TRAVEL TALK with Carolyn Chard
You can purchase access to this special report or subscribe to Business News.
Subscribe to Business News.
TRAVEL TALK with Carolyn Chard
General manager, West Australian Opera
Favourite holiday destination?
It’s clichéd, but Bali. It’s so close to WA, which means less travel time and more beach and day spa time. I like Nusa Dua but I am looking at Seminyak options for a weekend getaway for my birthday next month.
Favourite place in WA to take out-of-towners?
Margaret River Chocolate Factory in the Swan Valley for brunch, or C Restaurant for visitors on a quick stopover. It’s got a spectacular view, you can see the whole of Perth, plus the hills and the ocean.
Biggest travel disaster?
Buying a family Europass during the French railstrike in the mid-1990s. With no taxis available we walked around Paris for about three hours late at night to find our hotel, dragging our suitcases through the cobbled streets in the rain. Never were we so happy to find a street vendor serving hot crepes.
How often do you travel?
Every couple of months or more I travel to Sydney and Melbourne for the opera season. I like to walk to the Sydney Opera House or the Arts Centre so I stay just up the road.
What’s always in your carry-on luggage?
Everything. I try to live out of my carry-on bag. I usually have a couple of evening dresses for the opera, three pairs of shoes, day clothes and all my cosmetics.
Where have you always wanted to travel but haven’t managed to yet?
I’d like to drive Route 66, the ‘mother street of America’, do an African safari and see the northern lights (yes, inspired by the Joanna Lumley documentary).
You hope that Perth always retains ...
The ability to grow into a city for the future; a major capital city on the doorstep of Asia but with the relaxed Australian sensibility.
You wish that Perth could be more like ...
Melbourne, for its arts, culture, style and fashion, its inner-city laneways, the city cafes, the parks, the shops, the restaurants, the bars.
What advice would you give to airlines?
Monitor carry-on bags so that you can find a space for your bag above your own seat when you board.