This month we’re talking all things travel. One of our well-travelled concierge staff Amy shares with us her best advice for being prepared before overseas trips, and the difference between travelling with and without children!
Q. Out of everywhere you’ve travelled, where has been the most memorable place and why?
Most of my favourite memories revolve around food and experiences. I find it very difficult to single out a favourite place…
I love Thai street food, the cultural diversity of Singapore, Cypriot meze with friends, the genuine kindness and generosity of villagers in Indonesia, the myriad of options to make a hotdog in the US, ice skating at Rockefeller Centre NY, the love of local produce in Tassie, Shopping in Milan, drinking wine in Venice, Snow monkeys in Japan, waiting in line for 4 hours at Tokyo Disney for Splash Mountain, camping on the banks of the Diamantina in Birdsville, the Caesar’s Palace moving statue clock in Las Vegas, the black and white water snakes in New Caledonia, luxury accommodation, Harajuku in Tokyo, ancient ruins in Cyprus, rip-off taxi drivers in Turkey, eating roasted corn in front of the Hagia Sofia in Istanbul, Old City in Dubrovnik, Cowboys in Texas, gelato in Italy, pork souvlaki in Greece, snorkelling and squid jigging in The Solomon Islands…
I have too many to list them all!
Q. What essentials do you pack for a long haul flight to lessen jetlag or just make the flight more enjoyable?
Usually I travel with my children so my focus is getting to our destination with my sanity intact. I pack to keep them entertained and comfortable. I also pack a change of clothes for them just in case…
For myself, I pack Panadol, my own sleep mask, a phone charger, moisturiser and a plastic folder to hold all of my tickets, visas, booking confirmations and brochures I pick up along the way.
Q. What are your top tips for preparing for an overseas trip?
Being organised is most important. Internet is not always available where we land or there’s a long sign up process where speaking the local language is a key factor so paper versions of bookings and tickets are essential.
We always download local maps before we need them because we usually like to make our own way around. We learned that the hard way in Tokyo when we walked 8 kms with 2 young children based on some dodgy directions given to us when our destination was 500m from the starting point!
Fortunately my family are as glass-half-full as me so we all enjoyed the adventure. We were very glad to be staying at the Sheraton Miyako that night, not the ryokan yudanaka onsen on tatami mats!
Q. Where do you usually go with your family for Easter and Christmas?
Christmas and Easter are for family so we are somewhere between Melbourne, , Sunshine Coast and Chinchilla.
Q. As someone that is used to moving around and living in different places, what have you learnt over the years?
I have two approaches; the with children version, and the without children version.
They both start with packing lightly. We never imagined that we’d be unable to get transport from our hotel in Venice back to the train station without having to take out another mortgage, so we walked like ducks in a row with our rolling suitcases through the corridors and piazzas of Venice. It actually turned out to be a highlight of our stay. We had a map prepared and we saw parts that we wouldn’t have if we took a gondola. Thank goodness for wheels, and small suitcases.
The ‘with children’ approach includes accommodation that I know they’ll sleep well in, airport transfers, and as few single night stops as possible. If we know the girls will sleep well we can expect more of them and we’ll all enjoy the experience more.
The ‘without children’ approach involves pre-booking only the first couple of nights of accommodation, lots of local food and walking. After that we generally go wherever looks good. I’d never be comfortable being disorganised so I do a lot of research before we leave on places to visit, where we could stay, how to get around and what costs might be involved. I’d hate to waste exploring time by not being prepared.