Adventure Travel and Backpackers Expo comes to Melbourne

Put 18-19 February in your diary for the annual backpacker expo to be held in Melbourne. Featuring over 100 travel industry experts this is the perfect place to get travel ideas and deals for 2012. Here are some more details:

18 – 19 February 2012 at the Royal Exhibition Building, (Carlton).12noon – 6pm daily
Talk to over 100 exhibitors at Melbourne’s ONLY Adventure Travel Expo!
There is no better way to go than talking to the experts before planning the trip of a lifetime. Our exhibitors come from all over the world and are there to give you the low-down on all that’s happening out there.

Travelling film festival to visit Katherine: 3-5 February

Uluru.

There’s good reason to head to the Territory this summer if you’re not already up there. The incredible Travelling Film Festival is starting its 2012 season up there with stops in places like Darwin and Katherine. Check out this media release from the organiser’s about it below.

Don’t forget also that both Katherine and Darwin are in the VIP Backpackers network. We have plenty of tour offerings for this part of the country. Click here to view the options! but in short they include amazing places like Kakadu National Park, Uluru, Litchfield National Park and Alice Springs.

VIP Backpackers travel picks for 2012

Okay so it’s that time of year when you need to start planning out your travel for the new year.

There’s no excuse really to get out your diary and start thinking about where you should go. So with that in mind here’s five locations we think would be worth a stop over in 2012.

Here are three destinations featured from the top picks in the January 2012 newsletter.

KYOTO, JAPAN

Okay so Tokyo might be off limits still at present but that doesn’t mean you can’t go to Kyoto. It’s almost 400 kilometres away and one of the most interesting cities in Japan, thanks to a rich history in which it was once the imperial capital. It is of course replete with Geisha, renowned for its beauty in Autumn when the trees turn to gold and crimson and filled with various UNESCO World Heritage listed treasures. So get on over to Japan, enjoy Kyoto and help the people and economy get on their feet in 2012.

Accommodation | Tours

Travelling film festival in the Northern Territory 2-5 February 2012

Pic: Toomelah. www.sff.org.au

If you’re up in Darwin come early February, put this on your must see list. The Travelling Film Festival is hitting town for three days (2-5 February) and will feature Australia’s best films and others from around the globe. The idea of the festival is to bring world cinema to regional Australia. It also travels to Katherine (3-5) and Alice Springs (17 – 20) if you miss the Darwin event and also to numerous places in Queensland and New South Wales.

Happy New Year from VIP Backpackers

Wishing all our travellers and industry workers a safe and happy new year!

It’s been a great year for us as we moved to Sydney and set up camp down there. Don’t forget to visit us in the new year.

It’s been a tough year for Australian, New Zealand and Japanese tourism after all the natural disasters in those countries and we sincerely hope things pick up in 2012.

Finally we hope you all have a terrific party on December 31 wherever you are. We do hope you got to some of the party locations from our newsletter list – if not put them on your list for next year!!

We look forward to travelling with you in 2012…

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Hope you’re enjoying the VIP Backpacker’s Travel Blog. There’ll be an update added every other Friday, so keep tuning in to keep your travel dreams alive! If there are any travel topics you want covered feel free to contact me, Jo, at blog@vipbackpackers.com