beach umbrellas, as beachgoers launch all manner of water craft and set up stumps for beach cricket. But the beach is at its most captivating at sunset, when the crowds thin out, the glassy river mirrors the purple sky, and the canopies of the gum trees glow fiery orange.
The region is also home to some fine resorts and indulgent retreats. Yarrawonga Mulwala Golf Club Resort has two riverside championship golf courses, luxury apartments and self-contained villas. While not strictly on the Murray, the historic wine town of Rutherglen is rife with boutique (and unique) accommodation, including an exquisitely renovated red-brick tower in a French provincial-style castle at Mount Ophir Estate. Fans of fortified wines can unravel the mystery of Rutherglen’s ‘Muscat Mile’, meeting the vignerons and master-blenders whose artistry has put the town on the global map for this rich and complex wine style.
Stop four: Albury-Wodonga
First Nations Yindyamarra Sculpture Walk is part of the Wagirra Trail. (Image: Carmen Zammit)
Follow the river far enough upstream and you’ll arrive at the twin border cities of Albury-Wodonga. The Hume Highway thunders through, but serenity can be found along the five-kilometre Yindyamarra Sculpture Walk – part of the Wagirra Trail that meanders through river wetlands just west of Albury in Wiradjuri country. Fifteen sculptures by local First Nations artists line the trail, conveying stories of reconciliation, enduring connection to culture, local Milawa lore and traditional practices. It feels a long way from Mildura, and it is, but the pelicans and kookaburras remind us that it’s the same river, the great conduit that connects our country.
A traveller’s checklist
Staying there
New Mildura motel Kar-rama. (Image: Iain Bond Photo)
Kar-Rama is a brand-new boutique, retro-styled motel in Mildura, with a butterfly-shaped pool and a tropical, Palm Springs vibe. Echuca Holiday Homes has a range of high-end accommodation options, both on the riverfront and in town.
Playing there
Bruce Munro’s Trail of Lights in Mildura. (Image: Imogen Eveson)
Artist Bruce Munro’s Trail of Lights installation, comprising more than 12,000 illuminated ‘fireflies’, is currently lighting up Mildura’s Lock Island in the middle of the Murray. Murray Art Museum Albury (MAMA) is a hub for contemporary art, with a rotating roster of exhibitions, and is a major outlet for young and First Nations artists.
Eating there
Mildura’s diverse demographic means it’s a fantastic place to eat. Andy’s Kitchen is a local favourite, serving up delicious pan-Asian dishes and creative cocktails in a Balinese-style garden setting. Call in to Spoons Riverside in Swan Hill to enjoy locally sourced, seasonal produce in a tranquil setting overlooking the river.
