Australia is bigger than your holiday. Spend it well.
Which reef boat gets you past the day-trip pontoons. What the Great Ocean Road really costs out of Melbourne. Reviews of every tour you can book down here.
Five to build a trip around
A reef boat, a headland walk, a wine valley, a rock in the desert.
The four days most first trips are built around, what each one costs out of the city you fly into, and what the people who took it say.
01The reef dayGreat Barrier Reef Cruise by Premium CatamaranA catamaran to the outer reef off Cairns, with gear and a guided snorkel included. Book it for early in your stay so weather leaves you a second try.
02The coast roadGreat Ocean Road, 12 Apostles, Wildlife TourTwelve Apostles and a wild koala stop, running west out of Melbourne. The long version turns back at Port Campbell instead of racing it.
03The mountain dayBlue Mountains Full-Day TripSandstone cliffs, the Three Sisters and a rainforest floor two hours from the harbour. Australia’s easiest big landscape to reach without a car.
04The white sandOcean Rafting: Whitehaven Beach, Snorkelling & Hill Inlet LookoutWhitehaven Beach and the swirl at Hill Inlet by rigid inflatable, out of Airlie. The fastest way to see the Whitsundays in a single day.
The reef, the harbour and the Whitsundays each ask for a different boat.
More than half of what sells here floats. Choose by what you want out of the day: a pontoon with a glass-bottom boat for non-swimmers, a fast catamaran to the outer edge, a rigid inflatable that trades comfort for Whitehaven and back before dinner.
★★★★★★★★★★ 4.5 · Great Barrier Reef Snorkeling and Diving Cruise from Cairns
Outer reef daysTwo coral sites, gear on board, a guided snorkel with the crew.
Snorkel tripsShallow gardens, turtles, and time in the water rather than on it.
Harbour cruisesThe bridge, the Opera House and the eastern bays from the deck.
Sailing daysA tall rig, an anchorage and a swim off the back at lunch.
See all 562 boat trips →
Six Australian cities, and the day out each one is really for.
Almost everybody arrives through a capital and drives out of it the next morning. A harbour with a bridge to climb, a laneway city an hour from the Twelve Apostles, a reef town, a theme-park coast, a quokka island and a wine city with a dolphin bay.
Nowhere else hands you a koala, a quokka and a saltwater crocodile in one trip.
The animals are the reason a lot of people come, and the good encounters are the ones on the animal’s ground: a sanctuary at feeding time, a penguin beach at dusk, a whale season that runs the whole east coast from June.
Sydney sells the harbour, then sends you west to the mountains.
Everything in Sydney →
The city is small enough to walk and the water is the point of it. Do the harbour first — from a deck, from the bridge arch or from the Opera House steps — then give a whole day to the sandstone country two hours west.
Inside the sails, not just outside them
A guided hour through the foyers, the concert hall and the stories about the roof nobody could work out how to build. Book a morning slot and the harbour walk afterwards is still cool.
Up the arch of the Harbour Bridge
You climb the steel to 134 metres with a guide and a tether, and the view runs from the Heads to the mountains. Dawn and twilight slots cost more and are worth the difference.
Three Sisters, Scenic World, a waterfall walk
Two hours west the city stops and a sandstone canyon starts. The good versions add a rainforest walk at the valley floor and get you back before the evening traffic.
The days out more Australians and visitors book than any other.
Every Australian tour we have reviewed →The tours that draw the biggest crowds down here, and what earns each of them the slot.
1
Opera House Guided Tour with Entrance Ticket
Explore Sydney Opera House in one hour with a guide, theater access, architectural stories, rare views, and practical tips for the 300 stairs.
From · $33
Read our review →
2
All Inclusive Blue Mountain,Scenic World,Lunch,Koalas,ferry
from $204
3
Great Ocean Road Small-Group Eco Tour from Melbourne
from $106
4
Great Ocean Road, 12 Apostles, Wildlife Tour
from $94
5
Ocean Rafting: Whitehaven Beach, Snorkelling & Hill Inlet Lookout
from $149
6
Laid back, Yarra Valley Wine Tour: Wine, Cider, Gin, Beer + Choc
from $93
7
Blue Mountains Full-Day Trip
from $148
8
Great Ocean Road Reverse Itinerary Boutique Tour – Max 11 Guests
from $106
Melbourne is a city you leave: the coast road starts an hour out.
The Twelve Apostles, a koala in a roadside gum, and penguins coming up a Phillip Island beach after sunset. Three of the country’s best days out all begin at the same pick-up points on Spencer Street.
Every Melbourne day out →
What a day out in Australia actually costs.
Every tour on the site, grouped by the per-head price. Distances are long here and the full-day coach runs price like it — but the harbour, the headlands and the city walks stay cheap.
City walks, harbour cruises, entry tickets and the short hops out of the capitals.
The standards: Great Ocean Road coaches, Blue Mountains days, wine valleys and whale boats.
Outer-reef catamarans, Whitsundays cruises, scenic flights and the small-group versions of everything.
Three Australian days that exist nowhere else on earth.
Beaches and vineyards are everywhere. A climbable bridge arch, a beach that little penguins walk up every single night, and an island where the only locals are marsupials are not.
Climbing the bridges
Sydney’s arch has been open to climbers since 1998, and you go up the same maintenance catwalks the riggers use, clipped to a static line the whole way. Nothing loose comes with you — glasses, cameras and jackets are all tethered or supplied. Brisbane sends people up its Story Bridge and the Gold Coast walks the outside of a beachfront tower, so the climb is not a harbour-only thing any more.
- 1Sydney Tower Eye: Entry with Observation Deck★★★★★★★★★★ 4.4 · 2,315 reviews
- 2SkyPoint Observation Deck Ticket★★★★★★★★★★ 4.5 · 805 reviews
- 3Brisbane Story Bridge Adventure Climb★★★★★★★★★★ 5.0 · 648 reviews
The Penguin Parade
Little penguins are the smallest species in the world, and a colony of several thousand comes ashore at Summerland Beach every evening of the year, waiting offshore in rafts until the light drops far enough to be safe. Viewing is from boardwalks and stands, cameras stay off, and the birds walk past your feet on the way to burrows in the dunes.
- 1Penguin Parade, & Wildlife Encounters Eco Tour from Melbourne★★★★★★★★★★ 5.0 · 3,774 reviews
- 2Penguin Parade, Koalas & Kangaroos★★★★★★★★★★ 4.5 · 1,932 reviews
- 3Phillip Island Penguin Parade & Koalas Tour★★★★★★★★★★ 4.7 · 1,408 reviews
Rottnest and its quokkas
A half-hour ferry from Fremantle lands you on a car-free island of limestone bays where the quokkas are so unbothered by people that the selfie became a genre. There are sixty-three beaches and one road system, best done on a hired bike; the return ferry is the only fixed point in the day.
- 1Rottnest Island Full-Day Bike and Ferry Trip★★★★★★★★★★ 4.7 · 2,548 reviews
- 2From Perth or Fremantle: Rottnest Island Ferry and Bus Tour★★★★★★★★★★ 4.6 · 1,246 reviews
- 3Rottnest Island Ferry and Bike Day Tour★★★★★★★★★★ 4.6 · 805 reviews
Four Australian bookings that will not wait for you.
Most of this country can be sorted from a pub table the night before. These four run on capped groups, tide charts, ferry timetables and animals that keep their own diary.
- 01BridgeClimb SydneyGroups are capped for the catwalk and the dawn and twilight slots sell out first. There is no walk-up.
- 02Penguin Parade, & Wildlife Encounters Eco Tour from MelbourneOne colony, one arrival, one viewing area, and it happens at dusk whether or not you have a seat.
- 03Ocean Rafting: Whitehaven Beach, Snorkelling & Hill Inlet LookoutThe Whitsundays boats run to a tide and a timetable, and the Whitehaven days are the first full on any given morning.
- 04Rottnest Island Full-Day Bike and Ferry TripThe island runs on the ferry schedule, and bike hire on a summer weekend is gone long before the boat leaves.
Half of Australia is a question of season, not budget.
The whales run up the east coast from June to November. The Top End is a wet-season swamp from December and a dry-season road trip from May. North of Townsville the box jellyfish arrive around November, and reef boats hand out stinger suits until May. None of that stops a trip — it just decides which one you book.
Five wine regions within a morning of a capital city.
Hunter Valley semillon out of Sydney, Yarra pinot out of Melbourne, Barossa shiraz out of Adelaide, Margaret River cabernet out of Perth. Somebody else drives, which is the entire point.
By place — capitals, reef towns and wine country
By kind of day — boat, bush, cellar or coast road
Sydney, the mountains, the reef, the Whitsundays, then the coast road out of Melbourne.
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