If you’ve found yourself here, we may have had a discussion about an upcoming family holiday of yours to Australia, and you wanted to know how best to organise a trip to stay for a week. I have lived in Melbourne, Australia pretty much my whole life up until a few years ago. I have visited a few places but have generally preferred to travel overseas. I always figured I would leave the in-depth touring until later in life when travelling with kids. That being said, I discussed this topic with family and came up with some great suggestions of how to spend a week in Australia. This is particularly relevant to people coming here for two weekends worth of time.
I’ll make some assumptions as to the trip, and note where assumptions change. I’m assuming you’ll fly into and out of Sydney. I’ll assume you’re not looking for an ‘outback experience’ which would take several days to the Northern Territory. Because of the short time span I’m also excluding the states of Western and South Australia. No matter what time of year you come to Australia, you’ll find it’s beach weather somewhere. In the middle of summer you may wish to avoid beaches in the northern parts of Australia and beach around Melbourne, Victoria, where temperatures will still reach as high as 45 degrees (110 f) in the worst of weeks, with much more common pleasant weeks of 30 degrees (86 f). In winter, it’s still quite warm in the north. I’m also assuming that you’d take off on a Friday evening on a red eye flight and get back late on Sunday night, giving you 9 days of travel.
So, that being said, I suggest limiting your trip to three main locations: Sydney, Melbourne (and surrounds), and Cairns.
Sydney is the quintessential Australian city, with some of the classic features that tourists have seen and expect to see. The Sydney Harbour, Harbour bridge and Opera House are all located in the one area just north of the main CBD. Getting from the airport is easy on train, and you’d be looking to stay at a hotel somewhere just south of the harbour.
Sydney hosts one of Australia’s best zoos, Toronga zoo, which you can access by ferry. This way, you get to experience the main sites of Sydney as well. If you’re interested in some beaches, the two I would recommend visiting are Manly Beach, accessible by ferry, and Bondi Beach, which is a bit harder to get to but closer.
3 days - Take the day/night off when you first arrive - Day at the Zoo / Harbour - Day at the Beach, then take a plane to…
Melbourne, my home town, is a place I can talk much more about and recommend. You may not believe me but Melbourne is a home of fantastic restaurants and cafes. The ‘Melbourne style’ cafe has been an export of ours for a while, featuring great coffee and brunch menus. There are a few reasons why we have great food. Firstly, Australian produce is some of the best around, with agriculture being one of our biggest exports. Secondly, Australia has had a steady stream of immigrants over the decades from all corners of the world, including Greeks, Italians, Vietnamese and Indian for example. These cultures have brought with them their fantastic cuisine, making for a very cosmopolitan city. Australia in general has several cultural influences - our origins are British, our location is Asia, and our strongest allies are the Americans. Because of this it’s not uncommon to have Irish bars, European restaurants and American style diners and fast food. In particular has been the asian influence with not just ‘Chinese’ food but sub-cuisines within China such as Sichuan, Hainese, Manchurian, Yum Cha. But, enough with food, we’re here to talk locations!
I recommend getting a car from the airport because I would recommend three separate day trips (perhaps choose two of the three). Interspace those with some days to check out particular parts of the city to make for 4 days. You may want to find a hotel in any of the city, St Kilda or around Fitzroy (the later two especially if you have a car).
St Kilda and Fitzroy. Locals jokingly refer to this as the ‘north south divide’ of the Yarra river, and these two suburbs will exemplify both cultures. St Kilda is more of a beach, cocktails and festival location, where the north is tattoos, hipsters and hole in the wall bars. I’ve spent a lot of my adult life in St Kilda, and I would recommend visiting the botanic gardens, the esplanade hotel, and the st Kilda sea baths which is on the beach. There is also a pier where at night time fairy penguins can be commonly spotted! I’d suggest that Fitzroy is more of an evening destination, with great restaurants and crazy bars. There is a bar dedicated to ‘George Costanza’, arcane games bars, and bars with city views such as ‘Naked for Satan’. In both areas you can find the greek dish ‘Souvlaki’ which is 100 times better than a ‘kebab’. It is lamb slow cooked and charred over a charcoal spit. One of the dishes I’ll miss the most being overseas. St Kilda often has festivals and ‘night markets’ so it’s worth checking out what is on.
You may want to visit the MCG to experience our local football code called AFL - Australian rules football. Check out some youtube videos. It’s a sport that originated in Melbourne and the grand final attracts 100,000 football fans to the Melbourne Cricket Ground (MCG) near the centre of the city. The walk to the ground along the Yarra is nice.
As for day trips I would recommend a drive down the world famous ‘Great Ocean Road’, a trip to the forested bushland and cultural ‘Daylesford’, and a trip to wineries and open-zoo Healesville.
The Great Ocean Road starts just past Geelong and winds along the coast past Torquay (where global surf competitions are held at Bells Beach), Lorne and Apollo Bay. Further along the coast the is iconic ‘Twelve Apostles’ which is a major tourist destination (and always busy). I would recommend if you do this trip to stay a night in Lorne, then get up early for a visit to the twelve apostles before heading back. The whole way down the coast are fantastic beaches - but do be careful swimming for rip-tides.
Daylesford is the destination to go to if you want to get a sense of an Australian country town, with some additional attractions nearby. There is typical Australian bushland and forests and scenic walks. There are several natural springs in the area so you could book in for spa treatment. Daylesford is a very gay friendly town and as such has attracted a vibrant arts and cultural community. There are great restaurants and pubs in the area.
Healesville is another day trip outside the city which is commonly known for it’s open area zoo. Set amongst natural Australian bush, this open air zoo is your chance to get up close and personal with native Australian wildlife such as koalas, kangaroos, emus and wallabies. There are separate enclosures for dingos, crocodiles and platypus, as well as a ‘birds of prey’ showing. When travelling out this way you may want to combine the trip with either a detour to the Dandenong ranges for a great view back over Melbourne, or the Yarra valley for a winery visit. Along the way to Healesville is a particular road you can take which winds through very scenic fern forests. Also be sure to grab a very Australian meat pie from a local bakery.
4 days - Spend the first night in Fitzroy and enjoy the nightlife - Head off to the Great Ocean Road, and stay in Lorne for the night. - See the 12 apostles early in the day, then drive back to St Kilda and enjoy the nightlife - Hang out in St Kilda for the day, try to catch a footy game in the city and spend the evening in the city, before getting a tram back to St Kilda for the night - Drive out to Healesville for a great day at the zoo, visit the Dandenong ranges before heading to the airport in the evening for a flight to QLD
A visit to the state of Queensland is an important part of a trip away to Australia. Again they have fantastic beaches, and the heritage Great Barrier Reef stretches a great distance up and down the coast. This is ‘Finding Nemo’ type stuff. If you go to Cairns you will also have access to the Daintree rainforest which hosts eco-resorts. If you decide to stay further down Queensland (such as Noosa, Sunshine Coast) you could visit ‘Australia Zoo’ home of Steve Irwin’s crocodile hunter park. A bit further south would put you at the Gold Coast and Tweed Heads, where my partner is from, however the reef doesn’t stretch this far. Further south still is Byron Bay, home to hippies, hipsters and surfers.
2 days - Settle in for the evening in Cairns - Spend a day out on a boat to the Great Barrier Reef, do some scuba or snorkeling. Arrange for a bus to take you to an eco-resort in the Daintree - Spend a day in the Daintree on tour, then head to the airport to fly back to Sydney.
At this point you will be heading back to Sydney ready for your international flight the next morning. As you can tell this is a very compact trip based on about a week’s travel. It can be done much more comfortably in two weeks worth of time. I have obviously biased this more towards my home city of Melbourne because that’s where I’m from and know best. I’m happy to help further with some specific restaurant recommendations and I might add another article in the future.
While down this part of the world I’d recommend visiting New Zealand (especially Queenstown). This can help break up the trip in terms of Jet-lag and opens up all sorts of options for further adventures. Another good option for stopovers is to go through Tokyo, Japan. It is on the same time-zone which can help prepare you for jet lag. I have written articles about Tokyo Japan as well, please check those out.
So how did I do, did I miss anything important? Let me know which side you prefer in the north-south divide of Melbourne.