Australia

Once touted as the ‘City of Churches’, Adelaide is making a concerted effort to lose the pious tag and re-express itself as a creative, progressive destination with a kickin’ arts scene, fab restaurants and more bars than you could blitz in a year.

Boutique hotels in Adelaide

The legendary Barossa Valley – home of big, ballsy red wines – makes a divine escape from Adelaide, and is just an hour’s drive to the north.

Boutique hotels in Barossa Valley

Could there be a greater distinction between the city of Sydney, an hour or so's drive away, and the majestic landscape and ribbon of quaint villages that make up the Blue Mountains?

Boutique hotels in Blue Mountains

The charms of Queensland’s capital are both superficial and soulful. Go for the sunshine and nearby beaches, and make time for its riverside restaurants, parks and museums.

Boutique hotels in Brisbane

Some jokingly refer to Byron Bay as the most northern suburb of Sydney – everything you can find in the big smoke is right on the doorstep here too.

Boutique hotels in Byron Bay

It might only be a couple of hours north of Sydney, but New South Wales' Central Coast couldn't be any more different.

Boutique hotels in Central Coast

An hour north of Tasmania’s capital Hobart, the Central Highlands are a long-lost but lovely alpine region of trout-filled lakes and jaggedy mountaintops.

Boutique hotels in Central Highlands

An hour or so north of South Australia's more famous Barossa Valley, the historic Clare Valley in the Mid North district punches well above its weight in the wine stakes.

Boutique hotels in Clare Valley

Victoria's Great Ocean Road, aka the B100, south-west of Melbourne, is one of the most famous drives in Australia, and for very good reason.

Boutique hotels in Great Ocean Road

Incredible coastlines, lush valleys, ancient mountain peaks, colonial heritage, succulent seafood, world-famous wildlife and a historical harbour – you couldn’t ask for more.

Boutique hotels in Hobart

One of the global capitals of New World wine making, Australia’s green and glorious Hunter Valley is the ideal destination for antipodean explorers looking to combine the palatable with the picturesque.

Boutique hotels in Hunter Valley

Touting itself as ‘Australia’s Galapagos’, Kangaroo Island (KI) has an amazing proliferation of wildlife – in the sky, the scrub and the sea.

Boutique hotels in Kangaroo Island

Boutique hotels in Launceston

With its soaring volcanic peaks, turquoise lagoon, unspoilt beaches and rare plants, birds and marine life, ruggedly beautiful eco-retreat Lord Howe Island should bring out your inner David Attenborough.

Boutique hotels in Lord Howe Island

If Margaret River didn’t exist, someone would have to make it up. Just three hours south of Perth, the region combines natural beauty with phenomenal dining and over 120 wineries that produce a quarter of Australia’s top wines.

Boutique hotels in Margaret River

Set on the banks of the Yarra River, Melbourne has elegant Victorian-era streetscapes, Manhattan-style skyscrapers and an abundance of beautiful gardens.

Boutique hotels in Melbourne

The tourist hordes may head for Queensland’s Great Barrier Reef, but those in the know are talking up Ningaloo – a remote yet ravishing reef off the coast of Western Australia where you can swim among rainbow fish and psychedelic coral just metres from shore.

Boutique hotels in Ningaloo Reef

On a peninsula at Sydney’s northern extremities lies an enclave for the rich, famous and reclusive, including the occasional Hollywood superstar.

Boutique hotels in Northern Beaches

Australia’s most famous state is a land of extremes: one side, vast plains of ruddy bulldust stretch off into the Outback, while off the Pacific coast, the tropical islands of the Reef bask in year-round sunshine.

Boutique hotels in Queensland & Great Barrier Reef

The Red Centre is a ruddy sprawl of desert wilderness in the middle of Australia – a desolate and seemingly endless landscape of dunes and shrubland, with the iconic mound of Uluru towering imperiously at its heart.

Boutique hotels in Red Centre

A small area with a growing reputation, Western Australia's Southern Forests is a nature and gourmet lover's paradise.

Boutique hotels in Southern Forests

With the guarantee of fantastic year-round sunshine, spectacular surf-and-turf landscapes and activities, the emphasis in these parts is on outdoor living.

Boutique hotels in Sydney

The Grampians National Park is known as Gariwerd to the local Jardwadjali and Djadjawurung Aborigines and has been a sacred place for many millennia.

Boutique hotels in The Grampians

One of the world’s few remaining patches of wilderness, this remote patch of Western Australia is a rugged land of plunging waterfalls, jagged gorges and lush tropical flora.

Boutique hotels in The Kimberley

The Top End region of Australia’s Northern Territory is renowned for its tropical weather, rich indigenous culture, national parks and fantastic, laid-back lifestyle.

Boutique hotels in Top End