My wife and I are planning a 3 week trip to Oz in November (yes, I know we are cutting it close). We will be traveling on Continental FF miles, which means flying in and out of Cairns. Our daughter is currently studying at the University of Queensland in Brisbane and will be finishing her semester abroad on November 15. So she will be joining us midway through our visit. She is flying home separately from Sydney. Therefore, rather than taking what might be a more logical north to south approach, we are jumping around a bit to save the locations my daughter wants to visit until after she has completed her exams.
Anyway, here is our plan. All comments and suggestions are welcome…
Thursday, Nov 6 – Travel/Cairns
Arrive Cairns 12:35 a.m.
Go to hotel and crash till 8:00 am then enjoy full day in Cairns

Friday, Nov 7 – Cairns
Day on the reef

Saturday, Nov 8 – Cairns
Rainforest/Wildlife spotting tour

Sunday, Nov. 9 – Cairns
Skyrail/train to Kuranda.

Monday, Nov. 10 – Travel/Melbourne
Depart Cairns early morning Arrive Melbourne mid day
Treasury Gardens and/or Fitzroy Gardens. Maybe Melbourne Aquarium.

Tuesday, Nov. 11 – Melbourne
Parliament House, Melbourne Observation Deck, and excursion to Phillip Island for the Penguin Parade

Wednesday, Nov. 12 – Melbourne Royal Botanic Gardens/Shrine of Remembrance, Chapel Street's shops

Thursday, November 13 – Melbourne
Great Ocean Road

Friday, November 14 – Melbourne
?

Saturday, Nov. 15 – Travel/Uluru
Depart Melbourne early Morning Arrive Ayres Rock Resort Mid day
Sunset at Olgas

Sunday, November 16 – Uluru
Sunrise at Uluru Camel ride
Aboriginal cultural center

Monday, November 17 – Uluru
Kings Canyon

Tuesday, Nov. 18 – Travel/Sydney
Depart early Morning
Arrive Sydney Midday
afternoon Sydney Harbour Explorer cruise and Sydney Harbour Bridge.

Wednesday, Nov 19 – Sydney
Opera House, Royal Botanic Gardens, Domain South, and Domain North parks.

Thursday, Nov 20 – Sydney
Sydney Tower. Macquarie Street, Darling Harbour,

Friday Nov, 21 – Sydney
day trip to the Blue Mountains, Hunter Valley, Ku-ring-gai Chase National Park, the Hawkesbury River, or the historic city of Parramatta to Sydney's west.

Saturday, Nov. 22 – Sydney
Day trip to Vaucluse or Watsons Bay.

Sunday, November 23 – Travel
Depart sydney mid afternoon
Arrive Cairns early evening

Monday, November 24 – Travel
Depart Cairns 1:35 am

friday nov 14 would be ideal to just stroll melbourne - one of the 10 most liveable cities in the world!

just stroll collins ave., visit south bank, enjoy lunch at one of the southbank cafes...

your itinerary seems to be packed.

just allow yourself to indulge the places you are visiting.

i would have been breathless with the itinerary. too much action and ticking sites and too little time to "inhale" the destination/atmosphere/people/surroundings.....

just let it flow a bit: hang loose!

happy planning

div

Looks good and well planned. The key to a successful trip to OZ! On your spare day in Melbourne also try to include the Queen Vic Markets and continue onto Lygon Street Carlton with coffee at Brunettis on Faraday St.
Melbourne has a great coffee culture and is one of the reasons Starbucks was given the boot. You can't sell ice to the Eskimos!!!!
http://www.qvm.com.au/home.php
http://www.brunetti.com.au/Default.aspx
The free City Circle tram takes you to most places.

Re your Melbourne stopover - there are two observation decks, one in the Rialto Building in Collins Street and another (taller) in the Eureka Tower on Southbank. The Eureka Tower also has a glass-bottomed section overlooking the streets below.
I'm sure your wife and daughter would love the factory outlet shops in Bridge Road and Swan Street, Richmond. About ten minutes by tram from the CBD.
Queen Victoria Market is excellent for clothes, souvenirs, food and people watching - well worth visiting.
Instead of the aquarium, how about a visit to Melbourne Zoo. It's a short trip (ten minutes or so) from the CBD by tram which stops right at the zoo. It has a good collection of animals, well housed in large enclosures, a great butterfly house and a walk-through section of Australian animals.
There are two good collections of art in Melbourne: the National Gallery of Victoria has an excellent international collection and the Ian Potter Gallery in Federation Square has a good Australian collection. They are almost across the road from each other.
Hope you enjoy your stay in Australia.

WOOOOOOH!
You are putting yourself into BIG tourist pressure.
I think it is way too much and hope that in Nov 21 you have some and/or missing.

Otherwise if it is the way you like it
good luck.

Thanks so much for all the feedback. We really appreciate your insights, and especially your suggestions for specific things to see and do.

As for the pace, we are very active and comfortable with a full day, but we certainly don't want to feel rushed while on vacation. It would be helpful to know if you think we are cramming too much into each day, or too many locations into the 3 weeks. If the days themselves are too full, it's easy to make changes on the fly. We can always choose not to see or do everything on the list for a given day, or even replace the entire day's list with something new that we just happen to stumble upon. But we would prefer to book hotels and flights between cities in advance, so would need to consider those kinds of changes right away.

It would also be good to know if the number of days allocated to each location good, or if we should consider more or fewer days in any one location. (November 21 was intended to be a list of day trip options from which we would pick just one.)

Thanks again for all the good ideas. Keep 'em commin'.

Hi newest,

Firstly I think your plan looks pretty good.

I live in Sydney and I like to suggest that people visit a beach - either Bondi or Manly. If you go to Bondi you can walk along the coastal track to Bronte for lunch. If you go to Manly there is the COrso with its shops and restaurants as well as an aqaurium.

Also you might want to see the aquarium and/or Sydney wildlife world and wander around Darling Harbour.

Regarding your reef trip from Cairns, I would suggest that you do not book ahead. Weather can play a big part in your enjoyment of this day. When you get there you can decide on which is the best day to go.

Hi newest,

Just returned from two weeks down under and it goes by fast! Some thoughts..

Though you are flying into Cairns, I wouldn't stay there..its not very relaxing, just a big tourist area with lots of groups and back-packers...nothing wrong with that, just a different culture. If you are looking for peaceful relaxation, I'd try Port Douglas, easy shuttle ride from Cairns and just gorgeous.

Besides that, comments on Sydney..

I would skip a harbor tour and by a travelpass which includes ferries..you can see all the beautiful sightss for free - definitely do Manly Beach. Also, the bridge is not "that" exciting...we didn't bother climbing it because you can get better views from the sydney tower. You can also do the $10 climb up one of the pilons and skip the $200 walk over the bridge. You'll have lots of time that day, so I would add Darling Harbour to that..and see the Maritime Museum. In my opinion, the acquarium and wildlife world can be skipped, especially if you plan on doing any animal wildlife parks (highly recommend featherdale, can be seen on your blue mountain tour)..if you've ever seen any american big city acquariums, you will be disappointed in Sydneys. Definitely make time to explore The Rocks, a very cool part of town..save for the weekend oo you can do the flea market there, lots of fun stuff.