On today’s Destination Special, we’re taking you somewhere that, for so many travellers, represents the ultimate holiday feeling: Queensland, Australia.

This is a state seven times the size of Britain! A place where one trip can take you from the cultural heartbeat and riverside energy of Brisbane, to the al fresco beach lifestyle of the Gold Coast, to ancient rainforest, island life, wildlife encounters, Aboriginal and Torres Strait Island cultures, First Nations storytelling, and one of the seven natural wonders of the world, the Great Barrier Reef.

Known as Australia’s Sunshine State, Queensland is, of course, famous for its blue skies, golden beaches and that blissful sense of switching off the moment you arrive. But as I discovered through making this episode, it is so much more than that.

And that, really, is what makes Queensland so compelling - it’s not just one kind of holiday. It’s a whole collection of holidays in one place. You can wake up in Brisbane, wandering along the river as the city comes to life, stop for brilliant coffee and world-class food, then be out in nature within minutes, perhaps heading to nearby Minjerribah, also known as North Stradbroke Island, for First Nations culture and extraordinary natural landscapes. You can head south towards the Gold Coast for beach walks, coastal drives, wineries, rainforest and incredible produce. Or you can travel north to the Whitsundays, where Hamilton Island, Whitehaven Beach and the Great Barrier Reef deliver that almost dreamlike version of Australia with its turquoise water, white sand, sailing, seafood, and warm tropical air.

Today’s guest is someone who experienced Queensland through one of its great strengths: food. Matt Tebbutt, chef, broadcaster and host of Saturday Kitchen, recently travelled there, eating his way through the state, from riverside restaurants and beachside lunches to extraordinary seafood and island dining.

What struck me most in speaking to Matt was that the food became a way into everything else: the landscape, the wildlife, the culture, the openness, the warmth, and that easy-going Aussie outdoor lifestyle. This episode is wanderlust, guaranteed. So let’s buckle up and get started.

Destination Recap

• Brisbane
• Stanley Restaurant, Brisbane
• Howard Smith Wharves, Brisbane
• James Street, Brisbane
• Lone Pine Koala Sanctuary, Brisbane
• North Stradbroke Island / Minjerribah
• Lady Elliot Island
• The Great Barrier Reef
• Gold Coast
• Rick Shores, Gold Coast
• Tamborine Rainforest Skywalk
• Mason Winery, Mount Tamborine
• The Whitsundays
• Hamilton Island
• The Sundays, Hamilton Island
• Whitehaven Beach
• Catseye Pool Club, Hamilton Island
• Long Pavilion at qualia
• Bommie, Hamilton Island
• Passage Peak, Hamilton Island

Thank you to Tourism and Events Queensland for working with me on this episode. For more information and further inspiration about travelling to Queensland, visit queensland.com.

If you enjoyed this episode, please hit follow or subscribe wherever you’re listening. It really helps the podcast grow, allows me to keep bringing you these incredible guests - and it means you’re delivered a fresh dose of wanderlust each week.

And if you’d like a little more Travel Diaries in your life, you can find me on Instagram and TikTok @hollyrubenstein.

Thanks so much for listening, and I’ll see you on Tuesday.

Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Today’s guest is a global tv star, bestselling author, food obsessive and one of the most beloved members of one of Netflix’s biggest ever shows…Antoni Porowski.

You’ll know Antoni as the much-loved food and wine expert from Netflix’s global phenomenon Queer Eye, where for ten seasons he helped people transform not just the way they cooked and ate, but the way they saw themselves.

Antoni’s own story is such a fascinating journey in itself. In today’s episode, we travel through his life from childhood road trips to the North Carolina coast and the first meal that truly blew his mind, to the trip he saved up for as a young waiter in New York that made him fall completely in love with travel.

We talk about the years before Queer Eye, when he was auditioning, working in restaurants, hustling, and trying to find his way in New York, and what it felt like when the show suddenly changed everything.

And, of course, we dive into his new National Geographic series, Best of the World with Antoni Porowski, which takes him to Paris, Mexico City, London and New York.

Destination Recap:

Holly: AKI Family Resort, Italy

• Pennsylvania, USA
• New York City, USA
• Philadelphia, USA
• Montreal, Canada
• September Cafe, Montreal, Canada
• Rotisserie Italienne, Montreal, Canada
• McGill University, Montreal, Canada
• Mount Royal, Montreal, Canada
• Outremont, Montreal, Canada
• Le Merc, Montreal, Canada
• Bilboquet, Montreal, Canada
• Cape Hatteras, North Carolina, USA
• Dirty Dick’s Crab House, Cape Hatteras, USA
• The Labrador, Cape Hatteras, USA
• Canadian Hole, Cape Hatteras, USA
• Kitty Hawk, North Carolina, USA
• West Virginia, USA
• Vancouver, Canada
• Florence, Italy
• Rome, Italy
• Mexico City, Mexico
• Roma Norte, Mexico City, Mexico
• Rosetta, Mexico City, Mexico
• Canals of Mexico City, Mexico
• Alebrijes Festival, Mexico City, Mexico
• Museo de Arte Popular / Folkloric Museum, Mexico City, Mexico
• Borneo, Malaysia
• Kuching, Malaysia
• Iban longhouses, Sarawak, Malaysia
• Kuching waterfront / canal, Kuching, Malaysia
• Kuching food kiosks, Kuching, Malaysia
• Fire Island, New York, USA
• Long Island, New York, USA
• Ibiza, Spain
• Iceland
• Istanbul, Turkey
• Morocco
• Patagonia, Argentina/Chile

Best of the World with Antoni Porowski premieres June 7 on National Geographic and will be available to stream June 8 on Disney+ and Hulu.

With thanks to...

Richard Haworth - Discover their luxury hotel-quality bedding, towels and table linen at Richard Haworth At Home

Airbnb - Your home might be worth more than you think. Find out how much at airbnb.co.uk/host

If you enjoyed this episode, please hit follow or subscribe wherever you’re listening. It really helps the podcast grow, allows me to keep bringing you these incredible guests - and it means you’re delivered a fresh dose of wanderlust each week.

And if you’d like a little more Travel Diaries in your life, you can find me on Instagram and TikTok @hollyrubenstein.

Thanks so much for listening, and I’ll see you next week.

Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Today’s guest is an adventurer, filmmaker, writer and one of the most extraordinary travel storytellers of her generation.

Eva zu Beck's life reads like something from a film. She was Oxford-educated, working in travel media, married, successful, and living the kind of polished, high-achieving life so many people are told to want. But behind the scenes, she knew something wasn’t right. So she walked away from it all. The marriage, the career, the security, the neatly mapped-out future, and bought a one-way ticket to Nepal.

Over the past nine years, Eva has travelled almost constantly, often to some of the wildest, most remote and most misunderstood places on earth. She has crossed the Mongolian wilderness on horseback, travelled through the mountains of Pakistan living alongside local families, spent months on the otherworldly island of Socotra in Yemen during lockdown, and driven her old Land Rover Defender, Odyssey, from Mexico through Central America and the United States, all the way to the northernmost point of Alaska.

You’re going to love this one guys.

Destination recap:

• Holly - Forestis, Dolomites, Italy
• Carpathian Mountains, Poland
• Marrakech, Morocco
• Nepal
• Mongolia
• Ulaanbaatar, Mongolia
• Gobi Desert, Mongolia
• Pakistan
• Northern Pakistan, Pakistan
• Himalayas, Pakistan
• Karakoram Mountains, Pakistan
• Arabian Sea, Pakistan
• United States
• Montana, United States
• Alaska, United States
• Mexico
• Dalton Highway, United States
• Deadhorse, United States
• Romania
• Carpathian Mountains, Romania
• Transylvania, Romania
• Transalpina, Romania
• Maramureș, Romania
• Socotra, Yemen
• Central Asia
• Russia
• Central Africa
• Sahara
• Northern Canada, Canada
• Patagonia, Argentina and Chile

Eva’s new book, The Wilder Way, is out now, and if you loved this conversation, I think you’ll absolutely love the book too.

With thanks to...

Richard Haworth - Discover their luxury hotel-quality bedding, towels and table linen at Richard Haworth At Home

Airbnb - Your home might be worth more than you think. Find out how much at airbnb.co.uk/host

If you enjoyed this episode, please hit follow or subscribe wherever you’re listening. It really helps the podcast grow, allows me to keep bringing you these incredible guests - and it means you’re delivered a fresh dose of wanderlust each week.

And if you’d like a little more Travel Diaries in your life, you can find me on Instagram and TikTok @hollyrubenstein.

Thanks so much for listening, and I’ll see you next week.

Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.