Most Memorable Trips We’ve Designed This Past Decade: Peggy’s Travels Through the Australian Outback

Peggy has long been one of ActiveTravels’ most beloved clients because she returns year in, year out to the same destinations, particularly India and Australia. You can’t push the typical highlights tour on her since she’s already peeled that onion back 10 layers. You must dig deep to find authenticity. In Australia alone, she has traversed the remote Northwestern part of Australia from Broome to Darwin, flew to one of the outlying Great Barrier Reef islands, and has crossed Tasmania. But the trip I remember most is the one where she wanted to visit Aboriginal art communities in the desolate Australian Outback. We’ve had clients visit Alice Springs to climb Ayer’s Rock, for example, but no one who wanted to use Alice Springs as their hub to see surrounding indigenous villages, often hundreds of miles away. I scoured the internet and found nothing. Then I want on a Sydney-based travel advisor chat room and found a recommended company called Spirit Safaris that lo and behold offered a weeklong Central Deserts Aboriginal Art Tour. In March 2018, Peggy and the owner of the company, Richard, drove to such obscure outposts as the Nyinkka Nyunyu Art & Culture Centre, Warlukurlangu Arts at Yuendumu, and Aboriginal Art Centers at communities including Amata, Ernabella, Fregon, and Iwantja. Fantastic!

World’s Most Picturesque Routes According to Instagram Data

Chapmans Peak Drive, South AfricaJudging from the amount of driving routes ActiveTravels is designing right now for clients headed across America, this summer proves to be the year of the road trip. The UK’s Pentagon Motor Group analyzed over 7 million Instagram hashtags to find the most scenic road trips around the world, calculating the number of photos posted on Instagram of each road per mile. Australia’s Great Ocean Road came in first with 8418 pictures per mile. The rest of the top five are California’s Big Sur, Jebel Hafeet in the United Arab Emirates, Hai Van Pass in Vietnam, and Chapman’s Peak Drive in South Africa, which I can personally attest to stopping every 5 minutes to take another photograph of stunning jagged mountain peaks and ocean. Check out the list of the Top 20 Drives and make sure all are on your wish list!

Bucket List Travel, Australia and New Zealand

Cruising Milford SoundHaving traveled around Australia for 3 months, we feel comfortable designing our own ActiveTravels Dream Day Itineraries to Australia. Depending on time and budget, we can send you to Sydney, Melbourne, Cairns/Port Douglas, and add in some special treats like Ayer’s Rock, biking or hiking in Tasmania, or scuba diving off a Great Barrier Reef island, like Heron.

New Zealand, however, was meant for driving at a slow pace. That is, if you can handle driving on the left-hand side of the road. We’ve enjoyed working with a local outfitter, NZSidekick, that will rent you a car and then design an itinerary with suggested activities and stops at small inns they personally inspect and recommend. Pricing is affordable and it’s a fantastic way to see the country’s topography, from fjords to glaciers to massive lakes and long stretches of secluded coastline. Activities include cruising the majestic Milford Sound, dinner at a Marlborough sauvignon blanc vineyard, and strolling along a beach dotted with hundreds of massive elephant seals.