Travelogue: Flights to Los Angeles From $999 and More Travel News

This week’s flight sales and special deals

• Flights to North and South America, Asia, Europe and more are up for grabs in Qantas’s international sale. Offers include Melbourne to Singapore from $879 return; Sydney to Los Angeles from $999 return and Brisbane to Port Vila from $549 return. The airline’s nonstop flight from Sydney to Las Vegas is on sale for the first time, with return fares from $1199. Book before August 4.

Hotels and places to stay

Australia

• The New South Wales Central Coast is getting a new luxury stay, with destination diner Saddles Mount White expanding into accommodation. Twenty private villas, designed by White & Dickson Architects, will take inspiration from the colours and textures of the landscape, with interiors of sandstone, spotted gum and warm brass. Each villa will have separate living spaces, an open fireplace, a private terrace and a plunge pool, while outside, a communal infinity pool will overlook acres of bushland. In the main building, there’ll be a restaurant, an intimate bar with live music, and a spa with five treatment rooms. The Grand Saddles Lodge will open in spring.

International

• Nihi Sumba, the exclusive Indonesian island resort famous for its wild horses and world-class surfing, opens its Riding & Racquet Club this month. The beachfront club – with dark teak panelling, vaulted thatched ceilings and adorned with antique racquets and mallets – is home to Nihi’s Sandalwood Stables, a new international-size tennis court, a clubhouse lounge and bar and the hotel’s boutique. Built directly on the sand, and with views across the Indian Ocean, the club will become an essential spot for sundowners – and sunset viewing.

• Badrutt’s Palace, the iconic five-star hotel in the Swiss Alps, has won the Sei Bellissimi Art of Hospitality Award – the first special award announced ahead of The World's 50 Best Hotels 2026 awards in September. More than 800 members of The World’s 50 Best Academy were asked to name the hotel that delivered the most outstanding hospitality experience during the voting period – the storied St Moritz hotel, which dates to 1896, boasts a team of 700 during high season and suites have a dedicated butler. Last year’s winner was Soneva Fushi.

Destination dining

• Sumba, the unspoiled island just an hour’s flight from Bali, will host the second edition of Sumba Food Festival in October. Hosted at Cap Karoso, a luxury beachfront resort with an on-site organic farm, the festival brings together eight chefs from across the Asia-Pacific for a series of curated dinners, farm tours, market visits and foraging trips in Sumba’s wild terrain. Beyond the plate, there’s a varied cultural program spanning dance, music, film, permaculture, wellness and more. The festival runs October 5 to 18.

Wellness and retreats

• Savusauna is a traditional smoke sauna, loved in Finland for its soft, dense and wood-scented heat. It’s the newest heat therapy to arrive at Blue Mountains Sauna – and perhaps the first of its kind in the southern hemisphere. The savusauna is heated and filled with wood smoke over five hours, then vented and cleaned, leaving behind enveloping heat. It was designed over three years to Finnish standards and has views over Leura and Katoomba – try it at The Big Sweat, a two-day sauna festival happening August 22 and 23 in Leura.

• Q Station, the former quarantine station turned boutique hotel in Manly, opens its new harbourside woodfired sauna on August 15. Set on Manly’s historic wharf precinct, with direct ocean access at Quarantine Beach, Harbour Heat has a traditional wood-burning stove and is bookable both for private sessions and communal access.