Tired of the same old holiday options? Take these trips with a twist for tenacious travellers

They were knitting in the piano lounge, crocheting at the bar and pulling out their craft bags during bingo. For the ladies of the Unwind craft group, casting on and off was just as important as seeing the sites on their cruise to New Zealand.

The group of women who met at Melbourne’s Unwind Craft Café have set off on four craft cruises together and every time owner Robyn Scipione announces a new trip, it sells out in hours. Part of the attraction is to learn new sewing skills, but a much bigger part is to connect with each other while relaxing on the high seas.

If a knitting cruise sounds unusual, consider this – Carnival has a four-night cat lover’s cruise from Florida to Mexico, there is a Star Trek cruise to Aruba with Royal Caribbean and there’s even a nude cruise out of Tampa, Florida, also available through the popular cruise company.

But it’s not just cruises that offer special interest travel options. Whether you are looking to walk in the footsteps of the Anzacs, want to pick up a cooking tip or two from an Italian nonna or sing along to your favourite band, there is a trip for that.

Anna Shannon, a former Flight Centre travel agent, set up a website called TravelAgentFinder.com.au that helps connect travellers with agents that specialise in specific areas of travel. It could be as simple as finding a Disneyland expert, or as complex as someone looking to trace their ancestor’s footsteps on the Western Front.

“Themed travel is definitely on the rise and it makes sense to me,” the travel expert says. “Travelling is awesome, but when you’re travelling with like-minded people who share your passion for X, Y or Z, it’s an even more enriching experience.”

She says music themed cruises are gaining in popularity, as are crafting cruises, sport-themed travel packages and yoga and wellness tours that combine a love of yoga with traditional yogi cultures to countries like Indonesia, India or Sri Lanka.

Anna Shannon helps match travellers with their interests through her travel website.

Scipione says her crafting cruises are usually more about the connections people make on the trip than the knitting or the destinations they travel to.

“I can tell you about six million stories of the friendships that have formed at our knitting sessions, especially amongst solos,” she says. “There was one lady who used to cruise with her husband before he died and now comes along to our craft cruises. She told me it actually saved her, and I believe her because we could see she was in a bad place when she came into the shop.”

As you might expect, the majority of the crafters are older ladies. But Scipione says young knitters are increasingly attracted to the concept with three generations, including a 10-year-old girl, joining them once.

Mat McLachlan combined his love of history with his family’s business in travel when he launched Mat McLachlan Battlefield Tours in 2008. That first year the historian and author took 34 people on an ANZAC Day on the Western Front tour, in 2009, he took 50 and in 2010 it ballooned to 600 people.

“All our tours are led by expert historians who bring the history to life and share stories of the ANZACS, so no matter where your knowledge lies, our battlefield tours are designed to be an enriching experience,” says McLachlan who hosts military tours to France, Belgium, Gallipoli, Vietnam, Darwin and more.

cial interest travel incorporates food and wine. Celebrity chefs have long led tours exploring gastronomic centres of the world. Since the early noughties, French chef Gabriel Gate has led food tours of his homeland and now takes river cruisers through Southern France with Scenic. Vietnamese chef Luke Nguyen hosted several food trips on the Mekong River in Vietnam and Cambodia introducing travellers to local produce and then teaching them to cook with them.

Television host Maeve O’Meara launched Gourmet Safaris 25 years ago after she showed her mother’s group to her favourite Lebanese restaurant in Sydney. She started by leading walking tours around Sydney’s food villages, then to locations like Victoria’s High Country, South Australia and Tasmania. Demand led to O’Meara to take her food tours overseas to Sardinia and Corsica, the Greek Islands, Portugal and Spain.

Maeve O’Meara has taken her Gourmet Safaris business to places like Portugal, Spain and Greece to provide travellers with unique gourmet experiences.

“The visits to private homes and estates, both overseas and in Australia, and tapping in to local and regional seasonal food with guided trips through produce markets, cooking demonstrations and classes, there’s nothing like it,” O’Meara says.

Sharon Summerhayes is a cruise specialist and owner of Deluxe Travel and Cruise. She is the highest seller of the famous Rock the Boat music cruises who bring headline acts like Suzi Quatro, Jimmy Barnes and Daryl Braithwaite to the high seas. She says the cruises will charge about 30 per cent more than a standard cruise but for that you get rock shows each night and the chance to bump into the artists at the bar or poolside.

“They are so much fun, especially for single people,” Summerhayes says. “There is such camaraderie among the guests because they all have something in common. You can go to the bar by yourself and you will be guaranteed to find someone with the same music taste as you.

“And by the time you leave the ship, you’ll have 20 new friends.”

Briony Thomas, the cruise specialist who helps Scipione organise her crafting cruises, says she has been so inspired by the interest in themed cruises she wants to launch a true crime cruise.

“You need the niche, or theme, to be really specific or else it won’t work,” says Thomas, director of Tailored Travel & Cruise.

“I thought about doing a friendship cruise, but it’s too broad. Rather, a true crime cruise will bring like-minded people together and friendship will be the result anyway.”

Australian football superstar and Matildas captain Sam Kerr has joined one of the world’s most exclusive luxury watch brands, reflecting on the sacrifices behind a career at the pinnacle of professional sport and revealing she only signed with her new club last week.

As Richard Mille’s first and only Australian partner, Kerr has joined an elite group of global athletes, artists and innovators associated with one of the world’s most prestigious watchmakers.

Speaking in Sydney, the 32-year-old reflected on her next chapter, the extraordinary growth of women’s football and the personal sacrifices required to reach the top of the game.

Founded in 2001, Richard Mille has built a reputation for producing some of the world’s most technically advanced and exclusive timepieces. The Swiss watchmaker is renowned for its use of ultra-lightweight materials, Formula One-inspired engineering and limited-production watches that often sell for hundreds of thousands of dollars and, in some cases, more than $1 million.

Its ambassadors include tennis great Rafael Nadal, Formula One stars Charles Leclerc and Lando Norris, actress Michelle Yeoh and sprint champion Shelly-Ann Fraser-Pryce.

During the Sydney event, Kerr wore the Richard Mille RM 07-04 Automatic Sport, a lightweight model featuring a pink case, blue strap and skeletonised movement. Designed for active lifestyles, the watch reflects the brand’s philosophy of combining high-performance engineering with luxury craftsmanship.

For Kerr, becoming the brand’s first Australian partner is a source of considerable pride.

“Of course, being the only Australian is incredible to me,” she said. “I am very proud to be Australian and I like to put Australia on the map.”

The announcement comes as Kerr prepares for the next stage of her football career following her departure from Chelsea after six-and-a-half years.

While speculation around her future has been mounting for months, Kerr revealed a decision was only finalised recently.

“Everyone thinks that it was decided and I’ve known that (it was) reported that I’d signed somewhere in April, but honestly, I only signed my contract on Wednesday last week,” she said.

“I really hadn’t decided what I was going to do until last week.”

Kerr said she expects details of her new club to be announced around the beginning of July once her Chelsea contract officially concludes.

Despite her excitement about what lies ahead, she admitted leaving one of the world’s biggest football clubs has been emotional.

“I am really sad about it,” she said. “It’s been my home for 6.5 years. I have so many good memories there. I have so many amazing teammates. I’m sad to leave.

“It sucks to leave such a big club like Chelsea too, but it comes to an end to everything, right?”

The 32-year-old also reflected on the transformation of women’s football during her career, describing the Matildas’ rise from relative obscurity to household-name status as one of her proudest achievements.

“What the Matildas have done over the last four or five years has been incredible,” she said.

“The most important thing for me is that you leave the game in a better place.”

Kerr noted that when she began playing, there were few professional pathways for women, limited sponsorship opportunities and crowds that bore little resemblance to those regularly attending matches today.

“We are a part of that generation that still knows what it was like when there was no one in the crowd,” she said.

Today, she said, crowds of tens of thousands remain something the team never takes for granted.

“Even last night we had 20,000 on a Tuesday night nearly. That’s special to us,” she said.

“We feel very lucky that people come out and spend their money and come to a game and watch us.”

Yet behind the accolades, sponsorships and sold-out stadiums, Kerr said there have been significant personal sacrifices.

“I’ve been living out of home since I was 17 years old. I’ve missed a lot of my family’s life,” she said.

“I’ve missed a lot of weddings. I’ve missed funerals. I’ve missed so many things that people don’t see.”

Kerr revealed she was unable to return home for her grandmother’s funeral last year because of football commitments.

“You have to love what you’re doing. You have to want to sacrifice,” she said.

“Everyone makes sacrifices, of course, and what I do is a massive privilege, but there comes a lot of sacrifice with it.”

Away from football, Kerr said Australia remains central to her identity despite spending much of her adult life overseas.

“I think we take for granted in Australia the beaches, the ocean, the open spaces,” she said.

As she prepares for a new club, a new season and a new role with Richard Mille, Kerr said she remains motivated by the same passion that first drew her to the game as a teenager.

“It was really organic,” she said of her relationship with the luxury watchmaker.

“It’s a real family brand.”

Tired of the same old holiday options? Take these trips with a twist for tenacious travellers

Travelling with like-minded people has become the new way to holiday as boutique businesses focus on special interest travel

The Matildas captain has joined one of the world’s most exclusive luxury watch brands, sharing candid insights into the sacrifices required to succeed at the highest level of world football.