--- title: "Top 10 Things To Do in Australia (City Guides) Wimup" description: "Browse Wimup's Top 10 guides across Australia, Sydney, Melbourne, Brisbane, Hobart and more cities, mapped and filmed. When to go, how to get around, and where to start." url: https://wimup.com/country/australia type: Country guide updated: 2026-10-06 publisher: Wimup (https://wimup.com) --- # Top 10s across Australia A continent with **six states**, a coastline you could spend a lifetime on, and cities that sit at the edge of it looking out. **Australia** is a long way from most places and rearranges your sense of scale once you arrive. ## Quick answer 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**. ## Quick facts - **Best months:** Mar · Apr · Oct · Nov - **Ideal length:** 12–16 days - **Budget per day:** A$150–330 - **Language:** English - **Getting around:** Domestic flights & road trips - **7** City guides - **27,801,023** People - **4** Video guides - **8** States & territories Australia is too large to see in one trip, so plan around one or two corners of it rather than a lap. Sydney is the usual arrival, the Great Barrier Reef and the Red Centre each justify a domestic flight, and Tasmania sits an hour away by air when you want cool weather and a shorter horizon. ## 7 Australia city guides 1. [Sydney](https://wimup.com/city/sydney.md): Oceania · 10 picks 2. [Brisbane](https://wimup.com/city/brisbane.md): Oceania · 10 picks 3. [Hobart](https://wimup.com/city/hobart.md): Oceania · 10 picks 4. [Melbourne](https://wimup.com/city/melbourne.md): Oceania · 10 picks 5. [Adelaide](https://wimup.com/city/adelaide.md): Oceania · 10 picks 6. [Gold Coast](https://wimup.com/city/gold-coast.md): Oceania · 10 picks 7. [Perth](https://wimup.com/city/perth.md): Oceania · 10 picks ## Know before you go - **Population:** 27,801,023 - **Area:** 7,692,024 km² - **Density:** 3.6 / km² - **Capital:** Canberra - **Major cities:** Sydney, Melbourne, Brisbane, Perth, Adelaide - **Tourism board:** Official site - **Currency:** Australian dollar (A$) - **Language:** English English everywhere. At least 123 Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander languages are still spoken, and they are the reason for half the place names on the map. - **Calling code:** +61 - **Power:** 230V · Type I - **Emergency:** 000 - **Visa:** ETA or eVisitor · 90 days Most Western passports need an ETA (subclass 601) or an eVisitor (subclass 651) before boarding. Both are online and allow stays of up to three months. Confirm your nationality with Home Affairs. - **Getting around:** Flights & road trips Distance is the trip's main constraint. Sydney to Perth is about five hours in the air, so plan around one or two corners of the country, not a lap, and hire a car the moment you leave a city. - **Driving:** On the left Left-hand traffic, sealed highways between the cities, and long empty stretches between everything else. Carry water and check fuel range before an outback leg. - **Time zones:** AEST · ACST · AWST Three standard zones, and only some states run daylight saving, so the gap between Sydney and Brisbane changes with the season. - **Tipping:** Not expected Staff are paid a full wage and prices include tax, so the number on the menu is the number you pay. Round up for good service if you want to. ## When to visit - **Jan** (peak) - **Feb** (good) - **Mar** (best) - **Apr** (best) - **May** (good) - **Jun** (good) - **Jul** (good) - **Aug** (good) - **Sep** (best) - **Oct** (best) - **Nov** (best) - **Dec** (peak) ## Fun fact 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 - **Myth:** Everything here can kill you **Reality:** The 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. - **Myth:** You can see it in two weeks **Reality:** Australia 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. - **Myth:** It is one long beach summer **Reality:** Hobart runs cool and green, the Red Centre gets close to freezing on winter nights, and Melbourne is famous for doing four seasons before lunch. - **Myth:** Everyone lives in the outback **Reality:** Australia 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. - 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 - **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 - **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 - **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 - **AC/DC**: The Sydney band behind Back in Black, one of the best-selling albums ever made - **Nick Cave**: Songwriter, novelist and the Bad Seeds, out of country Victoria - **Archie Roach**: Gunditjmara songwriter of Took the Children Away - **Sia**: Adelaide singer and songwriter who wrote half the pop charts before fronting them - **Tame Impala**: Kevin Parker's Perth psych-rock project, recorded almost entirely alone - **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 - **Fred Hollows**: Eye surgeon whose foundation still restores sight across the region - **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 - **Eddie Mabo**: Meriam man whose 1992 case overturned the doctrine of terra nullius - **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 - **Peter Gilmore**: The chef behind Quay, and its snow egg - **Bill Granger**: Sydney cafe cook who exported the modern Australian breakfast ## Must-try Australian food - **Meat pie with sauce**: The national handheld, eaten standing up at the footy. - **Sausage sizzle**: Bread, sausage, onions, sauce. Democracy's side dish outside every polling booth. - **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. - **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. - **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. - **Barramundi**: Firm white fish from the north, best cooked skin-side down and left alone. - **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. - **Chicken parmigiana**: Parma or parmi, depending on which state you order it in. - **Pie floater**: An Adelaide meat pie face-down in pea soup. Order it late. - **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. - **Counter steak**: Pub steak, chips and a salad bar you serve yourself. - **Lamington**: Sponge, chocolate, coconut. The bake sale in one square. - **Pavlova**: Meringue, cream and passionfruit, and a long argument with New Zealand. - **ANZAC biscuit**: Oats and golden syrup, built to survive the post. - **Tim Tam**: The biscuit locals send overseas. Bite both ends and use it as a straw. - **Fairy bread**: Buttered white bread and hundreds and thousands. Children's party law. - **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. - **Flat white**: Espresso and steamed milk, no foam sculpture required. The default order. - **Smashed avocado on toast**: Exported worldwide from Sydney and Melbourne cafes. - **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. ## Films - [Best of Brisbane](https://wimup.com/watch/brisbane.md), 14:58 - [Best of Hobart](https://wimup.com/watch/hobart.md), 5:38 - [48 Hours in Melbourne](https://wimup.com/watch/melbourne.md), 3:24:45 - [Sydney in 10](https://wimup.com/watch/sydney.md), 5:21:56 ## FAQs ### 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. ## Related countries - [New Zealand](https://wimup.com/country/new-zealand.md) - [Fiji](https://wimup.com/country/fiji.md) - [All of Oceania](https://wimup.com/oceania) Part of [Oceania](https://wimup.com/oceania.md) ## Sources - [Tourism board](https://www.australia.com/en?utm_source=wimup.com&utm_medium=referral) - [Visa](https://immi.homeaffairs.gov.au/visas/getting-a-visa/visa-listing?utm_source=wimup.com&utm_medium=referral) - Rankings are Wimup editorial picks. Prices, durations and budgets are editorial estimates, not live quotes; check the official site before you go.