My husband and I are planning our delayed honeymoon and we would like to go to Australia in November or January. Unfortunately, we can only go for ten days total, including travel days. After doing some preliminary reading, we thought we'd make it a beachy getaway in Sydney and South Australia using Qantas's Zone 1 pass. We love cities and beaches with occasional nature (our favorite destinations are Stockholm and Japan).

We were thinking to go over Thanksgiving week or in January. We'd prefer to go in January but will Southern Australia be too hot? Also, airfares seem extremely high right now for January but maybe they will come down after the 6 month mark. November fares are more reasonable but I am guessing the weather is not as nice?

January is the main vacation month for Australia so airfares are high (and unlikely to come down); accomodations are expensive and book out early and the crowds (especially on the beaches) are bigger. I would seriously consider taking your trip in November rather than January.
FYI, according to www.weather.msn.com, the average high in Adelaide for late November is 76 degrees and the average low is 58 degrees. In January in Adelaide, the average high is 82 degrees and the average low is 62 degrees.

"Too hot" depends on what you're used to, I guess, but I agree with Longhorn, November would be a better option because it's before the school & general Australian holiday period of December - February. And, it will be cooler, and you will be more likely to find bargain accommodation etc.

BTW - being in the Southern Hemisphere, our Northern areas are the hotter ones.

Do you have any particular reason for choosing South Australia as your other destination? It's not that Adelaide isn't a nice place to visit, but you certainly wouldn't go there for the beaches.

You wouldn't go to Melbourne for the beaches either, but it's a much larger, very cosmopolitan city, and at the risk of offending the resident South Australians it has pretty much everything that Adelaide has, only more of it - fine Victorian buildings, excellent dining, a big arts scene, nearby wine regions (not as extensive and well-known as SA's but very good) and nature getaways.

If you definitely want to do beachey things at your No 2 destination perhaps Brisbane and the Sunshine Coast (e.g. Noosa) would make an interesting side excursion from Sydney. The weather should be nice in Sydney in November but water temperature will still be a little cool - I'm assuming they'll be warmer in SE Queensland, but open to correction there.

As you have so little time why not go to Sydney for the whole time. Lots of city things to do. A number of famous beaches, search this forum, and the Blue Mountains are a great and cool break. I would suggest that Carol Probets of http://www.bmbirding.com.au would be your best bet as a guide and mentor around that area if you want to see and learn about the wildlife. If you only want to see the scenery there are plenty of options.

Adelaide regularly has days of over 40 C during January, so it can be very hot.

puttakka, November in Adelaide would be lovely and our beaches are certainly beautiful and safe to swim in unlike many Qld beaches (jellyfish!!)You'll also find room to sit on the sand unlike the Sydney beaches in summer!!! The wine area of Mclaren Vale is on the coast just out of Adelaide. I'm sure you will enjoy a relaxing honeymoon in South Australia.Depending on your budget why not try the new Southern Lodge on Kangaroo Island for your special getaway, pricey but a magnificent place.

With due respect to mariebut, I'm a former resident of Adelaide and well aware of the city's charms, but not to put too fine a point on it, by comparison with Sydney's the beaches are crappy. But it's all relative - a European would think them pretty damn good. Adelaide faces a gulf and the surf is, to put it mildly, modest. Good for very small children, though.

Sydney has lots of beaches, easily accessible by public transport, and you can certainly find room to sit on the sand.

I appreciate that mariebut may not have intended to imply that the whole of Queensland has a jellyfish problem, but that's what happened. The fact is that the only part of the state in which jellyfish are any sort of issue is the tropical north.

There's nothing wrong wth promoting the merits of your own area, but dissing others is not usually the best way to go about it.

Thank you so much for all your advice and input!

We have considered just flying in and out of Sydney and exploring around there. With the Aussie Airpass, however, it costs the same to just do a round trip!

The three things we most want to do is: Sydney (beaches and surfing), the Great Ocean Road (from Melbourne to Adelaide), and then the Great Barrier Reef.

So we are thinking about flying into Melbourne (arriving at 8 AM), spending the day in Melbourne, then getting up the next morning and drive the Great Ocean Road to Adelaide, stopping and overnighting along the way for two nights and dropping the car off in Adelaide; then fly to Cairns and spend two days there, then fly back to Sydney and spend four days there. Thoughts??

Two days in Cairns would get you the reef but not much else; Aboriginal culture, rainforest, the Atherton Tablelands, crater lakes, wildlife and nightlife (animal that is). You could take a one day tour but they really only give you a taste of what the area has to offer.

Meant to add that if coming north then November is probably prefered to January.