Best Places to Visit in Australia: Reef, Outback & Cities

Cairns and Port Douglas are the launch points for the Great Barrier Reef, a 2,300-kilometre coral system visible from space. Day boats reach the outer reef in 90 minutes for snorkelling and diving, and the Daintree rainforest sits an hour up the coast.

Uluru, long known to visitors as Ayers Rock, rises 348 metres out of flat desert in the Northern Territory. Climbing it has been banned since 2019, so the experience is base walks, sunrise viewing platforms and the Field of Light installation nearby.

Seventy-four islands scattered inside the reef off the Queensland coast, reached from Airlie Beach or Hamilton Island. Whitehaven Beach runs seven kilometres on silica sand so fine it squeaks, and most of the archipelago is national park.

The Opera House and Harbour Bridge do the advertising, but Sydney earns its reputation on ferries, ocean pools and more than 100 beaches inside the city limits. The Blue Mountains are a 90-minute train ride west.

Laneway cafés and street art, free trams across the CBD, bayside beaches at St Kilda and Brighton, and the Great Ocean Road on the doorstep.

A subtropical river city with South Bank parklands, Story Bridge views and the Gold Coast, Noosa and the islands of Moreton Bay within reach.

Surfers Paradise anchors 57 kilometres of Queensland surf beach, backed by the largest cluster of theme parks in the country including Dreamworld, Warner Bros. Movie World and Sea World. Rainforest walks in the Gold Coast hinterland are half an hour inland.

An hour north of Brisbane, the Sunshine Coast trades high-rises for Noosa National Park, the Glass House Mountains and long stretches of beach at Coolum and Mooloolaba. Rainbow Beach and the coloured sand cliffs sit further up the same coastline.

Australia is roughly the size of Europe, so domestic flights carry most long-distance travel. Qantas, Virgin Australia and Jetstar connect the capitals, with Sydney to Perth taking about five hours. Trains work as experiences rather than transport: The Ghan crosses Adelaide to Darwin, the Indian Pacific runs Sydney to Perth. For coastal routes like the Great Ocean Road or the Pacific Coast, a rental car is the only sensible option.

Seasons here run opposite to the northern hemisphere, and the country splits in two. In the tropical north, including Cairns, Darwin and the Great Barrier Reef, May to October is dry season with clear water and no marine stingers. In the south, Sydney, Melbourne and Adelaide are at their best in spring (September to November) and autumn (March to May). September and March are the two months that work almost everywhere at once.

Expect roughly AUD 80 to 120 a day travelling on hostel dorms and public transport, and AUD 170 to 200 per person for mid-range hotels and restaurants. Hostel beds start around AUD 20 a night, mid-range rooms run AUD 100 to 200. Internal flights are the line item that catches people out, since a two-week east coast trip can involve three or four of them.

Most first trips follow one of four shapes: the east coast run from Sydney to Cairns, a reef and rainforest week around Cairns and Port Douglas, a Red Centre loop through Uluru and Alice Springs, or a southern circuit taking in Melbourne, Adelaide and Tasmania. Trying to combine all four in two weeks means spending the trip in airports.

Great Barrier Reef tours leave daily from Cairns, Port Douglas and Airlie Beach. Snorkelling needs no certification and outer-reef day boats include gear and guides. Certified divers head for Osprey Reef and the Ribbon Reefs on liveaboards. Visibility is best from May to October, when stingers are also absent.

Australian dishes worth trying include the meat pie with tomato sauce, barramundi, lamingtons, pavlova and a sausage sizzle outside a hardware store on Saturday morning. Melbourne and Sydney built the flat white and the modern brunch, and Adelaide, the Barossa and Margaret River handle the wine.

Australia counts more than 10,000 beaches. Whitehaven Beach in the Whitsundays, the resort bays of Hamilton Island, the coloured sand cliffs at Rainbow Beach, the surf at Surfers Paradise and the quokka-covered coves of Rottnest Island cover the full range from resort island to empty sand. Swim between the flags where lifesavers patrol.

The Australian outback starts closer to the cities than most people expect. Uluru and Kata Tjuta anchor the Red Centre, Kings Canyon and the Larapinta Trail sit within driving distance, and Alice Springs is the base for all of it. Guided tours handle the distances and the Anangu cultural context.

Kangaroos and koalas are easy to see at sanctuaries near every capital, and harder but more rewarding in the wild on Kangaroo Island or in the Grampians. Humpback whales pass the east and west coasts between June and November. On the Gold Coast, Dreamworld, Warner Bros. Movie World and Sea World cluster within 20 minutes of each other.

The Great Ocean Road covers 240 kilometres of cliffs and the Twelve Apostles in a long day from Melbourne. The Blue Mountains sit 90 minutes from Sydney by train, Kakadu is three hours from Darwin, and Tasmania can be driven end to end in under six hours. Fuel stops thin out fast once you leave the coast.

Three hours from Sydney and the most common add-on to an Australia trip. Fiordland, the Southern Alps and Rotorua give you glaciers and volcanoes that Australia cannot, and the two countries share a visa-light travel relationship for most nationalities.

Four hours from Sydney or Brisbane and a standard stopover on flights between Australia and North America. Reef diving, island resorts and a short flight time make it an easy week bolted onto a Queensland itinerary.

Bali is three hours from Perth and six from Sydney, which is why it functions as Australia’s local beach holiday. Temples, volcanoes and Nusa Penida sit within a short trip of the airport, and costs run well below Australian prices.

The busiest transit point between Australia and Europe, and worth breaking the journey for. Two or three days covers Gardens by the Bay, Sentosa and the hawker centres, and long-haul flights out of Sydney, Melbourne and Perth all route through it.

Around nine hours from the east coast, with direct flights from Sydney, Melbourne, Brisbane and Cairns. Australians travel there for the ski season from December to March, which is exactly when the Australian tropics are closed for the wet.