Travel

Winter Escapes start in the Glen Innes Highlands

11 June 20264 min read

Cool days, warm welcomes, and countryside charm.

Swap traffic for open roads, noise for nature, and busy schedules for a slower pace. Hidden within the heart of New South Wales’ New England region, the Glen Innes Highlands become something truly special during winter. Crisp mountain mornings, rolling mist, sparkling frosts and genuine country hospitality create the perfect setting for a memorable escape.

If you’re searching for a destination that blends breathtaking scenery, outdoor adventure, fascinating heritage and authentic local charm, the Highlands offer all this and more.

Winter in the region brings together the best of both worlds. Embrace cosy moments beside an open fire, enjoy unique farm stay experiences and wake to frosty mornings before setting out to explore nearby national parks and scenic landscapes. Whether you’re travelling as a couple, with family, or simply taking time for yourself, Glen Innes Highlands invites visitors to slow down, wrap up warm and immerse themselves in a season filled with comfort, character and a little winter magic.

Warm Up, Head Out and Discover More

Spend your days relaxing beside a crackling fire in a charming country cottage, or venture outdoors to explore ancient rainforests, scenic walking trails and country roads leading to unforgettable views. You might even catch a glimpse of snow or uncover a sparkling sapphire treasure along the way.

Adventure feels different here. It doesn’t demand attention; it quietly invites you in. Instead of crowds and queues, you’ll discover meaningful moments, friendly faces and experiences that stay with you long after you’ve returned home.

If you’re travelling through and need a place to stop, recharge or check in with the office, the Glen Innes Highlands Hub offers the perfect space to reconnect and work remotely while enjoying the charm of the Highlands.

Ideal for digital nomads, remote workers, travelling professionals and business owners, the Hub provides fast Wi-Fi, flexible coworking spaces, private meeting rooms and a welcoming environment right in the heart of town. It’s the perfect place to answer emails, jump on a video call or reset between destinations before continuing your journey through the New England region. gleninneshighlandshub.com or call us (02) 67302409

Comfort Food and Country Flavour

After a day of exploring — or simply unwinding with a good book by the fire — there’s nothing better than enjoying food designed to warm both body and soul. Think slow-cooked meals, freshly baked scones with jam and cream, hearty country favourites and delicious paddock-to-plate dining experiences.

Pair local flavours with regional wines, handcrafted gin or award-winning brews while soaking up the welcoming atmosphere found throughout the Highlands’ pubs, cafés and eateries. If you’re staying in self-contained accommodation, stock up on local produce and create your own cosy feast at day’s end.

Need a coffee before heading out? You’ll find plenty of cafés and artisan stores ready to fuel your next adventure. Around here, you’ll quickly discover that the only thing that happens fast is how quickly the place begins to feel like home.

Stay Your Way

The Glen Innes Highlands offer accommodation to suit every traveller and budget. Choose from boutique stays, heritage cottages, welcoming bed and breakfasts, farm stays, caravan parks, family-friendly motels and self-contained accommodation ideal for groups and extended stays.

Whether you’re planning a solo retreat, a romantic getaway or a family escape, you’ll find the perfect place to settle in and unwind. Some stays even come with stories and history almost as memorable as the experience itself.

For something a little different, explore the Glen Innes Highlands accommodation guide or contact the Visitor Information Centre.

The Heart of the Highlands

While the landscapes are spectacular, it’s the people who truly make this place memorable.

From local shop owners greeting you with a smile, to talented makers creating handcrafted treasures, to friendly locals who make you feel instantly welcome — this is where connection happens naturally.

This is Glen Innes Highlands.

Where warm welcomes come easily, unforgettable memories are waiting to be made, and breathing in the fresh country air feels good for the soul.

Come for the cool mountain air, stay for the connection, and experience the warmth for yourself.

Get in here. Discover more and plan your winter escape at Glen Innes Highlands. Gleninneshighlands.com

Winter in Inverell – experience the warmth

As the temperatures begin to dip and mornings arrive wrapped in crisp country air, there’s something undeniably magical about escaping to the New England High Country in winter. Just a scenic five-hour drive from the Gold Coast, Inverell – affectionately known as the Sapphire City – transforms into a picturesque winter destination where open skies, rolling landscapes and warm country hospitality create the perfect seasonal getaway. A TOWN WITH A SPARKLING HISTORY Inverell earned its nickname thanks to the rich sapphire, quartz crystal and gemstone deposits found throughout the region. The area’s mining heritage remains a significant part of its story and visitors can still experience the excitement of fossicking and trying their luck at uncovering hidden treasures. The town’s history is also reflected through heritage sites and attractions that celebrate the people and pioneering spirit that helped shape the region. WINTER WALKS AND NATURAL BEAUTY Winter is one of the most beautiful times to experience Inverell’s landscapes. Cooler temperatures make exploring the outdoors even more enjoyable, with walking tracks and scenic lookouts providing stunning views across the region. One local favourite is Goonoowigal State Conservation Area, a scenic granite landscape where low hills and giant boulders create a striking backdrop against the winter sky. The area offers around ten kilometres of easy walking tracks winding through native woodland and alongside small creeks, making it ideal for leisurely strolls and nature lovers. Immerse yourself in history with the Goonoowigal Soundtrail, easily downloaded for the app store and google play. For spectacular panoramic views, head to McIlveen Park Lookout on Tabletop Mountain. From the viewing platform, visitors can take in magnificent views stretching east over Inverell township and beyond to the distant ranges – particularly beautiful during winter when the air is clear and the landscape seems endless. Lake Inverell also offers peaceful walking opportunities, while nearby Copeton Dam is perfect for fishing, camping and nights spent beneath star-filled skies. COUNTRY CHARM WITH A WARM WELCOME Beyond its natural beauty, Inverell delivers everything you could want from a country escape – cosy cafés, boutique shopping, hearty meals and genuine hospitality. Whether you’re seeking a relaxing weekend away or a longer winter adventure, Inverell combines history, nature and country charm into one memorable destination. This winter, pack the jacket, hit the road and discover the beauty of Inverell – where fresh country air and warm welcomes await. For more information and to plan your next escape visit inverell.com.au

Travel

48 Hours in Amsterdam

Words: Charmaine Yabsley Canals, cocktails and culture beyond the tourist trail are on show for the whole family as Get It spends two days exploring windmills, tulips and some serious art. There’s a reason travellers fall hard for Amsterdam. Yes, there are the postcard-perfect canals, crooked merchant houses and bicycles weaving past flower boxes. But spend 48 hours here and you’ll discover another side: hidden cocktail bars beneath bridges, sustainable fashion hubs in old shipyards, tiny brown cafés lit by candlelight and neighbourhoods where locals picnic beside the water long after sunset. And it’s all family friendly. With excellent train connections throughout Europe and easy onward access via Eurostar, Amsterdam also makes the perfect stopover city from Australia. Compact, walkable and endlessly atmospheric, it’s the perfect place to leave the real world behind. DAY ONE 8am: Start with coffee and canal views Begin in Jordaan, the city’s prettiest neighbourhood, where narrow streets open onto canals lined with leaning 17th-century houses. Once working class, the area is now filled with independent boutiques, galleries and cafés. For breakfast, head to Pluk Amsterdam for excellent coffee, pastries and acai bowls beneath shelves overflowing with flowers and citrus. Or try Saint-Jean Bakery, a tiny plant-based bakery locals queue for thanks to its pistachio cruffins and cardamom buns. Afterwards, simply walk. Amsterdam is best absorbed slowly, without a destination in mind. 11am: Museum hopping You could spend days inside Amsterdam’s museums, but with only 48 hours, choose wisely. The essential stop remains the Rijksmuseum, home to Dutch Masters including Rembrandt and Vermeer. Nearby, the Van Gogh Museum offers an intimate look at the artist’s life through letters, sketches and works spanning his troubled career. For contemporary culture, visit the Moco Museum, showcasing works by Banksy, Basquiat and Yayoi Kusama. Want something quieter? Museum Van Loon offers a glimpse inside a beautifully preserved canal house complete with hidden gardens. 1pm: Lunch beside the canals Make your way to De Pijp, one of Amsterdam’s liveliest districts. Bakers & Roasters blends New Zealand-style brunch with Brazilian influences and serves legendary ricotta hotcakes. Nearby, Albert Cuyp Market stretches for blocks selling stroopwafels, herring, vintage clothing and wheels of cheese. 3pm: Discover Amsterdam Noord Catch the free ferry behind Central Station to Amsterdam Noord, once industrial docklands and now one of Europe’s coolest creative districts. The standout is NDSM Wharf, a former shipyard transformed into a cultural hub filled with giant murals, waterside bars and shipping-container cafés. Beyond the street art and warehouses, Amsterdam Noord is increasingly becoming the city’s creative frontier, with adaptive reuse architecture, waterside cafés and spaces like A Lab drawing designers and artists away from the tourist centre. Nearby, thrill seekers can swing over the city at A’DAM Lookout. 6pm: Dining delights Amsterdam’s food scene has quietly become exceptional, with more than 20 Michelin-starred restaurants across the city. For something genuinely unusual, dine at Mediamatic ETEN, a waterfront greenhouse restaurant growing many of its own herbs and vegetables onsite. 9pm: Cocktails after dark Amsterdam after dark can be surprisingly sophisticated. Door 74 remains one of Europe’s great speakeasies, while Hiding in Plain Sight serves inventive cocktails beneath candlelight. In warmer months, locals spill onto the canalsides long after sunset. DAY TWO 8am: See the city from the water You can’t visit Amsterdam without experiencing the canals – literally. Skip the large tourist boats and instead book a small electric canal cruise with a local guide. Early morning is particularly beautiful, with reflections shimmering beneath arching bridges as the city slowly wakes. Of course, there’s also cycling. Amsterdam’s bike lanes are wide and easy to navigate, although locals ride fast and with absolute confidence. 10am: Hit the Shops The charming Nine Streets district (De Negen Straatjes) is filled with vintage stores, concept boutiques and independent labels. Browse Scandinavian interiors at Sukha Amsterdam or wander through hidden laneway boutiques. Nearby, De Hallen, a former tram depot transformed into boutique cinemas, cafés and food stalls, captures Amsterdam’s increasingly design-led energy. Noon: Time for culture For contemporary art lovers, STRAAT Museum in Amsterdam Noord showcases large-scale street art and murals inside an enormous warehouse space. 2pm: Lunch like a local Locals increasingly escape the tourist-heavy centre for greener neighbourhoods including Amsterdam Oost. Here, De Kas has become one of the city’s most sought-after dining experiences. Set inside a greenhouse, many ingredients are harvested from onsite gardens just hours before serving. If you want something more casual, grab sandwiches and wine for a picnic in Vondelpark for some relaxation and people watching. 4pm: Hidden Amsterdam One of the city’s quietest treasures is the Begijnhof, a peaceful hidden courtyard dating back to the Middle Ages. Nearby, Our Lord in the Attic Museum reveals a secret Catholic church concealed inside a canal house. For something entirely unexpected, Electric Ladyland – the world’s only fluorescent art museum – offers one of Amsterdam’s quirkiest cultural detours, while Hortus Botanicus Amsterdam provides a calmer side to the city among centuries-old greenhouses and rare plants. 7pm: Final night indulgence End your 48 hours with dinner beside the canals at Café de Jaren or book a table at Moon, a revolving restaurant offering panoramic skyline views. Then walk the canals one final time: just watch out for the cyclists. Have More Time? The Dutch rail system is fast, clean and simple to navigate, with frequent trains departing from Amsterdam Centraal and contactless tap-on travel available throughout the network. Within 30 minutes, visitors can swap canal houses for tulip fields, beaches and windmills. In spring, the colourful tulip fields surrounding Lisse burst into bloom, while nearby Keukenhof showcases millions of flowers across its famous gardens. For classic Dutch postcard scenery, visit Zaanse Schans, where historic windmills stand beside canals and wooden houses. Alternatively, Haarlem offers boutique shopping and café culture without Amsterdam’s crowds, while coastal Zandvoort delivers beach clubs and North Sea sunsets just a short train ride away. Travel tip: The I Amsterdam City Card (https://www.iamsterdam.com/en/i-am/i-amsterdam-city-card) offers you a unique way to explore Amsterdam while saving money. You can

Travel

Wellness Meets Luxury

The newest jewel on the Gold Coast’s coastline offers cutting-edge wellness treatments that perfectly complement the hotel’s luxurious rooms and standout dining. Lying on the touchless treatment bed at CIEL Spa, I feel as though I’m floating somewhere between sleep and weightlessness. The room is quiet except for the soft pulse of music and the gentle warmth surrounding my body. There are no hands, no pressure points, no oils – just a sensation of suspension as the dry- float technology cradles my body, gently pummelling tight knots in my shoulders and removing gravity from the equation entirely. It is an unusual experience at first. Typically, a spa treatment involves little clothing and a therapist. Here, your treatment is solitary, with only the sound of rushing water and a calm voice in my headphones prompting me to breathe slowly in and out. The absence of touch is precisely the point. Without another person to interact with, I surrender completely to the relaxation experience, knowing that this is exactly where I need to be. During the course of the 30-minute treatment my breathing slows, my muscles soften, and I hover somewhere between meditation and deep rest. It’s the perfect reset. Welcome to CIEL Spa, the wellness sanctuary inside the new Mondrian Gold Coast at Burleigh Heads, a haven of relaxation that’s now on our doorstep. Unlike traditional day spas built around massage and facials alone, CIEL takes a contemporary approach to wellbeing. The concept blends restorative spa rituals with emerging bio-wellness technologies designed to support recovery, relaxation and skin health. Guests can move between infrared sauna sessions, cryotherapy, LED light therapy and the zero-gravity dry float treatment that begins my visit. But technology is only part of the experience. The spa’s interiors mirror the coastal calm just outside the hotel’s doors. Soft curves, pale stone, textured walls and muted lighting create a cocoon-like environment that feels far removed from the energy of Burleigh’s busy beachfront. From the moment we stepped through the door, we left the real world behind, with our focus on wellness and relaxation. Traditional treatments abound, too. Facial treatments use luxury skincare brand Augustinus Bader, whose patented cellular renewal technology focuses on stimulating the skin’s natural repair processes. Massage therapies draw on restorative techniques designed to calm the nervous system and improve circulation – particularly welcome after a day exploring the Gold Coast’s beaches and hinterland. The best news? You don’t need to be a hotel guest to experience the spa. Non-guests are welcome to book treatments and linger in the relaxation lounge afterwards. Or head up a level to stretch out beside the pool and truly feel as though you’ve embarked on a mini holiday. This welcoming approach is a thoughtful addition to the Mondrian Gold Coast, the breathtakingly stylish new hotel that has quickly become one of the most talked- about openings on the coast. Rising above Burleigh’s iconic Norfolk pines, the twin-tower property has brought the brand’s signature design aesthetic to Queensland. Rooms are spacious and light-filled, with natural stone, warm timber and curved architectural lines echoing the surrounding landscape. Floor-to-ceiling windows frame the breathtaking ocean views, while generous balconies encourage guests to slow down and settle into the rhythm of the coast. One standout detail is the television cleverly hidden within the ottoman at the foot of the bed – stylish, discreet and surprisingly practical. Where to eat Dining is every bit as impressive as the décor and spa experience. Italian restaurant LiTO anchors the hotel’s culinary offering, celebrating wood-fired cooking and Mediterranean flavours designed for sharing. The open kitchen centres around a custom wood-fired grill and oven, where chefs prepare dishes that lean into coastal Italian simplicity. Expect freshly shucked seafood, handmade pasta and beautifully charred meats, alongside vibrant seasonal vegetables and citrus-driven salads perfectly suited to the Gold Coast climate. The menu encourages long, leisurely meals. Start with antipasti such as the Byron Bay burrata with roasted peppers or yellowfin tuna crudo before moving into house-made pasta and wood-fired dishes like grilled king prawns, market fish or slow-roasted meats, served alongside Currumbin Valley salads. The lamb ragu saffron pappardelle is a trip to Italy in a bowl, and the steak was perfectly cooked as requested, dished up with grilled broccolini. The drinks list is equally considered, with Italian varietals, coastal Australian wines and spritz-style cocktails that feel made for warm evenings overlooking Burleigh. Service is impeccable and friendly, encouraging you to linger longer than you intended, especially when a serving of their famous tiramisu is offered! Upstairs, Haven Pool Club offers a completely different energy. Framed by sweeping ocean views, the rooftop venue channels the relaxed glamour of an international beach club, complete with cabanas, daybeds and a sparkling pool overlooking the Pacific. The Haven restaurant is a set above in dining, blending homegrown favourites with nostalgic flavours, focusing on fresh seafood, light Mediterranean-style plates and shareable dishes designed for long afternoons that effortlessly stretch into sunset drinks. Whether you choose to stay for a spa visit, swim or a delicious meal, the Mondrian is the ideal destination… for however long you want to stay. Book me in: mondrianhotels.com or cielspaburleighheads.com

Travel

A Taste of the Highlands: The Australian Celtic Food Trail

A Taste of the Highlands: The Australian Celtic Food Trail There are festivals you attend and then there are experiences you simply savour. This autumn, the Australian Celtic Festival in Glen Innes Highlands invites lovers of culture, food and beautiful places to indulge in something truly special: the Australian Celtic Food Trail. Set among the golden colours of the New England High Country, this year’s culinary program offers a delicious journey through Celtic flavours, local produce and unforgettable settings. For those who appreciate a refined escape from the coast, it is the perfect excuse for a stylish autumn road trip. A Not-to-Miss Luncheon at Ben’s Falls Retreat The ACF Celtic Food Trail opens with a signature event on Thursday 30 April at the stunning Ben’s Falls Retreat, a hidden gem nestled beside the iconic Severn River. Guests will gather in this breath-taking natural setting for a luncheon of stories, flavour and Celtic inspiration hosted by Celebrity Cook (The Roving Haggis) Ali Stoner and celebrated food and travel writer Roberta Muir. Attendees tickets include transport from the Glen Innes Visitor Information Centre, welcome drink, canapes, main and dessert buffet brought to you by the Bens Fall’s culinary team and inspired by Ali Stoner. A Culinary Trail Through Glen Innes Throughout the festival weekend, ACF Celtic Food Trail Ambassador Roberta Muir will be joined by Australian Celtic Festival honoured guest Ali Stoner (The Roving Haggis) and will be exploring the cafés, bakeries and restaurants of Glen Innes’ charming CBD, sampling Celtic-inspired dishes created especially for the festival. From traditional recipes passed down through generations to imaginative modern interpretations, local chefs are embracing the spirit of Celtic cuisine with creativity and flair. Visitors can follow along, tasting their way through town while discovering local produce and warm country hospitality. Roberta and Ali will also share their discoveries during inspiring talks at the festival site, offering visitors insights into Celtic culinary heritage and the flavours shaping the Highlands’ emerging food scene at the Celtic Cauldron at the Festival site Saturday and Sunday. More Than a Festival Of course, food is just the beginning. Across the weekend, the Australian Celtic Festival bursts into life with a spectacular program: colourful street parade, thrilling Highland Games, the stirring sound of pipes and drums, medieval reenactors and jousting, lively children’s activities, and an extraordinary lineup of Celtic music and dance. It is an immersive cultural celebration with the backdrop of The Australian Standing Stones, National Celtic Monument, unlike anything else in Australia. For more information go to page 44 of the latest issue of getit-magazine.com.au/magazine Plan Your Highlands Escape Accommodation during festival weekend can book quickly, so many visitors choose a day trip through the beautiful towns of the New England High Country. Scenic drives from Tenterfield, Armidale, Guyra, Inverell, Walcha, Deepwater and Emmaville offer a relaxed way to explore the region while dipping into festival events across the weekend. Held during the spectacular autumn season, when the Highlands glow with crisp air and golden leaves, the festival is the perfect excuse to immerse yourself in culture, indulge and discover. For those seeking culture, flavour and a little Celtic magic this autumn, the invitation is simple: Visit gleninneshighlands.com.au