Beat the falling Aussie dollar: holiday here

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This was published 10 years ago

Beat the falling Aussie dollar: holiday here

By Jane E. Fraser
Paddling the Mossman River in Queensland. Australia has plenty of highlights worth holidaying at home for.

Paddling the Mossman River in Queensland. Australia has plenty of highlights worth holidaying at home for.

Forget about the falling Aussie dollar, there's a simple way to solve it.

The most common question I get asked when people find out what I do for a living is: what is my favourite place in the world?

The answer is this: if we're talking about overseas destinations, it's Africa, forever Africa.

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But why do we always feel the need to talk about places across the seas?

Why do I feel that if I nominate our homeland, people will be disappointed with the answer?

Australia is an incredible destination, with so many experiences you will have nowhere else in the world, from hanging out with characters in outback pubs to seeing the sun set on Uluru or flying over the Bungle Bungles.

We've got the Great Barrier Reef, Kakadu and Litchfield, Sydney Harbour, the Great Ocean Road, Ningaloo Reef, the Daintree rainforest, 500-plus national parks and kilometre upon kilometre of spectacular coastline – things that people come from all over the world to see.

We've got world class cities, wine regions, museums, history, dinosaur fossils and indigenous culture, plus wildlife ranging from thorny devils to whale sharks.

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Along with diversity we have space; the ability to enjoy most of what is on offer without having to put up with hordes of people.

And while it's a long way from one side of the country to the other, you don't have to fly for 22 hours or wake up at 3am with the jetlag jitters.

International travel is a wonderful thing but we've had a good run over recent years and most of us have only seen a fraction of our own country.

So don't despair over the falling value of the Australian dollar - start spending it at its source.

The tide is starting to turn, with the latest stats showing Aussies are holidaying at home more often, staying longer and spending more.

Travelling in Australia has always been in my thinking because it was something my parents felt strongly about.

I didn't go overseas until I was 18 but by then I'd travelled extensively through nearly all our states and territories.

I know what some of you are going to say: Australia is expensive, a lot of our hotels and attractions are run down and the service can be bloody awful.

True, true and true, but let's focus on the experiences.

I've slept on a deflated air mattress in the mud in order to see Machu Picchu at first light.

I've been bitten by hundreds of mosquitoes in the process of getting up close with wildlife in Africa.

I've slept on the deck of a public ferry to see the glaciers of Alaska and in an old Kombi van to experience America's deserts.

You don't remember the less than glamorous bits; you remember the things you have seen.

If I had to nominate a single favoured attraction in the world, it would be the Okavango Delta in Botswana… closely followed by the Great Barrier Reef, which blows me away every time I visit.

Other Australian highlights have been travelling through the outback in the winter sunshine, swimming in waterfalls in the Top End, wandering among the tall trees of southern Western Australia, hiking through South Australia's Flinders Ranges and four-wheel driving and whale watching on Fraser Island.

If your idea of a good holiday is luxury, we've got plenty of that these days, from five-star retreats in the wilderness to funky design hotels in our cities.

Some love to say that the closest Australia gets to culture is yoghurt, but that's just rubbish.

We have excellent galleries, museums and performing arts – both local and visiting - and we certainly don't suffer a lack of good dining.

We don't have a wealth of old buildings or historical sites to marvel at but we do have plenty of gripping and sometime gruesome tales in our DNA.

We are also finally starting to make inroads with indigenous tourism, with genuine interaction and learning to be found at places such as Mossman Gorge, the Kimberley, the Top End and the Flinders Ranges.

The current status of our indigenous populations is nothing to be proud of, but our indigenous culture certainly is.

Take a trip to the Gab Titui Cultural Centre on Thursday Island and you'll realise how varied and complex our indigenous communities are.

Or take a walk through the Queensland rainforest with an Aboriginal guide and tell me you're not impressed by the number of natural medicines Aborigines have been able to identify and use.

I'm not saying don't go overseas. Just that we've got something pretty damn special right here.

jane.fraser@fairfaxmedia.com.au

Do you prefer to holiday in Australia or overseas? Why? Post your comments below.

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