We are just finalizing the last arrangements of our three month visit to OZ leaving Nov. 1 Near the end, after six days in Melbourne we have another six days before flying home to Canada from Sydney (we will have already spent 4 days there on the front end. We are wondering whether to book a 4 day/3 night tour back to Sydney via Kosciusko/Snowy Mtns/Canberra with Adventure Tours Australia (which would only leave 2 days for Sydney, so we would use one of them for a Wonderbus day trip to Hunter Valley (foregoing Blue Mtns which the Adventure tour does not include) OR fly direct to Sydney and use that as a base for maybe one more day tour - to the Blue Mtns (foregoing the area between Melbourne and Sydney including Canberra). I guess a big part of our decision rests with which Mtns?? We are from British Columbia so do have a few Mtns here and by the time this part of journey begins we will have spent 2 weeks camping/hiking in Tasmania. Thank you in advance for your help. !

Two days in Sydney IMO just isn't enough - much less one - so I'd lean towards Option 2. You can take a tour to the Blue Mountains if you like, but you could also just book into a B&B in Leura or Katoomba for a night, take a couple of cliffside walks, descend to the valley floor via the Scenic Railway and generally look around. Neither the Snowy Mountains nor the Blue Mountains, both part of the same range, are comparable to the Rockies, but the Megalong Valley is dramatic in its own way. You can reach Katoomba in two hours via interurban electric train from Central Station.

You could also take a tour to the Hunter Valley, but bear in mind that the main attractions are wine and food rather than scenery. Sydney has many unique attractions, amply canvassed in previous threads on this forum (use the Search box above). If you haven't bought a travel guide to Australia I strongly advise getting one.

I like Melbourne, but six days seems like overkill. Do you have friends there or something?

Silly me, I managed to ignore the fact that you'll have four days in Sydney at the beginning of your trip. That does make a difference.

OK, rewind. With that in mind, the Snowy Mts/Canberra option now makes some sense. I'm not sure that you'll see any startingly new scenery after two weeks hiking in Tasmania, but the Snowys will be nice in late Spring, and depending on your interests (as always the operative phrase) there are lots of things to see and do in the national capital.

Thanks Neil_Oz for your prompt advice! Freedom and flexibility and laid back were always our guiding principles for most of our trip planning for this, our first visit to Oz, booking a base for 5 or 6 days in great locations around OZ, and deciding what to do when we get there, with research ideas from guidebooks and online chat boards like Fodors, as well as weather and energy levels as our guides. In hindsight, it sounds like the Adventure Tour would be trying to cover too much in too short a period, not meet our freedom and flexibility guidelines So, we have decided that using Sydney as the base for the last 6 days seems to fit the bill better. An overnight in the Blue Mtns perhaps, with a day trip to Hunter Valley...or if we have had our fill of wineries (is that possible?!) and hiking in mountains (NOT), by the time we hit the last stretch, we can always just veg out in Sydney. Even with 3 months, we have to accept the fact that we can't do it all. Thanks again.

If you are going to be in Australia for 3 months, it would be a real shame for you to miss Canberra. It's a beautiful city with lots of great attractions (my favorites are the National Gallery and the Australian War Memorial). Also, I agree with Neil about Melbourne--6 days???