Australia Trip! Melbourne and Sydney
 

Hello all!

My wife and I (both 30 and active) are planning a week long trip to Australia and can't wait to see everything it has to offer.

We don't want to get locked into cities, as we both love wildlife, photography, and exploring, so I just wanted to run a few ideas by anyone that knows the areas and see if a) we're on the right track, and b) the best way/order to fit it in.

Dates: We'll be arriving on November 9 @ 11:30am and departing November 16 at 11:10am

November 9: land, most likely hang by the beach or the harbor
November 10: Manly to Spit coastal walk, check out the opera house, sydney harbor bridge climb, bondi beach pool
November 11: train ride to Blue Mountains nat'l park (is this too far to do in a day?)
November 12: surf & beach day (any recommendations would be great)
November 13: Fly to Melbourne in the morning, grab some amazing coffee, see street art
November 14: See Flinders st. station and Luna Park (among other things, a few museums would be great)
November 15: Take a drive and try to spot some koalas near Kennett River, would love to see some kangaroos, birds, wallabies, other wildlife
November 16: Early morning flight from Melbourne to Sydney to fly home

Is there anything we should cut? Anything we can combine? Or anything huge we're missing? I know a week isn't enough to see such a vast country (we're from the states, and having a week to visit the states would be crazy), so I hope this will be our first visit, but not our last!

Thank you all for any insights!!

Nov. 10 looks pretty busy. If taking public transportation, Bondi is not so close to Manly. Maybe save Bondi Beach Pool for Nov. 12 ("beach and surf day").

While in Melbourne, you might want to take a tour to Phillip Island Penguin Parade:
https://www.penguins.org.au/
Some of the tours also include a visit to Moonlit Sanctuary, as well as Seal Rocks and the Nobbies
Moonlit Sanctuary - Home

Great museums in Melbourne. National Gallery of Victoria, Australia/Ian Potter Centre is at Federation Square, near Flinders St. Station. National Gallery of Victoria International is about a 10-minute walk away on the other side of the Yarra River on St. Kilda Road. Here's a link for both museums. Admission is free.
https://www.ngv.vic.gov.au/
I also enjoyed the Melbourne Museum in Carlton Gardens, which contains natural history displays and much more. Adult admission is $15.
https://museumsvictoria.com.au/melbournemuseum/
https://museumsvictoria.com.au/melbo...orest-secrets/

I enjoy shopping for food at Queen Victoria Market
https://qvm.com.au/

There have been a lot of posts about Melbourne on this forum. A recent one that was mostly about finding accommodation, also had some tips on what to see and do, and how to get around:
https://www.fodors.com/community/aus...dging-1658331/

Adding to the information that Diamantina already shared.

Having done everything you outlined on Nov. 10, I am able to confidently share that it is unlikely you will be able to - or want to - do everything there. If you are interested in doing the Bridge Climb, think about when you want to do (early in the day or late, for example), and make reservations for it. Then you will know how much time you have for the Manly to Spit walk (factor in at least 4 hours, more if you want more time along the beaches or viewpoints). If you're up for it and depending on where you are staying, you could visit the Opera House on the first day and then check out the Royal Botanic Gardens next door.

A visit to the Blue Mountains is definitely possible as a day trip from Sydney, and is easy to do by train. Think about what you want to do. Are you interested in a more laid-back visit or a hike? Do you want to do some shopping? This will determine where you want to get off on the train. For the Three Sisters, the most common destinations are Katoomba and Leura. From Katoomba, you could go on the Scenic rides (cable car, cog-wheel train, etc.). Leura has some good shopping. There are plenty of hikes around both of these areas, as well as the National Pass walk, which can be accessed from Wentworth Falls.

As Diamantina suggested, you could save Bondi for your beach day on Nov. 12. I highly recommend the coastal walk from Bondi to Coogee, or vice versa. WildWalks (Wildwalks | Your online bushwalking guide) is a good sight for walking ideas in and around Sydney Harbor as well as the Blue Mountains. If you're interested in more active walks, you could also go up to South Head. The shoreline between Rose Bay and Watsons Bay is nice too.

Diamantina gave you plenty of suggestions for Melbourne. There is also a good selection of dining options along the South Bank of the Yarra River.

Here's a link to my report from 2016-17 in case any of the details is useful to you: https://www.fodors.com/community/aus...idays-1170461/

Driving to Kennett River from the city will take at least three hours each way with no certainty of seeing wildlife. With such a short time in Melbourne, I'd suggest either visiting Melbourne Zoo which is a very short tram ride away from the CBD and has a good collection of native fauna or alternatively taking a tour to Healesville Sanctuary which specialises in native animals and birds - that's about 90 minutes out of the city.

Nov 9: Morning arrival/chill day Sydney, Ferry to Manly & Back to see Harbour (stay in Sydney)Nov 10: Sydney Day 2: Coogee to Bondi Coastal Walk, Beach (stay in Sydney)Nov 11: Fly to Melbourne: get amazing coffee, street art, architecture (stay in Melbourne)

Nov 12: Morning drive to Kennett River, then Apollo Bay via Great Ocean Rd. (stay in Apollo Bay)

Nov 13: Morning hike in Great Otway -> afternoon drive to Hall's Gap (stay in Hall's Gap)

Nov 14: Drive to/morning hike at Mackenzie Falls -> drive to Melbourne (stay in Melbourne)

Nov 15: Melbourne (stay in Melbourne)

Nov 16: Home (fly to Syd in morning)

You’ve had some great advice above. I’ll just add a few random thoughts:

If you have some flexibility, I would encourage you to arrive in Sydney a day or so earlier. Why?

Sculpture by the Sea - along the cliffs of the Bondi to Bronte walk. It’s an annual sculpture exhibition that adds interest (and people) to the area. This year, it finishes on 10th November, and that weekend will be super busy along the walk. Sculpturebythesea.com.

As an aside, I like to do the walk from Coogee (or Bronte) to Bondi Beach. You can take a bus to Coogee or Bronte. At Bondi Beach, you might like to call into Bondi Icebergs Club - good, casual food & drinks - spectacular views over the beach. Take some ID. You will need to be signed in (liquor licensing laws).

From Bondi Beach, it’s a quick bus trip to Watsons Bay, a charming former fishing village, which still retains the feeling and some of the old fishermen’s cottages; National Park & good options for refreshments at the Watsons Bay pub; Doyles take away on the wharf; other cafes. From there, you can take a ferry back to Circular Quay or fast eco ferry to Manly. If you time your return to Circular Quay to around dusk, you might be lucky enough to get spectacular photo opportunities of a sunset backdrop to the Harbour Bridge, Opera House & Royal Botanic Gardens.

You’ll need Opal cards for use on public transport in Sydney: https://transportnsw.info/tickets-op...l-for-visitors

Naturally, you will first need ETAs. Use the official Australian Government website

(I’m having trouble pasting on my ipad - someone else will give you the link).

Your new itinerary in Victoria sounds much better. Do a slight detour at Anglesea to have a look at the golf course - usually kangaroos there. When we are in Halls Gap, we often do a short drive along the Halls Gap-Dunkeld Road in the early evening and usually see some wildlife, generally kangaroos, sometimes koalas and sometimes deer.
If time allows, stop for a walk in Ballarat on your return to Melbourne - nice old buildings and some good museums, Lake Wendouree and gardens.

Australia Trip! Melbourne and Sydney
 

I have been to Sydney with my friends last October. Gosh! I must say Sydney is such beautiful place. We were there for about 4 days and we did visit most of the Sydney's promising Iconic attractions like the Sydney Opera House, Sydney Harbour & Harbour Bridge.

I would suggest you to make the most of the day you arrive at Sydney, the 9 November. There is so much you can explore on the Sydney Harbour and the best part is to watch its beauty in the night with all its nightly glam and eternity. You can find a lot of cruising activities on the Harbour. I would suggest you to go for a dining cruise as this will cover two things: one is an awesome night on the Sydney Harbour with authentic Australian dining experience, second you will get to see all of the above mentioned Iconic attractions (Sydney Opera House, Sydney Harbour & Harbour Bridge) during the course of your cruise.

You will get to see many cruising operators on the harbour. We chose to go for the dinner offered by the Australian Cruise Group. You can go to their official website and get more idea on the different cruising they offer. They are one of the best cruising operator with offering the finest of cruises across Sydney Harbour as we had identified.

You can even reserve your booking in prior so that you do not waste time after your arrival at Sydney.

We personally did the Opera House tour by buying the ticket at the venue. However, I later realized that they too have an amazing website where you can book your tickets way before your date of arrival. You can just type Sydney Opera House and the first google search option is the link to their official website.

In case you need to make any changes to the booking that is already confirmed, you can contact their customer service team and they can make a seamless procedure to help you make the changes without any hassle.

For the Blue Mountains tour, I would say it takes almost an entire day to cover all the activities. Blue Mountains tours are normally combined with Featherdale Park tour, or Jenolan Caves tour, and or Entry to the Scenic World Rides. However, exact itinerary would depend upon the operator you chose to do the tour with. You would need to compare and go for the best tour that will suit you best.

I'm not really sure about Melbourne as we had to return back to our hometown from Sydney.

If there is any doubt on the points I mentioned above feel free to ask so that I can clarify them as much as I can. Hope this gave you some idea for your trip ahead. Have a wonderful time!

There are many beautiful places in Australia, and the interesting thing is that here all the varieties of foods available like Chinese, Indian. Indian Restaurants in Australia. Here all the types of Indian foods are available.