• Ren Zwiers has news on tourism growth in New Zealand
• John Crook provides details of Cirque de Soleil’s forthcoming tour to Australia.
• Frances Beasley reviews a new cookbook: ‘Little Paris Kitchen’.
• David Gordon visits Turnberry, Scotland.
• John Crook interviews Tess Fisher of Yalumba Wines.

Ren Zwiers has the latest news on what’s happening in The Whitsundays (Queensland).

Frances Beasley visits Innsbruck, Austraia.

John Crook, on assignment in Phillip Island (Victoria) chats with tourism officer Kim Storey and calls in at the Chocolate Factory.

• Frances Beasley chats about her favourite TV travel/cooking show, ‘Hairy Bikers’.
• John Crook provides details of the new Orange Wine and Food Guide.
• Frances then reviews some train rides through Europe.
• Lastly, John has details of a superb villa stay in Florence, Italy.

John Crook has news of a Food Week festival at Orange, NSW.

Ren Zwiers invites listeners to have an ‘eventure’ in outback Queensland.

David Gordon enjoys a dram (or two) of whiskey on the island of Jura, Scotland.

Frances Beasley describes her Eurostar rail experiences.

Arthur von Wiesenberger and Martha Bull chat with Rory Boland about living in Hong Kong (segment courtesy of Around the World).

John Crook takes listeners on an audio tour of the Flinders Ranges, South Australia.

Welcome back to a new season of Travelradio Australia following our month hiatus. Here’s this edition’s synopsis:

1. Frances Beasley reviews Caraffini Restaurant in London

2. John Crook returns to the show with a report on the forthcoming Scarf Festival in Australia.

3. Arthur von Wiesenberger and Martha Bull chat with Eric Weinstein about  visiting movie set locations.

Ren Zwiers takes listeners on a farm-fresh trip around Queensland, Australia. Wes Crook tastes the wines from the Hunter Valley. Frances Beasley describes the passion play which takes place in Oberammergau, Germany once every 10 years, attracting half-a-million visitors. From our sister show Around the World, hosts Arthur von Wiesenberger and Martha Bull chat with Steve Letz about his adventure tours in Idaho.

The show will take a few weeks’ break after this edition as host/producer Ren Zwiers will be visiting a variety of destinations in Europe. The next podcast will appear in late March.

In this week’s podcast host/producer Ren Zwiers opens the show and presents the latest travel news.

Frances Beasley then visits a wine and food show in Munich, Germany where she discovers the merits of salt from the Kalahari.

The final segment is a recent grab from our sister program in the US, ‘Around the World‘. Co-hosts Arthur von Wiesenberger and Martha Bull chat with regular contributor Max Hartshorne from Gonomad.com about Maui, Hawaii.

• Ren Zwiers has news of an exciting new public concourse to be constructed fronting Kings Cross Station, London.
• Munich-based reporter Frances Beasley has tales of snow, avalanches and more snow in her part of Europe.
• Ren Zwiers chats on the phone to Sydney-sider Jane Tara, a well-travelled children’s author who runs a website which provides games, tips and more on travelling with children. Check out itcheefeet.com for more details.
• Diane Covington visits France (segment courtesy of Aroundtheworldradio,com)

• Ren Zwiers has info on what’s new in the Whitsundays region, Queensland
• Frances Beasley provides some interesting facts on the Bolshoi Ballet.
• From our US sister show, Around the World, Karen Ensign visits China.
• Ren Zwiers gives an insight into the renewed popularity of Bed and Breakfast establishments in Europe.

This week we introduce a new shorter and snappier format for the show. Travel Radio Australia is now available only as a podcast via our websites travelradioaustralia.com; travelwithren.com; travelcastnetwork.com and as a download from the iTunes store. We appreciate all the online listeners we have collected to the show over the past four years and hope to build the audience even more in time to come. Although the show is no longer a weekly event like it has been for the past decade (and longer), it will appear here on a regular basis, so keep checking back, or even better, subscribe and you’ll never miss an episode.

On this edition host Ren Zwiers has some travel news involving a wayward tourism manager in Croatia who has been sacked for her comments about Aussie visitors to her country; Frances Beasley celebrates the Christmas season in Munich, Germany and in the final segment, Ren offers some cruise specials from an Australian-based agency.