TRANSCRIPT: The Midlife Shift #10: Kevin and Janetta
.jpg)
Watch or listen to the episode here
00:29
We're meeting Kevin and Janetta from Channel nine's travel guides to learn how they work from roam and just live the dream of seeing the world. Welcome!
Kevin
Thank you.
Janetta
hi. Alex, hi.
Alex 44 secs
Too good to meet you too.
Alex 44 secs
Now sometimes those Channel Nine awful people sometimes call you travel snobs for your role on the show. It's very cruel, isn't
Kevin 0:51
it? Is it cruel?
Janetta
Well, we would rather be a travel snob than a travel Bogan, preference, but we don't always get it. But you've got to aim high.
Alex
I agree, totally agree. So tell me, how did you get this dream role, really? I mean, you retired, and now you get paid to travel.
Janetta
We nearly didn't. We were driving home from a friend's house. It was, I remember, it was October 2015, and I said to Kevin in the car, I saw this thing advertised on channel nine. They said, if you like travel and you can give up three months next year, apply.
Kevin
And of course, I said, what would they want with us.
Janetta
Seriously, that was my point to go and actually start applying without Kevin. But I got so far without telling him Yes, but I got so far in the application that I had to involve him.
Kevin
And the rest was um, history, history. We had no idea what this show was all about. We thought it might be something like getaway or a David Attenborough travel series or something. We had absolutely no idea what we were applying for, no idea. And one of the questions they asked us was, how many countries have you been to? And because we've cruised a lot, if you know, when you're cruising, you stop off at a lot of countries.
Janetta
So we couldn't fit all the countries in. So we had to put an addendum at the back of the application form with an extra page in it, of all the countries we've been to.
Alex
So it is because it was a bit of a genre busting TV type of show, right? Travel guides is real people taking you to real places, correct? And it's been 10 seasons.
Kevin
We're currently filming the 10th season now, which is in TV terms, it's pretty phenomenal. That is very phenomenal.
Janetta
It actually started in the UK. There was UK Travel Guide series, and we nearly tore up the contract when we watched the UK series. It was terrible.
Alex
Was that because the travel snobs were TV snobs?
Kevin
I suppose Well, we actually don't watch a lot of TV. But when we saw the British one, it was narrated by Johnny Vegas, what talks like this, like
Janetta 3:07
and the couple who were, I suppose, old ones like us, went to bed, and they looked at each other and said, gnashers out. They Took their teeth out and put them in a glass. And they were doing things like, do it yourself, colonic irrigation. Oh no. And I'm thinking, this is not for us.
Kevin 3:24
So we really very closely came very close to pulling out our application. Wow.
Alex Brooks 3:29
Luckily we didn't, yeah, well, because how many countries have you been to for Channel Nine now?
Kevin 3:34
Oh, well, we've done 80. We're up to our 81st episode at the moment. So that's 80 trips around the
world. But then on each series, there's 10 episodes, and two of them are within Australia, two domestic and eight International. So
Kevin 3:48
take 20 out. So
Kevin 3:51
some of them we've been to a couple of times, not many. So, oh gosh, a lot.
Alex Brooks 3:55
But that's so interesting, because Australian reality TV is quite different and I've heard, because I have a lot of friends in Britain, that our Married at First Sight is the best of all the reality TV MasterChef.
Kevin 4:09
What, what Australia tends to do with TV is buy a concept and then perfect it and then sell it to the world. And, yeah, you're right with MasterChef and maps and Travel Guides. It's just been a phenomenal success all of those shows.
Janetta 4:24
We, we, I might add, we've run we've actually won four Logies. Oh, there you go. In the first season, when we were nominated, we didn't win. We were in the reality section. But we're now not reality because we're not really a reality show. We're called lifestyle, so it's a different category. As you say, there's no you don't have to, well, yeah,
Kevin 4:47
With our show, we don't have to build anything, we don't have to cook anything, we don't have to marry some random. All you have to do is go on holidays and have a good time.
Janetta 4:57
There's no prize money, and really, we just. Have to say what we think. Yeah,
Kevin 5:01
very I think that's part of the appeal, or a lot of the appeal of the show is there's no contrived bitchiness. There's no prize money. So there's no producer-driven moments where we're neck and neck against other people in the show. There's no contest.
Alex Brooks 5:15
Yeah, there's no dinner party, no no Big Brother,
Kevin
no alcohol fueled dinner parties.
Alex
There you are. So how now you both come from a travel background. Can you tell me a little bit about that?
Janetta
Oh, dear.
Kevin 5:29
Back in the Middle Ages, we both worked for an airline called Taa. I remember Trans Australia Airlines, which was probably the equivalent of the domestic Qantas.
Alex
That's right. And you were working in Melbourne in sales, and I was working in the very unglamorous HR department in Perth. I came back to Melbourne after my posting in Perth for five years, and we were both invited to a dinner party by somebody else who worked at the airline, and that's where we met.
Alex Brooks 5:55
So airlines were very incestuous industries Weren't they?
Janetta 6:00
Well, they were a lot of marriages resulted from them. I prefer to say it that way
Kevin 6:05
marriages, relationships, divorces, yeah, but it was, it was an incredible place to work, because it was more like going to a club every day than it was like going to an office, yeah. And the industry itself was a very up industry. It was travel. Everybody wanted to travel. It was definitely a growth industry, and the airline part of it was the real pinnacle of the glamour side of the travel.
Alex Brooks 6:27
Yeah, it was, it was TAA and Ansett were our two airlines back? See, I remember, because I remember that there was a terrible strike, and I couldn't get to my uncle's wedding on time, and I missed that. And I remember dispute, yes, think it was in the 80s. TAA
Janetta 6:43
then became Australian airlines, and then it joined in with Qantas. So I stayed through all of that, and left from from Qantas, and then joined another airline. So, and I've always been involved in travel, and you went in a different
Kevin 6:58
I went in a different direction. I was in, as I said, the unglamorous part of the airline, HR, or personnel, as it was called way back then. So I went on to some other corporate roles, and then I became a travel writer later on. So travel has always been in our blood, and it was fueled by our time at TAA. That's what that's where it all began. Do you
Alex Brooks 7:18
know I remember this song kid, and they used to sing, what was it? Jingle Bells. Batman, smells. Robin ran away. Wonder woman lost her bosoms flying TAA, do you did you even know that little ditty.
Kevin 7:33
I wonder what that was sad for Wonder Woman was wasn't it sad for the airline,
Alex Brooks 7:41
they found them, and there's a whole YouTube video about these Jingle bells, Batman smells, rhymes. Apparently, every country has its own version. Even the Simpsons did a version of it, and they're all different.
Kevin 7:53
The ending of that I knew as Father Christmas burnt his whiskers, smoking Craven A.
Alex Brooks 8:00
See, there you are. You knew the ditty, though I did, but that was a meme before there were memes, right?
TAA was in the public consciousness back then it ran into schoolyard.
Kevin
TAA - Try another airline? Yeah, I remember that one. I wasn't going to be so it was a wonderful airline. I thought, Wonder Woman losing her bosoms was a bit lighter. That was a wonderful airline.
Kevin 8:22
Or wonderful time in our
Lives,
Janetta
It was a family, yeah, and
Alex Brooks 8:26
the airlines, it was very different. Then no one sort of threw cardboard sandwiches at you on the airlines. In the old days, did they was
Janetta 8:33
flying to Perth someone ring you up the day before you say, what would you like to eat on the fly?
Kevin 8:40
Silver Swan service.
Alex Brooks 8:42
How nice was that?
Kevin 8:44
I knew it well because I lived in Perth for five years during the 80s with the airline. So I flew that Silver Swan service, several
Alex 8:50
very long flight Sydney or Melbourne to Perth,
Janetta 8:54
not as long as the Perth, London 17 hours that we did a couple of years ago. Third back row, middle seat economy. I
Alex Brooks 9:01
hate middle seats. Middle seats are just wrong.com. Why do they put them in planes?
Janetta 9:07
Well, I know why you can do it. I think it's probably like childbirth, terrible at the time, but you get over it, yeah.
Alex Brooks 9:14
Well, you do, you do so we, we had this discussion in one of our other travel podcasts. It's like, we all like to fly business or first class. Everyone enjoys that. But actually, would you rather spend all the money on the flight or the accommodation when you get there?
Kevin 9:27
Exactly that discussion point. However, enter Premium Economy.
Alex Brooks 9:32
Yes, but is premium economy really what it's cracked up to do,
Kevin 9:35
Depending on the airline? Yes and no, we've been in some fantastic Premium Economy Just came back. I just came back on from Europe, on Emirates, okay? And as I say, it's 80% of the business class product at 20% of the price
Alex Brooks 9:51
okay,
Kevin
maybe a little bit. I was never good at maths, but quite good at flying. There you are.
Alex Brooks 9:59
So. So we had Sue Williams on our podcast, and she she wrote, she said, one of her most popular stories was a review of, I can't remember which airline it was, a certain airline’s, premium economy, and it was the most clicked article on. Is that right? Yes, because people are so intrigued by Premium Economy
Kevin 10:19
It’s a viable and affordable alternatives.
Janetta 10:22
It's like business used to be, back when we started flying on international airlines, you didn't have, you didn't have flat beds. You had lie back even in business, okay, yeah,
Kevin 10:34
if you can't afford the business class, and you know, let's face it, business class is really expensive. And you're right. Do you spend the money when you're there, or do you put up with that 24 hours
Alex
Of horribleness?
Kevin
Yeah, but that's where really worth exploring Premium Economy.
Alex Brooks 10:49
Well, Sue's top tip was actually she flew business on, I think it was Vietnam Airlines.
Janetta
Oh, yes, they're very popular. And she said it was incredible, because it was basically the same as an economy class affair, and there was a wonderful layover, she said, and it only cost her $50 to lay over for 18 hours. And she got herself a hotel room, a massage, and she just said, same as an economy airfare and she just felt fantastic. She thought, we've
Janetta 11:16
got friends that use Vietnam to go to Germany to see family. Oh,
Kevin 11:20
really. And apparently we haven't flown them internationally, Turkish Air, great business class,
Alex Brooks 11:29
So what I really want to know, because now that I've gotten older and gotten a dog, I just don't have the wanderlust for travel like I used to.
Janetta
There are people that look after your pets.
Kevin 11:41
A dog wouldn't take it away for us. No, I'd need more than a dog to lose the Wanderlust. We had dogs, and it was terrific while we had them, but when they died, we didn't replace them. So we could concentrate on travel, because it's not fair on the dog or on us. You've got to put them in care.
Janetta 11:57
One of the things that we love about travel, and as you know, we have traveled a lot, is if you see a new country, all of a sudden that country is in your psyche. You get home and you see something about it on their shoes, and you're more interested, you read an article about them, and you feel you can identify with that more. So you actually become sort of a bit more worldly,
Alex
Global
Janetta
Yes, exactly. And I just love that.
Kevin 12:20
We just come back from Albania, which is a country we don't know a lot about. But fortunately, when we were there, we we the travel guides, had a tour guide who took us through the history of Albania, and
Janetta 12:31
it's one of the most fascinating countries. It is a fascinating country. Quite a beautiful
Kevin 12:36
country, too. Their own version of their Riviera down next to the Greek border. And wasn't Mother Theresa from Albania. And Dua Lipa
Alex Brooks 12:49
I had no concept.
Kevin 12:55
We were in New Zealand, had a little holiday of our own, and we went to weren't on channel
Janetta 13:02
We were chasing status points, we
Kevin
had to get the status points up to get the anyway. So we flew business class over to Auckland, and then on a day trip, no, we spent three or four days on Waihiki Island, which was, if you know it, it's the wine Island, and we got the ferry over out of Auckland, got off the ferry, and our guide was meeting us. But before we got to the guide between the ferry and the guy, this mob of women in their 40s or 50s, there would have been 20 of them just mobbed us.
Janetta
An earring fell out
Kevin
Let me touch you. Let me touch you. Let me touch you anyway. That was that went on for about 10 or 15 minutes, and then our guide came up and said, You won't believe it. Last week, we had Dua Lipa here, and she got really upset that no one recognised that you guys get off the boat and you're mobbed
Alex Brooks 13:56
that's such an
Australian music story
Kevin
We are bigger than Dua Lip in in Waihiki Island.
Alex Brooks 14:04
Albanian or not? Well, I'm sure they might hum a tune, if they may be remembered, or maybe maybe so really, though, is traveling Always a pleasure, even when it's a pain? That's kind of my question
Janetta 14:17
with travel guides, we travel six months of the year, pretty much from August to January, on and off. We may do two back to back trips, or we may do the episodes are each 60 minutes. Sometimes there's 90 minutes, and we film for longer. We figure we're not going to be on the proper time zone for six months. Yeah. So we cope with that. We finish each season. We say: never again. Can't do it again. And then three weeks later, we're thinking,
Alex
Oh, where are we going next?
Kevin 14:43
We’re on a little hiatus at the moment. So we decided, oh, let's get in the car. Just go for a drive. And sometimes you just over correct a bit, and you end up in Queensland, which is what happened.
Janetta 14:56
So we've got a big drive, we've got 15 days, but. Between when we filmed there and the next one. And so we just got back yesterday from a road trip to Newcastle to see a band play called Hindley
Alex Brooks 15:11
Street. That's an Adelaide Street. Yeah.
Kevin 15:14
Hindley St Country Club hailed as the greatest cover band in the world.
Janetta 15:19
They're brilliant.
Alex
And so you went to Newcastle to see them.
Kevin 15:24
Well, Janetta went because she thinks the bass player is hot.
Alex 15:28
I'm sure she thinks. And unfortunately, we digress. We could talk for hours about
Kevin 15:33
so that's another podcast.
Alex Brooks 15:35
So you you road trip on your own dime when you're not traveling. You really do love travel. This year,
Janetta 15:41
early this year, we did a road trip to Queensland, we went to New Zealand and we went to Hong Kong and China in our own time. Yeah. And
Alex Brooks 15:50
when? When is it bad? Like, when does travel? When do you just go? I wish I was in my own bed. Is it when they've lost your luggage? For example,
Kevin 15:59
Half way through a 15 hour flight, right? Yeah, you get halfway and think, oh my god, it's only seven hours. I've got eight to go. And you think, how am I going to get through this next eight hours? Because you've done all the reading you can. I can't concentrate like I raw dog
on flights.
Alex
We talked about raw dogging with Andrew Dado, yeah,
Kevin 16:21
the whole way I watch the map
Janetta 16:22
I watch, I download all these Netflix for him, and he doesn't watch anything.
Alex Brooks 16:27
The series are great. Oh, I just like that. However,
Kevin 16:31
on the last one I did, I watched house
of Guinness, House of
Guinness, the entire series.
Alex Brooks 16:35
Oh, I enjoyed that. Of course,
Janetta 16:37
we've just been to Ireland, and I lost my Guinness virginity at the Dublin
Kevin 16:43
factory, the storehouse. So the house of Guinness. I actually did watch all of that I really enjoyed. I felt like I was having a drink with them.
Alex 16:51
Yeah, it's good. Blinders, guy. He's so brilliant. Oh,
Unknown Speaker 16:57
brilliant, yeah. So you
Kevin 16:59
particularly like episode three, didn't you three?
Kevin 17:04
The guy gets out of the bath and the full frontal
Alex Brooks 17:07
oh yes, the full frontal nudity. I remember that, but I do prefer a bit of male gratuitous nudity to all the gratuitous Female nudity
Alex Brooks 17:17
Yeah, well, it's, I just feel like it's evening Yes, just a little bit, right? So what? How do you avoid the jet lag? That's my big question,
Janetta
because we don't
Kevin 17:34
we face it and we work through it. And because we're retired for the six months that we're filming, we don't even try to adjust. If you want to have dinner at to have dinner at three o'clock in the afternoon, do if you want to go to bed at seven o'clock in the morning, go to bed, you come back from one trip, and it might be negative time zone, and you're home for three or four days, and then you're going into positive time zones. So you're never really on the right time
Janetta 17:55
time. You have to do the washing and ironing at two o'clock in the morning. That's fine,
Kevin 17:59
and we've done that. We do that because
Alex Brooks 18:01
That's the hardest bit. It really knocks you around.
Janetta 18:04
Well, this last time we did Ireland in Albania, so coming that direction, four or five days at home, then over to Chile and Brazil. In the
other direction,
Alex
they're very far away. Yeah, long, long haul. Yeah, really.
Janetta 18:21
We push through. We've never been late for a session, or we just
Kevin 18:25
We’re ridiculously organized when it when we get home, within that doesn't matter what time we get home, it could be half past one in the morning or three o'clock in the morning. We will put two loads of washing on. Empty the suitcases, unpack everything. Shoes are all the way clothes are all away, washings on all
Janetta 18:40
We're also the only cast members that have never had a sick day
Kevin 18:44
in 10 years. We haven't missed one minute's filming,
Janetta 18:49
as well as being the oldest. I think it's something to do with eating dirt when we were kids.
Alex Brooks 18:52
Yeah. Well, because this is the trick of overseas travel, is, you know, the ice cubes drink bottled water, and it even in brush your teeth
Kevin 19:04
We don't cotton wool ourselves. You know, we'll eat the street food, okay? We in some places. We won't drink the water. We'll exercise a bit of caution there, but we're not, we don't cotton wool ourselves.
Alex Brooks 19:16
Interesting, so maybe, yeah, maybe you do just have better immunity,
Kevin
Eat dirt
Alex
yeah, must be what it is. And now you actually both got married to each other, obviously, in the 80s, but your first honeymoon, or your only honeymoon? Yep, date to date, another one. You could have more. It was to Asia in the 80s.
Kevin 19:38
In fact, that was our first trip away together. Normally, you try before you buy. Yeah, we didn't we?
Alex
Well, that's pretty adventurous.
Kevin
Three months after we met, we were engaged, and then three months after that, we were married. That was back in 1987
Janetta
38 years, yeah?
Alex Brooks 19:56
Well, yep, that they say, the couple that can travel together and be jet lagged together. You know, there it is,
Janetta 20:01
You didn't really like Asia at that stage.
Alex Brooks 20:05
It wasn't very glamorous. No, it wasn't. I mean, let's be real. In the 80s, it was opening up, and Singapore was always quite
Janetta 20:14
I mean, Hong Kong was still under British rule, exactly like a history teacher
Kevin 20:19
Singapore was Asia for beginners. Yeah, exactly. Because it was very it was probably the Western, well, the most westernised Asian city. So on our honeymoon, we went to Singapore, Hong Kong, and Borneo, Borneo.
Alex Brooks 20:34
So my husband's obsessed with Borneo. He stayed in a long house and went fishing on the river and did the whole thing where they cook rice in the bamboo pipe. I know we should go there sometime
Janetta 20:48
We at least had a five star hotel.
Kevin 20:52
Our passion for Luxe started on the honeymoon,
Alex Brooks 20:55
I know, but then sometimes I think you can see the orangutans in Borneo,
Janetta 21:00
We saw them on the show,
Kevin, that's right, we did, because we filmed there as well.
Kevin 21:03
Yeah, we actually didn't have a honeymoon. We had a homneymoon.
Alex
What's a homney moon?
Kevin 21:09
When we got on the Cathay Pacific flight from Melbourne to Singapore, they presented us with a cake, because we were in the airline industry, they knew who we were, and the cake said, Happy homie moon. So excellent to have our honeymoon,
Janetta 21:27
but not the honeymoon. Also, we stayed in a hotel in Singapore, and you're far too young to remember this. But in the days before I go microwaves and things, they used to have a inversion thing you could put in a cup of hot
Alex 21:41
I remember, yes, travel kettle, yes.
Kevin 21:45
So we did that, and didn't know what we were doing, and we shorted the whole hotel.
Kevin 21:50
Well, first we only shorted our room, then the floor, and on the third attempt, we shorted the whole hotel.
Alex 21:56
Must have been a shocking electricity those kettle
Janetta 21:59
when you first get married. You don't have the funds that you do once you retired. So, you know, save a bit of money here and there and wherever you can. But anyway,
Alex
well, shorting the hotel was probably a little bit economical.
Kevin
Got to meet the management of the hotel.
Alex
Did they invite you back? That is the question. Now I've heard, though, that you like cruising,
so my sister's obsessed with cruises as well. Yes,
Unknown Speaker 22:29
we have a lot of
Alex Brooks 22:30
requirements with cruisers. Okay, what's the list and there's cruising. So do, do? Do? Describe this to me? Okay,
Kevin 22:36
the ship can have no more than 1000 passengers, preferably 500 Okay, right? 500 is perfect.
Kevin 22:41
Everything's Included. You don't want to be putting your hand in your wallet for anything. You want to have all the drinks and tours and the taxes and the tips all included. Okay,
Kevin 22:50
that's about it. That narrows the field right down.
Kevin 22:53
Don't forget the children. Oh yes, songs on form.
Alex Brooks 22:58
That means no kids, right? We actually kids,
Kevin 23:02
we actually have a hierarchy of C words, of things that we don't like on our holidays,
Kevin 23:08
starting with camping, caravans, cabins, cask wine, and children
Alex Brooks 23:16
on holidays, Oh, see, I don't mind a cabin if it's in a good location, because a cabin is better than a tent
Janetta 23:26
and camper vans, okay, let
Kevin 23:29
cabins out and put camp Okay, yeah, yeah, anything with camping, amping, ramping, all of that, even glamping. You
Alex Brooks 23:35
see, the thing that gets me, I've got neighbours, they've got a caravan. It must be worth about 100 grand. I'm like, imagine how many holidays you could have
Kevin 23:46
And to put that in at a caravan park cost you 100
Janetta 23:49
Why go holidays and stay somewhere that's not as nice as your own house,
Kevin 23:56
and why spend a small fortune to live like a homeless person?
Alex Brooks 24:00
See my street because I live in Sydney, my street has turned into boat parking and caravan parking for rich people, because no one can afford to put it in their garage, so they just park it on the street. I am not joking. I walk I drive into my street, I feel like I'm arriving in a caravan park. Boats and caravans everywhere
KEvin
A forest full of c-words
Alex
Council make them move it every three months, but that's it. I know it absolutely does my head in, but tell me a little bit more about cruises, because on the Netflix, on my Netflix journey, I did watch a really funny documentary, oh, called poop cruise.
Kevin and Janetta
We’ve seen that
Alex
I did laugh quite a lot when I couldn't believe people go to Galveston to go on a cruise. I found that bizarre as well.
Kevin 24:49
We did watch that, and that's the side of cruising that you don't want to know about and you don't want to get involved in.
Alex Brooks 24:57
Anyone who hasn't watched the doco, it's like anything that could go wrong did go wrong, and how good were those staff that worked for the cruise ship?
Kevin 25:06
They were like sorts of cruises where people go on them for all you can eat and all you can drink, and it's just revolting, you know, like eating competitions.
Janetta 25:13
Yeah, we have met lifelong friends on cruises from all around the world, and people we've caught up with actually on Travel Guides. Because when we film travel guides, we're not filming 2424 hours a day. We have a day off here, a half day there or not. We have lots of time, and we've caught up with friends in France.
Alex Brooks 25:30
Oh, that's nice. Of course
Janetta 25:33
And in LA, people who cruise on a certain sort of cruise are usually around a similar age, and they've got similar like so you can have something in common to start with,
Kevin 25:44
and we're lucky that we're old.
Alex
Well, it is a privilege. And it’s better than the alternative,
Kevin
with age comes a couple of nice little perls. One is, invariably, you got a few more dollars disposable you do compared to it, and you've got more time, yeah? And when you've got more time and more dollars, you can have more cruises, yeah? So it's great being old.
Janetta 26:06
You really, everyone says that you unpack once and all your truth, and it's just beautiful.
Kevin 26:12
The thing I love about cruising, too, is when you arrive in a new city, you arrive the way it was founded, yeah? Not fly into some scuzzy real estate where you got the flattest area for an airport you come into the port. That's how the city was discovered. It's true. Like sailing into Sydney Harbor, yeah, sailing out up the bottom, yeah, oh, yeah.
Janetta
And Istanbul
Kaevin
And Stockholm
Alex 26:36
beautiful through there really
Kevin 26:39
is, I agree with you, cruising is one of our favorite pastimes, yeah.
Alex Brooks 26:42
Except Poop Cruise is not cruising, and it is well worth a watch if you want to abide by the rule of no ships over 500 people
Kevin 26:54
That's why you don't go on the ships. My idea of hell would be to put me on a Disney cruise with 5000 sugared up seven year olds.
Alex Brooks 27:04
See, I did a cruise when my kids were little. It was fantastic because they can stay on board in the kids club while you go and do the shore trips, right, like and you're not, you know, hoiking kids suitcases everywhere, on and off trains or anything like that. It was, it was actually a great way.
Janetta 27:20
And also we get a room with a balcony too. We like to be able to open and to go out the door. Yeah, the
Kevin 27:25
The ideal cruise length would be anything from 15 to 21 days,
Alex Brooks 27:29
okay, but there are some people. I did a podcast with some retirement experts. Some people fantasize and architect their whole retirement to live on a cruise ship. I
Janetta 27:39
I couldn't do that. Yeah, I think that would
Kevin 27:41
They are NFAs, no fixed address, and they will go from cruise ship, their cruise in Barcelona, pick up another one that will end in Amsterdam, pick up another one that will end in Athens, and just keep on going around.
Janetta
Imagine how fat you’d be if you were cruising
Kevin
A good Cruise is three or four kilos
as I say, you don't go on holidays to lose weight or save money, no
Alex Brooks 28:06
. Well, you don't. And in cruises, they always have this thing called a bomb Alaska night, don't they?
Janetta 28:13
I think they used to in that, you're going back a bit, when we first started cruising,
Kevin 28:18
US cruises. Oh, that, yeah, they love that. Sounds like you. American diet.
Unknown Speaker 28:24
Remember the waiters all used to come out
Kevin 28:32
on the cruises. We
Kevin 28:34
go a lot of the cruises now for seasoned cruises, or frequent floaters, is they, they've dispensed with all the need to wear a tuxedo or a dinner jacket or, you know, long, flowing gowns, because people are over that. You know, they did all that. So now they're just pure class, where you dress appropriately for dinner, but you don't have to go through all
Alex Brooks 28:54
the Yeah. Okay, that's interesting. But what about getting your land legs and your sea legs? Because I was a room service waitress in my university years, and I used to get my sea legs from going up and down in the elevators all the time. And honestly, it's really disconcerting. When I was on a cruise ship for just a day, I'd get off and I'd be all wobbly
Janettar 29:15
never had any
Kevin 29:18
Never had sea legs? What about sea
Alex Brooks 29:20
sickness? You've never been seasick.
Kevin 29:23
We filmed an episode on travel guys. We were in Mykonos, and we had to get a ferry from one island to the other. And the day before was party day, and we were filming party night.
Janetta 29:33
All the young kids had been out to some club till all hours, and this ferry ride was really rocky.
Kevin 29:39
About 1030 we had to get the ferry from Mykonos to some other island, and all these young kids on our team, all green and just on the road to throwing up
Janetta 29:48
and Kevin are sitting there having glasses.
Kevin 29:52
We're very comfortable at sea level. Now I
Janetta 29:54
might explain in the show, they've always got us with a glass of wine in our hand, which is. Fine. I'll explain the reason for that. When we applied for the show, we had to do a little video, and Kevin wrote the script and said, where Kevin and Janetta, we live in country, Victoria. When we retired, we did our spreadsheet: First line item was holiday, second line item was wine.
Kevin 30:16
And so they thought that we were wine afficionados, so we've had to bone up on wine. So
Janetta 30:21
they've always got us with a glass of wine in our hands. We're okay with that.
Alex
I was gonna say there's nothing wrong. Nothing wrong.
Kevin 30:26
No, when you get that reputation, whether it be true or not, we'll go with
Alex Brooks 30:31
it. So, yeah, I grew up in Adelaide, where wine is part of the culture, right? It's one of the things … church's wine. Yeah, that's really pretty much all Adelaide's got going for it
Kevin 30:41
and the Hindley street Country Club,
Alex Brooks 30:44
Hindley street there was, yeah, I'm gonna have to look them up, you see, I really, really am. Now, what I worry about with cruising, though, is that there are morgues on cruise ships. You know that? Don't you worry you
Kevin 30:56
No, I think plan ahead. We don't intend dying on a ship.
Janetta 31:03
If it happens, you're not gonna know about it.
Alex Brooks 31:07
And planes don't have a morgue they just have to put a blanket over a person right? That's practical.
Kevin 31:12
You get a lot of older people on, you know, some some cruise ships have people in their 60s and 70s, and some cruise ships have their parents
Alex
yeah, no, exactly.
Janetta 31:24
Might be more worried about a jail on a ship. I think they've got,
Alex Brooks 31:28
I think they have those too. We avoid, yeah, I think they do have those too, yeah, because if something goes wrong, yeah, do be able to, and the captain's like, he's the enforcer of it, all right?
Kevin 31:40
You can imagine when you got a cruise ship of five or 6000 passengers, all under the age of
Janetta 31:45
30, and they've all bought the drinks package. Yeah,
Alex Brooks 31:48
exactly. That reminds me of another girlfriend of mine who did one of those all inclusive cruises, and she had to pay the premium drinks package price so that she could actually get sparkling water and tap water, because if you just bought the lower ranked one, you can only get soda. You couldn't even get
Kevin 32:06
Soda out of a post mix,
Janetta
Of course, when you go on the ship where you have the drinks package, yeah, you're inclined to drink a lot more to get your money's worth. One where it's all included, you just do it normally. You don't think, Oh, I'm up to I haven't done my got my quota yet
Kevin 32:24
I want to get back to your friend who said she had to buy the Premium Package. What a great excuse. I need to know her name, and I needan introduction
Alex Brooks 32:37
You might find she works for one of the International Airlines. In fact, this would be true. Now, where would you never, ever, ever go again?
Janetta 32:47
How never, ever go again?
Kevin 32:51
I don't think there'd be anywhere, but there are places that we'd probably prefer not to go back to,
Janetta 32:59
Like the Philippines didn't really do it for us, really, okay,
Kevin 33:04
India, we've been to four or five times. Couple either
Alex Brooks 33:09
Peopl either love India, you're not ambivalent about it
Janetta 33:17
airline, wasn't they? They ruined it for you. But there's some spectacular hotels. I mean, we've on the show. We could be staying, we could be pitching our own tent, or we could be staying a $3,000 a night palace in India. And we've done both of those things, and everything in between, and everything in between. So
Kevin 33:35
That was in India. And of course, India, I n, d, I a is, I'm not doing it again. A lot of people use that
Janetta 33:44
The last time we did it, we had to go to Rishikesh and stay in an ashram. Terrible.
Kevin 33:49
There was a sign on the table that said, No eating meat, no drinking alcohol, no sex, no fun. And seriously, there was a sign in the room that said, all this,
Janetta 34:05
yeah, that wasn't that was not how we wanted to spend the night. We didn't really like
Kevin 34:10
it. The Beatles might have done it back in the 60s, but they blew their minds. Yeah, exactly, yeah. They had a lot of LSD,
Janetta 34:17
I would go back to India, but it wouldn't be top of list, and I wouldn't go back to the Philippines, probably
Kevin 34:24
no, but there's no place that we definitely wouldn't ever go back to
Alex Brooks 34:28
Where is still on your list to see.
Kevin 34:33
Well, I have a different list from you. There's one country I'd really love to go to, and that's Iceland.
Alex Brooks 34:38
Ah, you haven't been, haven't been. One of my friends just went
Janetta
Doesn’t do anything for me.
Alex
But landscapes are meant to be stunning.
Janetta 34:45
Yes, yeah, look at the National Geographic. Now.
Alex Brooks 34:49
You sound like my children. We can google image that Mum.
Janetta 34:53
I want to go to Malta. I haven't been to Malta,
Kevin 34:58
yeah, Malta. Cyber. Sardinia, Corfu. All the
Kevin 35:02
islands on the cruises were done through the med some places were only stopped at for a day. So a lot of them, I'd like to go back to spend some more time in Spain.
Kevin 35:11
Yep, we did have Ireland. I'd been to Ireland a couple couple of times on writing trips, but you hadn't been to Ireland, but we were able to tick that off last month. Yeah. Terrific time. Really nice. Loved it, yeah,
Alex Brooks 35:23
really. And House of Guinness, of
Kevin 35:25
course, absolutely what. And I've got a lot of Irish in me, so I felt quite
Janetta 35:29
at home. No, I just loved it. The people were just beautiful. And we went to Northern Ireland too. So interesting. Belfast, yeah, fascinating.
Alex Brooks 35:38
It is amazing country. Just so green people, yeah, yeah. They love to play a fiddle or sing a song.
Janetta 35:47
You go to these new countries and you interested. So you come home and you go down the rabbit hole and find out all about them. So that's what I love about
Alex Brooks 35:55
So how do you plan where you want to go? Tell me. Tell me what goes through the Travel Guides mines, when you find you're going to this is a place my husband wants to go to, Aitataki, right
Kevin 36:07
In Cook Islands? yes, okay, now, yes. Just before we go on, we don't know where we're going until we get there, right? Oh, until
Alex Brooks 36:16
we get Yeah, yeah. Theoretically,
Janetta 36:18
we get a packing list and a temperature guide, all right. u
Kevin 36:21
So you pack four pairs of swimmers, a couple of beach outfits, resort wear two dinner outfits and one wet weather gear, right?
Janetta 36:31
So normally we wouldn't, we're not supposed to tell the public where we've been before the series goes to where, but we have a lot of Australians who see us filming now. So everyone sort of knows where we've been. So it doesn't. It's not really the secrets like it used to be.
Kevin 36:46
So we have no say in this at all as to where we go. We just rock up and enjoy it. So
Alex Brooks 36:52
So what about when it's your own trips? How do you organize like, what do you do in advance? How do you work out what you want to see?
Janetta 36:58
We have a lot of friends who travel tips from them, places they've been to mouth.
Kevin 37:03
And when we're flying, we often talk to the crew as well. A lot of tips from crew.
Alex
You probably get good tips. Yeah, they know best.
Janetta 37:11
Also, in the age the SMH, the Travel section there, there's great info that we get from them. We stayed at a place in on Lake Como that someone had written into the letters to the editor there, and we ended up staying there and extending.
Alex
Wow, you
Kevin 37:27
mentioned Aitataki. Oh, yeah. We went to the Cook Islands last year. Yes, here before year before last, and everyone fell in love with it. Yeah, that's what my Raratonga and aitttaki. It's
Janetta 37:39
the first episode, first place that we've been to, where every group gave it five out of five. Oh, wow, wow.
Alex Brooks 37:45
What do you what do you think that secret is there?
Kevin 37:48
It's not like Tahiti, it's not like Bali. It's it's unique. It has its own flavor. There's no five star resorts. There's no corporate resorts, no whatever
Janetta 38:02
on Rarotonga, there's one bus that goes clockwise and anti clockwise. That's it.
Kevin 38:08
It's just beautiful. The beaches are superb. The people are magnificent. Yeah, there's a welcoming committee. Now, if you've been to Bali, you know, there's a lot of stray dogs, yes, and they're all pretty mangy
Alex
Its very distressing in fact
Kevin
Yeah. In fact, there are a lot of dogs in the Cook Islands, particularly in Rarotonga, but they're beautiful, and they will escort you along the beach,
Janetta 38:28
They are owned by people. But they're like, they
Kevin 38:31
just go roaming every day, we had one little tourist welcoming committee hotel room on the beach, and we were walking along the beach, and his dog befriended us. A beautiful, looking, very well kept dog escorted us back to our room, and we opened the doors, and he just sat outside the door and waited for us to go out again.
Janetta 38:50
I do remember it cook. Islands are not particularly cheap. No, I've heard that, but I think there's a jet star flight that goes direct from Sydney. Now, we went via New Zealand. We went, I've
Alex Brooks 39:03
heard, I've heard the food isn't always five star in the Cook Islands, but the people
Kevin 39:07
are, yes, it's not about the food, yeah,
Kevin 39:10
scenery. It's about it's
Kevin 39:13
a all encompassing experience there. And you just feel very much heart of true hospitality. Nothing fabricated about that is a very warm, genuine welcome.
Alex 39:25
Maybe I'll travel for that one in Rarotonga. We went on a party bus one night,
Janetta 39:31
like the disco party bus, amazing. I mean,
Janetta 39:39
you do things on holidays. You wouldn't exactly doing it home. Oh, no one's ever going to see this, except you know all of that. Look you. This is what holidays are about. Stretch yourself. Have some new experience.
Alex Brooks 39:58
Pole Dancing very hard. I would never even try that. And so what are the things that can go wrong that people often don't think about when they're traveling? What things
Kevin 40:12
That’s where you hear horror stories
Janetta
we look couple of years ago, the group of us, there's about 40 of us, about 160 pieces of luggage, we were flying from Helsinki to Casablanca via London. We get to London at this stage, some of us have got air tags And we get to Casablanca. I'm sorry, we get to Casablanca and only two pieces arrive. They're all still in London.
Kevin 40:35
Of luggage, even the TV show,
Kevin 40:39
yeah, they didn't have their cameras, no, no nothing, and we had two suitcases. We had to have a couple of days off and go out.
Janetta 40:49
What else can go wrong?
Alex
Luggage is flights being canceled
Janetta 40:54
in Sri Lanka. We all had to sleep in the in the gate lounge. Yeah, that's true.
Kevin 41:02
But I think the worst thing that can happen when you're on holidays is getting sick. Yeah, yeah, that can really knock you around. Fortunately, we've got very strong constitutions, and we just we won't let ourselves get sick. As you say, it was from eating dirt as kids.
Janetta 41:14
I did fall over trying to ice skate in Helsinki. We both did, and unfortunately, t didn't even make the cut,
Kevin 41:21
Fractured plvis and all
Janetta
I broke a bone.
Yes, I did to ride a camel in
Morocco after that.
Alex I fell off a camel when I was a child.
Janetta 41:35
Look, I was in pain. When we got to Helsinki airport, they actually put me in a wheelchair. We go into the lounge, had some painkillers, cup of glasses champagne, and then I said to Kevin, it's a miracle.
Alex Brooks 41:48
Painkillers, they're very good. That'll wore off, but and then I've heard some really, really frightening stories about crime in cities that you just don't expect crime to be in. So another girlfriend of mine, in fact, I think this was the one who had to buy the premium drinks package. Really was in an amazing city. It was in it in Spain, and they actually got jabbed in the thigh. And yeah,
Janetta 42:19
thing from Channel Nine, you know, saying this country, just be aware of your surroundings.
Alex Brooks 42:25
The smart traveller Website, though, gives you a lot of advice. so the Australian government has this website now where you can read up in advance.
Kevin
I mean, In Sydney or Melbourne, if you wear all your
jewelry, I mean, you're going to be
you're not careful. You go out drinking and you get a little bit loose, little bit careless. You can get mugged anywhere.
Alex Brooks 42:45
You can get mugged anywhere. But it is particularly distressing, I think, when you're overseas and if you don't speak the language. I do remember traveling with my kids in Europe, and it was on after that cruise, and they got head lice, which is, of course, like a parent's curse. This is why we do sans enfants, yeah. Another reason, yeah. And honestly, when your kids go through the head lice phase everyone, every mother will know it. It's like, oh yeah. And I had to try and ask in a foreign country for headlines,
Janetta
This was before Google Translate, yeah.
Alex
And I couldn't, like, they didn't get it. And then the stuff, they finally found someone, and it wasn't as good as the Australian stuff, because we have, like, I don't know, our head lice in Australia are, like, tectonic they never die. So our KP 24 and our Moov is really high quality. But the stuff you buy in Europe,
Janetta 43:33
your passport stolen in Ireland. Oh, did you?
Kevin 43:35
Well, they had my whole life support system. It was a really, oh, yeah, carry on, yeah, and it was stolen. I was interviewing somebody when I was a travel writer, and it was just taken. It had my computer, my phone, my notebooks, everything
Alex Brooks 43:52
That’s disastrous
Kevin
It can happen anywhere it can. But, you know, it's terrible
Kevin 43:56
when it happens. The River liffy, well, possibly,
Alex Brooks 43:59
but you know, there is a lot of crime in Ireland, like it's, yeah, you know, every country has crime. It's just every crime is slightly different. I've got to be
Janetta 44:08
aware and be aware of scams in certain countries, like at the Eiffel Tower,
Kevin 44:14
pickpockets at the Eiffel Tower.
Alex Brooks 44:16
Yeah, there's a metro scam in Paris as well, isn't there where they try and make you give your passport over or something. Yeah, there's scams everywhere. Yeah, it's bizarre. And
Janetta 44:27
they work in groups.
Kevin 44:28
Yeah, that's right. Let's get on to Nigeria.
Alex Brooks 44:31
Yeah, I know hustle kingdoms in Nigeria. It's like the whole economy there. It's, that's how they survive. It's, it's terrible this stuff. Now, tell me about luggage and packing, because this is the other bane of traveling, right? Okay, what do you do?
Janetta 44:49
One important thing that we swear by, what's that
Kevin 44:54
luggage is not designed properly. You know, most suitcases open up like a claim. WRong. No way they take up twice the amount of real estate in the hotel room. No luggage rack is designed to accommodate when you're traveling as a pair, you've got at least two, and sometimes we have four.
Janetta 45:15
So the first thing we do when we get into a hotel room is ask for another luggage rack. We have to have at least two and ours are hard shell, but they undo from the top.
Kevin 45:24
They are top opening must have top opening suitcases. So all the luggage people out there who are manufacturing these ones stop doing it, but they're doing them so that it's,
Janetta 45:34
yeah, they're double adapters. Now you can open them either at the center
Kevin 45:39
or even for our roll onboards, they're the same. Won't
Janetta 45:42
buy luggage that is center opening. Wow,
Alex Brooks 45:45
yeah, okay, that's a top tip Do you fold or roll?
Janetta 45:48
Roll flat and in cubes, packing cubes,
Kevin 45:54
Packing for a man, is easier than for a woman. With shirts all and I can lift a slab out of the suitcase and put it there, and then get to the next layer, which might be pants, yeah,
Janetta 46:06
okay, it's one, not two pieces of a woman's wardrobe are the same shape, correct? And shoes. Don't get me started on shoes. Well,
Alex Brooks 46:14
how many shoes do you take away? This is always my dilemma, because 1000s.
Jnetta 46:19
There's nothing worse than not having the right shoes. I mean, so true to a nice dinner and you've got your Birkenstocks on or something like that.
Alex Brooks 46:28
Also, when you travel, you walk a lot and get blisters, or I do anyway.
Kevin 46:32
So yeah, we don't take clothes away. We have to take a wardrobe away on telly as well, right? Sometimes we've got three changes of clothes in one day,
Janetta 46:43
so much like not in earlier season, yeah, but what
Kevin 46:47
What they do to us sometimes is they spring it on us, because the show is not always filmed in sequence, yeah, of course. And what we do on the first day might be not repeated, but an add-on scene on day five. So that's what they'll say on day five. Oh, we want you to wear what you wore on day one. So you take photos of our clothes every day, so you know: what did I wear.
Alex
So organised
Janetta 47:07
I also write down what I pack and what shoes are going to go with it, and like accessories, really, so I'm not caught out.
Kevin 47:18
Yeah, she could be described as a forensic packer
Alex Brooks 47:22
I think I need to see more of your packing photos. This could be a whole series, because there's
Janetta 47:28
such an art to packing. Also with toiletries. I decant everything so you have little Yes. And I love my label maker. I label everything.
Kevin 47:36
Even the label maker has a label on it.
Janetta
Love a good Dymo
Kevin 47:41
And the other thing that we swear by, ziplock bags in all sizes. The ones are really good ones, yes, and
Alex 47:48
the big ones, yes, they can be quite hard to find supermarket these days,
Janetta
I found any bottle that is going in a suitcase, no matter how tight it's done up, always goes in a zip plastic bag.
Kevin 47:59
Okay, you don't want to have accidents inside your suitcase. I've
Alex Brooks 48:02
had those before. I know they're very unbecoming. Yes, it really ruins everything you bought. You can't wear it disaster.
Janetta 48:11
So we pack it travel. We travel with a travel iron. Oh, do you
Alex Brooks 48:14
So you learned from your travel kettle to blow out the hotel
Janetta 48:21
We have sort of got up the ladder a bit, and good luck trying to get your travel iron onto some ships. Oh, yeah.
Kevin
They’ll confiscate it
Alex Brooks 48:30
Well, because you've got to use their laundry service?
Kevin 48:32
Yes, correct, exactly.
Kevin 48:35
But I have another tip on traveling to I have what I call the B.O.E. What's the BOE? BOE is the bag of everything, okay? And it's a washing bag, you know, you put bags, yeah, and you put everything in that the normally gets lost in your suitcase
Janetta 48:50
your little bits and pieces,
Kevin 48:53
yes, your power adapters, the travel hair dryer, the
sunscreen,
Janetta
oh, you know, pills or whatever,
Kevin 49:03
They go in the BOR, and it finds its own level in the suitcase. And there you are. Where are the pills?
Janetta 49:10
Where tea bags? We travel with our own tea bags.
Kevin
I have Earl grey English breakfast.
Alex Brooks 49:16
Oh, really Twinings, yes. Okay, so you have to take those around the world, even in Ireland, you
Kevin 49:25
know, if there's not appropriate levels of tea bag in the hotel room we've got, we always come with our own
Janetta 49:31
We can’t operate unless we've had two cups of tea in the morning. Yeah,
Alex Brooks 49:35
and okay, so luggage and packing is clearly you're all over like you're seriously all
Kevin 49:40
over it, because unpacking, unpacking is as important as packing,
Alex Brooks 49:45
and that's is that, because it sort of keeps you organized. If you unpack a suit, that'swhen we come home.
Kevin 49:49
No, we only unpack if we're in a hotel room for more than three nights.
Alex Brooks 49:54
Okay, otherwise, you just dip into the suitcase. There's no point, no point. One
Janetta 49:57
of the things we have been known to do on cruise. And in hotel rooms like Japan, where the rooms are small, tiny, yeah, we have removed furniture from the hotel room and put it in
Kevin 50:07
the hallway, extraneous furniture.
Alex Brooks 50:11
Excuse me, can you move the couch out of my
Kevin 50:13
The cabins in ships are metal. The walls are metallic. They might be covered in wallpaper, but they're all metal because they're they're modulus, yes, that's right, no matter what sort of a ship it is. So we take these magnetic hooks with us, very strong magnetic hooks. They go on the wall. All your handbags are hanging up, so there's room for everything, because the walk in wardrobes on a lot of ships are not that big.
Janetta 50:36
Last year, the trip to Japan on Travel Guides, the room was okay for a Japanse, for I think there was, this was in Kyoto, but the bed was up against the wall, so one person's got to come. So what we did is we put there was one chair. We put it out in the hallway. We moved the bed out. I took the rubbish bin from the bathroom, turned it upside down, and that was my bedside table back.
Alex
At least you could still get out of bed again the next morning and then push because,
Alex Brooks 51:06
yes, Japan, everything's slightly undersized. In Japan, the people are smaller.
Kevin 51:12
Yes, the rooms are minuscule,
Alex Brooks 51:14
I know. And that furniture is all just sort of like dolls furniture, the chairs are slightly smaller.
Kevin 51:20
Imagine imagine if you had the clamshell suitcases.
Alex Brooks 51:25
I admire the Japanese they're so organized. That's why everything's so beautiful. It's fantastic. What about souvenirs like, what do you always think, Oh, we've got to have that
Janetta 51:35
our early days, when we would go to Bali and you would get the Bali fix, and you this looks great here you get it home, and it's very different to looking at in situ in Tropical Balu right in the garage.
Kevin
So absolute crap, total crap
Janetta
We buy fridge magnets
Kevin 51:55
Now I have to qualify that the fridge magnets are not allowed on the fridge seriously. I mean, they're the ultimate in kitch. So I have a wall in my shed, metal wall in the shed, and we've got 1000s of fridge magnets on there. We won't have them in the house.
Janetta 52:12
We do buy clothes. We have nice dinners there are. The experience
Kevin 52:17
we have is if we're going to buy a souvenir, we have to be able to eat it, drink it, or wear it.
Alex
But the magnet, you can't do any
Kevin
No, there's, well, they're not a souvenir.
Janetta 52:29
And pretty much the magnets we get are as gross as possible, the grosser the possible
Alex Brooks 52:35
Oh, that's what you're trying to find.
Kevin 52:37
Never buy a flat fridge magnet.
Alex Brooks 52:40
It's got to be a tea towel as a souvenir. Because tea towel souvenirs are kind of interesting and useful. And you get them out and you go, Oh, I remember going to this strange village in Wales where
Kevin 52:52
The amount we travel, could you imagine how many tea towels we'd have? Many tea towels?
Alex Brooks 52:56
I just, you know, just depends. Now, all right, we're going to move into what your top five must see travel destinations for anyone over the age of 50, would be, ah, okay, say,
Janetta 53:11
Well, when you're over 50, the kids have probably left home, I don't know. These days they haven't mind parking and you've probably got a bit more expendable income, so you can, you know, push the yes, you can push the boat out a bit further. Our top one would probably
Kevin 53:30
be Switzerland, yeah, because you need money to get to Switzerland, it's very, very
Alex Brooks 53:36
so clean, yeah, beautiful,
Janetta 53:39
magnificent, magnificent. It's just like you would expect it to be. I mean, we found out that an entry level wage returns the equivalent of $140,000 a year. Yeah, it's so everything is absolutely how
Kevin 53:53
expensive. Also, a must travel to destination for the over 50s is, of course, Paris,
Janetta 54:00
anywhere in France, really, because it's timeless. You can be any age and its just fabulous there.
Kevin 54:05
And so the first one with Switzerland, the second one will be Paris and France, Croatia. Croatia. Okay, now the interesting one that you keep on referring to that you loved and was a real surprise,
Alex Brooks 54:20
she's trying to remember
Janetta
Give me a hint
Kevin 54:24
It starts with Israel.
Janetta
Yes, loved Israel, really? Okay, well, Israel, maybe
Alex Brooks 54:30
not Gaza, but
Janetta 54:33
Israel, Tel Aviv, it's, it's on the mid. Yeah,
Kevin 54:36
you tell a fib.
Janetta 54:39
Tel Aviv, it's on the med but you're at the southern end of the great the people are interesting. The foods, goods, very French. Beaches were wonderful.
Kevin 54:51
It was a real surprise.
Janetta 54:53
Yeah, I have to people ask us this question all the time, and it has been one of our favorites. But you. Feel a bit awkward mentioning it these days, but I can't not say it, but it was one of our favorites. Yes, yeah,
Alex Brooks 55:06
And so, how many is that? So what have we got? We've got Switzerland, Paris, Israel, Croatia, Croatia,
Kevin 55:13
the Dalmatian coast from Split down fown to Dubrovnik
Janetta 55:17
And Sri Lanka,
Alex
Sri Lanka, well, that's quite close to us here in Australia. So it's not far to go.
Kevin 55:23
It's still a bit of a trip, yeah? Well,
Alex Brooks 55:25
iEverything from Australia is far
Kevin 55:27
Australia so special when Australians go overseas, that make a real
Alex Brooks 55:32
Because you have to have a good chunk of time, because it's so
Kevin 55:38
long, everyone who goes away just puts up with it, and that's the price you pay for living in Australia. And
Alex Brooks 55:44
Do you read a lot about the destinations you're going to go to in advance? And where do you get your best information from? Do you do online? Do you prefer to read books about locations?
Kevin 55:54
Just collect it and it might have you might have collected information, say, on Sri Lanka, over a period of four or five years. Okay, one day I will go to Sri Lanka, so I'll take that on board.
Janetta 56:05
I actually have hard copy file and bits and pieces I've pulled out. Used to be pull out from the paper, but we read the newspapers online now, so I have to actually go out and print it off
Alex
clip it and keep it
Alex Brooks 56:18
Yes, yes. So Sue Williams mentioned yesterday that she loves reading the Old School travel writers who, you know, bring a journey to a place to life in the words
she also explained that her favorite destination was eating. She got fed by the Bedouins in Jordan somewhere, and you go out, and it sounded absolutely incredible. And she said they just bring all the food to you, and it's just so it's such an experience.
Kevin 56:53
We experienced that in Oman
Janetta
There’s an Element of hospitality with Arabs and and they just welcome you. Yeah, it's really amazing. Okay,
Alex Brooks 57:02
that's interesting. And what about in Australia? Are there five destinations in Australia that you could think people need to see five?
Kevin 57:09
One of our favorite cities in the world is Sydney.
Alex
I'll say, there you are. I live there. Just came back.
Kevin
I could just spend my life walking around the harbor. It's beautiful, absolutely.
Janetta 57:23
Well, only walking around because we can never afford to buy a house
Kevin 57:29
Sydney would be my top destination within Australia
janetta 57:32
Australia. One of the first five out of fives we gave on the show many years ago was actually to Canberra. We like Canberra?
Alex Brooks 57:39
Okay, you like a roundabout,
Kevin 57:43
you have to love a good roundabout
Janetta 57:45
And a beige row of houses I know, but everything's so well kept.
Kevin 57:51
I think it's very underrated. Okay, it's a very interesting place, too, once you get off the streets and stuff.
Janetta 57:58
And admittedly, we stayed at Jamala, which is the zoo where you sleep with the Tigers and everything. What else in Australia.
Kevin 58:07
We love Tasmania. Driving holidays around Tasmania. Tasmania is like a microcosm of everything that you expect to get from New Zealand, yeah, and it's all there in Tassie. I love driving
Janetta 58:17
Brisbane's come of age. Ah, really come about. He's very warm in Brisbane, though, you
Kevin 58:24
That’s the same with any destination. I
Janetta 58:27
I don't like humidity. I turn into Monica from Friends. You know, the hair comes out like I had Monica hair.
Alex Brooks 58:33
This is the thing if you live in Melbourne as well, right? Because it's the water's quite hard here. So you don't, you know, everything seems to sit nicely in your hair the minute my mum and sister come to Sydney. Yes, exactly, because even the humidity of Sydney is too much for a Melbournite.
Now, I'm going to hit you with some hard and fast questions now as we wrap now, so I'm going to give you two choices, and you're going to select the one that immediately comes to mind:
good food or good scenery,
Janetta 59:05
a restaurant with a view
Kevin 59:06
Like a revolving restaurant on top of a high building, well see we're ex restaurant judges, so good food’s important, but good views is also important. Yeah. Jules Verne,
Alex Brooks 59:24
yes, there you go. Okay? Now, credit card or cash when you travel,
Kevin 59:28
Absolutely debit card, debit card, because if you lose it, you've only lost a certain amount, okay, debit card. And there's a couple of debit cards, which are brilliant now, and they're designed for travel. Well, I use a bankwest one, okay, no transaction fees, wow, and it's got a very attractive conversion rate.
Janetta 59:49
Just always, always go in the local currency. Oh,
Kevin 59:53
yes, always hit local currency. Never the Australian dollars, because you charge up considerably more. But if you've got an iPhone, I don't know whether everybody knows this, look down the bottom, when you go into calculator on your iPhone, ‘convert’ and it will automatically to the local currency. That's my biggest tip it’s a lifesaver. two seasons, two seasons, which is 20 episodes, 20 different countries. I haven't used cash once. I haven't cashed any local currency.
Janetta 1:00:25
Admittedly, we haven't had to go to a toilet in Italy,
Alex Brooks 1:00:29
You need coins, right, which is even worse, yeah,
Kevin 1:00:31
that's why you have aproducer. Now
Alex Brooks 1:00:33
pack light, or pack for all occasions. All
Kevin 1:00:36
Occasions, absolutely okay. We're not good at packing light,
Alex Brooks 1:00:39
so revisit old favorites or go to a new place every time
Kevin 1:00:43
But I have to go down the middle on that one, but we would try and combine both on one trip. Okay, knowing that we love a certain destination, we'll go there and then go somewhere
Alex 1:00:54
new, interesting, aisle or window seat. Oh, definitely. Aisle for me,
Janetta
Window
Kevin 1:01:02
you we love it when we get if we're in economy seats, K and J - Kevin and Janetta
Alex Brooks 1:01:11
and but you could always sort of demand that. Now, if you get mobbed in New Zealand, surely when you check in, you can ask, don't you think? All right, now I'm going to ask Janetta, sunrise or sunset,
Janetta 1:01:26
Definitely sunset with a glass of something in your hand. Watching this glass be red or white wine, it would probably be a dry champagne, okay? Or possibly even a whiskey sour.
Alex Brooks 1:01:39
You like a whiskey sour? Now, five star resort, or somewhere with a five star review,
Janetta 1:01:45
Five star resort, okay, no brainer. Reviews are very subjective.
Alex Brooks 1:01:49
They are and sometimes they're rigged. Now, right? Yeah, so you can't trust that review
Kevin 1:01:55
When they're self rated. What one person considers five star could be very different.
Janetta 1:02:03
I'll have my steak medium rare.
Alex Brooks 1:02:05
Oh, yeah, yeah. You never get a medium rare. Now, guided tour or DIY itinerary.
Janetta 1:02:11
Oh, we love doing a half day city sites tour in a new city whenever we arrive.
Alex
To orient, yourself?
Janetta
Absolutely. And we also, we've had some great guided tours, like in Japan, yeah,
Kevin 1:02:24
And more recently in Chile.
Janetta 1:02:31
But we also like doing our own thing, yeah? So it's really hard mix
Alex Brooks 1:02:36
it up, yeah, street food or fine dining,
Janetta 1:02:39
both. I know I'm not. I'm really on the fence here.
Alex Brooks 1:02:44
Okay, domestic or international.
Janetta 1:02:49
Got to be international, okay, got to be international.
Alex Brooks 1:02:53
CountrySide or city
Janetta 1:02:56
this, these are mine, probably city, because we live in the country. Okay? So you like something
Alex Brooks 1:03:03
different? Yeah, now this can be for both of you, because I'm gonna get your hot tips and your hot takes. So you talked about your bank, West conversion Travel Card. What would you say is the best hotel you've ever stayed in?
Janetta 1:03:16
Can we do within Australia
Kevin 1:03:19
and overseas? Yes, okay, you do Australia, first, best hotel we've stayed in in Australia. And I hope they're listening, is the Emporium?
Janetta 1:03:29
Emporio? It’s in Brisbane? Yeah,
Kevin 1:03:35
it's magnificent. I mean, it's not the most expensive hotel in the world. It they've just got it right? The staff are impeccable. It's just a very, very good hotel,
Janetta 1:03:48
Really nicely located, great rooftop bar. We love rooftop bars, by the way. Yeah, now International, I know what? Yeah, I know where you're
Alex Brooks 1:03:57
What are you gonna say for international? It's
Janetta 1:03:59
It’s actually India. Oh, really the what's it called? The Imperial Delhi in Delhi, absolutely magnificent,
Kevin 1:04:10
Very colonial. And it's got deep history of the partition India from Pakistan,
Janetta 1:04:21
Not cheap, but the rooms are beautiful. The staff are spectacular. You know, the concierge has got the moustache and the brass buttons
Kevin
Very Raj
Janetta
It's like the old days, yes
Alex Brooks 1:04:34
. And what about the best tour or travel experience, hot air ballooning, or I'm making it up as I go along, yeah,
Janetta 1:04:45
this has got to be the Citro Designing Journeys that we did a couple of years ago,
Janetta 1:04:54
We did a trip to Japan with designing journeys, yeah, Melbourne was it last year?
Kevin
Last year? Yeah. Yeah, because we went twice last year, yes, and we just had the most magnificent time. We had a one on one. We met ammodean, married to a Japanese, speaks Japanese and English fluently and knows Japan like nobody else, and showed us the side of Japan we'd not seen before, and we
Janetta 1:05:24
We said, beforehand, we want to do something quirky, something food, something this, and you just say all the different things, and they pulled it or
Alex Brooks 1:05:35
They make it all happen
for you. Wow. Okay, and now brand of suitcase,
Kevin 1:05:41
it's got to be the one we're using. The one we're using at the moment is called Nere
Janetta 1:05:46
just from Strand bags. It's not a it's just a middle of the road. We
Kevin 1:05:50
bash up suitcase. We have to get a new suit every year, but we give it 10 years worth of travel in one year. So it's got to be strong. It's got to be hard case, hard sided. Yep.
Janetta 1:06:02
Light and four wheels, Double Wheel. Oh, you like the double wheels?
Alex
When a wheel breaks it’s terrible
Kevin 1:06:09
Terrible. Throw it away. We have to get new suitcases every year.
Alex 1:06:13
What about the best airport in the world? It's got to be Middle East ones
Kevin 1:06:22
we loved Helsinki remember? Yes, with the Finnish touches everywhere, very Scandi
Janetta 1:06:33
Dubai no, Qatar, no, yes. Can't remember the one in Oman we were just there a
Kevin 1:06:39
couple of weeks ago. Is great. Yes, Singapore is but we just
Janetta 1:06:43
recently went to one of the best airport lounges we've ever been to. We were flying economy, but because we're Qantas gold, we got into the LATAM lounge in Santiago. Ah, it was like being in an art gallery.
Kevin 1:06:57
We also love the Qantas lounge in Hong Kong. Oh, really. Business Class Qantas lounge in Hong Konh
Alex Brooks 1:07:02
So are you? Who do you have your lounge membership with?
Kevin
Qantas
Kanetta
And then you can get in. But if you're Yes,
Unknown Speaker 1:07:10
you get into the other
Kevin 1:07:12
members. That's why we were chasing status credits at the beginning of the year to maintain the goal.
Alex Brooks 1:07:16
There's another new thing, like I was just saying yesterday. There's now these gurus online who will tell you how to maximize your status credits to fly cheaply.
Janetta
Twice a year, Qantas has a double status credits thing that they are
Kevin 1:07:31
very important. I mean having if you're a frequent traveler and you're not always flying business class, having gold membership gives you so much more value, because you can get priority boarding and you can get into the lounges, and if you've got to wait for three or four hours lounges in transit or before your flight starts, getting into the lounge means a lot,
Alex Brooks 1:07:53
You can have a shower too.
Janetta 1:07:56
Earlier this year, we for the first time, when we went to Hong Kong, we put in to upgrade to business with points, and it came through both ways, both ways.
Alex
Yeah, look at you. How good was that?
Speaker 2 1:08:07
Do you think they knew it was K and J? No, maybe they did
Janetta 1:08:16
You hear horror stories about them not coming through.
Kevin 1:08:18
No, that's right, people getting downgraded. But you put the horror stories behind you? Well, you
Alex Brooks 1:08:25
Sometimes the horror stories make the trip, right? Sometimes
Kevin 1:08:29
It makes you appreciate other trips.
Speaker 1 1:08:33
Anyway, it's been wonderful. It's a wrap. Thank you so much for sharing all your tips with us. Kevin and Janetta
Kevin 1:08:39
We've had a great time. Thanks very much. Thanks Alex.