Alexandra Carlton

Sydney

Travel and Food Writer at Freelance

Writer at Australian Gourmet Traveller

Freelance travel & food writer: Escape, Qantas, Gourmet Traveller, The Australian, The Guardian & more.

Articles

Gourmet Traveller's 2025 People's Choice Awards winners in travel

1 week ago | gourmettraveller.com.au | Alexandra Carlton |Michael Harden

As part of our 2025 Hotel and Travel Awards, the People’s Choice categories called on our well-travelled readers to vote for the Best Travel Experience in Australia, as well as Airline of the Year and Best Loyalty Program. The aim of these reader-voted awards is to showcase the diversity and outstanding calibre of Australia’s travel sector, as recognised by you.
Cruise Line of the Year: Silversea

1 week ago | gourmettraveller.com.au | Alexandra Carlton

Home Travel Hotel and Travel Awards Top-tier dining, spacious staterooms, and an atmosphere like no other cruise line make Silversea our inaugural award winner. Asides What was it that rocketed Silversea to be named Cruise Line of the Year by our judges? There was a whole ocean of factors.
The best hotels in Paris for boutique, luxury stays

1 month ago | gourmettraveller.com.au | Alexandra Carlton

Home Travel Accommodation Where to stay in the French capital, according to the GT editors. Asides For a small – but shocking – moment, Paris perhaps started to feel un peu passé.
Golden Century, Sydney: Restaurant Review

2 months ago | gourmettraveller.com.au | Alexandra Carlton

Ask any long-term Sydney diner and they’ll probably tell you that the golden century of restaurants was the 20th. It was a time of long lunches and limitless expense accounts. No smartphones meant big nights – and any corresponding misbehaviour – vanished without evidence. A jewel of the era was Golden Century Seafood Restaurant in Haymarket, the city’s most storied Cantonese haunt, which opened its doors (and left them open most nights until 4am) in 1989.
Eleven Barrack - Gourmet Traveller

Mar 6, 2025 | gourmettraveller.com.au | Alexandra Carlton

A shiny purple column slices through the centre of the room. There are floaty light fittings (one has a baseball hanging, inexplicably, from its base), angular vases and gilt-framed horse paintings. A grand piano. Mirrored, sparkly, dangly things. It’s all strewn around the classical bones of what was once an 1850s bank, so there’s also marble columns, Tasmanian oak panelling and a six-metre carved plaster ceiling.
9 bucket list trips you need to take in your lifetime

Mar 5, 2025 | escape.com.au | Alexandra Carlton

1. Take an epic Australian train journeyThe land of sweeping plains is best viewed from a train, to fully appreciate its vast majesty. Choose an epic journey from north to south, or explore an outback corner. HOW TO DO ITThe Ghan: Darwin to Adelaide in the top-class Australis Suite might set you back more than $16,000 but you could also do one night between Adelaide and Alice Springs in the next-level Platinum Suite for $4690.
Sustainable seafood guide: How to be a better fish eater

Mar 5, 2025 | gourmettraveller.com.au | Alexandra Carlton

When you visit Fins Seafood in Bicton in southwest Perth, you’ll notice two things. One, there’s a pretty radical takeaway and eat-in menu up on the board, featuring several options that push past the usual fish and chips such as “crayssants” (crayfish croissants), tuna cheeseburgers and octopus hot dogs. The other is the fresh fish counter, which has much more available than just the predictable snapper and cod. On the right day you might find glossy red fillets of mangrove jack from the Pilbara.
Olympus - Gourmet Traveller

Mar 2, 2025 | gourmettraveller.com.au | Alexandra Carlton

Olympus, the new Greek restaurant in Redfern’s Wunderlich Lane precinct from the team behind The Apollo, describes itself as “a bustling village-style taverna”. In my experience, few village-style tavernas seat 200 or get their centrepiece 50-year-old bougainvillea tree lifted in by crane, but no matter.
The Hottest Hotels in Europe for Under $300 Per Night

Jan 7, 2025 | qantas.com | Alexandra Carlton

The pied-à-terre’s of Paris. The luxury hotels of London. The historic palazzos of Rome. An abundance of architectural beauty and history all contribute to Europe’s reputation for being one of the less affordable travel destinations when it comes to accommodation. But you don’t have to compromise on comfort if you’re watching your wallet – the best European hotels under AUD$300 per night deliver on more than just style, with reasonable rates that leave you plenty leftover for sangria and snacks.
Best London hotels for 2025 travel: New, boutique and luxury stays

Nov 27, 2024 | gourmettraveller.com.au | Alexandra Carlton |Joanna Hunkin |Anna McCooe

The very best London hotels can’t help themselves. At the luxury end, hotels trade almost exclusively into grandiose Regency-style decor: acres of velvet, tassels and turrets, trussed-up butlers and claw-foot baths. But so they should. The English capital is a city of opulence, history and tradition, and when you’re staying here you may as well lean all the way in.