The World Awaits: travel tales to inspire your wanderlust

First up Toby Venus of the Point Hacks podcast joins us to demystify frequent flyer points – how to earn, how to burn and creating a checklist to keep your points in good shape and working for you.    Coming to you from the Novotel Melbourne Airport , Toby shares some sneaky hacks, and we're talking gift cards, credit cards, hotel loyalty programs and the difference between rewards seats and...

This week, we’re taking you on some of our own recent travel adventures from the postcard-worthy South Island of New Zealand to the wilds of South Africa.   First up, Belle takes us on a self-drive safari through Kruger National Park and a stay in peak luxury game reserve Sabi Sabi with expert travel planner Travel Africa Your Way and she also e-bikes to the Cape of Good Hope, South of Cape Town,...

Welcome to our Winter Series! This week is all about hiking, from the French Camino to the wilds of Tasmania. But first, we have a winner for our competition!  Truc Pham has won a night’s stay at the Moxy Sydney Airport hotel, buffet breakfast for two at the Moxy Kitchen, return airport shuttle transfers and up to 14 nights valet parking at the hotel! See marriott.com Onto our winter series, Kirst...

Hey set-jetters, it's the movie episode, and Belle is teaming up with our entertainment reporter Alaisdair Leith to talk the best of travel films.  We’re chatting movie destinations, because  set-jetting is one of the hottest trends in travel at the moment, where you decide where to travel based on something you saw in a movie. But also, we want you to take this as a list of movies you should...

This week, we are celebrating our third birthday! Yes, we're basically toddlers!  Please indulges us as all three of us - Kirstie, Belle and our sound producer Alaisdair share their favourite interviews, from the woman walking the length of the earth to eating on the Amalfi Coast, and best travel fashion hits and misses.  And to our interview this week, we merge two of the hottest trends in t...

Would you let readers of your blog choose where you travel? Carole Rosenblat did, and it’s seen her travel to 74 countries around the world.  The freelance journalist, copywriter, and small-group tour operator started interactive travel site Drop me Anywhere in 2014, letting readers choose where she travels - and it can be anywhere in the world. This week, she talks to us about how she came up wit...

At 50, filmmaker Dianne Whelan set out to walk and kayak the longest trail in the world, the 24,000km-long Trans Canada Trail.  Her film, 500 days in the Wild , opened recently in Australia and documents her extraordinary six-year journey. She tells Belle about the project, paddling 8000km of water trails and walking, biking and even snowshowing 16,000km across land on a journey that has defined a...

You might need the tissues for this one. This is the heartfelt story of Silva McLeod, the first Tongan woman to become an airline pilot, who wrote about her incredible journey from 'Island Girl to Airline Pilot' in a memoir of that name.   Silva always dreamed of becoming a pilot, but never imagined it'd come true until she met Ken, who she eventually married, but it wasn't unt...

White ski gear? Wearing pink on safari? Are shoes optional on flights? Hosts Kirstie and Belle ask the big questions about what to wear when you travel. We're talking dress codes on cruises, debate the merits of zip-off trousers and share a couple of our favourite savvy travel clothing buys. Should we make more of an effort to dress nicely for flights? Pyjamas in public?  When are too many se...

Slowing down, connecting with nature and managing mental health are all the benefits of barefoot hiking, says our interviewee this week. ​ Dale Noppers is a safety professional in Western Australia who has been taking people barefoot hiking for more than seven years. He talks this week about the reasons it's so important to get your shoes off, and explains some simple ways to get started in y...

How do you like to see wild animals? From the comfort of a guided safari vehicle? What about driving by yourself or perhaps by ebike? Host Belle Jackson tried all three options in South Africa recently, and shares her successes.  We're talking the all-inclusive and exceptionally knowledgeable experiences provided by leading luxury safari company Sabi Sabi Game Reserve; sabisabi.com  And also,...

Rob Goss is a UK-born, Tokyo-based writer who has lived in Japan for almost two decades and authored more than a dozen books about the popular island nation .  His latest book, Another Japan (Gestalten, Sep 2026), with photographer Irwin Wong, looks at community, rejuvenation, and cultural preservation in non-urban Japan. Here, he talks to us about some of the best lesser-known places to go, and h...

Come to Central Asia's forgotten country, Afghanistan. This episode, we are joined by Afghanistan’s first female tour guide, Fatima Haidari, and adventure travel company Untamed Borders' founder James Willcox, who is the author of the new Brandt Afghanistan guidebook.  From Herat and now living in Italy, Fatima leads virtual tours through Afghanistan, a tribal country with enormous diver...

Travel has taken a huge hit with the Middle East crisis now entering its fifth week, and it can be challenging to keep up with what you should and shouldn't do with travel plans during these significant and devastating world events. This week on our Hot Take, hosts Belinda Jackson and Kirstie Bedford bring you the good and the bad news to help you navigate this uncertain time when it comes to...

Toby Venus of the Point Hacks podcast joins us this episode to demystify frequent flyer points – how to earn, how to burn and creating a checklist to keep your points in good shape and working for you.    Coming to you from the Novotel Melbourne Airport , Toby shares some sneaky hacks, and we're talking gift cards, credit cards, hotel loyalty programs and the difference between rewards seats...

New Zealand is renowned for its spectacular scenery, and the Marlborough Sounds on the northern tip of the South Island will not disappoint. Come with host Kirstie Bedford as she hikes and bikes the Queen Charlotte Track, and kayaks in the glassy waters of the Marlborough Sounds, where seals and dolphins are your only neighbours, then beds down in lodges only accessible via the track, boat or heli...

She's the queen of the roadtrip, and bestselling author and travel writer Lee Atkinson joins us to talk about her latest adventure, motorbiking across the European Alps.  A self-described 'pillion princess', Lee and husband Bill shipped their Suzuki V-Strom tourer to the UK to ride 10,000km through the mountains over three months. Lee shares the trials of ultra-light packing and the...

This week, we are taking you through the colourful, decadent, sordid, and scandalous histories of famous hotels with D'Etta and Yael, hosts of the Hotel History podcast. They launched the podcast to explore the history of hotels and their interplay with culture, society and politics. We talk about some of the most interesting hotels they have covered, from the haunted to the downright bizarre...

This week, we’re launching our new segment, Hot Take! Kirstie and Belle are hacking out lost travel experiences - things you may have done in a former travelling life but are now no longer possible. Let’s wallow in the nostalgia! Think climbing the Pyramids, or smoking on planes; just how golden was the Golden Age of Travel? What about animal interactions such as elephant rides, or scrambling up t...

Andrea Barton started her career as an electrical engineer, but when her husband was offered a job overseas, it changed the entire course of her career. Now award-winning author of the Jade Riley Mysteries, owner of a book editing company called Brightside Story Studio, and Vice President of the Mansfield Readers & Writers festival, Andrea bases all her books on the places she has lived around...

Support the pod on Ko-Fi, click here Before he founded the Peninsula Hot Springs on the Mornington Peninsula, 21 years ago, Charles Davidson began exploring thermal springs sites around the world. His quest has now taken him to 57 countries to explore their bathing cultures, from Iran to Japan, Tanzania to Yemen. "I really wanted to understand that hot springs had nothing to do with money or...

This week, we're chatting with UTracks hiking guide Jaclyn Beagley, who leads guests along the Le Puy Camino, also known as the French Camino.  Jaclyn talks about why you should consider the French section of the Camino, and what it offers that differs from other hikes in the network of ancient pilgrimage routes across Europe. We also chat about the historic house she bought in Umbria, and sh...

Bushwalker.  Author. Advocate. Rescuer.  Our guest this week is Caro Ryan, who has just been awarded an Order of Australia Medal for 14 years of service in bushwalking safety and community support in the Australia Day Honours 2026.  Caro leads a 60-person strong s pecialist Bush Search and Rescue team for the NSW SES in the Blue Mountains, where she lives. And her book, How to Navigate teaches peo...

Adventurer, environmental scientist, author, filmmaker, philanthropist, speaker, and Australian of the Year Tim Jarvis AM ... is there anything this man can't do? You'll think not after hearing about his adventures including undertaking two of the harshest and most extreme Antarctic expeditions – Douglas Mawson and Ernest Shackleton's survival journeys, and he did them in the origin...

For many, Noosa on Queensland's Sunshine Coast is all about the surf, sun and stunning boutiques, but on this week’s episode we take you on a deeper dive into this pretty coastal region. Co-host Kirstie Bedford loves nothing more than an active getaway, and so a chance to hike, bike and kayak in this UNESCO Biosphere Reserve was her idea of a dream weekend – throw in whale watching, and it wa...