where and when should we spend 12 days in Australia
 

I want to plan a vacation next winter/spring. Either Feb, March or April. I can only spend 12-14 days there. Can anyone tell me what the best month to travel is and where I can go to make the best out of my vacation. I want to spend at least 5 days on GBR to go diving.

Hi, travelbug1!

Leave your holiday as late as you are able -- the Barrier Reef is, I think, drier in April than in February -- and certainly, the east coast generally is just wonderful in April. Try to organise your Sydney leg so that you coincide with the Sydney Royal Easter Show, which opens around a week before Easter. At that time of year, you might even do what I never advise for people coming in December or January -- try the Outback, maybe Uluru or Alice Springs. With this, plus Sydney, plus the Reef, your 14 days will just fly, and you may not see a day that isn't perfect weather.

Thanks it sounds good

Sydney
Cairns - Great Barrier Reef
Uluru
Kings Canyon
end it with the Hayman Island !!!!!

PS...check into having dinner on the red desert of Uluru (Ayers Rock). Just magical...dining under the stars with aboriginals performing their hypnotic dances !!!! went there with my company and they arranged everything for us. Must do if they offer privately or with a group of people also interested.

Personally, I would skip Uluru/Red Centre and go to Melbourne (Great Ocean Rd., etc.).

Hi travelbug1...I agree with Alan April will be the best of those three months to see each one of the places you have chosen. Enjoy!

see my upcoming travel report, to follow later today. Just arrived back last night from the best vacation of my life, also 13 days in Oz. We did 5 nights Sydney, 5 nights Port Douglas, 2 nights Uluru, 1 last night in Sydney. If planning all over again, I would skip Ayers Rock, but I'm not sure what I would have done in its place - perhaps Alice Springs/stay on a cattle farm... who knows. April was a FANTASTIC time to be in Australia.