East Coast Australia

Lonely Planet Publications, 2011

This neat-little guidebook brought back happy East Coast travel memories and now I’m itching to create more!

Windswept walks recalled from a stay at Wilson’s Promontory in Victoria 30 years ago fired my engines. So, too, the steamy cornucopia of spiced-up pulses supped at Melbourne’s Moroccan Soup Bar — and, oh yes, I got it for a song!

Crocodiles at Cape Tribulation, anyone? White lions at Mogo zoo? Whale watching at Hervey Bay?

Want a “shucking good time”? — try Narooma’s oyster festival in mid-May. Subtropical rainforest? — see Australia’s largest UNESCO World Heritage site that is Queensland’s Lamington National Park.

Details about markets, events, walks, eco-tours, fishing, shopping, transport, tours, theme parks, accommodation, museums, gardens, monuments, maps and more are included. There are also suggested itineraries and at-a-glance summaries of regional offerings.

Two observations: No Tassie. And Sydney hotels are expensive!

Plus a better one: You can buy East Coast chapters for under $5 as PDF downloads from Lonely Planet online.

Summer can’t come soon enough to refresh my affair with the Dawn Fraser Baths in Balmain. Think: Leisurely swims in a sleepy tidal pool topped off by a macaroon love-fest at Adriano Zumbo’s patisserie on the way home. Yum!

Or perhaps Santa will whisk me away this January to the Great Barrier Reef’s Lady Elliot Island, the hippy hinterland of Byron Bay or the bracing breezes of Boomerang Beach?

Should any (or all!) of these dreams come true, I’ll have this book to ensure I’m making the most of the local area and hitting the hippest eateries and historic pit stops along the way.

So, pull your socks up and buy this stocking filler. If you need a holiday as much as I do, this trusty guide will call to you from the shelves, take your hand and lead you gently across white sands to your dream land.

Marjorie Lewis-Jones