Flights To Fancy

Travelling the world in luxury for less a week at a time

Sunshine Coast: Novotel Twin Waters Review

Sydney Fashion Hunter: Novotel Twin Waters Review - Aerial

Recently The Co-Conspirator and I spent a long weekend on Queensland’s beautiful Sunshine Coast. The Sunshine Coast’s 460klm2 covers localities such as Noosa, Mooloolaba, Caloundra and Maroochydore, so choosing just one place to stay was tough. As always, I started my search on Expedia where 461 hotels had availability and were vying for my tourist dollar. Sheesh! After an arduous process of elimination we selected the Novotel Twin Waters Resort based on the trifecta of location, facilities and value. If you are heading to the Sunshine Coast, my Novotel Twin Waters Review is a must read before you book. Read on for all the details …

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Sunshine Coast Markets: 17 Of The Best

Sydney Fashion Hunter: Sunshine Coast Markets: Eumundi Purple Stall

I love a market. There is something magical about wandering around in the sunshine and discovering new, exciting and unique items that you simply can’t find in the soulless mega malls. I try to visit a local market every time I travel. Besides being a whole lot of fun, it really gives you a feel for the place given that most are frequented by the locals just as often as the tourists. You would be mad not to visit one (or more!) of the many Sunshine Coast Markets if you find yourself in this beautiful part of the world. Visitors are spoiled for choice and when I started researching I found more than 25 Sunshine Coasts Markets not too far from where we were staying. If you are only in town for a few days like I was, you are not going to be able to visit them all, so choose wisely. Read on for all the details …

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Skyzone Miranda: Awesome School Holiday Fun

Sydney Fashion Hunter: Skyzone Miranda - Entrance

It’s school holidays in Sydney. Again. I mean, do these kids ever go to school? You may think that given my ‘boys’ are well past their high school days that this wouldn’t even be a blip on my radar. Not so. By virtue of the fact that I had my kids young and my friends didn’t, I often find myself surrounded by ankle biters and having to work in with the school calendar, so yes, I am acutely aware of when school holidays roll around. Well that, and the fact that I never book my trips in school holidays as it’s virtually impossible to score a bargain flight (read more of my tips on that here). It’s not all bad, I do genuinely like hanging out with the rug ruts as it keeps me feeling young. My friends are always looking for something new, fun and exciting to amuse their offspring so when the opportunity was presented to me to visit Skyzone Miranda shortly after their grand opening, I jumped at the chance. Literally! So what is Skyzone exactly? And what did the kids think of it? Read on for all the details …

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Gold Coast QLD: From A Veteran

Sydney Fashion Hunter - Gold Coast - Surfers Paradise Beach

The Gold Coast is an Australian tourist mecca. Almost 12 million visitors a year are drawn to this 57 kilometre stretch of coastline and like me, many return again and again. I was just sweet 16 when I first visited after convincing my Mum to take one of my friends and I up for a week of fun in the sun. In those days flying domestically in Australia was prohibitive and for most ‘normal’ families a homegrown holiday meant a good old fashioned road trip and sleeping in a caravan park. My Mum however, was quite a new (and nervous!) driver and was less than thrilled about driving the 12 or so hours to our destination, so we took the train. The next time I visited it was on my very first couples trip with my now husband. We were 19 and not so nervous about driving so we packed up my bright yellow Datsun 200B and hit the road. When my kids were little they loved the place and for a while we were visiting every year until I longed for a change of scenery on vacation. For many young Australians the Gold Coast is their first taste of freedom and holidaying without the ‘rents when they attend the madness that is Schoolies Week. The Gold Coast is brash, bold and quite frankly a little tacky but I wouldn’t have it any other way. With so much on offer it can be daunting navigating the possibilities but never fear as I’m going to share everything I have learned as an (almost) 30 year veteran visitor. Read on for all the details …

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Bali Style: Bringing The Outside In

Bali Style: Azul

Bali is a magical place. This tiny Indonesian island in the middle of the Indian Ocean has been drawing tourists, particularly Australians for many years. I first visited in 1988 for my ‘schoolies’ trip with four of my girlfriends right after we finished year 12. My love affair with Bali was reignited three years ago and I have visited with The Hubs every year since. We now visit twice a year and never run out of amazing things to do in Bali. One of the things that always intrigues me when I visit is the unique Bali style. The Balinese are masters at blurring the lines between inside and out, so much so that the transition is often virtually seamless. Read on for all the details …

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Novotel Canberra: Escape To The Capital

Sydney Fashion Hunter: Novotel Canberra Room

The Hubs and I recently spent a long weekend in Canberra. Why Canberra? Well, The Hubs had a rare weekend off from his grueling roster and he wanted to escape on his beloved BMW two wheeler (more about that in my Biker Chick post here). The maximum amount of time that I can stand sitting on the back of the bike is 2½ hours so we stuck a compass in Sydney and looked at every place within the allotted radius. We discovered we had been to the vast majority of places within our search area and nothing appealed quite as much as Canberra for a return visit. When we discovered that our visit coincided with Enlighten Canberra it sealed the deal. It’s been more than a decade since we have been to Australia’s capital so we made sure we did our research on Agoda before choosing the Novotel Canberra as our home away from home for the two nights. Read on for all the details …

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Surfers Paradise QLD: 16 Rainy Day Ideas

Sydney Fashion Hunter: Things To Do In Surfers Paradise In The Rain

On thing you can’t always control when you travel is the weather. Queensland is touting as being “Beautiful one day, Perfect the next” and boasts an impressive average of 261 days of sunshine a year. We must have visited on one of the other days because we recently spent a rather damp long weekend in Surfers Paradise on the Queensland Gold Coast. We were determined not to let the weather get the best of us and made the most of the odd bursts of sunshine to get out and about and sought out some wet weather activities for when the heavens opened. Finding things to do in Surfers Paradise in the rain is not that hard if you know where to look. Read on for all the details …

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Bargain Airfares: Never Pay More Again

Fash Packing by SFH - Bargain Flights title
*** Updated July 2017 ***

Everybody loves scoring bargain airfares. My biggest saving to date was over $2,200 when I paid AUD$574 (approx USD$430) for two return business class tickets from Sydney to Bali on Air Asia. Yes business class. With flat beds! I would never normally book a business class seat but this error fare was cheaper than flying economy! I travel overseas three or four times a year with a few Aussie short breaks sprinkled in and people often ask me how I can afford to travel so often. Well I’m going to let you in on a little secret, I never pay full price for flights or accommodation. And I mean NEVER. Simple to say right? But how do you actually go about getting bargain airfares? Well wonder no more because I am sharing all my tricks which will have you up, up and away for a fraction of the cost in no time. Read on for all the details …

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