I visited Australia for my first time in 2006 and cannot wait to return, hopefully by 2008 or 2009. I went in July and visited Sydney, Canberra, and Melbourne. My favorite experiences are riding the ferries in Sydney Harbour, going on the Great Ocean Road, and the numerous kangaroos and koalas.

What are your favorite Australian places and experiences? Hopefully, this will give me ideas for the next trip.

Thank you for sharing your opinions.

I love the Top End of the Northern Territory. I love the vastness and remoteness of the land. I will always remember swimming in the natural pools at Litchfield NP (my favorite being Wangi Falls) and at Edith Falls outside of Katherine (both the main pool and the harder-to-reach upper pools.) As they say, "You'll never never know if you never never go."

A few of our favorites:

- Wentworth Falls (Blue Mtns), an absolutely spectacular walk to the bottom of the falls.
- SE Tasmania: Hobart, Port Arthur, Remarkable Cave, Tahune Walk and LizzyF's B&B in Margate. If you want history, nature, great hospitality (thanks Liz!) and a laid back lifestyle, Tasmania is for you.
- Tamarama Beach in Sydney. Little tiny beach next to Bondi that nobody seems to know about.
- Kata Tjuta (Olgas) in the Outback. Better than Uluru.
- SE Queensland: Binna Burra/Lamington NP, Springbrook NP. Great hiking, birding, waterfalls.
- Anything north of Cairns for an unforgettable nature experience.

March/2007 was my first visit and hoping to go back soon. I love Sydney, what a great city!

1. Blue Mountains (and I thought our national parks were spectacular!)
2. Walks through the Botanic Gardens-Sydney enjoying the various wildlife and sounds (makes for a great run too!)
3. The wonderful people of Australia

Hi there SL, Maybe this will give you some ides. I will post email addies for some of the lodging's close by these amazing places when I find the diary which is packed away.
If you contact the company that organised the whole package for us I am certain they would be happy to answer any queries you may have.

Our family embarked upon the big one in Australia last year.
I have been meaning to write a full report on every thing we did.
I see many of the people we spoke to before our trip are still posting here.
As it turned out we could not find anyone to carry the bags.

We received lots of opinions and help from various people that contribute to this and a other travel forums from within Australia.

Be prepared to be over whelmed with information on the BEST places as you have asked. There are many BEST places in Australia. Our favorites or the places we find our selves reminiscing about the most frequently are as follows.

King George’s Waterfalls in the Far Western part of Australia was magnificent. We arrived at the falls not long after the end of the Australian wet season. The river drops 300 feet strait down into the ocean over bright red cliffs forming a huge bride’s veil of white water set against the red cliffs with the almost purple sky as a back drop. We spent the night on a boat just a few feet from the water fall. We enjoyed barramundi for breakfast while watching a good sized crocodile swim casually past the bow of the boat.

Ningaloo Reef, Swimming with whale Sharks. An experience which renders the bravest of all breathless.
These monsters swim so close you can touch them. You’re not supposed to touch although it would be a strong willed person whom could let a 25 foot animal slide on past just inches from your nose and not at least have just a little feel. Swimming with massive Manta’s in the same area was a bonus we did not count on.

Hiking to the top of Mount Augustus at sun rise will go down as one of the very most memorable events in my life. We later visited Uluru which seemed like a mere pebble when compared with Augustus.

Camping out at the Bungles.
The colors and shapes of these ancient formations along with the smells of the desert carpeted with spinifex were again truly amazing.

The pinnacles. Wandering through the pinnacles at sun set is some thing I was surprised was not better marketed. The pinnacles must be one of the worlds most interesting landscapes.

Kalumbaru. Meeting the aboriginals, visiting their most magnificent museum, spending a day walking along remote beaches listening to stories of better years being told to us by the elders and once again eating the famous barramundi cooked on the open fire. Awesome.

Arnhemland. Climbing through caves and crevices to be confronted with galleries of ancient art work painted and carved into the rock formations. Hiking back down the rocky slope and seeing hundreds of huge Kangaroos tearing across red dusty plains on the way to what seemed like no where but in a big hurry to get there.

Yorke Island. Torres Straits. Queensland. Sitting with the Father Mosby on the beach listening to tales about his ancestors while enjoying turtle cooked in the sand in a deep hole full of hot rocks after a days hiking from one Island to an other at low tide picking up Oysters which were our starter before the turtle.

Lizard Island. Snorkeling from Trawler beach around Lizard Heads to Coconut beach across the most amazing reefs we had ever seen. We towed our lunch and refreshments behind us in a water proof tank. The entire day was spent in idyllic surroundings with out seeing one other person. Later in the afternoon we hiked back across Lizard Heads seeing one of the most beautiful sets ever. Greg Letondeur our pilot / guide put every thing together for us. We can not recommend his services and the services of his company daintreeair.com highly enough.

The above covers just some of our favorite places.

There is so much more.

Hi,

I'd say WA if you have the time and inclination. Some great places there have been mentioned already.

But it will be quite different from your first trip which seems to have been all about cities. Though Sydney is not an ordinary city!! You, like me, like millions of others, love the harbour. And there are so many other non-built up places to see.

But WA is miles and miles of empty space. Wonderful. Other possibilities - the Top End (Kakadu, Litchfield) and of course, the GBR.

If it were me, I'd look at trips you can take through the big empty spaces, stopping at wonderful beaches/waterholes; small settlements and pubs, and being bowled over by the landscape.

I could point you in the direction of journeys from Perth to Darwin; Darwin to Cairns; and Cairns to Alice.

But I could be barking up the wrong tree. Ignore the above if you look forward to fine dining and smart hotels. If you like the outdoors and an adventure ...

Post again.

And hope you get back soon.

Thank you everyone for all your comments and suggestions. I really enjoy reading about the different experiences. I love Australia, the people, and the places so much. I hope to come back again and again.

TASSIE!! We loved Tasmania (Hobart and vicinity) and I hope to get back some day with more time so we can explore the rest of the island.

We have been 2x now to Australia--1st time on our 2 wk honeymoon we did Sydney, Tasmania, Great Barrier Reef. 2nd time we stayed in Melbourne and drove up to the 12 Apostles.

Both trips were memorable in so many different ways--bit cities and wildlife, mountains...reef.

Loved the Bridge Climb over Sydney Harbour at dusk! Canberra was actually really enjoyable and interesting. We went in early October of 2002. Returned again in August 2004.

Australia has so much to offer, and we all have our favourites.

I also started with the south east on my first trip. But since I saw the Outback, I am in love with the vast open spaces. I did the Birdsville and Oodnadatta Tracks (on different trips), and it was an awesome experience.

I am about to built a website about the eastern Outback, if you want to sneak a peek http://www.ritas-outback-guide.com/

Cheers, Rita

I visited Austalia in Sept 2006 -

Loved the outback. My husband, sister in law and I did the Kata Juta hike, which was beautiful but bring lots of water, something to eat and a hot with a wide brim (flynet attached to the brim is also a good idea).

Went to the rainforest and took the cable car to Kuranda, where I was able to hold a koala in the Koala Garden.

We stayed at Trinity Beach and took a very cool hang gliding trip over the rainforest for about half an hour. Since I had never gone hang gliding before, of course I went up with an instructor. The view was amazing!

I liked Trinity Beach - the beach was beautiful and it's more quiet than staying in Cairns or some of the other beaches. If you happen to be there at dinnertime, my favorite restaurant in the world is there - it's called Atlantis and it's across the street from the beach.

For me, it's all about wide open spaces, beautiful scenery, countless walking tracks, endless national parks, great wine and those incredibly friendly Aussies.

My favorite OZ experiences include sipping wine from a plastic cup on a rock overlooking Waychinicup Inlet (WA), climbing all three of those massive trees (fire lookouts) in Pemberton (WA), picking strawberries in Tassie, walking the Tahune Airwalk (TAS), the Valley of the Giants airwalk (WA), the Otway Fly Tree Top Walk (VIC), and watching a huge wombat waddle down the street at Cradle Mountain (TAS).

I've made six trips to Australia, and I always return to Sydney! And not just because I need to fly home from the airport there...

I have almost always gone to far north Queensland for at least a few days. I spent about 5 days this last trip and really enjoyed returning to Kuranda by the old railway line. I like coming down from the little town on the skyrail above the rainforest.

Tassie was neat, as was Perth, the NT (especially Kakadu) but I think my second favorite place has to be Adelaide. Not sure why, I just like how it is laid back and a bit more compact. Loved the old train to the beach! Also enjoyed a day trip to the McLaren Vale wine area.

Hope to make it back for trip #7 in the next couple of years.