Tour de fantasy

THIRTEEN luxury hotels in five months and no money: relaxing is hard when you're a budget traveller in the world's flashiest hotels.

WHEN most budget travellers plan a big trip, places such as the Ritz Paris Hotel or The Dorchester in London don't usually feature on the itinerary.

Battered backpacks, walking boots and T-shirts smelling like they could walk into a room on their own tend to look out of place in such opulent, fine and mind-numbingly expensive surroundings.

But when Tiana Templeman won a competition prize to stay in 12 of the world's most exclusive hotels, the backpacks, T-shirts and instant noodles were going with her.

"I had always been a budget traveller. My definition of fancy was having your own bathroom," she says.

Tiana, 37, and husband, Trevor, 38, from Sinnamon Park in Brisbane's southwest, entered the competition in Vogue Entertaining and Travel magazine which, ironically, Tiana had borrowed from the library.

Readers had to send a photograph of any hotel room in the world and then tell the story behind the picture. Tiana sent one of Trevor's snaps from an Austrian hotel room (without en-suite), which they had checked into under the cover of darkness during a trip around Europe. She wrote how, when they awoke the next morning, they opened their shutters to the sounds of nuns singing as the sun rose over a shimmering lake.

THE 12 PRIZE HOTELS Tiana Templeman and her husband Trevor Alvear stayed at:   * The Palace Hotel, Buenos Aires, Argentina
  * Observatory Hotel, Sydney, Australia
  * The Windsor Hotel, Melbourne, Australia
  * Huka Lodge, Taupo, New Zealand
  * New York Palace Hotel, New York, US
  * Hotel Ritz, Paris, France
  * Il Palazzo, Venice, Italy
  * The Dorchester, London, England
  * Cham Palace, Damascus, Syria
  * Peninsula Hotel, Honk Kong
  * Dusit Resort and Polo Club, Hua Hin, Thailand
  * The Oberoi, Lombok, Bali

Their $65,000 prize, from Leading Hotels of the World, included economy air fares and three nights each in 12 of their hotels across the world. Even though their accommodation was five-star, their budget for everything else was, as the book suggests, stretched tighter than the straps on their backpacks.

Tiana's debut book about her amazing five-month trip – called Absolutely Faking It – has just been released by Random House.

"I didn't think at all about writing a book. It was just that as we started going through the trip all these people we ran into kept saying what an amazing journey it was that we were on," Tiana says.

The decision to pen a book on their exploits, which took three years to write, came after Trevor and Tiana had successfully smuggled a take-away pizza into a $1500-a-night suite at the Ritz Paris Hotel.

Tiana's and Trevor's journey was tinged with more than a little anxiety. Tiana in particular was worried staff and guests would realise they were not the well-heeled travellers dripping in cash that their choice of accommodation might have suggested. What didn't help was that the Brisbane couple had vowed to keep their win a secret from any other guests they met along the way.

This feeling of fakery was most acute at the New York Palace Hotel, which probably accounts for the fact that it ranks as Tiana's least favourite prize destination. Although the room was one of the most beautiful the couple stayed in on their entire jaunt, Tiana was suffering from what she describes in her book as "tipping anxiety".

The section of the New York Palace Hotel where Tiana and Trevor stayed is usually reserved for film stars and high-earning executives – not the kind of people who would do their laundry in the hot tub or have to take out a second mortgage to afford room service. Staff would expect a $50 tip just for drawing breath.

"We didn't have any money and we just felt really uncomfortable in New York – it made us feel like cheapskates," remembers Tiana. "You can travel on a budget and still be generous, but we just couldn't be as generous as the staff expected us to be.

"When we got to the Ritz Paris Hotel, with the fancy service which was so overt, we realised it was all a case of smoke and mirrors. It dawned on us that we should just be relaxed and it wasn't the hotels that were making us uncomfortable."

Of all the 14 countries visited during their trip, which included France, England, Syria, New Zealand, US, Italy and Turkey, it was the South American country of Argentina which stood out as a favourite.

At the time of Tiana's arrival in Buenos Aires, Argentina's economy was on its knees after defaulting on a $US800 million ($1 billion) loan repayment to the World Bank.

"I had never considered going there before, but the people were so friendly, especially in view of the financial difficulties they were having. They had every reason in the world to be downhearted, but they were so welcoming to us," she says.

The book deal came after Tiana had been on a one-day travel writing course at the Queensland Writers Centre in Brisbane. Other writing friends encouraged her to send off a couple of chapters to publishers.

Random House called to say they wanted the book straight away, which meant Tiana had to finish the final chapters while getting used to another big change in her life – being mum to now two-year-old son Tex.

"The trip had an incredibly profound affect on me," she says. "A lot of time in life you are working, or being a mother or just trying to get from A to B. Travelling can open your mind to a different reality and I learnt a lot about myself along the way. I think now I am just a lot less afraid of giving things a go."

Absolutely Faking It by Tiana Templeman (Random House, $24.95) is out now.