Once again, a particularly beautiful setting for a hotel, the Fairmont Jasper Lodge. The world famous Jasper golf course is in the grounds of the hotel. Our cabin sits near the edge of the lake and we can see a wedding rehearsal nearby. Many of the young staff here, as elsewhere in Canada, are from Australia. In fact many resorts and attractions have their employees’ name, as well as their city and country, on their nametag. The boy who delivered our luggage is from Grafton. He is particularly excited to hear that there are people from Bellingen and Coffs Harbor in our group. It is always good to hear someone from home when you are living far away. He has been here for 15 months. Our free choice activity this morning was rafting down the Athabasca ... read more

Three days of brilliant sunshine helped us to enjoy this lovely city. The first day the objective was a stay awake and recover from the flight culminating in dinner at Fishermans Wharf and a ride back to the hotel in one of the little water taxis they call "pickle boats". We started next day by watching the water taxis perform a water ballet to the tune of the Blue Danube. They are very manouverable and it was quite impressive. We then visited the historic Craigdarroch castle, a stately home built in 1890 for the coal baron Robert Dunsmair lovingly maintained and restored. It is four floors of stained glass, intricate woodwork and lavish Victorian-era furnishings. It has been used for many purposes over the years such as a hospital, conservatory of music and now an historic ... read more

We left a cool and damp London and arrived in warm and sunny Dublin - this however was not to last. As we were told later you do not come to Ireland for the weather. That afternoon the rain started and the following day it continued even heavier. We started our bus tour the day after that and it was still raining. Fortunately by the time we reached Blarney Castle it had stopped and the sun had come out.This great weather was to continue for the rest of our trip. Tour Includes: Airport transfers at start and end of tour Sightseeing by luxury coach Professional tour director 6 nights in hotels listed above Full breakfast daily except on day of arrival (B) 4 dinners (D) including - Merry Ploughboy Pub dinner and traditional show - Bunratty ... read more

Dubai has about 900,000 citizens and about 7 million immigrants from many poor countries who provide the labour in lowly paid jobs. The maitre d' in the restaurant at our hotel works 12-14 hour days , 7 days a week with a 3 hour break in the middle of his shift which allows him to catch up with shopping and washing. He was always smiling and helpful. Dubai citizens pay no taxes, pay 50 cents per litre for petrol, have free medical, dental and education. The medical and education benefits do not extend to non-citizens which means that many immigrants do not bring their families with them. Our city tour took us to the Burj Al Arab - a 7 star hotel, the Burj Khalifa -the world's tallest tower at 828 meters, the Jumeirah mosque - ... read more

We have been extremely lucky to see Iguazu Falls today. There has been a drought and until three days ago the boats that take you under the falls were not running. They started again yesterday. We are staying at the Orient Express hotel inside the National Park so have full view of the falls whenever we like - we don´t have to wait for the park to open. Excitement started this morning when we had an unexpected visitor to the breakfast table. The local racoon type animals , three coatis, stalked across the road, up the steps and one of them went straight for the sugar sachets on our table. The four of us leapt out of the way as we had been told that if we were bitten by one of them we would need ... read more