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Dr. Barry Ferrier is a travel writer, academic and musician based in Byron Bay, Australia.
Website: doctorbaz.com
Music: johnnycashtribute.com.au
Lisa Peers had great success as a television and film actress in her early career. She is known for her work on Sunday Too Far Away (1975), Finding Nemo (2003) and Andra (1976).
Lisa now heads up Peers & Players, a program utilizing Corporate Actors, with whom she develops on-site Conference Programs, Team & Leadership Communication, Role-play Training, and training in Public Speaking.
She is an avid traveller and writer and shares her great stories here on Reviews Internaional.
It's been a great Australian tradition to take the family away camping or caravaning in the school holidays, and Australian caravan parks are embedded in the Australian psyche of thousands of Australians as a childhood memory of timeless, lazy days by the beach, the smell of open fires and camp cooking, sing-alongs and walks in the bush... Aussie caravan parks have a unique atmosphere that is laid-back and friendly with a certain humble, rustic innocence that makes them a firm favourite for families and back packers alike when it comes to low-cost holidays that are a real, refreshing break from the daily grind.
There is a great caravan park with a difference, hidden on the south side of the Richmond River at the beachside town of Ballina, on the Far North Coast of New South Wales, only a half an hour from Byron Bay - the Ballina Beach Village.
Position is everything when it comes to great holiday locations and Ballina Beach Village has it all, the wide graceful Richmond River, abundant in great fishing on one side, absolute deserted beach frontage on the other, and pristine national park behind - it makes for the perfect getaway on a budget, and is especially well set up for a wonderful family holiday.
Heading south on the Pacific Highway out of Ballina, the Big Prawn is an iconic local landmark and the turn to Ballina Beach Village is left at the next roundabout, for half a kilometre to the Burns Point Ferry.
Let's hope they never build a bridge here - taking the old style car ferry makes you feel like you are leaving the world behind, and you immediately feel time shift down a gear, as you watch the pelicans gliding on the Richmond River against a backdrop of mangroves and fishing boats. Take the next left when you drive off the punt (don't forget to pay the ferryman -it's $4.80 for a car) and head along a good bitumen road past some isolated holiday houses and cane fields and out towards the beach.
Ballina Beach Village is the last on the right and is well sign posted, but you'll see the colourful flags along the road as you approach.
Owners Rikki and Bernhard Grinberg are there to meet and greet and they are a delightful, interesting and cultured couple with a grand vision for making Ballina Beach Village the best little caravan park in the Known Universe.
The Palazzo Versace is a truly sumptuous, luxury olde worlde hotel located on the Southport Spit, at Main Beach on the Gold Coast, Queensland, Australia. Situated next to a high end shopping area with cosy little restaurants overlooking the waters of Southport.
Concierges will greet you as you enter the main reception area with a huge crystal chandelier overhead in the domed ceiling... glance around at bold ornate italianate styling, listen to a smart young pianist serendading romantic classics on the grand piano, and be at the service of friendly international staff in starched uniforms flitting about looking highly professional. The large circular stone entrance has a grand feel of pomp and circumstance as you are greeted by valet parking and that certain quiet prestige. A wonderful mix of well-heeled, cultured people from all over the world will be lounging around looking dressed for success, with apparently the occasional celebrity thrown in. Stand amist a statement of opulence and look out to a large artificial beach backdrop through floor to ceiling glass walls as your view.
Just saying you are staying at the Versace hotel gives a bit of klout, the hotel has such history and is symbolic of old wealth and decadence to many. Although much of the furniture and fittings are perhaps "over the top" to some, and reek of an age when wealthy people flaunted their wealth, the Palazzo Versace is unashamedly celebrating class and the finer things in life - so why not just go with it!
There’s a rich history embedded in the old timber walls of the Royal Mail pub in Goodna, just outside of Brisbane – and a lot of music! 26 years of live music in fact!
It’s seems only fitting that ‘The Mail’s’ began as a stopping off point for travellers, a history that is still continuing today, as this Grand Old Pub is an essential stopping off point for touring Blues n Roots musicians from across the country! Andrew Café, the hotels owner for the last 26 years, together with his loyal patrons and staff, have now established themselves around the nation as one of the best live Blues n Roots venues in Australia.
The old building is essentially unchanged from it's original rustic heritage. The walls are adorned with a random selection of old posters and farm paraphanalia and dusty musical instruments, an old red phone booth out the front, and a great beer garden out the back. You'll find a colourful cross section of local personalities always ready for a yarn - bikers, road workers, hippies, Aussie's of all shapes and sizes. It's a set from an Australian road movie. The pub serves traditional pub food, steaks , burgers, simple with all the trimmings. There's old style pub accommodation upstairs - clean and simple. It's music that brings everyone together at the Royal Mail and there's live music on all weekend and a jam night during the week. This pub just goes off!