Best Girls Weekend

Travel – 1 July 2013

Ditching the partner, and/or kids and getting away for a weekend with the girls is a tonic for the soul. Girls’ weekends can be full of laughs, sometimes tears, and often plenty of bubbles. And then there are desserts, pampering and channeling your inner dancing queen while cutting loose to all your favourite tunes.

Here we tap into five different female tribes, prescribing the perfect weekend for each. There are links for each property – just click on their names.

Party Girls

If staying up all night, sleeping until lunchtime and then shopping for the rest of the day is your style, head for a big city. There are plenty of cheap airfares on offer to capital cities if you book well in advance, so get out of your hometown and explore somewhere new. To be close to the action in Sydney, there’s The Darling Hotel at Star City, the new QT in the CBD, or maybe try The Kirketon in Darlinghurst. In Melbourne try The Prince in St Kilda, The Olsen in South Yarra or The Ovolo in the city. If the Gold Coast is your style, there are suites at The Hilton and Soul Surfers Paradise, and in Brisbane your best bets are The Limes and The Emporium.

Culture Vultures

There are many options for lovers of art and culture, but none as fabulous as the Museum of Old and New Art (MONA) in Hobart. You can stay on-site at the MONA Pavilions, or in Hobart and take a ferry to the museum. In Hobart try The Henry Jones Art Hotel or the Islington Hotel – or go up the road to Sandy Bay and stay at the avant-garde The Last Villa. Wherever you stay, a visit to MONA is bound to stimulate conversation that evening. It’s not for the faint-hearted (you may be confronted by The Wall of “Vaginas”), but it is a world-class museum and gorgeous feat of architecture.

Spa Junkies

Town or country, a spa weekend is an indulgent and relaxing getaway. In Melbourne, you can’t go past Aurora at The Prince in St Kilda, or the fantastic Miss Fox in the city. In Sydney your best bet is either The Langham or The Darling. On the Gold Coast try the Aurora at Pallazzo Versace or Gwinganna Retreat. Outside of the big smoke try Peppers Hepburn Springs (VIC), Barnbougle Lost Farm (TAS), The Golden Door Hunter Valley (NSW) or if money is no object, Qalia on Hamilton Island.

The Big Chill

If renting a gorgeous holiday home is more you’re style, there are plenty on offer. You can cook together, put on your favourite tunes, bring your own at-home spa treatments and stock the fridge full of fine French bubbles knowing you don’t have to drive anywhere at the end of the night. Throw in some chick-flicks and you’re set. Here’s the perfect five-bedroom property in Daylesford (VIC) http://www.homeaway.com.au/holiday-rental/p3024500, and one in the Blue Mountains (NSW) http://www.homeaway.com.au/holiday-rental/p3520939

The Explorers

Get among nature’s great gifts, whether it be a hike through forests, kayaking down a stream, snorkeling among the reefs, horse riding or strolling through vineyards. Cape Lodge at Margaret River offers many activities from horse riding to surfing. Capella Lodge on Lord Howe Island has some amazing hiking. Silky Oaks lodge in the Daintree is a place to really escape from it all and immerse yourself in the rainforest. Or get into the Queensland hinterland at Spicer’s Peak Lodge and soak up the scenery.

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