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Backpacking round Australia, Hong Kong, New Zealand, Singapore, Malaysia & Thailand

Adam — Wed, 25 Nov 2009 13:35:07 +0000

Back in 2002 I set off on a 9 month trip around the world (well a little bit of it). I went to Hong Kong, Australia, New Zealand, Singapore, Malaysia and Thailand. On my travels I stayed in a mix of different types of accommodation; hotels, apartments, hostels, beach huts and tents.

In Hong Kong I stayed in a hotel for 7 nights on Hong Kong Island. It was worth starting the trip with a bit of luxury as I knew there would be far worse places to follow.

I then moved on to Australia, where me and my mate spend 2 months in Sydney in an apartment with 2 girls we knew from the UK. The place was complete with swimming pool, sauna, gym and roof terrace. We then bought a car and drove 26km around the country staying in hostels in the cities and campsites win the desert.

We then did the hostel thing in New Zealand when a couple we were travelling with decided they wanted a bit of privacy and got a camper van and drove round both islands.

In Singapore, and Malaysia it was hostels all the way, and then to Thailand where we ended the trip in a beach hut on Ko Pha Ngan. Although we were pretty skint by this point even the cold water showers didn’t dampen the spirit. It’s well worth going backpacking – even on a shoe string budget.

Ski Accommodation in Italy

Adam — Mon, 16 Nov 2009 13:26:58 +0000

I love skiing and have been on 4 trips over the past 4 years. My first ski holiday since I was 16 with school saw me tackle the Austrian slopes in Kitzbuhel. My brother and I went with a few mates and stayed just outside the town centre in a small chalet privately owned by an Austrian family.

The year after I went to Tignes in France, which is over the mountain from Val D’Isere where I stayed in a luxury chalet that was fully catered for with 14 friends.

The last 2 years I’ve been to Cervinia in Italy where we stayed at a very nice hotel called Hotel Compagnoni. It was family owned with breakfast included although we had to go out for evening meals. The rooms, food, and staff were amazingly friendly and it’s ideal for the ’ski to your door’ life that makes the week long trip a lot easier. I’d recommend this hotel to anyone, and give it a 4 out of 5 overall. Cervinia is an ideal location if you want to save money on your accommodation and then ski across the border to Switzerland to take full advantage of the slopes over there.

Hostels in Melbourne

Adam — Tue, 03 Nov 2009 13:38:04 +0000

I went backpacking back in 2002-2003 around Hong Kong, Australia, New Zealand, Singapore, Malaysia and Thailand and had really good experience of staying in hostels. You hear some nightmare stories from time to time of people getting bed bugs, people snoring loudly, people invading your privacy etc but I had no bad experiences at all.

My favourite hostel was in Melbourne, a hostel called the Exford Hotel which was a proper laugh, full of people up for a good time. Me and my mate were travelling with a couple so they got a room for the 2 of them, whereas we went for a 4 person room because it was cheaper. The 2 other room mates were real part animals and the benefit of the hostel was that there was a pub/bar downstairs complete with pool table and juke box and the bar seemed to be open 24 hours a day.

We had many a good night having a few too many beers and blasting out Oasis on the juke box to remind us of our roots. We even got kicked out of the pub one night for playing too much Oasis, but they took it on the chin and let us back in the same night! We were in Melbourne to coincide with the F1 Grand Prix and saw David Coulthard win the race that year.

If you’re going to Melbourne and are on a budget you can do far worse than the Exford Hotel.