Your questions: What's the best way to travel around Sicily?
From here, an optional inclusion is Hangzhou, an 11-hour train ride. Hangzhou is one of China's most beautiful cities, sprawling across the banks of the Qiangtang River. A highlight is West Lake, where willow-lined banks, temples, pavilions and arched bridges backed by misty hills has fuelled the imaginations of painters and poets over generations.
Hangzhou is also the gateway to the Longjing Tea Plantations, source of dragon well tea, celebrated across China for its fragrance, flavour and elegance. Hangzhou has been a centre for the silk trade for thousands of years and the city maintains its historic connection with it via its lively silk market and the China National Silk Museum. The fastest trains from Hangzhou to Beijing take four and a half hours.
My husband and I finish a European river cruise in Budapest in the early European summer. We would like to see a little more of Hungary and then tour Romania. We are happy to join a small-group tour. Are there any companies you can recommend and must-see destinations?
J. Mulders, Menai, NSW
Apart from Budapest, the main sites to include in a tour of Hungary are Pecs for its early Christian Necropolis, its cathedral and its vibrant arts scene; the Tokaj Wine Region; Lake Balaton, the largest lake in Central Europe; Szentendre which is famous for its Baroque architecture, churches, colourful houses and narrow, cobbled streets, and Eger, which has a handsome medieval castle, thermal baths, Baroque buildings and the most northerly Ottoman minaret.
Most tour operators tend to lump Hungary together with Austria, the Czech Republic, Poland or all three. One of the few operators that offers tours of Hungary is JayWay Travel, which has a 12-day independent tour, with accommodation, transport and guides provided. In Romania the main drawcard is the Transylvania region, home to Saxon towns with fortified churches, Peles Palace, a neo-Renaissance castle built on the late 1800s by King Carol I and Sighisoara, the birthplace of Vlad Tepes, the inspiration for Count Dracula in Bram Stoker's novel. Here you can also see bears in the wild, and Romania has Europe's largest population of brown bears.
A longer journey would take you north into the rolling hills of Maramures, a rich rural tapestry of villages dominated by timber church spires and high pastures where enormous dogs guard flocks of sheep from wolves. To the east are the painted monasteries of the Bukovina region. To organise a tour of Romania, contact Diana Condrea of Uncover Romania.
I have been on an African safari and would love to take my adult children, their partners and one grandchild to Kenya and Tanzania for about two weeks. That's five adults plus one child. We are happy to stay in tented camps and a lodge or two. Is it possible to do it for about $40,000 excluding airfares?
J. Stewart, Turner, ACT
That sounds like a reasonable budget for your group. Sydney-based Bench Africa are the experts, they've been taking Australian travellers on African wildlife safaris for decades, and they can tailor a tour to fit your needs. Tent-based camping safaris are an excellent concept for family groups, offering immersion in the 'real' Africa, as well as a high level of comfort at a reasonable cost.
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Perth Now
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Though now based in London, De Gouw, who grew up in the Perth Hills and studied at Curtin University, has spent the past couple of months in Sydney, reconnecting with her partner of several years, Sophie Roberts. It's been a little over two years since De Gouw first spoke about falling for Roberts, who works as a hairdresser in Sydney. In a 2023 interview with Vogue, she shared the logistics and the love behind maintaining such a long-distance relationship: 'we work in creative industries and don't know where our next jobs will be, so we have to be up for the adventure'. 'We just make the best decisions for each other and ourselves, and what we want, and what makes us happy, and see where the wind blows us,' she told the magazine. 'It's really exciting to be able to be that open about the future.' Jess De Gouw as Olivia in The Survivors. Credit: Netflix © 2025 Five years after their first date, the couple is still commuting back and forth — this Perth pit stop is just one in a long line for De Gouw, who is constantly on the road. 'I have been (in London) for maybe 12 years now, and it's very much home,' she says. 'But because Soph is in Sydney, it's very, very long distance — we are all just about navigating that . . . 'I am either with her or in London, and following jobs — we're very all-over-the-shop.' For now, she's immersed in jiggling a baby and helping unpack boxes, but not for long. In a few days, she'll head back over east, then back to London in time for the European summer. There are as-yet-unannounced work opportunities to get started on, the latest in a long line of high-profile jobs De Gouw has scored since starting her career in 2006 on the children's series The Sleepover Club. In the almost two decades since, the 37-year-old has carved a place as one of the country's most in-demand actors, working across film and TV productions around the world. Just over a decade ago De Gouw briefly relocated to Los Angeles, where she scored leading roles in two major television productions: the superhero series Arrow and Dracula, in which she starred opposite Jonathan Rhys Meyers. She came back to Australia to shoot the film Cut Snake, directed by Tony Ayres, who is also the creative force behind De Gouw's most recent project, a TV project for Netflix, The Survivors. Based on the novel by Jane Harper, the six-part limited series tells the story of Kieran, played by The Lord Of The Rings: The Rings Of Power star Charlie Vickers. Kieran returns home to the fictional Evelyn Bay in Tasmania with his partner Mia (played by Yerin Ha, who'll soon be seen as the lead in the upcoming season of Bridgerton) to spend time with his ailing father and emotionally distant mother. 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Sydney Morning Herald
4 days ago
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Your questions: What's the best way to travel around Sicily?
From here, an optional inclusion is Hangzhou, an 11-hour train ride. Hangzhou is one of China's most beautiful cities, sprawling across the banks of the Qiangtang River. A highlight is West Lake, where willow-lined banks, temples, pavilions and arched bridges backed by misty hills has fuelled the imaginations of painters and poets over generations. Hangzhou is also the gateway to the Longjing Tea Plantations, source of dragon well tea, celebrated across China for its fragrance, flavour and elegance. Hangzhou has been a centre for the silk trade for thousands of years and the city maintains its historic connection with it via its lively silk market and the China National Silk Museum. The fastest trains from Hangzhou to Beijing take four and a half hours. My husband and I finish a European river cruise in Budapest in the early European summer. We would like to see a little more of Hungary and then tour Romania. We are happy to join a small-group tour. Are there any companies you can recommend and must-see destinations? J. Mulders, Menai, NSW Apart from Budapest, the main sites to include in a tour of Hungary are Pecs for its early Christian Necropolis, its cathedral and its vibrant arts scene; the Tokaj Wine Region; Lake Balaton, the largest lake in Central Europe; Szentendre which is famous for its Baroque architecture, churches, colourful houses and narrow, cobbled streets, and Eger, which has a handsome medieval castle, thermal baths, Baroque buildings and the most northerly Ottoman minaret. Most tour operators tend to lump Hungary together with Austria, the Czech Republic, Poland or all three. One of the few operators that offers tours of Hungary is JayWay Travel, which has a 12-day independent tour, with accommodation, transport and guides provided. In Romania the main drawcard is the Transylvania region, home to Saxon towns with fortified churches, Peles Palace, a neo-Renaissance castle built on the late 1800s by King Carol I and Sighisoara, the birthplace of Vlad Tepes, the inspiration for Count Dracula in Bram Stoker's novel. Here you can also see bears in the wild, and Romania has Europe's largest population of brown bears. A longer journey would take you north into the rolling hills of Maramures, a rich rural tapestry of villages dominated by timber church spires and high pastures where enormous dogs guard flocks of sheep from wolves. To the east are the painted monasteries of the Bukovina region. To organise a tour of Romania, contact Diana Condrea of Uncover Romania. I have been on an African safari and would love to take my adult children, their partners and one grandchild to Kenya and Tanzania for about two weeks. That's five adults plus one child. We are happy to stay in tented camps and a lodge or two. Is it possible to do it for about $40,000 excluding airfares? J. Stewart, Turner, ACT That sounds like a reasonable budget for your group. Sydney-based Bench Africa are the experts, they've been taking Australian travellers on African wildlife safaris for decades, and they can tailor a tour to fit your needs. Tent-based camping safaris are an excellent concept for family groups, offering immersion in the 'real' Africa, as well as a high level of comfort at a reasonable cost.
