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There’s a version of Nashville everyone thinks they know. Cowboy hats. Bachelorette sashes. Dolly Parton smiling down from every wall in town. Hot chicken that fights back. Keith Urban sightings. The neon stretch of Broadway blasting country covers into humid Tennessee nights.
There are two things Anastasia has in common with Taylor Swift and I feel both are worth celebrating. First, glitter. And when has glitter ever made anything worse? Second, American accents. Which, in a musical about Russia and France performed in Sydney by Australians, did initially make my brain do a tiny, confused pirouette.
Every year, when winter finally loosens its icy grip on the Great Plains, North Dakota wakes up like someone who’s had a very long nap and suddenly remembers they own several thousand square kilometres of spectacular wildlife habitat.
There are ski holidays. And then there are ski holidays where the snow is so light and perfect it makes you question every previous life decision that did not involve being strapped to two planks in Japan.
There are two kinds of people in the world: those who pretend to “love the cold” and those who’ve simply spent too much time on Instagram. Either way, you’ll meet both in Niseko, Japan’s snow-drenched wonderland where the flakes fall like confetti, and every second person insists the snow is “different here”. (They’re right, but still.)
Some travel companies will sell you the idea of “getting away from it all” and then promptly dump you at a five-star hotel where the minibar is $14.50 for a packet of chips and the neighbours are from Mosman. Arctic Kingdom, on the other hand, has taken things rather more literally. Their new trip, Northern Lights Odyssey, whisks you off to Iqaluit, Nunavut, and onwards to Blachford Lodge in the Northwest Territories. This means places where you’re more likely to run into a snowshoe hare than an influencer.
So just when you thought your couch couldn’t possibly look any drabber, along comes Foxtel with the official trailer for Luxury Escapes: The World’s Best Holidays, premiering Thursday 11 September. And before you ask, yes, episodes will be dropping weekly because delayed gratification is still a thing in 2025.
You know when you’re having one of those days where your life feels like a badly folded doona cover, and you think, if only Dolly Parton would appear out of my wardrobe and sort me out with a song and some fringe? Well, that’s exactly what happens in Here You Come Again, and it is every bit as ridiculous and fabulous as you’d imagine.
This summer, forget subtlety. Embrace rhinestones. Drench yourself in pink. If your heart isn’t beating to the rhythm of a banjo and your cocktail doesn’t come with a paper parasol and a wink, you’re doing Nashville wrong.
![Hoshino Resorts [Mt.T] Slope](https://www.firstclassmagazine.co/wp-content/uploads/2025/05/TravMedia_Australia_1687463_Hoshino-Resorts_Mt.T_Slope-740x600.jpg)
If you think skiing in Japan is all gentle slopes, Hello Kitty souvenirs and matcha lattes on the beginner’s deck, then you are in for a shock. A fabulous, face-freezing, powder-spraying shock. Because Mt.T, formerly known as Tanigawadake Tenjindaira Ski Resort until it went all stylish and got a rebrand, is here to shake the icicles off your assumptions.
This is a doorway into the wild, a chance to stand beneath the Northern Lights and swim alongside orcas and humpbacks in the Norwegian fjords. This is no ordinary getaway; it’s a once-in-a-lifetime experience crafted for nature lovers and thrill-seekers alike.
In the untouched wilds of Vancouver Island, where the whisper of the wind through the cedars and the call of the eagles remind you just how far you are from the ordinary, there lies a place that has captured the essence of luxury and seclusion.
