2 . How a guided tour can offer more

Visiting new places, seeing new cultures, meeting new people..., it’s always exciting dreaming of your next travel experience. If you have a list of destinations to visit, start planning your holiday with Travel Department.

They know the best spots and have expert local guides to talk you through every aspect and cultural experience.     1     Here are some top reasons why you should consider a fully guided holiday.

See incredible destinations

    2     They know destinations inside out, so you can be sure to have the best holiday plan possible and see the main highlights wherever you travel. You may want to experience the unseen beauty of a classic destination uncover more unusual places and ancient sites. Wherever you travel, on a fully guided holiday you’ll have everything planned for you.

Enjoy real experiences

Guided tours can also give you a more authentic travel experience. Travel Department have spent years perfecting their plans so you can trust them to put together a highly enjoyable schedule. Their local, expert guides have a huge wealth of local knowledge to give you the best and most authentic inside r information.

    3     knowing that every hotel and restaurant has been inspected. With each trip created carefully around the diverse needs of different travelers, guided tours offer the very best of each destination, ensuring you don’t waste a moment.

    4    

It’s often the people you meet on holiday that are the highlight of the entire trip.     5     If you’re a solo traveler, it’s also a wonderful opportunity to make new friends. The holiday mood is positive and friendly making for a fun, inclusive group where everyone feels welcome.

Sometimes fellow travelers get along so well that they even arrange to meet up after the trip or go on another Travel Department holiday!

3 . When people think about travelling around the world, they would never dream of going on foot. But Alexander Campbell, a 27-year-old man in Sydney, has begun a four-year hike to walk 40,000 kilometres across 30 countries and four continents. The trip will raise funds for the Fred Hollows Foundation(基金会).     1    

Mr. Campbell loves long-distance hiking and started his journey from the Opera House in February and made his way through western Sydney to Penrith and onto the Blue Mountains.

“     2     By the time I am in far north Queensland and the Northern Territory(领土) it will be winter, which is a good season to visit. Once I get to Nepal and India I won’t be able to go through those countries in winter,” he said.

    3     Then he sets up camp. He said the longest he has ever walked in a day was about 74 kilometres. The rough schedule will see him walk for four years. Along the way, he may get injured, suffer from severe weather or get tired of walking. In this case, he’ll simply stop for a while.

    4     Apart from his savings, he also got support from Australian Geographic. As for travels between continents, he said he’d love to go by boat rather than by plane.

He chose the Fred Hollows Foundation because he wanted to raise money for a charity that worked in the countries he was travelling through.     5     There are currently 43 million people in the world living with blindness. Asia, where Mr. Campbell’s journey will cross, has the largest number of people with blindness in the world.

4 . Enjoy Fresh Air

Architects creating Namba Parks shopping mall in Osaka showed that you needn’t sacrifice (牺牲) green spaces for commercial (商业的) development.

The shopping center, built in 2003, provides eight floors of commercial space for cinemas, stores, events and restaurants.

The garden at its top begins at street level. Visitors are treated to green spaces and there is no money necessary to enjoy the simple pleasures.

The space was developed on a disused railway line and runs from the Opera Bastille to the Bois de Vincennes in the city.

Around 1.5 km of the park is higher than the street, with other parts at street level, even passing through disused railway tunnels (隧道).

The project began in 1988 and finished in 1994 and the space is now home to many trees and plants, including bamboo and cherry trees.

Jurong Lake Gardens is a 90-hectare green space in the heart of Singapore. Although some areas are still under development, the first part opened in 2019.

The gardens were developed with nature and community in mind — with a large 2.3-hectare play area for children. The park has also developed a learning program to help educate students about biodiversity (生物多样性).

You’ve probably heard of Central Park in New York. But did you know this is only the fifth largest park in New York, a city that has 180 state parks in total?

Wanting to increase its biodiversity further, city planners also created a city park known as the High Line between 2009 and 2019. This 2-kilometer public park was built on a disused railway line and is now home to over 150,000 plants and trees.

7 . An adventurous Indian Ocean break can easily capture the imaginations of the whole family. Here are the best option, with trips to suit pre-schoolers to teens.

Mauritius   

A ride through the waters of northwest Mauritius in Blue Safari’s 10-seater submarine gives children (aged nine months and up) the rare chance to explore beneath the surface to a depth of 35 meters. Everyone gets a window to the underwater world.

The Maldives   

The Maldives is a good place to inspire young minds to dig deeper into the ocean. At Four Seasons Landaa Giraavaru, in the Baa Atoll north of Male, your teens can learn what is happening and why, and also help a scientist to create new reefs; back home, they can watch their reef flourish online.

Kerala     

The rivers of the southern coastal state of Kerala are an ideal introduction to India for young imaginations. Setting sail on a houseboat, kids will find the village life along the waterways fascinating, and they can play a part in it on trips to local markets to pick up souvenirs (guided by houseboat staff).

Réunion   

Covered in green, with plunging waterfalls and black-sand beaches, small Reunion is not a typical Indian Ocean island. Hike up to the Piton de la Fournaise, one of the most active volcanoes in the world, with over 600 miles of trails to occupy excited teenagers, or ‘aqua hike’ the Langevin River, which involves a mix of canyoning and whitewater swimming.