Mercedes-Benz And Lonely Planet Team Up For Stereo (Un)Typical Australian Escapes

MULGRAVE, AUSTRALIA – November 11, 2010: Mercedes-Benz and Lonely Planet have launched a new online campaign to encourage Australians to explore something out of the ordinary.

With Stereo(un)typical Australian Escapes, http://mercedes.lonelyplanet.com/ Mercedes-Benz and Lonely Planet have gathered their top 10 Australian road trips as free, downloadable PDF itineraries to inspire people to start thinking about their next escape.

David McCarthy, Senior Manager, Corporate Communications, Mercedes-Benz encourages motorists to take a trip in a Mercedes-Benz B-Class “Made to fit lifestyles not stereo types. The B-Class has the versatility of a hatch, the boot of an estate and the ride-height of an SUV - you could say it’s an exceptionally untypical car.”

The top Australian escapes are:

Cairns to the Cape

Brisbane to the Gold Coast Hinterland

Sydney to the Central West

Canberra to the Coast and Highlands

Melbourne to the High Country

The Great Ocean Road

Hobart to Tasmania’s Southeast

Adelaide to the Barossa

Perth to Albany

Darwin to Kakadu, Katherine & Litchfield

As part of the campaign, people can also enter a competition between now and 31 January 2011 to share and vote for their favourite stereo(un)typical Australian escapes - http://mercedes.lonelyplanet.com/escapes/

The first 200 entrants will receive a complimentary copy of the Lonely Planet Discover Australia guidebook (valued at $49.95). Share the escape with friends and family to gain the most ‘likes’. Rise in the rankings, and at the end of the competition, the top-ranked Australian escape will win $5000. Three runners-up will receive their choice of a Mercedes-Benz travel, beach or picnic Merchandise pack.

“Lonely Planet is all about inspiring people to get to the heart of a place. Our Stereo(un)typical Australian Escapes partnership with the Mercedes-Benz and the B-Class brings that mission to life,” said Shawn Low, Lonely Planet’s Asia-Pacific Travel Editor.

“The 10 free itineraries available for download have been specially produced for this campaign, and feature all the qualities that make Lonely Planet’s travel information the best in the world. At the same time, shared travel experiences are at the heart of everything Lonely Planet does – so we’re also looking forward to seeing what stereo(un)typical Australian escapes are shared in the competition.”

Visit http://mercedes.lonelyplanet.com/ for more information.

Take a trip in a Mercedes-Benz B-Class
Mercedes-Benz designers envisaged a versatile, compact yet spacious car when they produced the basic stylistic concept for a B-Class - a car that offered space but also combined the exciting, dynamic appearance of a sporty automobile with the prestige of a Mercedes-Benz.

The result was a new concept with its own design idiom: the Sports Tourer.Although it offers the space and comfort of larger saloons or estates, the taut forms and crisp lines of the B-Class suggest forward-flowing energy and create a desire to take the wheel.