Five agents of the home-based TravelManagers network attended North America’s big Cruise3Sixty industry cruise conference in Vancouver in June. Here they share their thoughts on the Canadian city and nearby Whistler resort.

The five TravelManagers kick up their heels at the Fairmont Waterfront in Vancouver. From left: Lyn Tyson (Pymble NSW), Chris Dobson (Geraldton WA), Diane Craig (North Balgowlah NSW), Michelle Michael-Pecora (Castle Hill NSW) and Julianne Hall (Southport Queensland).

2 AUG: Lauren Oliver from Travelscene Lyn McNaught in Victoria has won the prize of a place on Bench International’s eight-day ‘Out of Africa’ air safari in Kenya.

30 JULY: Travelscene American Express agents from several states attended a performance of hit musical ‘Mary Poppins’ during a weekend in Melbourne, hosted by Qantas as part of a ‘Stay Connected’ program.

Travelscene Amex agents spend weekend in Melbourne

30 JULY: A team from Complete Cruise Solution (CCC) has visited nearly 2000 travel agents across Australia and NZ during a 5-23 July sales blitz promoting P&O Cruises ‘earlybird’ offers.

P&O sales blitz reaches 2000 agents in 18 days

TravelManagers agents due to ride from Darwin to Adelaide recently on The Ghan tourist train were caught up in Red Centre flooding. Read about how train operator Great Southern Rail handled the situation.

In the latest of Travel Monitor’s fam trip stories, Sydney agent Sarah Liebenberg talks about her trip to Dubai and Egypt.

Sarah at the Abu Simbel temples in southern Egypt.

Sydney travel agent Kylie McDougall (TravelManagers) proves you can walk with lions in the wild in Africa and even pat them. Her ‘lion walk’ was a highlight of her recent trip. Read below to see what she had to say about it.

Kylie pats a lion. Soon it will be too big and "boisterous" to attempt such an action.

Pretty well everyone knows that vampire Count Dracula is a myth, a scary creation of Irish writer Bram Stoker.

But many people think Dracula’s bloody hunting-ground, Transylvania, is also a figment of Stoker’s vivid imagination.

So many, in fact, that Bryce Crampton was compelled to take a photograph of the Bank of Transylvania (the name appears in blood-red lettering) to convince sceptics that there really is such a place.

Queensland agent Tim Crowther was blown away by the unobstructed views of nearby Mt Kilimanjaro he had from his tented accommodation at Satao Elerai resort in Kenya.