Travel snaps

WORK is well advanced at Seashells Hospitality’s Caves House in Yallingup for the development of new accommodation facilities, the first of which are due to open early next year. Seashells is also considering the possibility of developing tennis courts and a heated lap pool as it continues to develop the site it bought several years ago. The Caves House building, built in 1905, has been restored by Seashells, which had intended to expand the accommodation offering when it took control of the premises. The existing Caves House building offers eight one- and two-bedroom suites. The new accommodation blocks will be built separate to the main house and, once complete, will provide an additional 36 one- and two-bedroom apartments. The first stage of the Seashells Resort Yallingup site expansion is due to open early next year. A spokeswoman for the group said the development would be “high-end”, take inspiration from Caves House and “offer a blend of luxury, Deco charm and comfort”. • • • Another South West property getting a touch of a makeover recently has been Grand Mecure Busselton Apartments. The hotel group refurbished the resort’s self-contained apartments to a four-and-a-half star standard. • • • Burswood’s Intercontinental Hotel is currently renovating and refurbishing a selection of hotel rooms. The resort says that, once completed, the rooms will offer a new level of luxury to the Perth market, including ornate stonework, the highest quality linen, full length mirrors, 42-inch plasma televisions and a range of other multimedia facilities. The refurbishment should be completed by the end of December. • • • Fremantle will be home to Princess Cruises’ superliner, Sun Princess, between May and June following a decision by the cruise company to base the ship in Australia full-time. The 77,000-tonne Sun Princess is believed to be the largest cruise ship to be based in Australia. It will be based out of Sydney in November but will offer cruises from its three home ports – Sydney, Melbourne and Fremantle. The Sun Princess carries close to 2,000 passengers. There will be three round-trip cruises on offer from Fremantle including an Asian journey and an 18-day trip that cruises to the top end of Australia and across to Sydney. Lovers of ocean liners will more than likely be tempted by a 75-night ‘grand Pacific world cruise’, which the team from St Georges Terrace’s Flight World reckon is the longest round trip cruise ever to depart from Australia. The Sun Princess will cruise to a range of destinations including Tahiti, Canada, Alaska, Japan, Russia, China and Vietnam. • • • In Perth for the first time, internationally acclaimed conductor Marko Letonja is leading the West Australian Symphony Orchestra for the WA Opera’s current production, Rigoletto. The Guiseppe Verdi production is also a homecoming for Western Australian Academy of Performing Arts graduate Paul O’Neill, who is performing on home turf following time studying abroad. Rigoletto, a crowd pleaser all over the world, is on at His Majesty’s Theatre until August 25.