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
4 min
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.
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.
“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.”
This stylish family home combines a classic palette and finishes with a flexible floorplan
Just 55 minutes from Sydney, make this your creative getaway located in the majestic Hawkesbury region.
4 min
As Paris makes its final preparations for the Olympic games, its residents are busy with their own—packing their suitcases, confirming their reservations, and getting out of town.
Worried about the hordes of crowds and overall chaos the Olympics could bring, Parisians are fleeing the city in droves and inundating resort cities around the country. Hotels and holiday rentals in some of France’s most popular vacation destinations—from the French Riviera in the south to the beaches of Normandy in the north—say they are expecting massive crowds this year in advance of the Olympics. The games will run from July 26-Aug. 1.
“It’s already a major holiday season for us, and beyond that, we have the Olympics,” says Stéphane Personeni, general manager of the Lily of the Valley hotel in Saint Tropez. “People began booking early this year.”
Personeni’s hotel typically has no issues filling its rooms each summer—by May of each year, the luxury hotel typically finds itself completely booked out for the months of July and August. But this year, the 53-room hotel began filling up for summer reservations in February.
“We told our regular guests that everything—hotels, apartments, villas—are going to be hard to find this summer,” Personeni says. His neighbours around Saint Tropez say they’re similarly booked up.
As of March, the online marketplace Gens de Confiance (“Trusted People”), saw a 50% increase in reservations from Parisians seeking vacation rentals outside the capital during the Olympics.
Already, August is a popular vacation time for the French. With a minimum of five weeks of vacation mandated by law, many decide to take the entire month off, renting out villas in beachside destinations for longer periods.
But beyond the typical August travel, the Olympics are having a real impact, says Bertille Marchal, a spokesperson for Gens de Confiance.
“We’ve seen nearly three times more reservations for the dates of the Olympics than the following two weeks,” Marchal says. “The increase is definitely linked to the Olympic Games.”
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According to the site, the most sought-out vacation destinations are Morbihan and Loire-Atlantique, a seaside region in the northwest; le Var, a coastal area within the southeast of France along the Côte d’Azur; and the island of Corsica in the Mediterranean.
Meanwhile, the Olympics haven’t necessarily been a boon to foreign tourism in the country. Many tourists who might have otherwise come to France are avoiding it this year in favour of other European capitals. In Paris, demand for stays at high-end hotels has collapsed, with bookings down 50% in July compared to last year, according to UMIH Prestige, which represents hotels charging at least €800 ($865) a night for rooms.
Earlier this year, high-end restaurants and concierges said the Olympics might even be an opportunity to score a hard-get-seat at the city’s fine dining.
In the Occitanie region in southwest France, the overall number of reservations this summer hasn’t changed much from last year, says Vincent Gare, president of the regional tourism committee there.
“But looking further at the numbers, we do see an increase in the clientele coming from the Paris region,” Gare told Le Figaro, noting that the increase in reservations has fallen directly on the dates of the Olympic games.
Michel Barré, a retiree living in Paris’s Le Marais neighbourhood, is one of those opting for the beach rather than the opening ceremony. In January, he booked a stay in Normandy for two weeks.
“Even though it’s a major European capital, Paris is still a small city—it’s a massive effort to host all of these events,” Barré says. “The Olympics are going to be a mess.”
More than anything, he just wants some calm after an event-filled summer in Paris, which just before the Olympics experienced the drama of a snap election called by Macron.
“It’s been a hectic summer here,” he says.
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Parisians—Barré included—feel that the city, by over-catering to its tourists, is driving out many residents.
Parts of the Seine—usually one of the most popular summertime hangout spots —have been closed off for weeks as the city installs bleachers and Olympics signage. In certain neighbourhoods, residents will need to scan a QR code with police to access their own apartments. And from the Olympics to Sept. 8, Paris is nearly doubling the price of transit tickets from €2.15 to €4 per ride.
The city’s clear willingness to capitalise on its tourists has motivated some residents to do the same. In March, the number of active Airbnb listings in Paris reached an all-time high as hosts rushed to list their apartments. Listings grew 40% from the same time last year, according to the company.
With their regular clients taking off, Parisian restaurants and merchants are complaining that business is down.
“Are there any Parisians left in Paris?” Alaine Fontaine, president of the restaurant industry association, told the radio station Franceinfo on Sunday. “For the last three weeks, there haven’t been any here.”
Still, for all the talk of those leaving, there are plenty who have decided to stick around.
Jay Swanson, an American expat and YouTuber, can’t imagine leaving during the Olympics—he secured his tickets to see ping pong and volleyball last year. He’s also less concerned about the crowds and road closures than others, having just put together a series of videos explaining how to navigate Paris during the games.
“It’s been 100 years since the Games came to Paris; when else will we get a chance to host the world like this?” Swanson says. “So many Parisians are leaving and tourism is down, so not only will it be quiet but the only people left will be here for a party.”
This stylish family home combines a classic palette and finishes with a flexible floorplan
Just 55 minutes from Sydney, make this your creative getaway located in the majestic Hawkesbury region.
