We will be staying for five days in Canberra for a triathalon on November 15th to the 21st. What are the best things to see and do to see the true sights and culture of Australia? We can also make day trips from the city because we will have a rental car.Recommendations?

These are my favorite things to do in Canberra:

1. New Parliament House--free tours offered every hour. (It's a beautiful building with a unique design). There's an excellent gift shop with lots of quality Australian-themed gifts.

2. National Gallery of Australia--Free guided tours at certain hours. The Aboriginal art is impressive and I particularly enjoy Sidney Nolan's "Ned Kelly" series. Also a good modern art collection--look for Pollack's "Blue Poles". If you can't make one of the guided tours, you can get free "tour wands" at the Info desk.

3. Australian War Memorial--An excellent history museum of Australia. I have spent an entire day here on more than one occasion.

4. Questacon, the National Science Museum of Australia--a great hands-on science museum and it's not just for kids!

5. Hikes in Namadgi National Park--Stop at the visitor's center for maps. Hike around the remains of the Honeysuckle Tracking Station used to track the Apollo astronauts. My favorite hike is the Yankee Hat Hike. It's a easy 6-km RT hike where you will see LOTS of kangaroos. At the turnaround point is a rock with Aboriginal drawings. A great walk in the bush!

7. Tidbinbilla Nature Reserve--The reserve was closed for awhile after the bushfire of 2003, but it's reopened now. During your visit, you could do a ranger-guided tour to see kangaroos (Saturday) or bush-tailed rock wallabies (Sunday). You can also hike and cycle through the park.

9. Lanyon Homestead--Self-tour this restored grazing property from the 1850's. You'll learn a lot about the history and culture of Australia.

10. It would make for a long day trip, but hiking to the top of Mt. Kosciusko in Thredbo is fabulous. You can take a chairlift up part-way and then hike on a raised walkway (to protect the wildflowers) and a good hiking trail to the top of Australia's highest peak.

To add to longhorn55's excellent suggestions:

11. Old Parliament House - frequent, interesting tours by volunteer guides, including both the Senate and House of Reps chambers, PM's offices etc. The building also incorporates the National Portrait Gallery.

12. National Archives of Australia - just behind Old Parliament House, with compact but interesting changing exhibitions.

12. National Museum of Australia - a sometimes off-beat social history of Australia.

13. National Botanical Gardens, on the slopes of Black Mountain, an excellent extensive display of Australian native flora, from rainforest to arid regions, including a marked walk illustrating Aboriginals' plant use. (If you decide to eat at the cafe, last time I was there they didn't take plastic, but maybe that's changed.)

14. Often overlooked, Calthorpe's House, a sort of "time capsule" of a 1927 bungalow, complete with all the trappings of a middle-class family that didn't throw much away. Need to check for opening times.

14. If you fancy a day on the coast, take an easy 2-hour drive east to Batemans Bay through the small towns of Bungendore (check out the excellent woodwork gallery) and Braidwood (used as the setting for a couple of movies), and down the twisty but scenic Clyde Mountain escarpment - the change in climate and vegetation is dramatic. Turn right when you hit the Pacific Highway, cross the bridge over the Clyde River, turn immediately left into the BB shopping centre, then left into the first car park you see, which adjoins a good fish-'n-chips place - the Clyde River oysters are great too. There are plenty of good beaches in the vicinity, easy to find if you pick up a local road map.

All that should keep you out of trouble for a few days

Surely the most importnat thing to do is go and have a look at Neil!

We want reports, photos, gossip, scandal, anything.....

Just where did I put his address??

Easy, margo - check the online White Pages under '_O' for '_Oz'.

Excellent suggestions that will keep us busy for sure. Thanks for the input. Any other recommended day driving tours? We love to tour by car to see the land.

If you like driving there's any number of somewhat longer drives, say 3-4 hours each way, that will allow you to see a variety of landscapes.

One would be to drive up the Hume Highway (towards Sydney) then east through Kangaroo Valley, continuing to the coast, then south to Batemans Bay and west back to Canberra.

Another is south to Cooma, then SE through Bega (dairy country) to the coast at Merimbula, which is closer to the Victorian border than the other places mentioned; return the same way or north to Batemans Bay and back west to Canberra.

Or you could head westward, say via Yass to Cowra, through mainly grazing country that's characteristic of inland (but not "Outback" New South Wales. There are many small/medium-sized country towns which still retain vestiges of their 19th century "glory days" in the form of fine old bank, post office and railway buildings.

Be prepared for dry conditions, as this part of Australia is going through the worst drought in, it's thought, not just 100 but 1,000 years.

The Canberra region also boasts a growing cool-climate wine industry, with a number of small wineries where you can have lunch. These days there are good dining options in just about any sizeable town. The Cowra region also has a wine industry.

If you can procure a road map covering the southern half of New South Wales the above suggestions will make more sense.

Back in Canberra, let me second longhorn's recommendation of the Australian War Memorial, which itself depicts much of Australia's social history. The AWM is quite close to the city centre ("Civic&quot, yet if you take a walk in the bushland behind it (the Mt Ainslie Nature Reserve) you may well spot wild kangaroos - the dry weather forces them closer to watered city areas. Don't approach them, that's all - the large males can be a bit touchy.

If you go to Yass and Cowra as Neil Oz mentioned, there are several worthwhile stops you can make in those towns. In Yass, you can visit the National Trust Property of Cooma Cottage. This house was built in 1835 and later became the home of one of Australia's early explorers, Hamilton Hume. Also in and around Yass you can visit the Peter Crisp Art Glass gallery and lavendar farm and the Didgeridoo Man factory/shop (I assume he's still there). Cooma was the site of a WWII prisoner-of-war camp for Japanese POWs. There was an attempted breakout in 1944 by a large number of Japanese. You can visit the site of the camp and learn more about its history at the POW Hologram Theatre at the Cowra Visitor's Center. Finally, there are vineyards and wineries in the area also to visit.

Thanks for the information - it is getting us excited about the trip. I didn't realize we would be so close to the wineries. Any that you recommend to visit within a day trip?

you will be very close to canberra's growing wine scene. check this site for information:
http://www.canberrawines.com.au/

you should be able to pick up a map of the wineries in the region as well from tourist info or hotels.

my personal favourites:
clonakilla (for the wine - one of the oldest and most awarded canberra wines)
lark hill (another very established)
I've heard good things about Yarrh wines, which is one of the newer wineries.
I was going to go to Brindabella hills - apparently the views of the brindies are very nice from here.
also go to the poachers pantry http://www.poacherspantry.com.au/ for tasty smoked meats.

This thread is a fantastic ad for canberra - boohoo to those who say there's nothing to do or only spend 1 day in canberra.

A couple of other things I thought of:

- plenty of walks / running trails within the city area. Have a look at black mountain - there's a nice loop track towards the top, which gives great views then you can walk up from there. YOu could also do some hill reps on your bike if you are keen. a cracker of a hoon back down the hill, I can attest to that.

- Mt Ainslie also has great tracks, there's a loop around the base, and also you can also walk to the top from the bottom, starting just behind the war memorial. Another good hill climb on a bike. If you're keen you could do the 3 peaks ride, which is Black mountain, mt ainslie and red hill.

bridge to bridge loop run (about 5-6km), that's starting by the lake and following the path over kings bridge and commonwealth avenue bridge.

for a longer loop, you can start at comm bridge, run to the museum, out to scrivener dam, round past the governor generals residence and back to the bridge (all bike path), this loop is about 16km from memory.

I noticed on the tri site (presume its the long distance champs) that they are doing an AIS tour, which is well worth doing.

food wise, the thing I miss most about canberra is pho phu Quoc at dickson, with it's rice paper rolls and the laksa which was my sure fire hangover cure! cheap and cheerful food.

if you like to drive, I'd definitely recommend the day trip to the coast (batemans bay area) as this is a very 'canberran' thing to do. it's a lovely drive as well. I used to get my oysters from a little place behind woolworths, I think it was called the oyster hut or shack or something ... but I know there's been big changes in the bay since I was last there.

you'll need to go north or south of batemans bay to actually get to the beach (it's a bay as it suggests). plenty of options - going south my close faves are rosedale and guerilla bay, but malua bay is easy to get to. make sure you take the coast road, not the highway to find the beaches. if you were to head north, durras would probably be logical.

I'd also give a vote to the kosciuszko walk as well - it's great and won't be as touristy at that time of year as it is in january when every man and his dog is there. if you're into tris, you might also like the mountainbiking on offer at thredbo.