Deals & Discounts
Sydney Morning Herald
Saturday June 12, 1999
GOOD NIGHT'S WREST
Hobart's Wrest Point hotel has a four-night package to celebrate the colourful refurbishment of its 197 rooms. From $482 a head, including return air travel from Sydney, guests can enjoy rooms decorated in green, blue, yellow, orange, gold, aqua and purple. Those wishing to take their car to Tasmania, from Melbourne by ferry, and stay three or more nights, will receive a $60 credit towards hotel meals and drinks. Details: 1800 030 611, or contact your travel agent.
WHALE AWAY: The Jervis Bay Guesthouse has an ccommodation-and-whale-watching package during June and July and September to November. The weekend rates range from $350 to $410 for two and include breakfasts and a cruise. Also available is a two-night stay that includes Shiatsu or Chinese massages for two and breakfast. It costs from $350 on weekends, cheaper mid-week. Details: (02) 4441 7658.
PRINCELY INDIA: The Classic Safari Company offers a nine-day tour of India for $2,500 a head twin-share. The Palaces and Forts trip includes Delhi, Agra, the Taj Mahal and Jaipur. Price covers return air travel, deluxe twin-share accommodation, breakfast daily and transport in private cars. Guests will stay in two of India's finer heritage hotels, the Samode Palace and the Neemrana Fort-Palace (built in 1464). Prices apply for departures before September 21. Details: 1800 359 088.
VIEW FROM PERU: Pancho Villa Moto-Tours will run a 14-day motorcycle tour of Peru in October which should suit riders with some off-road experience. Groups of eight to 10 people will travel on Honda XR600 motorbikes. A highlight of the 2,700-km tour will be the aerial viewing of the enigmatic Nazca lines - vast designs, drawn on a desert floor aeons ago by people unknown, whose complete form can be appreciated only from the air. There will also be visits to the former colonial city of Arequipa and the great Inca cities of Cuzco and Machu Picchu, and a crossing of the Andes at 4,800 metres. The tour leaves on October 17, and costs about $6,600 excluding international air travel. Details: (02) 6687 1512.
THE FAMILY WAY: The Novotel Twin Waters resort near Noosa is offering to host children under 15 free as part of its Great Deals package. Included are return air travel, three nights' accommodation, use of the gym and bicycles, and free water sports. Two children can dine free at the resort's buffet restaurant, in the company of a paying adult. The cost ex-Sydney is $483 a head, twin-share. The package is available without air travel at $210 a head for three nights, with additional nights charged at $70 a head. Details: 1800 072 277 or your local travel agent.
MALAYSIAN IDYLLS: Malaysia Airlines offers four nights' twin-share accommodation in Kuala Lumpur for $839 a head ex-Sydney, with a free fifth night. Other offers include a six-night stay on the island of Langkawi for $929 a head, twin-share, six nights in Kuching for $899 a head, or six nights in Kota Kinabulu, Borneo, for $1,039. A seven-night cruise of Malaysian islands on the Superstar Gemini costs from $1,695. Details: 13 26 27.
ICE BLOCK: The icebreaker Kapitan Khlebnikov will make a 26-day voyage to the Antarctic later this year, leaving Christ-church on December 15. It will pass the Ross Ice Shelf, Mount Erebus and the Trans-Antarctic Mountains, allowing landings on the Ross Sea coastline. Two onboard helicopters will allow aerial views of the ship's progress and inland sights. Although prices start at $US19,930 (about $30,660) a head, you will be able to say you saw the sun rise on January 1 barely 20 minutes after midnight - before just about everyone else in more northerly latitudes. Details: (02) 9389 7466.
© 1999 Sydney Morning Herald
