Sydney & Surrounds
“The harbour city, then the mountains and vines behind it”
Sydney earns the postcards — the harbour genuinely startles in person, and the clifftop coastal walks are free and world-class. But the surrounds are the insider move: the Blue Mountains for cliff-edge lookouts and eucalyptus valleys, and the Hunter Valley, Australia's oldest wine country, with kangaroos in the vines at dusk.
- Best time
- October to April — summer for beaches, autumn for the mountains
- Give it
- 4–6 days
- Don't miss
- Sydney Harbour · Bondi to Coogee walk · Blue Mountains · Hunter Valley
In our guidebookThe East Coast — Sydney to Brisbane
“The corridor is the point, not the endpoints”
Australia's classic coastal drive — dolphin bays, hinterland villages, wine country and surf towns strung along the Pacific Highway. Most planners reduce it to a two-stop dash; our guidebook paces it properly, with the towns that deserve two nights and the detours worth the extra half hour.
- Best time
- September to November or March to May — warm water, thinner crowds
- Give it
- 10–14 days
- Don't miss
- Hunter Valley · Port Stephens · Bellingen · Byron Bay · Lamington National Park
Queensland Coast & Whitsundays
“Sailing water, white-silica beaches and an island made of sand”
North of Brisbane the coast turns into holiday country: Noosa's polished beach-town ease, K'gari — the world's largest sand island, with rainforest growing straight out of the dunes — and the seventy-four Whitsunday islands. Whitehaven Beach before the tour boats arrive is the postcard for a reason.
- Best time
- May to October — dry season; humpback whales July to September
- Give it
- 7–10 days
- Don't miss
- Noosa · K'gari (Fraser Island) · Airlie Beach · Whitehaven Beach · Hamilton Island
Tropical North Queensland & the Reef
“Reef mornings, rainforest afternoons”
The only place on earth where two World Heritage wonders meet: the Great Barrier Reef offshore, and the Daintree — the oldest rainforest on the planet — on shore. Base yourself in Port Douglas or Cairns and alternate snorkel days with waterfall days, with a croc-spotting river cruise in between.
- Best time
- May to October — the dry season; the wet is dramatic but steamy
- Give it
- 5–7 days
- Don't miss
- Port Douglas · The outer reef · Daintree & Cape Tribulation · Atherton Tablelands
Melbourne & Victoria
“Laneway coffee, then the most famous coast road in the country”
Melbourne rewards wandering — laneways, galleries, and food that argues with Sydney for the country's best. Then point the car west: the Great Ocean Road unfurls past surf breaks, koala-draped bends and the Twelve Apostles. Stay overnight along it rather than day-tripping — sunset at the Apostles beats midday by a mile.
- Best time
- October to April — though Melbourne's weather is famously moody year-round
- Give it
- 5–8 days
- Don't miss
- Melbourne's laneways · Great Ocean Road · Twelve Apostles · Yarra Valley · Phillip Island
Tasmania
“Wild island, big skies, great pinot”
Tasmania feels like a small country of its own: Hobart's harbour and the gloriously strange MONA, Wineglass Bay curving below Freycinet's pink granite, Cradle Mountain's alpine boardwalks, and the orange-lichened boulders of the Bay of Fires. Distances are mercifully short — it's Australia's best road-trip island.
- Best time
- December to March — long days and open alpine tracks
- Give it
- 7–14 days — a proper loop wants two weeks
- Don't miss
- Hobart & MONA · Freycinet & Wineglass Bay · Bay of Fires · Cradle Mountain · Bruny Island
South Australia
“Wine country, a wild island, and ranges older than animal life”
Adelaide keeps some of Australia's best within arm's reach: Barossa cellar doors half an hour one way, Kangaroo Island's sea lions and coastal rock formations a short hop the other, and the Flinders Ranges — an 800-million-year-old natural amphitheatre — a day's drive north into proper outback.
- Best time
- March to May and September to November — high summer runs hot
- Give it
- 5–8 days
- Don't miss
- Barossa Valley · Adelaide Central Market · Kangaroo Island · Flinders Ranges & Wilpena Pound
The Red Centre
“The heart of the country — and it beats”
No photograph prepares you for Uluru in person: the scale, the colour shifts, the silence around it. Add Kata Tjuta's domes at dawn, the Kings Canyon rim walk before the heat arrives, and the waterholes of the West MacDonnells, and the desert stops being empty and starts being the point.
- Best time
- May to September — desert winter: crisp nights, perfect walking days
- Give it
- 4–6 days
- Don't miss
- Uluru · Kata Tjuta · Kings Canyon · West MacDonnell Ranges
The Top End
“Wetlands, waterfalls and rock art older than the pyramids”
Kakadu is the headline — rock-art galleries painted over 20,000 years, billabongs patrolled by crocodiles, escarpment lookouts over floodplains that stretch to the horizon. But give Litchfield's swimmable waterfalls and the gorge at Nitmiluk their own days too. Darwin makes an easy tropical base.
- Best time
- May to September — the dry; many roads and swimming holes close in the wet
- Give it
- 5–7 days
- Don't miss
- Kakadu · Litchfield National Park · Nitmiluk (Katherine Gorge) · Darwin's sunset markets
The Kimberley
“Australia's last great wilderness”
A landscape on a different scale: the Gibb River Road's gorge-a-day 4WD run, the striped beehive domes of the Bungle Bungles, waterfalls that run horizontally with the tide, and camel trains on Cable Beach at sunset. Remote and fiercely seasonal — this is a trip you plan around, not squeeze in.
- Best time
- May to September — the Gibb closes entirely in the wet
- Give it
- 7–14 days
- Don't miss
- Broome & Cable Beach · Gibb River Road · El Questro · Purnululu (Bungle Bungles)
The Coral Coast
“Swim beside the biggest fish in the sea”
Ningaloo is the reef you walk into straight off the beach — and from March to July, whale sharks cruise it, with humpbacks taking over later in the season. String it together with Shark Bay's dolphins, Kalbarri's river gorges and the Pinnacles' moonscape on the long, satisfying drive up from Perth.
- Best time
- April to October — whale sharks March to July, humpbacks August to October
- Give it
- 7–10 days
- Don't miss
- Ningaloo Reef & Exmouth · Coral Bay · Shark Bay & Monkey Mia · Kalbarri · The Pinnacles
The Southwest
“Wine, surf and the tallest trees you'll ever walk among”
Perth is Australia's sunniest capital and Rottnest's quokkas are exactly as advertised — but the region's heart is three hours south, where Margaret River pairs world-class cabernet with world-class surf. Keep going for the karri forest walks and the whale-watched southern coast around Albany and Denmark.
- Best time
- September to November for wildflowers, December to March for the beaches
- Give it
- 5–8 days
- Don't miss
- Perth & Fremantle · Rottnest Island · Margaret River · Valley of the Giants · Albany & Denmark
