The World Awaits: travel tales to inspire your wanderlust

"The Eiffel Tower was a crucial tool of espionage when WWI broke out, helping to catch a spy credited with causing up to 50,000 deaths... she was funnelling information back to the Germans after she weaponised her beauty to beguile them," says author of Hidden in Plain Sight, Ronan O'Connell.

Ronan visited 35 countries to research his book, uncovering jaw-dropping and intriguing insights into the world's most popular landmarks - thi...

This week, the travel community farewells Glenn A Baker, who was not only a rock historian and journalist, but an avid traveller who'd visited more than 150 countries, documenting his travels in books and the Australian media. 

An accomplished radio presenter who was instrumental in the creation of radio stations JJ and JJJ, he also presented Qantas' inflight music entertainment for decades. 

Glenn was also our guest on the...

Stylish and sultry, home of the tango, gargantuan steaks and runners up in the World Cup - this week we're going to Argentina! Melbourne-based travel consultant, writer and serial expat Rebecca Arnold has called Buenos Aires home, and is just back from her most recent research trip for her travel planner service, Rebecca and the World.  

We're checking the vibe in Buenos Aires - is tango a cliché, is the wine that good and shou...

We're talking travel books, starting with some of the favourites of the man behind travel guide books, Lonely Planet co-founder Tony Wheeler.

We also chat about our favourite travel books: non-fiction for co-host Belinda Jackson, including modern pilgrimages and some genre-defining classics, and co-host Kirstie Bedford's focus on destination crime, given that's what she writes wearing her authorial crime fiction hat ... although she...

This week have interviews with two remarkable adventurers.

At 50, filmmaker Dianne Whelan set out to walk and kayak the longest trail in the world, the 24,000km-long Trans Canada Trail. 

Her film, 500 days in the Wild, opened recently in Australia and documents her extraordinary six-year journey. She talks about the project, paddling 8000km of water trails and walking, biking and snowshoeing 16,000km.

Our second interview is with...

First up Toby Venus of the Point Hacks podcast joins us to demystify frequent flyer points – how to earn, how to burn and creating a checklist to keep your points in good shape and working for you.   

Coming to you from the Novotel Melbourne Airport, Toby shares some sneaky hacks, and we're talking gift cards, credit cards, hotel loyalty programs and the difference between rewards seats and the perils of the points-p...

This week, we’re taking you on some of our own recent travel adventures from the postcard-worthy South Island of New Zealand to the wilds of South Africa.  

First up, Belle takes us on a self-drive safari through Kruger National Park and a stay in peak luxury game reserve Sabi Sabi with expert travel planner Travel Africa Your Way and she also e-bikes to the Cape of Good Hope, South of Cape Town, thanks to new tour compan...

Welcome to our Winter Series! This week is all about hiking, from the French Camino to the wilds of Tasmania.

But first, we have a winner for our competition!  Truc Pham has won a night’s stay at the Moxy Sydney Airport hotel, buffet breakfast for two at the Moxy Kitchen, return airport shuttle transfers and up to 14 nights valet parking at the hotel! See marriott.com

Onto our winter series, Kirstie is chatting with UTrack...

Hey set-jetters, it's the movie episode, and Belle is teaming up with our entertainment reporter Alaisdair Leith to talk the best of travel films. 

We’re chatting movie destinations, because  set-jetting is one of the hottest trends in travel at the moment, where you decide where to travel based on something you saw in a movie. But also, we want you to take this as a list of movies you should watch on your way to you...

This week, we are celebrating our third birthday! Yes, we're basically toddlers! 

Please indulges us as all three of us - Kirstie, Belle and our sound producer Alaisdair share their favourite interviews, from the woman walking the length of the earth to eating on the Amalfi Coast, and best travel fashion hits and misses. 

And to our interview this week, we merge two of the hottest trends in travel right now - small-ship cru...

Would you let readers of your blog choose where you travel? Carole Rosenblat did, and it’s seen her travel to 74 countries around the world. 

The freelance journalist, copywriter, and small-group tour operator started interactive travel site Drop me Anywhere in 2014, letting readers choose where she travels - and it can be anywhere in the world.

This week, she talks to us about how she came up with the idea, and how it led...

At 50, filmmaker Dianne Whelan set out to walk and kayak the longest trail in the world, the 24,000km-long Trans Canada Trail. 

Her film, 500 days in the Wild, opened recently in Australia and documents her extraordinary six-year journey. She tells Belle about the project, paddling 8000km of water trails and walking, biking and snowshoeing 16,000km across land on a journey that has defined an entire decade of her life. 

She...

You might need the tissues for this one. This is the heartfelt story of Silva McLeod, the first Tongan woman to become an airline pilot, who wrote about her incredible journey from 'Island Girl to Airline Pilot' in a memoir of that name.  

Silva always dreamed of becoming a pilot, but never imagined it'd come true until she met Ken, who she eventually married, but it wasn't until a near-death experience that she pursued her lif...

White ski gear? Wearing pink on safari? Are shoes optional on flights?

Hosts Kirstie and Belle ask the big questions about what to wear when you travel. We're talking dress codes on cruises, debate the merits of zip-off trousers and share a couple of our favourite savvy travel clothing buys.

Should we make more of an effort to dress nicely for flights? Pyjamas in public?  When are too many sequins never enough? 

Strong opini...

Slowing down, connecting with nature and managing mental health are all the benefits of barefoot hiking, says our interviewee this week.
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Dale Noppers is a safety professional in Western Australia who has been taking people barefoot hiking for more than seven years. He talks this week about the reasons it's so important to get your shoes off, and explains some simple ways to get started in your own backyard. 

We also cha...

How do you like to see wild animals? From the comfort of a guided safari vehicle? What about driving by yourself or perhaps by ebike? Host Belle Jackson tried all three options in South Africa recently, and shares her successes. 

We're talking the all-inclusive and exceptionally knowledgeable experiences provided by leading luxury safari company Sabi Sabi Game Reserve; sabisabi.com 

And also, what it's like to self-drive th...

Rob Goss is a UK-born, Tokyo-based writer who has lived in Japan for almost two decades and authored more than a dozen books about the popular island nation. 

His latest book, Another Japan (Gestalten, Sep 2026), with photographer Irwin Wong, looks at community, rejuvenation, and cultural preservation in non-urban Japan.

Here, he talks to us about some of the best lesser-known places to go, and he has some top tips for first-tim...

Come to Central Asia's forgotten country, Afghanistan. This episode, we are joined by Afghanistan’s first female tour guide, Fatima Haidari, and adventure travel company Untamed Borders' founder James Willcox, who is the author of the new Brandt Afghanistan guidebook. 

From Herat and now living in Italy, Fatima leads virtual tours through Afghanistan, a tribal country with enormous diversity. She talks not only about the ...

Travel has taken a huge hit with the Middle East crisis now entering its fifth week, and it can be challenging to keep up with what you should and shouldn't do with travel plans during these significant and devastating world events.

This week on our Hot Take, hosts Belinda Jackson and Kirstie Bedford bring you the good and the bad news to help you navigate this uncertain time when it comes to travel plans – with some positive ...