Rock Stars and People Wearing Socks This Way, Peasants That Way

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The Whitsunday Islands are a wonderful place to visit, but they are sadly well out of the price range of a humble back-packer. In fact, various rock stars own many of them. Consequently we were exiled to the mainland at a place called Airlie Beach.

The boat tour round the islands was not aimed at back-packers and most of the people on the boat were wearing socks with their shorts and sandals, a complete no-no for anyone under the age of 50. I joined up with three Germans from the hostel at Airlie Beach. Now I have not been too complementary of the Germans up to now, with good reason I might add, but these three were classic evidence of the evils of generalising. They were probably the nicest people I met the whole time I was away.

As well as touring round the islands, we stopped off at an underwater observatory, a couple of resorts (which we could only dream of staying at) and one of the best beaches I've ever been on. We also went for a short journey along the coral in a glass sided submarine, which was great for those of us that couldn't be bothered to go on a scuba-diving course.

Along the way, a guy was filming some tedious video - a reminder of a magical time that you will treasure forever - which all the socks were queuing up to buy. No thanks.

So here is another travel tip, although it is also an style tip, if I am qualified to make these. The chances are that wherever you’re going, it is going to be extremely hot. In these conditions, socks are a complete no-no. Firstly, since you'll almost certainly be wearing shorts, socks would be incredibly uncool. Secondly, you can't expect it to be convenient to wash clothes, and smelly, sweaty, rancid socks are not the kind of thing that you would want to carry around in your backpack for any length of time.

We found that flip-flops were by far the most comfortable and practical things to wear, although it’s a good idea to have a pair of trainers in reserve for when you need something more substantial. You'll only need a pair of heavy boots if you're planning on trekking across a polar ice cap, scaling some snow-capped mountain or doing something equally insane, in which case you'll probably need some socks as well.

So my Travel Tip number 7 is "Don't wear socks".

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Photos

Coral Observatory
View from the underwater observatory in the Whitsunday Islands

Coral Observatory
View from the underwater observatory in the Whitsunday Islands

Coral Observatory
View from the underwater observatory in the Whitsunday Islands