AUSTRALIA
The harbours, the reef, the red centre.
From Sydney Harbour and the Great Ocean Road to the Great Barrier Reef, the Daintree and the red centre. The trips worth taking, right across the country.
Only in Australia
Three things you can only do here.
Plenty of countries have beaches, cities and good wine. Only one has a reef this big, animals this strange, and a rainforest older than the dinosaurs. Build the trip around these three.
On the reef
The Great Barrier Reef
The largest living thing on the planet, big enough to pick out from space and close enough to snorkel from Cairns or Port Douglas before lunch. Coral gardens, sand cays and turtle cleaning stations run for 2,300 kilometres up the Queensland coast. There is one reef like this on earth.
- 1 Great Barrier Reef Snorkeling and Diving Cruise from Cairns
- 2 From Cairns: Great Barrier Reef Cruise by Premium Catamaran
- 3 From Cairns: Self-Guided Kuranda Trip with Train and Skyrail
Up close
Kangaroos, Koalas & Quokkas
A whole branch of the animal kingdom that lives nowhere else. Kangaroos grazing at dusk, koalas asleep in the gums, wombats, echidnas, and a grinning quokka on Rottnest Island. You meet them out in the open and in sanctuaries across the country, not behind glass on the far side of the world.
- 1 From Melbourne: Great Ocean Road, 12 Apostles, Wildlife Tour
- 2 Penguin Parade, & Wildlife Encounters Eco Tour from Melbourne
- 3 Blue Mountain Small Group Scenic World, Wildlife, Waterfall
Where it began
The Daintree Rainforest
Around 180 million years of unbroken green, the oldest tropical rainforest on earth, and the only place on the planet where a World Heritage rainforest meets a World Heritage reef. Cassowaries, fan palms and crocodile-lined rivers, an hour north of the reef boats at Cape Tribulation.
- 1 Cairns: Daintree Rainforest and Mossman Gorge Tour
- 2 Daintree Rainforest, Mossman Gorge Small-Group from Port Douglas
- 3 Cape Tribulation, Mossman Gorge, and Daintree Rainforest Day Trip
The Whitsundays
Seventy-four islands, and the whitest sand on earth.
Off the Queensland coast, the Whitsundays scatter across the reef in seventy-four islands of forest and pure silica sand. At Hill Inlet the tide swirls the white sand through the turquoise, and the boats run out from Airlie Beach every morning to sail, snorkel and anchor for the night.
Sail the Whitsundays →Start here
The one almost everyone books first.
The most popular experience in the whole country. If you only lock in one thing before you go, make it this.
The classics
Australia's Most Popular Tours
Sydney Harbour, the Great Barrier Reef, the Great Ocean Road, Uluru. The trips that fill up first.
By region
It's a big country. Start with one part.
Sydney for the harbour. Cairns for the reef. Melbourne for the food and the laneways. Then the Great Ocean Road, the Blue Mountains and Tasmania for the wild end of the trip.
By experience
Or pick the kind of trip you're after.
On the water for cruises, sailing and the reef. Inland for wine country and the wildlife. Whales in season, walking tours through the cities, and plenty more.
The big call
Which Australia are you here for?
It's the size of a continent, because it is one. Almost no one does all of it in a trip, so most people pick a lane. These are the three big ones.
Seen from the water
Half of Australia is best seen from a boat.
Sydney Harbour at dusk, the reef off Cairns, the Whitsundays under sail, whales rounding the headlands and a long lunch on a river cruise. More of this country opens up from the deck of a boat than from anywhere else, and these are the trips that do it best.
- 1 Whitehaven Beach and Hill Inlet Lookout Snorkeling Cruise
- 2 Sydney: Big Bus Hop-On Hop-Off Tour with Optional Cruise
- 3 Airlie Beach: Whitehaven Full-Day Eco-Cruise with Buffet
Cellar door
A day in the vines.
The Hunter behind Sydney, the Yarra an hour from Melbourne, the Barossa out of Adelaide and Margaret River in the west. A driver, a few cellar doors and a long lunch is one of the things this country does best.
In season
Whale season.
Between May and November, humpbacks and southern rights move along the coast in their thousands, close enough to watch from a boat off Sydney, Hervey Bay and the southern bays. One of the great wildlife shows on the calendar.
Long lunch country
The long table.
A degustation in Melbourne, seafood straight off the trawler, a rooftop dinner over the harbour, a vineyard lunch that runs into the afternoon. Australia eats well, and it likes to take its time over it.
The classic run
The east-coast run, in three legs.
Australia's most-travelled route heads up the east coast, Sydney to the reef. Here is how the country unfolds along the way.
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