How many days do you need in Australia?

Plan 12 to 16 days for a first trip. That covers two cities properly and one big-country leg (the reef, the Red Centre or Tasmania) without living on planes. Three weeks lets you add the west.

When is the best time to visit Australia?

March to April and October to November are the sweet spots for Sydney, Melbourne, Adelaide and Perth: mild days, lighter crowds, easier bookings. The tropical north runs on its own calendar, with a dry season from May to October.

Do you need a visa for Australia?

Almost every visitor does. Most Western passports use the ETA (subclass 601) or the eVisitor (subclass 651), both applied for online before you fly, both allowing stays of up to three months at a time. Check your nationality with the Department of Home Affairs.

Is Australia expensive to visit?

It is not a budget destination. Our city guides work out around A$150 to A$330 per person per day mid-range, with domestic flights the line item that catches people out. Cooking a few meals and booking flights early makes the biggest difference.

Do you need to hire a car?

Not in the cities: Sydney, Melbourne, Brisbane and Hobart are all walkable with good public transport. Everywhere else, yes. The Great Ocean Road, Tasmania and the wine regions only make sense on your own wheels.

Top 10 Things To Do in Australia (City Guides) Wimup

Quick answer · where to go in Australia

First-timers land in Sydney, add Melbourne for food and laneways, then pick one big-country trip: the reef out of Cairns, the Red Centre, or Tasmania. The southern cities are best in March to April and October to November; the tropical north is a different calendar, and its dry season runs May to October.

Jump toCity guides Fun fact Stereotypes Famous Australians Food FAQ

7 Australia city guides

Sorted by what travelers are saving this month.

Fun fact

One number worth knowing

The Great Barrier Reef Marine Park covers about 344,400 square kilometres off the Queensland coast, making it the largest coral reef system on Earth and the biggest structure built by living organisms.

Stereotypes, sorted out

The clichés you have heard, what is actually true, and how to fit in.

"Everything here can kill you"

The realityThe dangerous species are real and almost never encountered. Sun, surf and dehydration are what actually catch travellers out, so read the beach flags and carry water.

"You can see it in two weeks"

The realityAustralia is close to the size of Europe with the population of a mid-sized country. Two weeks buys two cities and one big trip. Trying for more means spending the holiday in airports.

"It is one long beach summer"

The realityHobart runs cool and green, the Red Centre gets close to freezing on winter nights, and Melbourne is famous for doing four seasons before lunch.

"Everyone lives in the outback"

The realityAustralia is one of the most urbanised countries on earth. The great majority live within an hour of the coast, and most of them in five cities.

Throw another shrimp on the barbieEverything is trying to kill youKangaroos in the streetEndless summerCrocodile DundeeCoffee snobberyShortening every word

Cultural notes that actually help

Sit in the front of a taxi if you are alone. Standing on ceremony reads as standoffish here.
Swim between the red and yellow flags. They mark the patrolled stretch, and rips are the real risk.
Rounds are a system. If someone buys you a drink, you are expected to buy the next one.
A welcome or acknowledgement of Country opens many events. It is a courtesy, not a formality to sit out.
Sun protection is not optional. The UV index runs high even on cool days, and locals treat a hat as normal clothing.
Everything shortens. Breakfast is brekkie, afternoon is arvo, and a service station is a servo.

Famous Australian faces

The names behind Australian sport, screen, music, science, art and politics. Pick a field.

Cathy Freeman

Sprinter who lit the cauldron and won the 400m at the Sydney 2000 Olympics

Steve Irwin

Wildlife conservationist and television's Crocodile Hunter

Nicole Kidman

Academy Award winner, raised in Sydney

Don Bradman

Cricket's highest Test batting average, 99.94, and unmatched since

Kylie Minogue

Pop career that ran from a Melbourne soap to global chart-toppers

Hugh Jackman

Wolverine for most of two decades, and a stage musical career alongside it

Cate Blanchett

Two-time Academy Award winner, on screen and running a theatre company

Evonne Goolagong Cawley

Wiradjuri champion with seven Grand Slam singles titles

Ash Barty

World number one who won Wimbledon and the Australian Open, then retired at 25

Ian Thorpe

Five Olympic swimming golds, more than any other Australian

Adam Goodes

Two-time Brownlow medallist and Australian of the Year in 2014

Baz Luhrmann

Director of Strictly Ballroom, Moulin Rouge and Elvis

Margot Robbie

Actor and producer, from a Melbourne soap set to Barbie

Chris Hemsworth

Thor across the Marvel films, and a Byron Bay base he never gave up

Toni Collette

Range that runs from Muriel's Wedding to Hereditary

Warwick Thornton

Kaytetye director of Samson and Delilah and Sweet Country

Nick Cave

Songwriter, novelist and the Bad Seeds, out of country Victoria

Archie Roach

Gunditjmara songwriter of Took the Children Away

Sia, Australia (portrait via Wikimedia Commons)

Sia

Adelaide singer and songwriter who wrote half the pop charts before fronting them

Elizabeth Blackburn

Nobel laureate for the discovery of telomerase

Barry Marshall

Proved stomach ulcers are bacterial, and drank the proof to do it

Fiona Wood

Burns surgeon who co-developed spray-on skin

Patrick White

The only Australian to win the Nobel Prize in Literature

Albert Namatjira

Arrernte watercolourist who painted the Central Australian ranges

Sidney Nolan

Painter of the Ned Kelly series, the country's most recognisable images

Tim Winton

Novelist of Cloudstreet, and of the Western Australian coast

Miles Franklin

Wrote My Brilliant Career, and gave her name to the country's literary prize

Edith Cowan

First woman elected to an Australian parliament, in 1921

Gough Whitlam

Prime minister whose 1975 dismissal is still argued about

Julia Gillard

Australia's first woman prime minister

Neville Bonner

First Aboriginal Australian to sit in federal parliament

Maggie Beer

Barossa cook who made verjuice a household ingredient

Kylie Kwong

Sydney chef pairing Cantonese cooking with native ingredients

Bill Granger

Sydney cafe cook who exported the modern Australian breakfast

Howard Florey

Shared the 1945 Nobel Prize for turning penicillin into a usable medicine

Rod Laver

The only tennis player to win two calendar-year Grand Slams

AC/DC

The Sydney band behind Back in Black, one of the best-selling albums ever made

Tame Impala

Kevin Parker's Perth psych-rock project, recorded almost entirely alone

Fred Hollows

Eye surgeon whose foundation still restores sight across the region

Eddie Mabo

Meriam man whose 1992 case overturned the doctrine of terra nullius

Peter Gilmore

The chef behind Quay, and its snow egg

Must-try Australian food

The classics first, then the seafood, the sweets and the native ingredients. Pick a category.

Sausage sizzle

Bread, sausage, onions, sauce. Democracy's side dish outside every polling booth.

Roast lamb

The Sunday centrepiece, and the one dish nearly everyone claims as home cooking.

Damper

Bush bread baked in the coals, split hot and spread with golden syrup.

Barramundi

Firm white fish from the north, best cooked skin-side down and left alone.

Chicken parmigiana

Parma or parmi, depending on which state you order it in.

Chiko roll

Engineered for one hand at the football, and unchanged since.

Halal snack pack

Chips, kebab meat and three sauces in a box. The late-night standard.

Lamington

Sponge, chocolate, coconut. The bake sale in one square.

ANZAC biscuit

Oats and golden syrup, built to survive the post.

Fairy bread

Buttered white bread and hundreds and thousands. Children's party law.

Flat white

Espresso and steamed milk, no foam sculpture required. The default order.

Smashed avocado on toast

Exported worldwide from Sydney and Melbourne cafes.

Meat pie with sauce

The national handheld, eaten standing up at the footy.

Vegemite on buttered toast

Scrape it on thin. The people who hate it were served it thick.

Fish and chips by the water

Ordered at a counter, eaten out of paper, defended from gulls.

Barbecued prawns

Green prawns, garlic butter, a hot grill and nothing else.

Sydney rock oysters

Small, briny and specific to the estuaries they grow in.

Moreton Bay bugs

Slipper lobsters from the Queensland coast, grilled and split.

Mud crab

The Top End's big one, usually chilli or singapore-style and worth the mess.

Western rock lobster

Perth's export in a bag of ice, and the reason to eat at the source.

Tasmanian oysters and abalone

Cold-water shellfish from the island that grows most of it.

Pie floater

An Adelaide meat pie face-down in pea soup. Order it late.

Counter steak

Pub steak, chips and a salad bar you serve yourself.

Pavlova

Meringue, cream and passionfruit, and a long argument with New Zealand.

Tim Tam

The biscuit locals send overseas. Bite both ends and use it as a straw.

Neenish tart

Two-tone icing on a jam and cream base, from the country bakery cabinet.

Kangaroo fillet

Lean, dark and ruined by overcooking. Rare, rested, sliced thin.

Finger lime

Native citrus that bursts like caviar, mostly over oysters.

Macadamia

The one major food crop domesticated from an Australian plant.

Wattleseed

Roasted and ground, somewhere between coffee and hazelnut.

Bush tomato and saltbush

Desert seasonings that turn up on serious menus and in station kitchens.

Banana bread, grilled

Cut thick, grilled, buttered. The counter staple.

Laksa at Mindil Beach

Darwin's night market answer to a hot evening, and a queue worth joining.

Barossa shiraz

Old vines, big fruit, and the wine the country is known for.

Margaret River cabernet

Western Australia's answer, structured and built to keep.

Tasmanian sparkling

Cool-climate fizz from the island, now taken seriously abroad.

Long black

Espresso over hot water. What to order when a flat white is too much milk.

Top 10s across Australia

When to visit Australia