Graceland, Memphis, Tennessee
Hattie B. Staedtler visits the Kingdom. I’m going to Graceland, Graceland, in Memphis, Tennessee – but not because you are, Paul Simon. Try Googling “Elvis Presley Peace in the Valley” and by the time you get to “Elvis Presley pea” the suggested search is “Elvis Presley Peanut Butter”. Such is the legacy of the world’s [...]
Hooray for Dollywood
Hattie B Staedtler takes us to the home of the original blonde ambition. I’m not one to toot my own horn, but I’ve stared down the barrel of some pretty tough decisions in my time: Mum’s house or dad’s? Veganism or tasty cheeseburger? To platinum blonde or not to platinum blonde*? And, though as obvious [...]
Las Vegas: Nerdier than expected
I was gratified to hear someone screaming ecstatically through the hotel wall at The Flamingo. Sure, that’s a little creepy but that’s what I expected from Las Vegas … Sex, cocaine, drinking and gambling. If you’re under 50 and you’re not snorting crack off a hooker’s silcone, you’re not doing it right, right? Turns out [...]
Yo Yosemite
Nature has, once again, messed with my plans. The big idea was to drive over the Tioga Pass and down to Vegas via Death Valley (the driest place on earth – my inner-David Attenborough cannot get enough of that stuff). One small problem. National Parks closed Tioga Pass (the only road across the Sierra Nevada [...]
Hearst Castle: The Enchanted Mountain
I was expecting something really garish, like Liberace and Zsa Zsa Gabor’s mongrel offspring but, once again, America surprised me. Hearst Castle is utterly beautiful. In the words of George Bernard Shaw, it’s what God would do if he had the money. Rising up from the eerie and ever-present fog of San Simeon stands a [...]
I love America
I absolutely love America and, what’s more, I love Americans. In Australia, this makes me something of a rarity. There is this weird parochial belief that Americans are complete a**holes who will ignorantly stand in front of your camera, complain loudly when everything isn’t American and will trample small children to get to a Southern [...]
Lisa’s Travel Deal of the Week: G’day USA
Lisa’s Travel Deal of the Week: G’day USA They said it would never happen again, but like so many they’s before them, they got it wrong. Over the past couple of weeks, airfares to the USA have dropped to the bargain-basement prices we haven’t seen since mid-2009, when airline execs across the land swore up [...]
A holiday in a bottle
Every country has its drink. Peru has Pisco Sours and Chicha, Thailand has Sang Thip and Singha. Wherever you go in the world, there is always one or two tipples that are served in every bar that are usually cheap and locally produced (read: nasty and fermented with saliva). What I thought might be a bit [...]
Travel Tales: Victor Pisapia
Name: Victor Pisapia Age: 61 Occupation: Chef/ Trainer/ Presenter/ Tour Leader Favourite travel destination? Why?: This is way too hard to answer for a typical Aquarian. My favourite destination is always the last beautiful place I go so I will have to say Brazil this time. Why? Because it has a beat like no other country. [...]
