Australia: Detour

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MARKETING STRATEGY It's well worth a trek into the hippie hills beyond Noosa for a visit to the legendary Eumundi Market. Its location is a gift—the gorgeous village of Eumundi is one of the few Queensland towns that have almost entirely preserved its colonial and Federation-period architecture. Many of the buildings surrounding the market were built between 1890 and 1930. And there's an engrossing little museum to browse through when market burnout sets in.

The latter could take a while, though, because there's plenty on offer at Eumundi, with around 300 stalls spread under the shade of vast Moreton Bay Fig trees on market days. Friendly stallholders sell local produce (everything from mangoes to organic jams to macadamia-nut coffee) as well as a rich array of local art, handicrafts, New Age exotica and colorful clothing. If you think you might look fetching in hemp, this is the place for you, baby.

Since the market started in 1979, it has maintained a rather idealistic, handmade ethos—make it, bake it, grow it, design it—enshrining one-off originality in everything on offer. That goes for entertainment, too: there are Australian bush poetry recitals, didgeridoo players, jazz and folk bands, street theater and even camel rides. The Noosa Heads hinterland is a popular area with those seeking an alternative lifestyle, and the market—which is patronized by up to 10,000 bargain hunters each Saturday—tilts happily away from the mainstream, fusing contemporary culture with traditional rural life in a charming hybrid.

Eumundi Market is open every Wednesday from 8 a.m.-1 p.m. and Saturdays from 6.30 a.m.-2 p.m. Tour operators in Noosa organize visits there. Otherwise, you can catch the regular shuttle-bus service from anywhere in and around Noosa. Or if you're driving, it's no more than 20 minutes away.