Australia is five flights wide. Book the days that earn it.
Which boat actually reaches the outer reef off Cairns. What a day on the Great Ocean Road costs in a small bus. Whether Uluru is worth two nights or four. Reviews of every tour you can book in Australia.
The reef, the coast road, sunrise at Uluru, an hour inside the sails.
The four bookings a first Australian trip hangs off. What each one costs, and what the people who took it say.
01The reef dayGreat Barrier Reef Cruise by Premium CatamaranA catamaran out to the outer reef from Cairns with the gear and lunch on board. Book it early in the trip so the weather leaves you a second go.
02The coast roadGreat Ocean Road Small-Group Eco Tour from MelbourneTwelve Apostles, Loch Ard Gorge and the rainforest behind them, in a bus small enough to stop where the light is.
03The desert dawnField of Light Sunrise Tour with Hot DrinksFifty thousand stems of light at the foot of Uluru, walked before sunrise. The night is capped and the sunrise slot goes first.
04The first morningOpera House Guided Tour with Entrance TicketInside the sails, under the concrete ribs, with the harbour running past the glass. An hour, and the cheapest famous thing in the country.
In Australia the good day usually starts at a boat ramp.
Outer-reef pontoons off Cairns, the sand swirl at Hill Inlet, whales through the heads at Sydney, a harbour under sail at six. Four kinds of day on the water, what it costs to board each one, and which coast it belongs to.
★★★★★★★★★★ 4.5 · Great Barrier Reef Snorkeling and Diving Cruise from Cairns
Reef daysOuter pontoons, gear thrown in, a marine guide in the water with you.
Whitsunday daysSilica sand at Whitehaven, the Hill Inlet lookout, a swim off the back.
Harbour daysSails, lunch, and the bridge from underneath it.
Sunset sailingsGolden hour from the water with dinner served on deck.
All 181 days on the water →
Six cities, and the day out each one is really for.
Sydney for the harbour, Melbourne for the coast road, Cairns for the reef, the Gold Coast for the water, Perth for the islands, Hobart for the wild edge. Pick a base and the days follow.
Australia’s most popular days out.
The whole Australian catalogue →The days out that more Australians and more visitors book than anything else, and what puts each of them there.
1
Opera House Guided Tour with Entrance Ticket
Spend one hour inside Sydney Opera House with a live English, French, Spanish, or German guide. You’ll walk through foyers, theaters, and backstage areas, hear how Jørn Utzon’s design came to life, and may see a rehearsal. Guides such as Peter, Laura, Immy, and Daryl are known for clear storytelling. Expect about 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 Barrier Reef Snorkeling and Diving Cruise from Cairns
from $190
Whales off Sydney, crocodiles up the Adelaide River, penguins at dusk on Phillip Island.
Humpbacks pass the heads from May to November, dolphins work Moreton Bay all year, and a saltwater crocodile leaves the river mud for a hanging piece of buffalo. Book the season first and the day second.
Uluru is a long way from everywhere, and that is the point.
Three hours in the air from either coast, then a rock that changes colour twice a day. Sunrise from the dune, Kata Tjuta at the far end of the valley, a field of lights switched on after dinner. Two nights is the least that makes the airfare make sense.
- 1Day Trip to Uluru with BBQ Dinnerfrom $254
- 2Ayers Rock Day Trip from Alice Springs Including BBQ Dinnerfrom $262
- 3Field of Light Sunrise Tour with Hot Drinksfrom $91
Sydney to the Kimberley: what a day out actually costs.
Every tour on the site, grouped by price. Distance is what you pay for here: the cheap end is a ticket inside a city, the top end is a boat or a plane covering real ground.
City tickets, harbour ferries, zoo and sanctuary entries, and the two-hour surf lesson.
The full-day standards: the Great Ocean Road, the Blue Mountains, Rottnest by bike, a first day on the reef.
Outer-reef cruises, K’gari by 4WD, scenic flights and the nights at Uluru.
Three things that only happen in Australia.
Coral and desert exist elsewhere. A reef with a pontoon moored on it, a monolith lit by fifty thousand stems of light, and sand so fine it squeaks underfoot do not.
The Outer Reef
The reef starts an hour and a half off Cairns and runs for two thousand kilometres. Day boats moor at a pontoon on the outer ribbons, which buys you a ladder, a shaded deck and hours in water that sits around 25 degrees. The inner islands are cheaper and closer; the outer sites are where the coral still has its colour.
- 1Great Barrier Reef Snorkeling and Diving Cruise from Cairns★★★★★★★★★★ 4.5 · 3,714 reviews
- 2Great Barrier Reef Cruise by Premium Catamaran★★★★★★★★★★ 4.9 · 3,567 reviews
- 3Outer Edges of The Great Barrier Reef Scenic Flight★★★★★★★★★★ 4.9 · 2,912 reviews
Uluru After Dark
The rock is sandstone the size of a small mountain, and it goes from ochre to blood red in the twenty minutes around sunset. Climbing it ended in 2019; walking the base takes three and a half hours and is the better way to see it. After dinner an artist’s field of solar stems lights the plain beneath it until dawn.
- 1Day Trip to Uluru with BBQ Dinner★★★★★★★★★★ 4.6 · 761 reviews
- 2Ayers Rock Day Trip from Alice Springs Including BBQ Dinner★★★★★★★★★★ 4.5 · 639 reviews
- 3Field of Light Sunrise Tour with Hot Drinks★★★★★★★★★★ 4.6 · 572 reviews
Whitehaven and Hill Inlet
Whitehaven is seven kilometres of silica sand so pure it squeaks and never holds the heat. At the northern end the tide drags it through the shallows at Hill Inlet and the whole inlet turns into marbled turquoise for a couple of hours. Boats leave Airlie Beach in the morning and time the lookout to the tide, which is why two departures on the same day can look nothing alike.
- 1Ocean Rafting: Whitehaven Beach, Snorkelling & Hill Inlet Lookout★★★★★★★★★★ 5.0 · 4,777 reviews
- 2Whitsundays Guided Jet Ski Tour★★★★★★★★★★ 5.0 · 3,348 reviews
- 3Whitehaven Beach and Hill Inlet Lookout Snorkeling Cruise★★★★★★★★★★ 5.0 · 2,953 reviews
Four Australian bookings that will not wait.
Most of this country can be sorted from a pub table the night before. These four run on capped numbers, one departure a day and animals that keep their own calendar.
- 01Field of Light Sunrise Tour with Hot DrinksNumbers on the walk are capped every night, and the sunrise session is the one everybody wants.
- 02Penguin Parade, & Wildlife Encounters Eco Tour from MelbourneThe penguins come ashore at dusk and there is one crossing a night. Summer viewing stands sell out weeks ahead.
- 03BridgeClimb SydneyClimb groups are small and the dawn and twilight slots go first. Weather moves people, never the date.
- 04Ocean Rafting: Whitehaven Beach, Snorkelling & Hill Inlet LookoutEvery boat to Whitehaven leaves Airlie Beach in the morning and is back the same evening. Miss it and the beach is a scenic flight away.
North of Townsville, summer means stingers and an afternoon storm.
From November to May box jellyfish are in the water along the Queensland coast and the heat builds a downpour most afternoons. Reef boats still run and hand out stinger suits, but swimming off a beach is off the table. The answer is to go up, go inland or go south: rainforest gondolas over the Barron Gorge, swimming holes above the falls, croc cruises that prefer the wet, and cellar doors down south where February is the best month of the year.
Six wine regions, most of them an hour from a capital city.
The Yarra is an hour out of Melbourne, the Barossa an hour from Adelaide, the Hunter two from Sydney, the Swan Valley twenty minutes from Perth and Margaret River three hours further south. Somebody else drives, which is the whole point of booking one.
By place — capital, coast and centre
By kind of day — reef, road, bush or cellar door
Sydney, the mountains, Byron, the Whitsundays, Cairns: the run almost everybody does first.
Blue Mountains
Byron Bay
Port DouglasJust reviewed, from six states and two territories.
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Airlie: Adults Only Sunset Sail with Aperol Spritz/Antipasto
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Cedar Creek Falls & Northerlies Beach Day Trip
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