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Passing through Paris… then we take Berlin

Jimmy Thomson
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Passing through Paris… then we take Berlin

I don’t know what I was thinking when I decided we should only have four days in Berlin in our Grand Tour of Europe late last year.  It’s a city neither of us had visited before and I thought, incredibly naively, that once you’d “done” the holocaust and the former Wall, that would be about it.

We could not have been more wrong, but we had been misled by friends who’d arrived without specific plans, decided to take an organised bus tour of the city and said that they felt they had seen it all before they had truly arrived.

However, before we even left the airport, it felt very different.  There were no luggage trolleys anywhere near the bag collection carousels. I found hundreds of them all chained together in a passageway – this is what happens when people have to part with a Euro coin to release one, when they have wheels on their suitcases anyway.

Having worked out that our pick-up  to the city was trying to contact us on Whatsapp, rather than waiting out side, we eventually made it to the small apartment hotel we’d booked into.

Called the Homaris Boxi Studios, it was in Boxhagener Straße, Friedrichshain-Kreuzberg, the latter part of that hyphenation supposedly being the trendy part of Berlin although we found ourselves firmly in the Friedrichshain area, a fairly lengthy Bolt – an alternative to Uber – ride from the action.

We had booked three walking tours – one based on the TV series Babylon Berlin, another a history tour and the third all about British Rock star David Bowie. We cancelled the first because there was a timing clash at their end and we realised we weren’t that familiar with the locations on the TV series anyway.

The second tour, we thought was one hour, for some reason, but turned out to be closer to three. We walked a long, long way and crammed a lot in.  Berlin looks magnificent with wide boulevards and beautiful old historic buildings. Well, kind of old and pretty historic.  The city was almost flattened and many of the older buildings were rebuilt or significantly repaired or restored.

Berlin Airport – What happens when you charge a Euro for a trolley and everyone has wheels on their suitcases.

Our tour group at the statue of Martin Luther – beloved of Rangers fans the world over.

Staure of Martin Luther

A diorama of the old part of the city a few hundred years ago

The TV tower – as sunset you can see a cross on the globe – it’s calle “the Pope’ Revenge” on anti-religious Communists. on

Statues over the Spree river

The jaunty Ampelmann crossing light – only in former East Berlin

Thrill seekers are swinging off the top of that building

Checkpoint Charlie

The National Library

What we discovered was that, even though the Berlin Wall fell 35 years ago the city still has a split personality. For instance, the pedestrian crossing lights in former East Berlin feature a cartoonish character called Ampelmann, complete with a little hat.

Also, as our guide explained, you can tell when you’re in former East Berlin because the trams are still running.  After the war, the Americans and British ripped up the tramlines in their half of the city because they saw a future in which everyone would use cars and light rail would be obsolete. Sound familiar?

There are so many things to do and places to visit.  It would take four days to do any kind of justice, just to Museum Island – an area of the city with five major museums and a modern art gallery all within metres of each other.

Nearby, one of the most poignant reminders of the political lurch to the extreme Right that presaged the Holocaust in Germany is the Empty Library on the spot where in 1933, German students burned 20,000 books from many, mainly Jewish, communist, liberal and social-critical authors, before a large audience at the university’s Old Library and in the middle Bebelplatz.

There you can look down through a window in the ground to see a room of empty white shelves. Think of that every time you hear about a library being pressured to remove books because someone wants people not to even know there are other ways of thinking.

Checkpoint Charlie is a must-see, of course, even though the barriers have gone and the actual checkpoint booth is in a museum somewhere else in the City

Our tour took us to one of the remaining sections of the Wall, where you’ll find the Topography of Terror  exhibit and library which includes the remains of cells where the Gestapo tortured dissidents, Jews, gays and Roma people before sending them off to concentration camps.

After we walked to a sad and inconspicuous carpark under which is buried the bunker where Adolf Hitler killed his wife, Eva, and shot himself rather than be taken alive by the vast Russian army that was laying siege to the city.

And we ended up at the Memorial to the Murdered Jews of Europe aka the Holocaust Memorial, which is where our tour guide left us after extracting well-earned donations.  The tour is advertised as being free but you can give the guide what you think it was worth; only budget-challenged backpackers would baulk at handing over ten or twenty bucks or even more.

Next week, we’ll explore Belin’s world of spies and strangeness. But before we go, I have to mention the one thing we forgot to do which was to buy a Berlin Welcome Card which not only gives you free rides on public transport but offers genuine discounts at museums and restaurants.  Next time!

Flying up front has bonuses – even on a budget

Jimmy Thomson
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Flying up front has bonuses – even on a budget

It was a fellow writer and occasional tour guide who first alerted me to the budget luxuries of flying Vietnam Airlines business class to Europe.

Prices vary depending on how far in advance you book and how full the flights are but for around $7k return to Paris, London, Munich and soon Milan, you get a lie-flat bed for the most punishing legs of the trip.

The 13 hours between Saigon and Europe are hard in coach and tolerable in premium economy.  But for anyone who can afford it, those lie-flat beds are like time travel – you go to sleep after a very nice meal and wake up in your destination in the morning, ready for a full day of touristing.

Kudos then to Dr Will Davis, historian and author, who leads guided tours to the battlefields of Northern France , who first alerted me to this relatively luxurious way of getting to France and the UK.

As he pointed out, the daunting 16-hour layover in Saigon on the way back is far from punishing if you book into a hotel for a night or two, especially if you organise an early check-in and late check-out.

The patisserie table in the Air France lounge in Charles De Gaule airport, Paris

Lunch in business class on Vietnam airlines – and this was just the starters.

Desserts in the Air France lounge in Charles De Gaule airport, Paris

Free lunch in the Air France lounge in Charles De Gaule airport, Paris

That means you get two full days at the beginning and end of the layover.  You could even book a room for the day, depending on the hotel.

Our choice – the Silverland Ben Thanh – allowed a 7am check-in and 6pm check-out for 50 per cent of the room rate each. For us, slipping one night in between, that meant breakfast, a snooze and a shower on the morning of day one, and a full day including an early dinner on departure day.

Add in two free (and scrumptious) afternoon teas and you feel you’re being treated like royalty.

So what else does this minor extravagance get you? There’s the Vietnam Airline Lotus lounges as you pass through Saigon. These are not the most salubrious airline lounges you will ever encounter – far from it.  But they have good wi-fi, mostly edible food, comfortable seats and, if you prefer to fly pre-loaded, unlimited alcohol.

The real treat is at the other end where the access to Air France lounges in Paris get you all of the above plus very fancy shower and nap rooms.

The seats on the flight are very comfortable – you are in a semi-enclosed space in a 1-2-1 herringbone formation – and uncurl into a flat bed, literally at the press of a button.

Just to be clear, I don’t always fly business class – I wish I could afford it – but I will choose Premium Economy, if it’s available.  My new rule is any flight of more than nine hours has to be nearer the pointy end.

And there are a lot of tier two airlines that offer reduced rates for seats closer to the flight deck, although the definition of Business Class can vary considerably from airline to airline.

Madame Mildrover does not share my preferences in this regard. She thinks Business Class is overpriced and elitist.  However, since she doesn’t drink alcohol and doesn’t eat on the flight – and I mean no food between take-off and landing – many of the little luxuries aren’t available to her anyway.

Speaking of food, even in business class and armed with a top-level frequent flyer rating, you still have to book your vegetarian or other irregular meal at least 24 hours before departure.

But the food that you do get is a cut above what you normally get further down the plane, with proper cutlery and a cloth napkin with a buttonhole sewn into one corner, so you can fasten it on and don’t end up wearing more of your meal than you eat.

That business class flight to Europe in October was also enhanced value because of the queue-jumping privileges of being a “priority” passenger.  Check-in, immigration and security were all a breeze.

I was also a good, civilised start to the trip that I outlined last week which took us to Berlin, London, Glasgow, Limoges in France, and Paris. It was the last time we flew Business until we headed home, but it was worth every cent.

Next week: Berlin, from Burlesque to Bowie

How the best-laid travel plans often go astray

Jimmy Thomson
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How the best-laid travel plans often go astray

Welcome to our European vacation – something to keep you amused over the Christmas break.

At the end of October, Sue and I embarked on our first long holiday together for ages.  When I say holiday – it was largely a work trip as she (to the greater extent) and I had some research we needed to do for upcoming books and travel features.

The trip was to take us to Paris, en route for Berlin, then to London, Southampton, Glasgow, London again, Avignon, Paris and Saigon before returning home.  This was all intended to be done as sustainably as possible, by taking trains wherever they were available.

In terms of what was intended, and what eventually occurred, it was an unmitigated disaster. The intention was to fly to Paris Charles De Gaulle – no way of avoiding a flight if you want to go to Europe – then take a train into Paris, then from Paris to Berlin, including a sleeper.

The next train would take us from Berlin to Brussels to catch the Eurostar under the Channel to London.  We’d then take the train to Southampton, for reasons I’ll explain later, then somehow take the train to Scotland, then another back to London.

From London, we’d take the Eurostar to Paris, then the fast train to Avignon, then back to Paris and, after a few days, board a flight to Sydney via Saigon.

For a variety of reasons, almost none of that happened, apart from the flights from and to Sydney.

For a start, sleeper trains do not agree with madame and, after 22 hours of flying from Sydney, she did not relish the idea of a long and sleepless train ride to Berlin, so that became a two-hour flight instead.

Obviously, the train trip from Berlin to London was even less attractive, so that became a flight to Stansted with a quick train ride to London at the end of it. Except the Stansted Express wasn’t running so we had to take a train north to Cambridge and then south to London.

The train ride to Southampton two days later was fast and comfortable.  Sue is writing a book about the Duke of Wellington and the university there is where all his papers are held.

Now, I had spent hours trying to schedule trains, via wherever, to get us from Southampton to Glasgow and it was going to take days.  Finally, I consulted a travel website and it revealed that there are a couple of fights a day from Southampton Airport to Glasgow. What? Why?

I didn’t even know Southampton had an airport. But a lot of UK-based cruises leave from the city and Scots love a cruise.  Once again, the trains lose out. 

At this point, I have to say that trains in the UK can be horrendously expensive and often unreliable. One of the biggest mistakes they ever made in the UK was to denationalise this critical element of their infrastructure.

It would be the biggest mistake, but then there’s Brexit – the error of which you don’t fully appreciate until you are in a non-EU passport queue at any immigration desk.

So we flew to Glasgow and, having given up on our sustainability quest, flew to London.  Now, this is where it gets embarrassing. The trip to Avignon had been cancelled because Madame has a dear friend from her university days who lives in Limoges and you can guess the rest.

You can also guess that there are flights from London to Limoges that cost very little more than the cost of trains and are a lot less hassle.  I also have to confess that I had anticipated that at this stage of our journey we’d be done with queueing so I purchased every fast track option available.

The train from Limoge to Paris was slow but comfortable and the seats had flip-down tables so we could work.  But the score of trains versus planes, which should have been 7-2, turned out to be 2-7.

Now, there’s an awful lot more to this than how we got from place to place, but it’s worth noting that we flew business class on Vietnam Airlines for just over $7,000 return, each. That bit, at least, we got right.

Next week, I’ll tell you all about what we did Berlin and why we’d go back there in a heartbeat.

Fully booked – cruising with the literary set

Jimmy Thomson
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Fully booked – cruising with the literary set

We are not usually cruising people. That said, a few years ago we had one once-in-a-lifetime experience from Tahiti to the Marquesas on the half-cruise, half-freighter Aranui which was made all the more pleasurable by being able to stand in the cocktail bar sipping G&Ts while burly stevedores sweated below, heaving bags of coconuts and crates of produce in the tropical heat.

I suppose the cruise from which we recently disembarked was a combination of work and leisure too.  We were on the Cunard Queen Elizabeth which hosted the inaugural (and, ironically, possibly the last) Australian Literature at Sea cruise from Sydney to Hobart and back last week.

Sue with Sir Alexander McCall Smith of No. 1 Ladies Detective Agency and 24 Scotland St fame.

I was there as Sue’s technical support and general handbag as she delivered a couple of individual sessions on travel writing and historical fiction, and hosted a Q&A with Alexander McCall Smith (of No. 1 Ladies Detective Agency fame) in front of a standing room only crowd of 900 – plus all the people watching on TVs in various bars and cafes.

I have to confess, this has changed my opinion of cruising. Okay, hanging out with other authors is icing on the cake – but it is some cake!

The event also featured Nick McKenzie, who wrote one of the books about Ben Roberts-Smith and won the defamation case taken against him and Chris Masters for their 60 Minutes expose. 

He received the only standing ovation in the cruise after he detailed the dangers and validations of digging out the truth about gangsters, corrupt business people and flawed war heroes.

Hugely popular author Fiona McIntosh was a riot in her one-woman show and First Nations writer Anita Heiss was a revelation. There were others of course, most of whom contributed to the atmosphere of convivial creativity. 

Special mention to Kiwi author Paul Cleave whose darker than dark crime novels are hugely successful just about everywhere in the world, except, it seems, Australia.

So, has it changed my thoughts about cruising?  Do I need to be surrounded by successful authors (more successful than I am, anyway) to enjoy the experience?

Yes and no. To get me on another cruise I would have to be sure of the following:

  • Reliable internet at a reasonable cost (or preferably free).
  • A decent desk at which to work in the cabin.
  • Few or no kids.
  • A variety of food including pescetarian and vegetarian.
  • My ability to moderate my consumption of the above, and alcohol.

Now, to be absolutely fair, all of the above apart from the last one, were available on the Queen Elizabeth, although we did have privileges thanks to Sue’s participation.

I have been on one other cruise – from Sydney to New Zealand – and it was full of double-plus-sized Americans who seemed to leave one meal early so they could start queuing for the next.  Maybe it’s the queuing that I don’t like.

So yes, I would go on another cruise and if it happened to be full of writers, so much the better. The passengers on the QE seemed to enjoy the literary part immensely, so it was a success in that regard.

Sadly the Queen Elizabeth will be sailing north in March, only to return briefly on round-the-world cruises.  So it’s up to another cruise line to take up the concept if there’s to be another literary event next year.

If there is, I will be available for handbag duties, as required.

Love the curves and a breakfast to diet for

Jimmy Thomson
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Love the curves and a breakfast to diet for

There’s a story of mine in the Sydney Morning Herald’s online travel pages (you can read it HERE if you have a subscription) about how I tried three different levels of hotels in Saigon earlier this year.

The gist of it is that all of them had their charms but in the process I discovered my new favourite hotel in Vietnam.

The Silverland Ben Thanh is right next to the famous market of that name and is part of a chain of quirky hotels that includes the Myst Dong Khoi (which would be my favourite hotel if I could afford it).

Why is it my favourite? OK, comfort and location are big plusses. It sits at the end of the new boulevard that runs all the way to the Opera House and right on the doorstep of the new Metro rail system (which still hasn’t opened, despite endless safety test-runs have proved that it is… well… safe).

The bed is big and comfy, the wi-fi is rock solid and fast and there’s a desk. The bathroom, with spa bath and option of spray or rainwater showers is more than adequate.

I am not a big fan of hotel breakfasts but this one is amazing.  Apart from the ubiquitous buffet, there is an egg and banh mi station where I got the young fellow on it to combine two of his skills and make me a vegetarian omelette banh mi.

On top of that, for the same price, there’s an a la carte menu with all sorts of interesting twists on the usual breakfast provender.

The interior of the hotel is very much influenced by Gaudi architecture with barely a straight line to be found, and the exterior is festooned with greenery sprouting from every other windowsill.

The Market is a great place for cheap clothes and street food and you are pretty much in the heart of everything with the famous “walking street” a 15-minute stroll in one direction and the city centre just as close in the other.

Prices vary greatly, from windowless rooms to my preference, the Sense City double, which runs to just over A220 a night in January, and are dependent on the season.

So that’s my tip for anyone visiting Saigon.  And no, I don’t get any freebies. You can check out the whole range of Silverland hotels HERE.

Small ship, big savings on luxury PNG cruise

Jimmy Thomson
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Small ship, big savings on luxury PNG cruise

When we’re curating tours and cruises for Mild Rover these days, the offer has to be a little bit different and we don’t mind a bit of luxury to go along with an exotic location.

If that comes with a chance to save some of your hard-earned, well, we won’t say no to that either. So we are happy to tell Mild Rovers that you can save $2990 per couple and get complimentary flights on a luxury, exotic small-ship voyage to Papua New Guinea, provided you book by New Years Eve.

Among half a dozen destinations, the all-inclusive, 11-night package with Ponant to Papua New Guinea in October, 2025, will visit the little-known Lusancay Islands in the Solomon Sea.

The package includes savings of A$1495 per person and free return flights to Cairns for bookings made by the end of this month through Australian small ship specialist Cruise Traveller.  

Package Details:

  • 11-night trip departing Cairns on October 26, 2025
  • Cruise aboard Le Jacques Cartier (184-guest exploration ship)
  • Prices start at $13,245 per person (twin-share)
  • Includes savings of $1,495 per person
  • Free return flights from Sydney, Brisbane, or Melbourne
  • One-night complimentary hotel stay in Cairns

Destinations include:

  • Alotau
  • Tufi Harbour
  • Tami Islands
  • Madang
  • Lusancay Islands

Package Highlights:

  • Complimentary guided excursions
  • Daily open bar
  • Expert expedition team
  • Private balcony in all staterooms
  • Zodiacs for exploring remote locations

Booking Deadline: December 30, 2024. Phone: 1800 507 777 or visit the website www.CruiseTraveller.com.au/packing

All aboard for a mild change in direction

Jimmy Thomson
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All aboard for a mild change in direction

First of all, apologies to all our subscribers.  We have been off travelling and there hasn’t been muck new stuff on the website.  More to the point, while we’ve been gone we’ve been having a think about what Mildrover is and what we want it to be.

So this is what we’ve come up with.  We want the website to take a mature look at travel.  It’s for people who have been there and done that and want to go back and see more.

A typical MildRover would have done the package tour to, say, Japan a few years ago, and now wants to go back and revisit the country at their own pace. However, now they are savvy enough to book their own flights and hotels and devise their own itinerary

Or it could be someone who has taken one package tour – with a quality operator – and enjoyed the experience and wants to take another trip in a different country.

Or it could you could be someone who just wants to see the world while it’s still there. You don’t mind a bit of luxury, but it’s not essential.  You aren’t going to turn your nose up at foreign food – on the contrary, you savour the tastes and smells of foreign cuisine.

Perhaps you want to see a different country and its people at ground level, on a hike or a bike, rather than from a bus that’s hurtling between tourist traps and comfort stops.

You have a sense of humour, recognising that travel “disasters” are really just fodder for your next dinner party tales. And if you’d rather not share your space with families of kids in hyped-up holiday mode, this may be the website for you.

With all of that in mind, we are going to be changing the focus on MildRover over the next few weeks and will be tidying up the content while adding new stories from our own travels as well as including tours, hikes and cruises that might appeal.

Our new categories will be:

  • Active Travelling (hikes, bikes and moving around under your own steam).
  • Culture and Food (says it all really)
  • Journeys (personal stories from our travels – and maybe yours, if you send them to us).
  • Cruises (the ultimate way of getting around and relaxing at the same time).

We don’t receive any payment for the tours and cruises we feature but we do get a tiny amount of money if you click on the ads (which we hope aren’t too intrusive).

Does all of this work for you? Drop us a line on contact@mildrover.com and let us know what you think.

Antarctic adventures back on the agenda

Jimmy Thomson
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Antarctic adventures back on the agenda

If visiting the Antarctic isn’t on your Bucket List, perhaps it should be. And if the prospect chilling out near the South Pole has piqued your interest, Antarctic adventures are back on the agenda with Hurtigruten Expeditions having just released their bestselling collection of flight and cruise packages.

These itineraries combine bestselling Antarctica expeditions with flights, offering a simple all-inclusive solution for anyone wanting to travel to this fantastic destination who has a lazy $14k lying around (and that’s just for starters)…

Since 1896, HX, the world’s largest expedition cruise company, has been taking guests to some of the most remote places on Earth. With onboard lectures and science centres, HXs industry-leading expedition team ensures that travellers return home with a deep understanding and love of every destination they visit.

Highlights of Antarctica – Flight Included | 15 Days

Experience this 15-day Antarctic expedition cruise, unveiling the continent’s captivating landscapes and wildlife, including seals, penguins and whales. Travellers can engage with the Expedition Team, delving into lectures on glaciology, wildlife, and polar exploration and participate in HX’s industry-leading science programs in the destination, where it’s donating over 1,000 cabins nights supporting more than 20 projects and facilitating 8,000+ data submissions for third-party research.

Priced from AU$13,977 per person twin share.

Antarctica & Falklands Expedition with Flights | 21 Days

Setting sail from Ushuaia, we’ll cross the Drake Passage and spend up to five days exploring the frozen beauty of Antarctica in expedition style. This is the time of year when penguins are courting and building nests. We then head north and venture to the windswept beauty and isolation of the Falkland Islands before returning to Argentina.

Priced from AU$18,810 per person twin share.

Life Returns | Springtime Expedition to Antarctica with Flights |26 Days

Taking in Argentina, the Falkland Islands, South Georgia, Antarctica and Chile – this epic 26-day voyage has it all. You’ll be in South Georgia at the height of the King Penguin mating season and witness the untouched icescapes of the White Continent in late spring as the icebergs sparkle and glitter in the rays of the returning sun.

Priced from AU$28,914 per person twin share.  

Antarctica Circle Expedition |21 Days

Spend up to 11 days in Antarctica during the summer and enjoy days filled with ice cruising and shore landings. With the milder conditions, we’ll attempt to journey below the Antarctic Circle to the secluded and magnificent Marguerite Bay. Highlights might include spotting whales, seeing young penguins and camping on the snow.

Priced from AU$21,646 per person twin share.  

In-Depth Antarctica, Falklands & South Georgia Expedition with Flights | 26 Days

From lush rolling hills and snowcapped mountains to iceberg-studded seas packed with marine life, you see it all on this 23-day voyage that takes in South Georgia, the Falkland Island and – of course – Antarctica. Your three weeks of exploring the wild wonders around the Southern Ocean is what adventuring is all about.

Priced from AU$30,693 per person twin share.

Suites Offer

Save an additional 5% on suite bookings and elevate your expedition to Antarctica. Treat yourself to an exclusive travel experience on a state-of-the-art expedition ship. Book a suite before 23 December 2024 to save 5% on selected departures. See the website for full T&Cs. 

1893 Ambassador Offer

Additionally, between now and 31 December, HX’s 1893 Ambassador loyalty programme members can enjoy exclusive discounts of up to 10%, with Level 1 members receiving a 5% discount and Level 2 members enjoying a 10% discount, for both online and offline bookings. Existing members automatically receive this offer when membership details are provided upon booking.

For non-members. joining HX’s 1893 Ambassador program is free, and travellers instantly become Level 1 members upon signing up. This offer is valid on new bookings made between 12 September 2024 and 28 October 2024 and is valid on departures between 13 September 2024 and 31 March 2027. See the website for full T&Cs.

ENDS 

For more information about HX and its immersive expedition cruises, please visit:

https://www.travelhx.com/en-au

For more information about flights-inclusive Antarctica itineraries, visit: 

Discover our flight-inclusive expeditions to Antarctica | HX Hurtigruten Expeditions AU (travelhx.com)

To become an 1893 Ambassador member and explore details on other loyalty member benefits, visit:

About HX

With a legacy spanning almost 130 years, HX is the world’s largest and leading expedition cruise company. Offering voyages to over 250 destinations across more than 27 countries, HX combines sustainability initiatives with deep local insights to provide guests with transformative travel experiences. Find out more at travelhx.com.

T&Cs apply – Visit travelhx.com for full details. 

Dine in style with Everest as a backdrop

Jimmy Thomson
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Dine in style with Everest as a backdrop

It’s exactly one year until a milestone event for the Australian adventure travel industry. World Expeditions, the first company to offer adventure travel trips in Australia, will commemorate its 50th anniversary with a series of exclusive treks through Nepal’s most iconic region in September of 2025.

Trekkers from around the globe are invited to join one of seven World Expeditions 50th Anniversary Treks that will culminate in an unforgettable black-tie banquet with Everest as the backdrop on September 24, 2025.

This golden anniversary is more than just a celebration; it’s a return to the roots of adventure travel, honouring five decades of exploring the world’s most breathtaking landscapes.

The treks range from 13 to 30 days, offering participants a chance to enjoy the regions’ most famous peaks, from Everest to Ama Dablam, and all include an extra day for the anniversary banquet.

All 50th Anniversary Treks include stays at World Expeditions’ exclusive Eco-Comfort Camps as well as eco lodges, with meals provided by your own cook and highly trained, expert local guides leading the way.

Among the highlights is the opportunity to trek alongside Australia’s most esteemed mountaineer, Tim Macartney-Snape. The first Australian to summit Everest without supplementary oxygen, Tim’s 16-day challenging trek through the remoter regions of the Khumbu Valley offers a mix of wilderness camping and comfortable lodges, culminating in the adventure travel event for 2025, our special 50th-anniversary banquet where you can rub shoulders with even more renowned adventurers from around the world.–  

For first time trekkers, the 13-day Everest Trekking Tour offers the perfect introduction to the Everest region, showcasing views of Everest, Ama Dablam, Lhotse, Nuptse, and other surrounding Himalayan peaks at a more gentle pace. This introductory trek, along with six others, will ensure that all participants reach Thyangboche on September 24, 2025, for the grand celebration.

Sue Badyari, World Expeditions CEO, comments; “The excitement is palpable as our team across the globe commences the one-year countdown to our 50th anniversary celebration on September 24, 2025. To celebrate 50 years of setting the benchmark for adventure travel in a setting that is quite literally on top of the world is incredibly humbling. We are all looking forward to commemorating the occasion and to sharing it with the inspiring adventurers who have been instrumental in World Expeditions’ success.”

World Expeditions’ 50th Anniversary event is a nod to its unique place as one of the first companies in the adventure travel industry worldwide, with five decades of pioneering BIG adventures with a small footprint. The banquet dinner will be a sumptuous, three-course affair held in the spiritual heart of the Khumbu Valley, Thyangboche, where the company’s legacy of pioneering big adventures with a small footprint will be toasted.

Bookings are now open for the seven specially curated 50th anniversary treks in 2025 which include:

More media information: Bly Carpenter at World Expeditions on 0407 775 105 or bly@worldexpeditions.com.au 

Nature, history, local culture… and food

Jimmy Thomson
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Nature, history, local culture… and food

It will be news to no regular readers of this website that we have a soft spot for Vietnam. And if you happen to be in the country in the next week or so, you might want to check out a special evening at the Azerai Can Tho, just a few hours from Saigon, in the Mekong Delta.

On September 21, the resort hotel invites guests to a five-course wine dinner. The package, priced at VND 7,600,000 (about AU$490) includes accommodation, dinner with wine for two at The Grill, and breakfast the next day.

Or if you’re in the area, you can have the dinner only, without accommodation, for about $110 per person.

Either would be a perfect introduction to the Azerai, a brand that sets out to blend tourism and local life. With boutique hotels and resorts in three areas of Vietnam, guests – especially nature, culture, history and food lovers – can get to the essence of their destination with home-style accommodation and curated experiences.

On a private islet in the Mekong Delta, in Vietnam’s deep south, Azerai Can Tho is accessible only by boat. Opening its doors in 2018, it quickly became a popular retreat where guests can relax in nature and enjoy a slower pace of life.

This five-star hotel features one- to five-bedroom pool villas, a restaurant, spa, and yoga pavilion, all surrounded by gardens with banyan trees.

Take a private wooden boat to explore the Mekong Delta, known as the “rice bowl of Vietnam”, passing quaysides and fishing villages on the Hua River before reaching Cai Rang floating market, where locals have been buying and selling goods for almost a century. It’s a great place to experience daily life and pick up fresh produce and traditional handicrafts.

The resort also offers visits to local chocolate farms, where guests can experience chocolate making, from picking cacao beans to tasting the final product, led by the resort’s pastry chef.

History in Hue

Discover the legacy of Vietnam’s last dynasty in Hue at Azerai La Residence, Hue, a restored French colonial mansion by the Perfume River. Open since February 2019, this hotel offers a peaceful escape and access to Hue’s UNESCO World Heritage sites like the Imperial Citadel and Forbidden City.

Explore the 1920s at Princess Ngoc Son’s Garden House or take a boat cruise to Thien Mu Pagoda. Visit the tombs of Khai Dinh and Emperor Minh Mang by car.

Food lovers can enjoy a culinary tour by cyclo, tasting local dishes like banh khoai in Kim Long village.

A Wellness Package includes a two-night stay, breakfast, healthy drinks, a tour to Tu Hieu Pagoda, yoga sessions, spa treatments, a vegetarian lunch, nutritious meals, and a cooking class.

On the beach

Discover the serene beachside lifestyle at Azerai Ke Ga Bay, a boutique resort just 2.5 hours from Ho Chi Minh City. Opened in December 2020, it offers chic pool suites, a seafront spa, a restaurant, and an oceanfront terrace, all steps from a 5km-long secluded beach.

Guests can enjoy water sports, visit local attractions like salt fields and dragon fruit farms, and explore the traditional fishing village and local temple. The resort also offers cooking classes showcasing Vietnamese cuisine, teaching guests to make dishes like fresh rice paper rolls and caramelised fish.

Azerai Ke Ga Bay provides an authentic, tranquil experience, perfect for those looking to explore Vietnam’s nature, culture, and cuisine.

About Azerai

Azerai is a luxury hotel brand created by Adrian Zecha. The name combines his initials and part of the Persian word “caravanserai,” meaning historic inns. Azerai offers elegant design and discreet service in culturally rich locations. For more details on the three resorts in Vietnam, visit azerai.com.

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