Three hotels in Australia and New Zealand have been listed among the world's top 30 new hotels by international travel magazine Travel + Leisure in its July-August issue which hits newsstands in June.

The Australian hotels are Qualia Spa Resort on Queensland's Hamilton Island and Southern Ocean Lodge on South Australia's Kangaroo Island. The New Zealand hotel is The Farm at Cape Kidnappers at Te Awanga (south of Napier, east of Hastings) in the Hawkes Bay region of New Zealand.

Leisure + Travel's It List 2008 features beach resorts and redone city hideaways to eco-friendly retreats on six continents.

• Qualia Spa Resort: Rates and Pictures
• Hamilton Island
• Islands in the Sun
• Islands of Australia
• Touring the North Island in Five Days

Photo: Sunrise at the Qualia resort © Tourism Queensland

With long stretches of a white sand beach, seas of such clear blue purity, palm-fringed coast, sunset camel treks, parasailing and water sports, sundrenched resorts, and the air of an exotic and distant tropical eden, Cable Beach does conjure in one's mind a certainly desirable holiday destination. Particularly with the southern winter nearly upon us, it's time to travel to warmer tropical regions. And discover Broome as well. It's really one pearl of a town.

Photo: Cable Beach © Tourism Western Australia

Yes, it's nearly winter — and ski time — in Australia. If you're heading to the Snowy Mountains, about three hours' drive from Canberra is Jindabyne, the New South Wales town closest to the ski resorts of Thredbo and Perisher Blue.

Jindabyne sits on the shore of a scenic man-made lake. From Jindabyne it's just about half an hour to the state's major ski slopes.

• Skiing in New South Wales
  
• Skiing in Victoria
• Skiing in Tasmania

Photo: Bird's-eye view of Jindabyne © Tourism New South Wales

First performed in 1986 at Her Majesty’s Theatre in London, Andrew Lloyd Webber's musical, The Phantom of the Opera, has since played to a worldwide audience of more than 80 million. It has been playing on Broadway for 21 years.

The Phantom of the Opera had its Australian premiere in 1990 and has since completed two Down Under seasons. It now returns to Sydney for its third Australian season after performances in Melbourne and Brisbane.

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If you're not particularly fond of the winter cold — winter begins in Australia and New Zealand on June 1 — consider a trip north to Australia's tropical regions.

For those wishing to visit the Great Barrier Reef, one of the destinations of choice is Cairns in Queensland which is a popular jump-off point to the Reef.

If you're driving north along the Pacific coast, there are many coastal Queensland cities and towns from which you can take a ferry to one of the resort islands on the Reef.

• Great Barrier Reef
• Cairns: Gateway to the Reef
• Islands in the Sun

On the other side of the continent, there's Broome and Cable Beach in Western Australia to consider, and in the Northern Territory there's Darwin and Kakadu.

Photo: Snorkeling off Heron Island, courtesy P&O Australian Resorts

Australian singer Kylie Minogue has received the Chevalier Dans L'Ordre Des Arts Et Des Lettres decoration, France's highest cultural honor.

She received the honor in Paris from French Culture Minister Christine Albaniel who said the singer was a "Midas of the international music scene who turns everything she touches into gold."

The minister also praised Kylie over her fight against breast cancer.

"I want to publicly salute the courage you showed by revealing publicly that you had breast cancer," Albanel was quoted as saying. "Doctors now even go as far as saying there is a 'Kylie effect' that encourages young women to have regular checks."

Kylie received the French honor on the eve of a European concert tour which was to kick off in Paris.

Past recipients of the French award include singers Bob Dylan and David Bowie and Hollywood stars George Clooney, Leonardo Di Caprio, Clint Eastwood, Robert Redford, Meryl Streep and Bruce Willis.

• Kylie Minogue: Australian Singer and Pop Princess

Photo: Kylie Minogue on receiving the French decoration (Pascal Le Segretain / Getty Images)

Archeological diggings have begun at Glenrowan, where Australian bushranger Ned Kelly made his last stand and was eventually captured.

It's been nearly 130 years since the Glenrowan shootout but a team of archeologists and archeology students from Victoria's La Trobe University hope to find artefacts from the siege that will shed new light on the episode.

The most enduring image of Ned Kelly is that of a man suited in rough armor — wrought from, no doubt stolen, iron plows — and with his gang facing the superior force of police at the Glenrowan Inn in Glenrowan in 1880.

Facing wave upon wave of policemen, Ned Kelly was finally brought down when the police realised he could be felled by shooting at his unprotected legs.

The generally accepted story is that only he, of the Kelly gang, survived the shootout at Glenrowan which lasted well into the night.

Captured and tried, Ned Kelly was hanged at the old Melbourne Gaol in November 1880.

The Glenrowan diggings are expected to continue for four weeks.

Photo: Giant Ned Kelly statue in Glenrowan, Victoria © Tourism Victoria

In Perth, capital of Western Australia, discover the city attractions on a leisurely walking tour.

From the banks of the Swan River to the city's historic buildings and on to the malls and gardens, a Perth walk can be both informative and enjoyable.

It's true that if you're in Sydney, or anywhere along the eastern coast of Australia, Perth is on the other side of the continent. But it does have its own unique attractions and Perth is a jump-off point to Margaret River in the south and to Monkey Mia, Shark Bay, Ningaloo Reef, Broome, Cable Beach and the Kimberley region in the north.

• Discover Perth
• Perth Walking Tour
• Kings Park and Botanic Garden
• Indigenous Experiences in Perth
• Burswood Casino and Entrtainment Complex
• Sydney to Perth by Train
• Where to Stay in Perth
• Perth Map

Photo: Kings Park on Mt Eliza overlooks the city of Perth © Australian Tourist Commission

What used to be the annual Ningaloo Whaleshark Festival in Exmouth, Western Australia, usually held around this time, has turned biennial, and the next festival will be held during the whale shark season in 2009.

That doesn't mean you can't go swimming with these denizens of the deep this year or any other year. The whale sharks should be at Ningaloo Reef now.

And then there's Shark Bay and, of course, the dolphins at Monkey Mia to visit.

• Where to Swim with the Sharks
• Whaleshark Festival
• Shark Bay World Heritage Site
• Get Close to the Dolphins at Monkey Mia

Photo: Whale shark © Tourism Western Australia

It's mid-autumn in Sydney and, after a fortnight of showers, the weather's turned fine for long garden strolls by the sea.

If you're going down to the Quay, and then to the Opera House, the Royal Botanic Gardens Sydney are just a short walk away. Take a leisurely stroll through this oasis of green in the heart of Sydney: a paradise of flora.

The cool-climate garden of the Royal Botanic Gardens Sydney is located at Mt Tomah in the World Heritage region of the Blue Mountains west of Sydney. Drive up on a daytrip.

• Royal Botanic Gardens Sydney
• Royal Botanic Gardens Melbourne
• Australian Garden Cranbourne
• Kings Park and Botanic Garden Perth
• Australia's Floral Emblems

Photo: At the Royal Botanic Gardens Sydney © Larry Rivera licensed to About.com, Inc