By the time Tony co-founded Lonely Planet Publications in 1973, he already had the travel bug. And ever since, travel and discovery have been at the heart of his life and career.
Travel during the pandemic has been a weird experience, particularly in Australia or out of Australia if you’re lucky enough, like me, to escape.
▲ Lounging on a sand dune on the Yemeni island of Socotra in March 2020
When the pandemic kicked off in March 2020 I was on the Yemeni island of Socotra. Definitely a good place to be when the world goes into meltdown. I managed to get back to Melbourne – in the state of Victoria in Australia – but that was pretty much it for the rest of 2020. There were a few short trips elsewhere in the state, but for the rest of 2020 I never got out of Victoria, let alone overseas.
2021 started much more hopefully with trips in Australia to Adelaide, Byron Bay, Canberra and Sydney. Then there was an outback train trip to Longreach in Queensland, I even explored Moreton Island, another addition to my Islands of Australia experiences. Finally mid-year I managed to depart Australia, but flying to London from Melbourne was definitely a totally different experience to any pre-2021 flights to Europe.
Now for four months – almost – I’ve been based in London, but there have been all sorts of trips in and out of England. Travel has been very different for many other confirmed travellers from Paul Theroux to Pico Iyer to Brian Kelly (The Points Guy). Check this Travel Weekly report for a synopysis of where we’ve all been.
Travel during the pandemic has been a weird experience, particularly in Australia or out of Australia if you’re lucky enough, like me, to escape. ▲ Lounging on a sand dune on the Yemeni island of Socotra in March 2020 When the pandemic kicked off in March 20...
◄ It’s wonderful how places in England are ‘upon’ – Newcastle-upon-Tyne or Stratford-upon-Avon – or ‘on’ – Henley-on-Thames or Bradford-on-Avon – or ‘by’ – Saltburn-by-the-Sea – or even ‘next’ – like Wells-next-the-Sea – where I went to stay with some friends recentl...
Having escaped Australia and flown from Melbourne via Singapore to London I’ve been doing some travel around England and further afield around assorted Greek Islands. There’s more European travel coming up before – hopefully – I manage to make my way back to Australia...
I’m not a dyed in the wool rail travel enthusiast, but I’m not averse to a good train trip and it’s remarkable how, when I do climb aboard I sometimes find Tim Richards – a real Australian railfan – is already there. Back in 2013 I finally got around to doing the Big ...
In July I flew from Melbourne in Australia via Singapore to London. It was a surreal experience. At the time the Melbourne domestic terminal was operating fairly normally. Soon after Sydney and then Melbourne would both go into lockdowns and one of the busiest air ...
One of the pandemic pleasures of life in Europe – as opposed to Australia or the USA – is access to rapid testing – more formally known as Lateral Flow or Antigen Tests. ▲ In London you can pick up a free batch of 7 NHS test kits and test yourself anytime you want....
‘How Long Before Covid Tours Become Part of the Dark Tourism Trend?’ asked the travel newsletter Skift. Too soon was the article’s conclusion, you can’t visit disaster sites (which is what Dark Tourism is all about) when the disaster is ongoing. One day in the future,...
Even in the pandemic and even without getting out on the road – and I’ll be reporting on some Greek Islands travel shortly – there’s often travel talk from at home. On Wednesday 15 September I joined Darrell Wade of Intrepid Travel, Gemma Sisia who runs the wonderf...
Having pedalled my bicycle around the London Monopoly board I set out on another Sunday ride with The Fridays cycling group to check out the cats of London. A ‘Purrfect’ ride as they described it. Home to home (including the 10km to Russell Square at the start and bac...
The Australian state of Victoria has suffered an awful lot of lockdowns since the coronavirus pandemic kicked off. I’ve managed to miss the most recent batch, I escaped the state just before Lockdown 5 kicked off and Lockdown 6 is ongoing. One of the things you sho...
© Tony Wheeler’s Travels 2013