Travel Newsletter: Back in Australia edition

Targeting 50-plus travellers, travel snobs, hiking off the beaten track in central Taiwan’s Alishan region, coffee in HCMC, Dubai's new airport, and more travel reads.

Welcome to the Nomadic Notes Travel Newsletter, where I curate the best travel reads of the week.

I’m back in Australia after nearly two years away. I usually visit once a year, so it feels odd to have missed a calendar year. Even though Melbourne is my home on paper, I now feel like a visitor in my own city.

I’m treating this visit as a part-time holiday, meeting friends in and around Melbourne. Nomadic Notes blog posts will resume after my visit.

[Jetlagged at Southern Cross Station (click through for my immigration mug shot).]

Travel reads

• I’m midlife – but that doesn’t mean I want a ‘mature’ or ‘senior’ holiday

“Times have changed, yet much of the language targeting 50-plus travellers is jarring and patronising, says Meera Dattani.”

As someone in this demographic, I don’t click websites that target “50-plus travellers”. This is partly because I refuse to join any club that would have me as a member, and - as Meera points out - it’s weird to lump everyone from 50 to 100 in one group. I do though identify with articles targeting Gem X travellers.

• 'What is a travel snob?

• 'Hiking off the beaten track in central Taiwan’s Alishan region: coffee and tea plantations, forest trails and mountain dew

• Why you should visit Koh Samui now – before The White Lotus crowds descend

• 'Why India's wildly remote islands are trending

• 'Riviera Nayarit is Mexico's dreamiest beach escape

• 'Finding great coffee in Ho Chi Minh City

• 'Chef spends over a year exploring cuisines from Vietnam’s 54 ethnic groups

🛏️ Accommodation

• Taylor Swift's convoy heads to Capella Singapore: Inside Capella's above S$10k per night suite

🚆Train travel

• 'Good Night Train: Visit seven of Europe’s top cities on this new sleeper route

• The Big Question: How did two rail enthusiasts fund their own €4.5 million sleeper train company?

• The most amazing train journeys in Australia

✈️ Air travel

• 'Dubai wants to build the biggest airport in the world. Here’s how that’s going

• 'Travelling didn't bring much excitement anymore': Ex-SIA stewardess shares downsides of being a cabin crew

…

[Flinders Street Station, Melbourne, Australia (@nomadicnotes).]

James Clark.