Jana Frawley

The bookends of my 2024 cruising life could not have been further apart. In Miami in January, I attended the naming ceremony of Royal Caribbean’s Icon of the Seas, the world’s biggest cruise ship. This gargantuan theme park was designed for 7000-plus travellers to max out their dopamine and adrenaline levels. Thrilling water rides, acrobatic aquatic shows, theatre productions, and 24/7 drinking and dining options dialled the trip up to 11.

As much as I admire Mariah Carey’s romantic Christmas list, it’s a bit frugal for my tastes. I want a lot for Christmas. Not fancy baubles and expensive gifts, mind you, but Christmas clichés and Hallmark movies brought to life.

As you’re here to read about holidays, I’ll skip the academic treatise and go with a Fantale wrapper-length history of Australia’s most famous train: way back in the mid-19th century, camel trains transporting supplies and led by Afghan cameleers played an essential role in the development of Central Australia.

This traveller was among the first to board the new billion-dollar cruise ship Oceania Cruises Vista. Here are the things that blew her away, from the bathroom to the dining room.

Haters gonna hate, but when you tell me cruising’s not for you, I’m convincing you otherwise.

We check out Los Angeles’ most exclusive zip code, where celebrities play, dogs ride in prams and everyone’s an influencer on Insta.

It’s home and a wave as we check in to the newly refurbished Manly Pacific hotel, on Sydney’s northern beaches.

Close to 1000 days after my last international trip, I said au revoir to Australia and bonjour to France.

Without thinking too hard, a list of pre-holiday viewing and reading set in the great destinations of the world is easy to compile. Going to Italy? Get acquainted with the history, culture and romance of the country by reading The Agony and the Ecstasy, A Room with a View, or Elena Ferrante’s more contemporary My Brilliant Friend. Heading to New York? Binge-watch Sex and the City or go for Breakfast at Tiffany’s, When Harry Met Sally, Moonstruck or Woody Allen’s Manhattan. Vegas? Ocean’s Eleven and Thirteen, and The Hangover (I never said this was going to be all highbrow).

In an average week I’d see a Bentley, starting price $275,000, a total of never. In a month, the number’s just the same. Yearly, once, maybe twice. But during a four-day stay in Monaco, I spot at least 25 plus an assortment of customised Lamborghinis, Ferraris, Bugattis, Aston Martins and something that looks like a Batmobile but is possibly a McLaren. Or a Pagani.

When materials such a moss, acorn, twigs and ivy are part of a building’s structure, you could be forgiven for thinking you’re staying in a treehouse.