Fuad loves to travel! A lot! Carrying a Bangladeshi passport means he needs a prior visa for visiting most of the countries. He got detained in many borders because of his nationality but; he didn’t give up - he set his foot to 44 countries. He believes, if he could travel the world despite all the odds, you can, too. Fuad is a Computer Engineer by profession, and author of a travelogue in Bangla. He currently lives in Dhaka, Bangladesh.
For most visitors, the best hotels in Cairns are on the Esplanade: Crystalbrook Riley for a splurge, Shangri-La The Marina for early reef trips, Pullman Cairns International for five-star comfort at a lower rate, and Pacific Hotel Cairns for a waterfront address at mid-range prices. For a real beach, look at Alamanda in Palm Cove; to sleep on the reef itself, Fitzroy...
The best area to stay in Cairns for most visitors is the CBD and Esplanade: you can walk to the Reef Fleet Terminal, the free Esplanade Lagoon and the Night Markets, and you don’t need a car. Pick Palm Cove, 25 to 30 minutes north, if you want a real swimming beach; the Northern Beaches around Trinity and Clifton for apartments with a kitchen; or Port Douglas...
The mosquitoes found me before the tree did. I was standing under a strangler fig that had been alive for something like 500 years, and all I could think about was my ankles. That was the first ten minutes of a full day on the Atherton Tablelands, the highland plateau that sits an hour or two inland from Cairns, cool where the coast is humid, green in a completely...
Singapore does not do average hotels. Within a few square miles you can find a 139-year-old colonial icon where the Singapore Sling was invented, a converted 1895 shipping warehouse with the original pulleys still bolted to the ceiling, and a capsule pod on Smith Street with a better guest-review record than some full-service hotels charging four times as much. This...
Singapore is compact enough to cross by MRT in under an hour, but the neighbourhood is still the decision that shapes a trip the most. A base in Marina Bay puts the skyline outside the window. A base in Chinatown puts a hawker centre outside the door. Neither is wrong — they are simply different holidays. This guide breaks the city down into nine areas, with real...
Tokyo has thousands of hotels, and most “best of” lists are built from the same recycled twenty names without checking whether they are still open, let alone still good. This one is not. Every hotel below was checked against its own site, current listings and independent reviews, organised by what it actually does best rather than by star rating alone...
Tokyo does not have one obvious place to stay. It has a dozen good ones, each built around a different train line and a different version of the city. Base yourself in the wrong neighbourhood and a trip that should feel effortless turns into an hour of transfers before breakfast. Base yourself in the right one and the whole city opens up within a few stops...
Thailand’s reputation rests on more than beaches and street food — Thai hospitality is famous in its own right, and it shows up in hotels at every price point, not only the five-star ones. What sets Bangkok apart from most capital cities is how far your money stretches here: a proper five-star stay is realistically within reach, which is exactly why some...
Thailand’s fame isn’t only about temples, food, and beaches — Thai hospitality has a reputation all its own, and it’s part of what makes staying almost anywhere in this city a good experience. Add in how affordable five-star comfort is here compared to most capital cities, and the harder question in Bangkok usually isn’t whether you can afford...
No, you can’t hold a koala at Kuranda Koala Gardens. You can book a supervised patting photo instead, standing beside a koala and giving it a pat, for A$30 on your own or A$40 for a group of two to five, with limited spots each day. The park itself is a small wildlife garden inside the Kuranda Heritage Markets, open 9:30am to 4pm daily, with adult entry A$24...