EP 16: Max Allen on Australia’s alternative wines & Softcore wellness in south-east Asia

The World Awaits: travel tales to inspire your wanderlust

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Where do you go to step off the beaten track of wine – away from the unholy trinity of chardonnay, shiraz and sauvignon blanc? Author and wine writer Max Allen talks to Belleabout his new book, Alternative Reality: How Australian wine changed course. The book includes the best cellar doors in Australia where you can explore the exciting alternative grape varieties we’re drinking (or should be drinking) now. Keep listening to the end to hear his hot tip of the next big grape varietal… See melbournebooks.com.au

Mat Lewis, of hand-picked luxury resorts group View Retreats, talks to Kirstie about their new wellness escapes, which he dubs ‘discovery and recovery’. He talks about View’s favourite south-east Asian wellness destinations – Thailand, Sri Lanka, Bali, Vietnam and Cambodia. People want to step away, to have downtime, to get away from endless scrolling and to live a more simple, holistic life, says Mat, who is also a qualified life coach practicing for the past decade. See viewretreats.com

We’re also talking about using AI to plan your travel adventures, courtesy of new research from Euromonitor and our top inflight peeves according to Agoda’s Travel Bugbears Survey 2023 (hint: they all smell or sound bad, and don’t get us started on the armrest wars!)

A big shout out to our audio producer Alaisdair Leith. And if you love all things travel, subscribe wherever you listen to your favourite pods, and please give us a rating or review :)

(00:00:31) Top inflight peeves – they all smell bad

(00:05:31) Alternative wine varietals

(00:30:07) Using AI to plan your travel adventures

(00:33:46) New wellness journeys

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