Taste & Wellbeing Travel Guide: art & culture
Gemma Nisbet lays out a palette for culture vultures.
Most travel includes some cultural element — perhaps something as straightforward as visiting an art gallery in New York, watching street musicians perform in Paris or spending a night at the opera in Vienna. But it’s also possible to pursue a specific cultural interest.
In terms of art-themed holidays, you can choose from two basic types: trips focused on seeing artworks and trips focused on creating art.
Examples of the former are the art tours offered by Victoria’s ASA Cultural Tours (asatours.com.au), which also has itineraries themed around architecture, ancient history and archaeology, houses and gardens, literature, music and theatre, all accompanied by experts.
Its eight-night Paris: Art, Architecture & Design tour, for example, is accompanied by art historian Christopher Wood and includes visits to major art collections, smaller and little-known museums, walking tours and more. It has departures in September this year and next (the former costs $4380 per person).
If your interest is in contemporary art, Sydney company inART (inart.com.au) runs luxury trips with VIP access to art fairs, galleries, studios and auction houses to destinations including Sydney, London, Copenhagen and Berlin. The company is putting together a three-day itinerary for the Sydney Contemporary art fair in September and is escorting a group to Berlin next May, joined by Sydney gallerist Dominik Mersch, for an insider’s view of the city’s art scene.
In Australia, there are a number of options for travellers interested in learning about Aboriginal art. For example, Friends of Australian Rock Art runs annual coach tours to see the rock art of the Burrup Peninsula (fara.com.au), accompanied by expert guides — this year’s departure is on August 1. The well-established Palya Art Tours (palya.com.au) works with indigenous-run art centres to operate tours to areas such as the Kimberley and Arnhem Land — its next tour is to the Central Desert, from September 7-11.
If you’d prefer to produce your own art, consider something like World Expeditions’ Art Expedition Larapinta (worldexpeditions.com/au), a six-day tour in the Northern Territory’s West MacDonnell Ranges for amateur and professional artists, escorted by painter Michael Herron, which costs $2895 per person. New South Wales-based female-travel specialist Women’s Own Adventure (womensownadventure.com.au) offers week-long painting holidays in Tuscany, including tuition, drawing excursions and visits to local towns, alongside cooking holidays throughout Italy, plus a range of more general trips.
Melbourne company Travelrite (travelrite.com.au) also offers a selection of painting workshops to various international destinations. Its upcoming Vietnam Workshop, from October 18-30, is accompanied by artist John Lovett, includes 13 days of sightseeing and painting in Hanoi, Halong Bay and Hoi An and costs $3695 per person.
The company also has tours themed around everything from bridge to cars as well as cultural pursuits and interests such as architecture and music. It even offers a film festival at sea, cruising the Mediterranean accompanied by David Stratton.
Its music tours and cruises include a 21-day America’s Deep South itinerary, accompanied by musician Craig Giles, departing on September 21 and priced at $9270 per person.
Sydney-based Renaissance Tours (renaissancetours.com.au) also runs a broad selection of art, opera, ballet, classical music and garden tours. Its 11-day Australian Ballet in China itinerary, from October 14, allows guests to join the Australian Ballet on tour and take in dance and music performances and costs $8150 per person, while its 13-day Grand Opera Tour of America, in November, includes performances by the best opera houses, symphony orchestras and musical talent in New York and Chicago, accompanied by broadcaster Mairi Nicolson. It costs $13,250.
If your interests are bookish, the new Readers & Writers Tours (readersandwriterstours.com), which is based in Sydney, offers small-group journeys with a literary theme, including upcoming tours to the Jaipur Literary Festival and China’s International Bookworm Literary Festival.
Its Quiet American tour of Vietnam, departing on May 3, will retrace the story of Graham Greene’s classic novel of the same name and will be accompanied by veteran foreign correspondent Carl Robinson, a consultant on the film adaptation starring Michael Caine. The 16-day tour costs $8384.
Cruises with cultural themes are also relatively common, in particular music cruises. These range from the Cruisin’ Country and Rock the Boat voyages (the next departure of the latter departs from Sydney on October 17 aboard Royal Caribbean’s Radiance of the Seas for seven nights in the Pacific Islands and includes performances from Jimmy Barnes, Ross Wilson, Frankie J. Holden and more; rocktheboatcruise.com.au) to an opera-themed cruise on the Danube with Avalon Waterways (avalonwaterways.com.au), departing from Budapest on October 23.
