Luxury Lodges of Australia

You have your bush camps, you have your harbourside urban design hotels, you have your backpacker haunts in the likes of Sydney's King's Cross. Australia has all that when it comes to lodging. More than that, it has luxury digs, too, superb 5-star luxury resorts and lodges, growing in number, sprinkled around the country.

I discovered this first-hand in February, when I ventured Down Under to check-out three high-end, beautifully realized lodges there. I went first to Wolgan Valley Resort and Spa, just west of the Blue Mountains, in New South Wales; then, to the wine-growing region in the Barossa Valley, South Australia; and finally to the Saffire, on the east coast of Tasmania - "Tassie,'' as I'm learning to call the island. I could hardly have hoped for a better time.

At the Louise, I sat down with Penny Rafferty, executive officer of Luxury Lodges of Australia (www.luxurylodgesofaustralia.com.au). This is a joint marketing group of high-end places, all of them resorts or resort-like, formed in November 2009 to shift the perception among foreign travelers like me of just what is on offer at the high end of the market in Oz.

There are, at last count, 17 member properties, from Queensland, near the Great Barrier Reef, to the west coast near Perth, to the middle of the country, near Ayers Rock (Uluru).

"In the last decade, the luxury experience has changed dramatically,'' Rafferty told me over drinks in the Louise's snug, buzzy bar. "Australia has always been a welcoming and safe destination, but people haven't associated it with luxury.''

And yet, they should. International luxury hotel chains such as Four Seasons, Shangri-la and Ritz-Carlton have got city properties and resorts in Australia. Increasingly, home-grown operators are also going upmarket, both in-town and in-country.

Me, I ate freshly harvested salt-water oysters and drank sparkling wine while standing in a gently flowing tidal river near the Saffire, in Tasmania - er, Tassie; went to a lively farmers' market in the Borassa with Mark McNamara, the gifted chef at the Louise's fine-dining restaurant, Appellation; and accompanied the acutely knowledgeable food and beverage chief cum executive chef at Wolgan Valley as he visited artisan purveyors of food and wine near his resort. In every case, these excursions were fine ways to see the surroundings and learn about local culture, not to mention seeing the flora and fauna that Australia is rightly known for.

Luxury does cost more, to be sure. If you can meet the initial rates and fees, you typically get meals and special, customized spa treatments, walks, boating trips and other ventures included in the overall expense. Since many luxury lodges are located far from towns of any size, this can end up being a surprisingly good deal, as well as being convenient.

Like other elements of the travel industry, luxury took a hit over the past few recessionary years. However, "luxury is coming back sooner,'' Rafferty reports. Besides, she adds, properties like those in her non-for-profit group enable travelers to access "unique Australian experiences.'' As I can attest, she's right.

News From Oz

My trip to Australia this week and last was my fifth or sixth time Down Under. I've always had a good time but none better than this.

Surroundings had something to do with it. I stayed in posh resorts in gorgeous locales - all members of Luxury Lodges of Australia (www.luxxurylodgesofaustralia.com.au) most of the time. When I wasn't doing that, I was in a chic city hotel: Blue Sydney, a Taj Hotels, Palaces and Resorts property right on the water (www.tajhotels.com/sydney). Everywhere I went, the hospitality was sterling, the food was toothsome, the wine was great. What's not to like?

I'll have detailed accounts and reviews on this blog in the weeks ahead, as well as links to my published articles on paper and on the Web. In the meantime, just a few observations about travel in Oz:

Australia is still very friendly and safe for international visitors, yet there are fewer of us right now than in recent years. There are several reasons for this, led by the lousy economies in Europe and the United States, which are causing people to stay home.

Another problem is the strong Australian dollar (AUD), which trades at $1.08 USD - way up from 64 U.S. cents just a few years ago. China is buying all the coal the Aussies can dig from under their mineral-rich land, and the booming mining export sector has driven up the value of the Aussie dollar. The takeaway for travelers: This once-affordable continental country is now pricey.

The inbound arrivals numbers tell the story. U.S. visitors were down 4 percent in 2011 from 2010, British travelers declined 11 percent, Japanese tourists dropped 16 percent and arrivals from the continental countries of the European Union plummeted by a jaw-dropping 40-plus percent. This, as reported in the national newspaper The Australian.

The weather isn't helping. This year's Southern Hemisphere summer has been a bust in some of the most tourist-friendly parts of the country. Friends and associates in Sydney - the main gateway from North America - told me it's been humid and rainy all summer. "Bucketing,'' as they say of heavy rain in Oz. Indeed, the city was muggy, foggy and showery when I arrived - though it was comfortably warm, dry and sunny the day I departed. That allowed Sydneysiders to go back to being their outdoor-loving selves, if only briefly.

Up the east coast, Queensland is still recovering from last year's typhoon and disastrous floods. The inevitable government inquest is looking into the failure of a dam and I got the feeling someone is bound to lose his job over that.

So far, so dismal. But Australia is never down for long. It remains an amazing destination, with its unique flora and fauna, dramatic landscapes, dynamic cities and the aforementioned friendlies, food and drink.

I'll be highlighting the pleasures of the places I visited: Wolgan Valley Resort & Spa (www.wolganvalley.com), a luxury retreat in the Blue Mountains west of Sydney owned and managed by Emirates Airline; The Louise, a charming countryside compound surrounded by vineyards in the wine-producing Barossa Valley (www.thelouise.com) northeast of Adelaide; The Saffire, a drop-dead gorgeous waterside getaway on the East Coast of Tasmania (www.saffire-freycinet.com.au); and the Blue Hotel Sydney.

Much more to come on all this, mate.