Canberra, Oh So Fine

A safari lodge or a winery just 10 minutes from the CBD? It’s possible to pack a wide range of activities into your holiday in a short time — and not feel exhausted — in Canberra.

- Jasmine Teo

You’d take the same time to drive end to end in Canberra as you would Singapore, yet, there are only 300,000 residents in the Australian capital, compared to 5.7mil here. Before you go, “So, Canberra is another Perth…”, hear us out. It’s a slower pace of life in this city where Ikea just opened its first store end of last year, but it still has plenty to offer. A mere one-hour flight from Sydney and Melbourne and a seven-hour direct flight from here on Singapore Airlines, Canberra is a world of a difference from typical city life. Yes, it’s considerably quieter. But kancheong spiders still have plenty to rejoice about. The city’s so compact, hipster cafes and shops in town are only 15 minutes away from a serene safari lodge or a boutique cellar door. Yup, there’s something for everyone to do everything and nothing in this underrated capital.

#1: Sleep next to lions.

We’re in our hotel room spying on our neighbour next door. He’s lounging lazily in a corner. He gets up to snack on fruit, then potters around some more. We whip out our phone to sneak a pic, and he suddenly turns around and stares us straight in the eye, then scuttles away into a cage within his enclosure. Our neighbour is a lemur — a considerably shyer and less flamboyant one than Madagascar’s King Julien, but we manage to get at least one good selfie through the floor-to-ceiling glass window that separates our room from his home nonetheless.