August 2016 - Boomerang Escapes

Follow my #amazingaussieadventure

August 21, 2016 Lisa Rossmeissl Australia No comments

I’m off again. Next week I take off on my third Amazing Aussie Adventure with Travel2. You will be able to follow my adventures on my social media accounts. All you need to do is search the following hashtags: #amazingaussieadventure, #myhappyplace, #Australia, and #returntoyourhappyplace.

Like last year, about 60 top agents from across the U.S. have been chosen to head Down Under to meet suppliers and experience the wonders the country has to offer. I am back in Queensland this year and will be going up to the Sunshine Coast from Brisbane to Cairns with stops on Fraser Island and the Whitsundays.
My adventure begins on Wednesday, August 24th, as I make my way from Memphis to LA to catch my overnight flight on Qantas. (I love Qantas!) We will arrive in Brisbane Friday, August 26th, and be off and running. Friday begins day one, crikey!

Day 1-Our first stop– Australia Zoo. It is the home of the “Crocodile Hunter.” We will have a quick breakfast, followed by a morning of activities. There will probably be another koala cuddle for me, and, of course, I will need to check out the saltwater crocs. After a morning of zoo fun, we will be off to Montville in the Sunshine Coast Hinterland to visit Flame Hill Vineyard. What’s better than a wine tasting at midday? By late afternoon, we will head to the Sebel Resort Noosa for a little R&R shopping. We will also enjoy bathing on the beach or laying by the pool before dinner that evening at Bistro C looking over Noosa’s Laguna Bay.

Day 2-We will rise early for a morning run/walk through Noosa National Park, followed by a healthy breakfast at Season Restaurant. After breakfast, we hit the road and travel to Hervey Bay to board the ferry to Fraser Island, where we will check into the Kingfisher Bay Resort. The afternoon will be spent doing a resort inspection and trying out the many available activities to guests. The day will end with a pleasant dinner at Seabelle Restaurant.

Day 3-We will savor breakfast at leisure before we depart for a full day of Beauty Spots Tour. We will visit the top natural attractions and cool off in fresh watering holes on this beautiful day off-roading. We’ll have lunch on the road and have the opportunity to discover:
Gorgeous Lake McKenzie
Central Station and Wanggoolba Creek
Pile Valley’s stunning Satinay and Brush Box Forests
The Maheno shipwreck and the colored sands of The Pinnacles
The temperate, fresh waters of Eli Creek
The mighty Stonetool Sand Blow
The day will end with a quick shower before dining at Meheno Restaurant and taking the ferry back to spend the night at Mantra Hervey Bay.

Day 4-There will be an early sunrise departure from the hotel for a flight to Hamilton Island. Once at Hamilton Island, we will be staying at the Qualia. We will grab our golf buggies and head to the marina for lunch before our hotel inspections via Hamilton Island Treasure Hunt. The evening will be filled with food and wine as we begin with cocktails at One Tree Hill, followed by dinner at Long Pavilion overlooking the sparkling Coral Sea. This is only for guests of Qualia.

Day 5-We will start the day with a sunrise walk, followed by yoga before diving into a healthy breakfast. After breakfast, we are off to the sea and sand, spending a day seeing Whitehaven beach via yacht and helicopter. I will be taking a flight over to see the famed Heart Reef. After a full day of sun, there will be dinner at Marina Tavern back on Hamilton Island.

Day 6-We will grab one last breakfast at Qualia before catching our flight to Cairns. Cairns is the gateway to Queensland’s tropical north. We will spend three nights here at the Pacific Hotel Cairns, conveniently located near the Esplanade, Markets, and Reef Casino. We will have the afternoon free to visit those wonderful places before meeting for dinner at Wharf ONE Café at Trinity Warf. After dinner, we will enjoy a peaceful evening.

Day 7-We will start the morning with some yoga on the Esplanade before assembling our Trade Training Day. This is a full day to meet with fifty of my Aussie and Kiwi partners to get all the latest updates. The day will close with a little free time before our Beach Party on Green Island. The evening will be great for networking and enjoying Cairns.

Day 8-There will be breakfast, followed by a play day. My playtime will be spent out on the Great Barrier Reef with a day of sun and snorkeling. After a full day on the reef, we will return to the Bushfire Flame Grill Restaurant for a Brazilian Churrascaria a la Australian dinner.

Day 9-We will head to the airport for breakfast included on the flight to Sydney. Upon arrival, we will check into the Holiday Inn Old Sydney. The morning will be free time to shop at the Rock Markets before our Sydney Harbour Bridge Climb. The climb takes about three and a half hours and is suitable for most fitness levels. After our climb, we will clean up to head for dinner aboard Captain Cook Cruises for their food and dancing trip. After a three hour sail around the harbor, we will return with some time to explore the famous old pubs on our short walk back to the hotel.

Day 10-There will be many sad faces as our adventure will come to an end, and it will be time to catch our flight back to the U.S. I will look forward to making another trip to my happy place but until next time, Australia. Xoxoxo.

**Any activities that I participate in on my travels can be worked into your own itinerary. Call for a complimentary planning session to begin customizing your own #amazingaussieadventure.**

Lisa Rossmeissl is the owner of Boomerang Escapes, a home-based agency located in Old Bridge, New Jersey with agents in TN, MS, and WI.

She has been a professional travel consultant since 2008 and specializes in Australia and the South Pacific. Australia, New Zealand, Tahiti, Fiji, and Cook Islands are among the specialist certificates she holds. Her agency’s focus is on creating custom itineraries with their client’s wants, desires, and budgets in mind. She and her planners believe in getting to know the traveler to ensure they have a vacation to remember. With each planner specializing in a different market area, Boomerang Escapes can offer a wide variety of leisure vacation planning.

For A Good Time Call…

August 14, 2016 Lisa Rossmeissl For Fun, Travel Tips No comments

Looking for a good time?

Call me! I’m your friendly travel professional (aka travel agent, travel consultant, travel concierge).

I’ve now been in the travel industry for just over eight years, which still makes me a baby by some standards in the travel world. However, the best of us, new or old to the industry, is worth your time to call if you are looking for the best value in your travel experiences.
Why may you ask do I need a travel agent when there is so much available online? That, my friend, is exactly why you need a travel consultant (we prefer this over the antiquated use of an agent). The internet is awesome and is how I perform my business’s daily operations, but it is also daunting if you don’t know what to be looking for. It has its uses, and there are times when I will tell my clients it is in their best interest to go ahead and grab what they see online, but in most cases, your travel consultant will outperform any booking engine out there.

Here’s why…

Knowledge-Travel professionals, in general, know more than you do. In fact, we invest a lot of time, energy, and money into our profession. It is an ever-changing industry, and we are forever in learning mode. Through tourism board certification programs, supplier webinars, trade shows, personal development, and hands-on destination visits, we further our knowledge every day. Nothing teaches you better than visiting the destination. Besides seeing the destination, we experience what there is to do. There’s nothing like getting down and dirty with the locals and being able to come back and share with our clients the best tours, restaurants, or pubs to visit. Believe me, and we often can tell you if a place truly is what you see on the web. What is even better is a lot of us are now specialists in a specific type of travel or destination. Some are even hyper-specialized, like me, in the destination of Australia. I don’t call myself an Aussie Expert without good cause. Besides the continued online education I do with Australia Tourism and my suppliers, I will be making my 5th visit in 5 years this August.

Resources-All the visits, trade shows, and conferences lead to something even greater…a network of other highly specialized individuals at our disposal. We develop relationships with key people in our industry in the destinations we service, and we work with other agents. Yes, you heard me. We are not competitors. We are collaborators. I’ve even been known to have one of my fellow travel partners book my client’s vacation instead of me. What??? If it is in my client’s best interest to be matched with someone with greater expertise than myself, that’s exactly what I do. It all works out in the wash, and the ultimate goal is to provide my client with value and a trip they will never forget. I guarantee that your online booking engine is not consulting with other trained specialists to offer you the best choice.

Personal-Probably the best reason to use a travel professional is we care about you. Our primary goal is to get to know you! The best of us want to know everything about you. The more we know about you, the better we can match the right experiences to your trip. The longer you work with your professional, the greater the relationship becomes. Another bonus of working with a travel professional is we are there 24/7 to take care of your travel mishaps. Canceled flights, lost luggage, stolen items, whatever the case may be, you will get a person to help you through it. Crazy stuff doesn’t happen often, but believe me, when it does, you will be glad you booked your trip with your travel consultant.

I could go on with why you should call a travel professional. I challenge you to call me or another travel professional you know and experience what we can do for you. We are in an industry that is hard work but work we absolutely love. And when it is work you love, it isn’t working at all. When you build relationships with your clients, they aren’t clients but friends. There is a lot of passion that goes into what we do. Our greatest joy comes from following your journeys.

“Do something you’ll never forget”-Funjet Vacations.

Lisa Rossmeissl is the owner of Boomerang Escapes, a home-based agency located in Old Bridge, New Jersey with agents in TN, MS, and WI.

Little Penguins of Phillip Island

August 7, 2016 Lisa Rossmeissl Australia, Wildlife No comments

I was first introduced to the Little Penguins at Featherdale Wildlife Park in August 2011 during my first trip to Australia. Featherdale is located just outside of Sydney and makes for a great day trip for visitors wanting to get up close and personal with some of Australia’s most famous wildlife.

As our trip continued along the Southeast coast of Australia to Melbourne, I got the experience of a lifetime at Phillip Island, which is home to The Little Penguins.

Phillip Island has a wealth of activities for visitors to partake in with great landscape and wildlife. Some favorites are visits to the Churchill Island Heritage Farm and the Koala Conservation Centre, but Phillip Island has probably become most well known for the Penguin Parade. The island is one of the Little Penguins’ homes that come in each night to their nests.
The penguins are the smallest of all the penguin species. They have homes along the rocky coastlines of New Zealand, Tasmania, and Australia’s southern coastline like Phillip Island. The penguins are under increased threat from non-native carnivores, and areas such as Phillip Island have become national parks that work to protect and conserve these tiny creatures.

Phillip Island has set up an amazing opportunity for educating visitors while allowing them an up close and personal glance at these cute creatures. This is an impeccable experience that allows visitors to see the creatures make their nightly trek up into the rocky shore banks to return to their nests. Hundreds or more birds each night come ashore and make their waddle to the nests. Visitors can choose from several watch options for viewing from the main area at Summerland Beach to personal guided eco-tours. My personal view back in 2011 was from the Penguin Plus Viewing Platform. I highly recommend spending the extra few dollars for a closer viewing station for a more intimate experience and a front-row seat.
Listening to the bird’s chatter and call out to one another as we watched them make their nightly journey was truly amazing. It didn’t even matter that we were getting wet in a light rain that had begun to fall. I was literally close enough to reach out and touch them but sadly was not allowed. Photography is not allowed either. However, the shop at the end of the tour has professional photographs available for sale in various formats. I took home several of the postcard photos, one of which you see here. Animal lover, bird lover, wildlife enthusiast, or not, you will love and be amazed by these little birds and their nightly trek home. Photo courtesy of www.visitphillipisland.com

Lisa Rossmeissl is the owner of Boomerang Escapes, a home-based agency located in Old Bridge, New Jersey with agents in TN, MS, and WI.

Follow my #amazingaussieadventure

I’m off again. Next week I take off on my third Amazing Aussie Adventure with Travel2. You will be able to follow my adventures on my social media accounts. All you need to do is search the following hashtags: #amazingaussieadventure, #myhappyplace, #Australia, and #returntoyourhappyplace.

For A Good Time Call…

Looking for a good time?

Call me! I’m your friendly travel professional (aka travel agent, travel consultant, travel concierge).

Little Penguins of Phillip Island

As our trip continued along the Southeast coast of Australia to Melbourne, I got the experience of a lifetime at Phillip Island, which is home to The Little Penguins.

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