Travel guide Australian Capital Territory

  It seems when you go on holidays that Mum’s handbag turns into everyone’s bag! The Annabel Trends Shoulder Bag was given a very good road test on our recent family holiday to Lithgow in the Blue Mountains.     When we travel we do a lot of walking with the kids. Everyone has their own camera (around their neck) and their own drink bottle; I make sure I carry snacks and treats to keep everyone going, too. Then there are the beanies, jackets, towels, sun cream and everything else that you carry just in case you need it! That not only weighs you down, but also makes it hard to find something at the bottom of the bag, with all the other stuff on top.   However the Annabel Trends handbag is extremely lightweight, yet strong and features long shoulder strap... Read more

  The Magna Play Magnetic Puzzles from Haggus and Stookles is a cute little metal suitcase that opens to reveal magnetic pieces in all shapes and sizes, designed to get kid’s imaginations working, as they create all manner of objects from fairies to robots to animals. To help them along, there is a booklet with easy to follow designs, but we found our girls got the hang of it quickly and were soon making up the most intricate things.   Each brightly coloured magnet is quite thick so they are easy for little fingers to gently put into place and pick up. When we covered over 1,700kms in three days, we found the Magna Plays to be the most popular toy, and the one that kept the kids the quietest as they thought about what to make next.   The girls would open the suitc... Read more

Lisa Monk is a marketing communications writer with a diverse background that includes experience in travel, hotel, finance, public relations and advertising. She has worked with Club Med, the Holiday Inn group and on a number of other travel projects on a freelance basis. Lisa has travelled throughout Australia, Asia Pacific, North America and Britain. Lisa now works with occupancy.com, which powers both takeabreak.com.au and rentahome.com.au, as the editor of the Holiday Inspirations website and newsletter, and other e-publications. She lives in Sydney with her husband and sons.   Kylie-Jane Degeling is a freelance writer who has lived in Adelaide,Yulara (Uluru), Alice Springs and Canberra, as well as five different countries throughout the world. After backpac... Read more

  We all love to relax and get away from the stresses and responsibilities of everyday life, but more and more we realise the fragility of the many wonderful eco systems that comprise the Australian continent. We want to be able to leave our troubles behind and there is an inspiring way to do that, make memories and leave only footprints on our stunning landscape.   We have rounded up five of the top eco-friendly destinations on takeabreak.com.au to help you choose a holiday that leaves you – and our country – in good shape.   Anketell Forest, NSW Anketell Forest has history, location and eco awareness all rolled into one lovely property. All the timber used in the extensions, fittings and furniture was salvaged from fallen trees and milled and handcrafted ... Read more

Once upon a time, planning a holiday was both time-consuming and expensive. It could involve a lot of map reading, phone calls and visits to bookshops or the library. Doing all that research and then developing an organised system to record all your findings was a major trauma. Thanks to the internet, everything is now so much easier - and often cheaper, too. For our Great Ocean Road accommodation, I went to the local travel agency and picked up a few tourist brochures on the areas we intended to visit. These are useful to get an idea of the significant sites and tourist spots, so I can choose to include them in our itinerary – or, in some cases, avoid them.   I then worked out a route using the NRMA Trip Planner, www.drivethere.com.au, which gives you the distance betwe... Read more

Family-friendly, pet-friendly, hosted accommodation at Gungahlin B&B This traditional hosted in-home B&B caters for the whole family! Children are welcome and everything from sippy cups to childrens DVDs and the Disney Channel are provided at no extra cost. There's a guest living area plus kitchen/laundry facilities available and a huge fully fenced backyard and a range of paper and pencils, toys and board games for the whole family, not to mention the Wii games. Even breakfast is child-friendly with popular children's cereals available, child-sized portions of bacon and eggs and juice or hot chocolate! Even children with allergies and food intolerances are catered for, gluten/egg/dairy-free our pleasure. A full breakfast is included in the tariff. Gungahlin Homestay... Read more

 If you’ve ever watched the classic Aussie movie The Man From Snowy River, you may have found yourself longing to grab a horse and head out on an equine adventure.  When we dig deeper into Australia’s great movie vault, we discover many films featuring horse riding throughout the country. While for many films, this is logical given they are period pieces, the reality of our vast, ever-changing landscapes simply make horse riding a fun thing to do in this country. This is why, whether you are a complete novice or ride horses on a regular basis, you might want to consider including a ride into the sunset on your next holiday break.  New to horse riding? Before you book yourself on a week-long horse riding excursion in the Snowy Mountains, it’s importan... Read more

Undertaking a four month journey around Australia with two young girls requires careful planning and preparation. Our WAECO Products have made our camping life much more enjoyable. CoolFreeze CF-80 The most essential item is our CF-80 fridge/freezer. The biggest benefit of the CF-80 is the ability to combine a fridge and freezer in one unit. Having a freezer has enabled us to stock up on meat and other frozen products on special saving us a great deal of money. With the children, it has also meant we can carry food items that can be prepared quickly to satisfy hungry tummies.   The large 80 litre capacity has enabled us to carry a huge range of foods and drinks such as frozen meat, ice creams, ice cubes, juice, margarine, deli meats, left-overs, beer and wine, all at appropriate t... Read more

The one thing about luggage and bags is that they must leave the house - and our sight - in order to do their job. Make it easy to recognise your luggage, briefcases, school bags and more by using stylish, personalised tags from the Bag Tag Studio.  There are plenty of wonderful templates to help you on your way and the tags are delivered to you. You can even purchase gift certificates for friends. For your chance to win one of 3 gift certificates for 2 matching personalised luggage tags from The Bag Tag Studio , tell us your story - funny or disastrous! - about a time when your bags were lost. About Bag Tag Studio's Tags All tags are made of a durable plastic card - similar to, but thicker than, a credit or ATM card. Actual size: 54mm x 86mm. Straps are heavy duty plastic lo... Read more

Asus Eee PC 1005HA-H Seashell Review Reviewed 4-18th November 2009   The Asus Eee PC 1005HA-H Seashell is the perfect little laptop to take on your next family holiday. It is small, lightweight, yet still able to complete all of the holiday tasks while you are away.   The Eee PC is great for viewing those holiday snaps at the end of the day with the 10.1" LED screen and MMC/SD (SDHC) card reader (the memory card from your camera). You can delete the ones the kids took of the ground and the back of each other's heads (!) and transfer the rest onto the 250GB hard drive (yes, that'll hold a lot of photos) ready for the next day's adventures. The long battery life of this fantastic netbook is also a winner while on holidays. As I write, the battery is at 96% capacity wit... Read more