Sydney Harbor · Sydney, Australia
Oceania
Australia Travel Guide
A vast, sun-soaked land of vibrant cities, ancient landscapes, and unique wildlife, where adventure meets laid-back culture.
A morning in Cairns feels nothing like an afternoon in Hobart, which feels nothing like a night in the desert outside Uluru. In the north, the oldest rainforest on earth runs straight into the largest reef on earth. In the south there is cold, clean air and walking country that could be Patagonia. In the middle there is red dirt in every direction for a thousand miles. Australia is close to the size of the continental United States, and no two regions of it feel like the same country.
Kevin and Melina have personally traveled Australia, spending three months moving between the coasts, the desert, and the tropics, from Tasmania in the far south to Kakadu in the far north. Every itinerary and recommendation on this page comes from traveling within those regions. This guide covers where to go, how long to spend, what to know before you arrive, and how to get around once you are there.
Australia at a glance
Language
English
Capital City
Canberra
Currency
Australian Dollar
Budget Range
$$ - $$$
Best time to visit
There is no single answer, because Australia spans tropical, desert, and temperate zones over a continent-sized area. The north and the center are best May through October. The south is best December through February. If you want one window that works almost everywhere, take September through November or March through May.
Typical trip length
Plan in regions rather than days. Ten days covers two regions comfortably, fifteen days covers three, and three weeks lets you add a fourth or slow down considerably. Anything under a week is hard to justify, especially with long flight times to the country.
Most US and Canadian passport holders need an ETA, applied for through the Australian ETA app for a small fee. UK, EU, and most other European passport holders use the eVisitor, which is free. Both allow stays of up to three months per visit. Apply at least a few days before travel and check requirements for your passport before booking.
Quick Resources to Plan Your Trip to Australia
Explore by region
Regions of Australia
Sydney + New South Wales
Where nearly every trip begins. A harbor city that earns its reputation, plus canyon country, wine country, and the national capital all within a few hours of it.
Entry point for most trip
Brisbane and the Gold Coast
A subtropical river city sitting between two very different coastlines. High rises and surf breaks to the south, quieter green hinterland to the north.
~1.5 hr flight from Sydney
Tropical North Queensland
The only place on earth where rainforest this old meets a reef this large. Cairns sends you out to both, often on consecutive days.
~3 hr flight from Sydney
The Red Center
The middle of the continent. Uluru, the domes of Kata Tjuta, and a canyon a few hours north, in the country that gives Australia its color.
~3.5 hr flight from Sydney
The Top End
Closer to Jakarta than to Sydney, and running on wet and dry rather than four seasons. Wetlands, waterfalls, and ancient rock art within reach of Darwin.
~4.5 hr flight from Sydney
Melbourne and Victoria
Laneways, coffee, and galleries, then one of the world's great coastal drives running west past limestone stacks toward sandstone walking country.
~1.5 hr flight from Sydney
Kangaroo Island + South Australia
An island most visitors skip, where sea lions sit on the beach and kangaroos appear at dusk in numbers that stop being remarkable by day two.
Ferry from Adelaide
Tasmania
The part of Australia that Australians recommend to each other. Cold, clean air, two small cities, and the best walking country in the country.
~1 hr flight from Melbourne
Where to go
Featured destinations
Sydney
The harbor is the city, and the ferries crossing it are both transit and sightseeing. Beaches inside the city limits, the coastal walk from Bondi to Coogee, and the one building everyone already pictures when they think of Australia.
Uluru
A sandstone monolith rising 1,140 feet out of flat desert, sacred to the Anangu, and far larger in person than any photograph manages. Come for sunrise and sunset, when the color does what people cross the world to see.
Great Barrier Reef
A reef system stretching more than 1,400 miles, which means the trip you book matters more than the destination itself. Outer reef sections take longer to reach and repay it with healthier coral and better visibility.
Great Ocean Road
Roughly 150 miles of coastline west of Melbourne, ending at limestone stacks standing offshore near Port Campbell. Drive it westward so every pullout is a left turn, and give it a night rather than a day.
Plan your trip
Itineraries
Every itinerary below was built from personal travel. Kevin and Melina have taken each of these routes themselves, from Cradle Mountain in Tasmania to the floodplains of Kakadu. Use the region sections to find your destination, or reach out if you need help building a full trip.
reach out to us →Sydney + New South Wales
Brisbane and the Gold Coast
The Red Center
Melbourne and Victoria
Kangaroo Island + South Australia
Tasmania
Before you book
Planning your trip
Best time to visit
Australia is too big for a single answer, and this is the question that most affects how a trip turns out. The country spans tropical, desert, and temperate zones, so the best month in Darwin is a poor month in Hobart. The north and the center run on a wet and a dry season, and May through October is the window for both. The south runs on four seasons, and December through February is its summer.
The north is the least forgiving. The dry brings open roads and calm water, while the wet brings monsoon rain, road closures, cyclone risk, and stinger season. We traveled the Top End in November at the start of the rains and parts of Kakadu were already closed. That is the honest trade, and the wet also brings the waterfalls at full force with almost nobody standing in front of them.
The center is more forgiving than it looks. From December through February temperatures around Uluru regularly pass 100 degrees and the major walks close by mid morning, so May through September is the reliable season. But we visited in November and had excellent conditions, and rain in the days beforehand meant the flies were far less of a problem than they are when the desert has been dry for months. If you are covering three regions on one trip, September through November or March through May gives you decent conditions across the most of them at once.
How long do you need
Australia is one of the longest flights in the world from North America and Europe, and the internal distances are the second problem. Sydney to Perth is five hours in the air. Adelaide to Darwin is four. This is not a country you drive across. This is why we recommend planning by region.
Ten days, which is five PTO days across two weekends, covers two regions comfortably. Sydney and Tropical North Queensland is the classic pairing. Melbourne and Tasmania is the better one if you would rather be cold than hot.
Fifteen days covers three regions, which is the sweet spot for a first trip. You can visit Sydney, then the Red Center, then Cairns, with the flights between them budgeted as half days.
Three weeks lets you add a fourth region or slow down considerably in three. Anything under a week is very hard to justify against the flight time to get here.
Getting there
Most international travelers fly into Sydney (SYD), with Melbourne (MEL) and Brisbane (BNE) as the other main gateways. Perth (PER) and Darwin (DRW) handle international flights mainly from Asia.
Direct flights to Sydney run from Los Angeles, San Francisco, Dallas, Houston, and Vancouver among others, at around fifteen hours from the US West Coast.
Consider flying into one city and out of another to save on an extra domestic flight that could waste you some time. (Check the cost of this against roundtrip flights to make the best decision for you.)
Crossing the international date line means you lose a day flying west and gain it coming home, so build that into the itinerary.
Budget
A comfortable mid range trip covering accommodation, meals, domestic flights, and activities typically runs USD 200 to USD 325 per person per day. Tropical North Queensland and the Red Center sit at the top of that range and Tasmania at the bottom.
The cost that surprises people is domestic flights because the regions are too far apart to drive between. The expansive distances also means that some places have limited accommodations and price accordingly. The Red Center is the sharpest example, since Yulara is the only accommodation for hundreds of miles.
Credit cards are accepted essentially everywhere and cash is rarely necessary. Some businesses add a card surcharge of one to two percent.
On the ground
When you're there
Getting around
Australia is a flying country. The regions are too far apart to drive between when on a tight schedule, so domestic flights are the connective tissue of any trip here. Qantas and Virgin Australia are the full service carriers, with Jetstar and Rex as the budget options.
Within a region it varies. Sydney and Melbourne are better without a car. Sydney runs on ferries, trains, and buses on a single Opal card or a contactless credit card, and Melbourne runs on trams with a free zone through the center. Brisbane has river ferries worth riding for their own sake. And from major hubs, you can find excursions that include transportation from their city center.
For some places, you will want a car, especially if the road trip is part of the experience. Some examples include the Great Ocean Road from Melbourne, Tasmania, and Kangaroo Island. It could also be exciting to drive between regions if you have the time and want to take in the expansive landscapes and coastlines. Driving is on the left, which is the main adjustment for most visitors. Give yourself an easy first drive somewhere quiet rather than starting in central Sydney.
Two things specific to Australia. Distances between fuel stops in the outback and on Kangaroo Island are long enough to plan around, so fill up when you can rather than when you need to. And many rental agreements exclude unsealed roads, which quietly rules out several places you might assume are included, including the road north of Cape Tribulation and a good deal of Kakadu. You can look into paid excursions for these destinations instead.
Language
English is the language, but Australian English carries enough of its own vocabulary to catch you out, and abbreviating everything is close to a national habit. Nobody expects you to use any of it but you will definitely hear it.
Australia is also home to hundreds of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander languages. Roughly 120 are still spoken today out of around 250 at the time of colonization, and you will encounter them constantly in place names.
g'day
hello
arvo
afternoon
avo
avocado
brekky
breakfast
barbie
barbecue
frothy
beer
bloke
a man
mate
friend
bloody
absolutely!
maccas
McDonald’s
thongs
flip flops
bathers
swimsuit
Cash, tipping, and international credit cards
Australia runs almost entirely on cards, and contactless payment works essentially everywhere, including small cafes and rural fuel stations.
Tipping is not expected and not customary. Hospitality staff are paid a full wage. Leaving something for exceptional service is welcomed but never assumed, and you will occasionally see a tip jar at a counter. The exception is free walking tours, which are built on the assumption that you pay what you thought it was worth. We recommend at least 20 dollars per person on those.
Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander culture
Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoples have lived on this continent for at least 65,000 years, which makes this the oldest continuing culture on earth. That number is worth sitting with, because it reframes almost everything else you will see here. Today, that is recognized in Australia by always acknowledging the origins of the land that you are visiting during any tour, excursion, meeting, etc. It’s something you will notice immediately.
Dual naming is now common and worth adopting. Uluru rather than Ayers Rock, Kata Tjuta rather than the Olgas, Gariwerd alongside the Grampians.
You will also encounter Welcome to Country and Acknowledgement of Country, ceremonies that open events, meetings, and even domestic flights. They are not performances staged for visitors but more of an acknowledgement and understanding of the history of the land that you are on.
On terminology: Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoples, or First Nations, are the accepted terms. Aborigine is considered offensive. Where you know it, the specific nation is better still, such as Anangu at Uluru or Bininj and Mungguy in Kakadu.
Sports Culture
Australia has a big sports culture and there are various sports (both local and professional) that are very important here. To dive deeper into the sports culture, look to attending one of these sporting events while you’re visiting Australia.
Australian Rules Football (Aussie Rules) | season runs March – September | one of the most popular sport in Australia and it is not to be confused with American/Canadian football or soccer (football). Potentially derived from Gaelic football and sports that local indigenous people played in Australia, today it is a very physical contact sport played on an oval field.
Rugby | season runs from April – October | rugby is incredibly popular with both local clubs that play against other clubs in Australia and New Zealand and an international team that competes around the world.
Cricket | season runs from October – March | Cricket is an international sport that is very popular all around Australia, having been introduced to the country when Australia was a British colony. Matches can last for days but you can also catch a Big Bash League (BBL) match that plays Twenty20 cricket, a shortened version of the game and the style of cricket that will be played in the Olympic games.
The Australian Open (Tennis) | early and mid January | the Australian Open is one of the four Grand Slam tennis tournaments, the most prestigious of professional tennis tournaments. The ambiance of the tournament is fun and vibrant and going to a day of the tournament could give you access to multiple matches with both top and up-and-coming professional players. Many people travel to Melbourne, Australia just to attend the tournament.
Lawn Bowling or Bowls Australia | this game is similar to bocce bawl (Italy) or pétanque (France) where you have to roll or toss your ball to be the closest to a target. The unique aspect of lawn bowling is that the ball is not a perfect sphere and has some curve to it. You can find lawn bowling clubs throughout the country where you will see friends and families playing against each other.
Wildlife and Sun Safety
There is a lot of wildlife in Australia that you need to be cautious of. Some of it could really hurt or potentially kill you but there are also a lot of animals that can be affected by or killed by humans as well. Here are a few things to consider to keep you and the amazing wildlife around you safe:
Crocodiles. Saltwater crocodiles inhabit essentially every waterway across the northern third of the country, including freshwater rivers far inland. Swim only where a sign says you may.
Stingers. Box jellyfish and Irukandji make unprotected swimming in northern coastal waters unsafe from roughly November through May. Beaches are netted and operators supply stinger suits.
Snakes and spiders. Stay on marked paths, particularly through low scrub. Bites are rare and antivenom is widely available.
Marsupials on roads. Drive slowly at dawn and dusk. Hitting a kangaroo will badly damage your car and will orphan any joey in the pouch. If it happens, check the pouch and call a local wildlife rescue, which exist across the country.
Flies, in the outback. Bush flies go for the moisture at your eyes, nose, and mouth, which is why they seem so much more persistent here than flies anywhere else. A head net is not optional when visiting the Red Center or the outback for your experience. One thing worth knowing: recent rain makes an enormous difference, because the flies are far less desperate for moisture when the country is not bone dry.
Do not approach koalas, kangaroos, or wallabies, however tame or cute they appear. Disturbing them puts them at risk and kangaroos can be aggressive. Only approach them where appropriate in zoos and wildlife sanctuaries.
The sun is what actually gets most visitors. UV levels here are among the highest anywhere in the world and burns happen faster than people expect, including on overcast days. We recommend using local sunscreen, a hat, and shade through the middle of the day.
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First-hand
How we've traveled Australia
Greetings from...
