Laura Waters

If you want to inhale every smell, sight and sound of a destination, it’s hard to beat a good walk.

A new hotel at Melbourne Airport offers more than just a place to rest your head.

Whether you want to tough it out or let someone carry your gear, there’s a hike or a walking holiday somewhere in the world for you.

I’ve got a new friend I take with me wherever I travel because they’re always full of bright ideas.

Melbourne Airport's trusty Parkroyal has gotten a facelift, one that's set the bar even higher for layover stays.

The joke (if you can joke about dead people) goes that Walhalla Cemetery is so steep its ‘residents’ must have been buried standing up.

The ritual of bathing in dedicated havens has been part of life for many cultures for centuries, and Australia is catching on. Victoria leads the trend with the Great Victorian Bathing Trail route to extend from Metung Hot Springs and Warrnambool’s Deep Blue Hot Springs, but places to soak are also springing up countrywide. Here are 11 of the best.

Australia has way more national parks than any other country in the world – around 680 compared to next-in-line China, with about 225.       Take to the air, take to the sky or take to the water but whatever you do, take some time to visit these national treasures. Here are 10 of the best worth travelling for.

I was 18 when I found myself bouncing along corrugated outback roads in a Ford Falcon XA station wagon amid a Whitsundays-Uluru-Melbourne epic with a boyfriend. Dust turned my hair red and we slept unceremoniously in the back of the car (plenty of leg room) yet that journey was notable, not only for its wondrous beauty but the sense of freedom and discovery it evoked.

It’s beautifully surreal, full of prickly residents, and many people who live even a few hours down the road don’t know it exists. It’s called Cactus Country and here’s what you need to know.

You know you’ve been somewhere special when your body has a physical reaction that your conscious brain isn’t aware of. The prickle of tears when our light plane lifts from the grass runway to whisk us back to Tasmania comes as a complete surprise. Tears! What the?

Midnight Oil is broadcasting through the terminal speakers when I check in for my first flight with Bonza - destination, Sunshine Coast.

A seesaw between indulgence and activity is the best way to play in Margaret River.

There’s a difference between visiting a place and walking it. On foot, the pace is slow, the lens altered, the details rich. It’s a fact that was perhaps never more evident to me than when I tackled the Bondi to Manly Walk, which winds around Sydney Harbour.

I can’t begin to explain the joy of disembarking an airport train after a long flight to walk directly into your hotel. No more transfers, no wondering where on earth to go next, or how to get there. Arrive in Denver via the 37-minute airport train (a dream in simplicity itself) and the heritage Union Station will be your first experience of the Mile High City. It’s hugely impressive and, essentially, forms the lobby of The Crawford Hotel.

From the outside, Swarovski Kristallwelten looks like a Bond villain’s lair but inside it is a visceral experience that has to be seen to be believed, turning precious crystals into stunning works of art.

Wield a spray can on the streets of most major cities and you’ll end up on the wrong side of the law, but not in Denver, Colorado. This city has embraced the paint.

A new trail across the peaks of the Grampians opens the wilderness like never before.