Arrivals & Departures Weekly Travel News & Views 4 February 2025

TWO SPOTS LEFT

I’m excited that we are working with Albatross Tours to present a brilliant tour in Italy in May 2025. And we have just one last twin room (for two guests, we have exhausted our solo-room allocation) available on the trip. It is truly through less-travelled Italy, even though it begins in Venice and ends in Rome. A maximum of 28 readers will leave Mira, near Venice in north-east Italy, on May 27, 2025, and wind their way southwards over 15 days through pretty villages and towns before finishing in Rome. It is a tour personally chosen and endorsed by me — and I am planning to be in Italy to greet the group, host a welcome dinner and spend the first day with our guests, before they head off with our experienced tour manager.

We’ve partnered with Albatross Tours because its personalised attitude and approach fits ours. It is from $10,347 per person, based on twin share, for the tour only. That includes hand-picked accommodation (three nights in some places), tipping, 23 meals, including a special lunch inside the ruins of a deserted village and eight evening meals, and travel in a first-class air-conditioned touring coach. One of the three nights is in a charming 16th century palace in Ascoli Piceno. You can see the full itinerary here.

To request the last spots on this tour, and more information, email info@westtravelclub.com.au (if interested, I’d suggest acting quickly)

HAPPY HANGOVERS

The company which produces alc-eze (which has enzymes to process alcohol and relieve hangover symptoms including headaches) is on the hunt for Australia’s first chief hangover officer (CHO). It is global travel, a $100,000 salary and the chance to test often-bizarre hangover remedies from around the world. alceze.com

CATHAY TO ROME

Cathay Pacific will fly between Hong Kong and Rome from June 5, 2025. The three flights a week are a summer seasonal service but offer an alternative for WA travellers connecting in Hong Kong. Cathay Pacific already flies five return flights a week to Milan. cathaypacific.com

Cathay’s return to Rome comes as the Catholic Church celebrates the 2025 Year of Jubilee. Taking place once every 25 years, the jubilee will feature a host of events and celebrations taking place in Vatican City and Rome throughout the year.

ROVER’S ANNIVERSARY

Rover the golden retriever is celebrating his first year of service as Chief Dog Officer on Royal Caribbean’s Icon of the Seas. A spokesperson for Royal Caribbean says: “For more than 365 days, Rover has lived on the world’s best family vacation, Icon of the Seas, providing paw-sitive vibes and long-lasting memories for vacationers. Working hand in paw with Rover’s chief of staff, Maya Marques Trindade, the two-year-old golden retriever has provided everyone on Icon with moments of joy, surprise, and even a tear or two.” The role of Chief Dog Officer was created in consultation with the leading animal welfare experts at American Humane Society and Royal Caribbean will soon introduce Rover’s new colleague, Sailor, to begin her role as Chief Dog Officer on Star of the Seas in August 2025.

DREW & ORLANDO

Question: Why is the fact that Drew Barrymore and Orlando Bloom are going to star in MSC Cruises’ first ever big 60-second American TV ad campaign relevant to us?

Answer from MSC: “Barrymore and Bloom are joining forces with MSC Cruises ... as part of its ongoing North American expansion.” There will be more voyages, but more guests from their own backyard.

BIGGEST DELAYS

New research shows us which are the best and worst airports for delays in America. The team at sudoku.com.au assessed data from the Bureau of Transportation Statistics and found that Hawaii’s Ellison Onizuka Kona International had the shortest average delays to flights. It averaged just five minutes and 36 seconds. Florida’s Fort Lauderdale-Hollywood International Airport had the longest average delay time, at 22 minutes and 54 seconds.

CHANGI DELIVERS

Singapore Changi Airport handled 67.7 million passenger movements in 2024. That was nearly 15 per cent more than the year before — and 99.1 per cent of the traffic in 2019, before the COVID-19 pandemic.

There were 366,000 aircraft movements.

A smidge under 2 million tonnes of airfreight was moved.

Yam Kum Weng, chief executive of Changi Airport Group, tells us: “Looking ahead, we are optimistic of another year of growth in passenger traffic.”

PILOT TRAINING

Vietjet, which flies direct from Perth to the Vietnamese capital of Ho Chi Minh City, is going to get its pilots trained in the Czech Republic. Vietjet and F AIR, a flight training centre there, have signed a partnership agreement, under which F AIR will provide flight training for pilot trainees at Vietjet Aviation Academy’s (VJAA) Multi-Crew Pilot License (MPL) program in Czech Republic. The program adheres to European Aviation Safety Agency standards and aims to develop skilled pilots for Vietnam’s aviation sector and the broader region. F AIR was founded in 1990 and is one of Central and Eastern Europe’s top private flight schools. Thousands of pilots from around the world have been trained there.

SWINGING VIETNAM

Golf clubs along Vietnam Golf Coast (in central Vietnam) are reporting significant growth in the number of rounds played by Australian golfers. An insider says Central Vietnam is earning a reputation for good playing options, with Laguna Golf Lang Co, Montgomerie Links and Ba Na Hills Golf Club prominent among the area’s top clubs.

DRAWN TO JAPAN

Nearly a million Australians visited Japan in 2024 — a 50 per cent increase over the previous year. In total, more than 36 million international visitors arrived in Japan, 920,200 of them Australian (up from 613,062 in 2023).

MOZZIE BITE TIP

On one of our wildflower coach days, I gave a guest a nice tip for mosquito “bites” which I was told by a local in India many years ago.

You put a teaspoon in a cup of tea (actually, any hot beverage or hot water will do) and heat it to “as hot as you can stand” on your skin. Then put the back of the spoon on the “bite”. It cooks and dissipates the protein that the mosquito has injected into your epidermis to prevent your blood from clotting when it is feeding on it.

Reader Linda writes: “Just wanted to thank you for the tip about using a hot spoon to stop a mosquito bite from itching. It actually works.” I’m surprised that she’s surprised. I wouldn’t lie to you.

INDIAN PACIFIC

As you read this, I am aboard the Indian Pacific train to Adelaide and Sydney.

The train is run by Australian company Journey Beyond — and it has just announced a whole new level of luxury in rail travel for 2026. Aurora and Australis — two new luxury suites on the Indian Pacific, The Ghan and the Great Southern from April 2026.

For this year, there is a new itinerary for the Indian Pacific, having added a day to the trip.

You can read about that soon.