Australia is huge! Like the size of the continental U.S. huge. So don’t assume you can see it all in a few days. You need a month or more to travel to all of the territories in Australia. And Australia can be expensive. However, Australia is also the most amazing place we’ve ever been! And we want you to have an amazing Australian vacation too. So we’ve put together our three week Australia itinerary that includes all the best stops along the Eastern coast. We’ve also included plenty of suggestions to help you plan a 1, 2, 3, or 4 week Australia itinerary that is perfect for you.
How To Plan Your Perfect Australia Itinerary?
First, you need to decide how much time you have. Next, you need to decide what you really want to see. Sure Cairns has the Great Barrier Reef, but if you don’t like snorkeling or scuba diving, do you really want to spend time there? So what is important to you?
We’ve broken down popular travel regions and listed how many days we think you need to visit that location. You can easily piece together your own itinerary with all of these mini itineraries.
New South Wales – 1 week
- Sydney – 3 days
- Sydney Day Trips – 1-2 days
- Pacific Coast road trip – 3-4 days
Northern Territory – 4 days
- Alice Springs – 1 day
- Uluru – 3 days
Queensland – 1+ week
- Cairns – 4 days (Great Barrier Reef and Daintree Rainforest)
- Brisbane – 1 day
- The Queensland Coast – 4-5 days
South Australia – 3 days
- Adelaide – 2 days
- Kangaroo Island – 1 day
Tasmania – 5 days
Victoria – 5 days
- Melbourne – 2 days
- Phillip Island – 1 day
- Great Ocean Road – 2 days
Western Australia – 9+ days
- Perth – 2 days
- Western Coast Road Trip – 1+ week
How To Get Around Australia?
First, several areas of Australia are perfect for the road trip! And traveling by car in Australia is easy to do. It’s also much cheaper to rent a car in Australia than in the US – something about insurance – which was really nice. Road trips are an affordable way to get around Australia. However, gas can be expensive so make sure you get a vehicle that has good gas milage.
However, Australia is HUGE – did we mention that already. So you can’t drive everywhere unless you have unlimited time. And quite honestly there are some places that you wouldn’t enjoy the drive either. This is where domestic Australian flights come in. Those are also really cheap compared with domestic flights in the US.
So using a combination of domestic Australian flights and scenic road trips you’ll be able to see all of Australia without breaking the budget.
Three Week Australia Itinerary
This is the three week Australia itinerary that we followed. It was our favorite vacation we’ve ever taken and also one of the cheapest per day. Feel free to use the entire vacation or pick and choose days to make your own perfect Australia itinerary.
Day 1 – Arrive in Australia
A big portion of your morning will likely be spent arriving in Australia and getting your rental car. Most international Australian flights from the U.S. arrive in Sydney so you’ll likely have to take a connecting flight to Melbourne to start this Australia itinerary. We arrived in Melbourne around 11 AM and started this itinerary from there.
First things first, listen to Down Under by Men At Work to start your vacation right!
Then drive straight through Melbourne and on to Phillip Island.
Stay overnight on Phillip Island in a cute home rental.
Day 2 – Phillip Island
On our first day in Australia, we took it easy as we adjusted to the time difference. And what is more relaxing than seeing Australian critters and walking the beach?
While you await the nightly Penguin Parade, consider walking along the beaches or visiting the Phillip Island Grand Prix Circuit. We would have liked to visit the Grand Prix for a tour but there was an actual event happening when we visited so we walked the beaches instead. However, we did notice that most beaches in the area were beautiful but the waves were too aggressive for swimming when we visited.
Next, head to the Phillip Island Nature Park. Here you’ll get great views of the ocean and you’ll probably spot your first kangaroo/wallaby.
PS: We asked several Australians how to tell the difference between kangaroos and wallabies and the answer was size. When we asked how to tell the difference between a big wallaby and a small kangaroo, no one could tell us.
Grab a quick dinner before it gets dark.
Once it gets dark, the Penguin Parade begins. Grab your tickets ahead of time and come ready to spot the cute tiny penguins as they go to their burrows from the ocean at the end of the day.
Stay overnight on Phillip Island again.
Day 3 – Melbourne
First, wake up early to start your journey back into Melbourne.
Spend the day exploring Melbourne. Keep in mind that there is a free tram that goes through the Central Business District of Melbourne that you can use for all of your transportation needs. So find somewhere to park your car for the day. We chose Melbourne accommodations that had free parking.
Our most highly recommended piece of Melbourne advice for your day is to visit the Queen Victoria Market for lunch. This farmers market meets flea market is a great place to sample some of the local Australian fare. We bought little snacks throughout the market to make up our lunch.
Next, spend your evening enjoying a game at the Melbourne Cricket Ground. There are games almost every night and any game is impressive in this stadium.
Day 4 – The Great Ocean Road
First, drive west of Melbourne to take the greatest road trip of all time, The Great Ocean Road. This is one of the best road trips we’ve ever been on. The views are gorgeous.
For this part of your Australia itinerary, you’ll drive as far west as you can get in the day along the coast. The Twelve Apostles are the show stopper along this road trip so plan to spend most of your time enjoying these viewpoints.
Stay overnight along the Great Ocean Road; we stayed in a home rental in Port Campbell.
Day 5 – The Great Ocean Road
You may be able to spend a bit of your day continuing west to finish up any Twelve Apostle sights that you weren’t able to see yesterday.
Then, head back east to Melbourne along the inland road.
Here, you’ll want to spend plenty of time exploring the oldest rainforest and looking for koalas in the wild.
**Alternative transportation option** We like driving ourselves around and the freedom that gives us. However, if you don’t, you could forgo the self drive options here and ditch the rental car. There are Phillip Island half-day trips and Great Ocean road overnight trips that you can take with tour companies from Melbourne. By buying from this link, we’ll earn a commission at no extra cost to you so we can afford to keep this blog up and running.
Head back into Melbourne and stay overnight near the airport.
Day 6 – Travel and Kuranda
First, catch an early morning flight from Melbourne to Cairns. This flight, with airport and travel time, took about 6 hours. You’ll need an early morning flight if you want to have time to visit Kuranda.
Next, take a taxi from the airport to your accommodations and get your bags stored before heading to Kuranda. You will not need a rental car in Cairns as you can rely on tours to get you around. Take the tram car up to the mountain to explore Kuranda before taking the railroad back down.
Finally, spend the evening walking along the Esplanade Boardwalk and exploring the town of Cairns. Most shops along the boardwalk stay open late.
Lastly, eat at Prawn Stars. Period. The coolest seafood restaurant we’ve ever been to.
Stay overnight in Cairns. Try to stay somewhere with free luggage storage so you can leave extra luggage on land when you explore the Great Barrier Reef. Lots of hotels in the area offer this as reef tours here are popular.
Day 7 & 8 – The Great Barrier Reef
Next, spend two days on a live aboard dive trip or an overnight snorkeling trip exploring the Great Barrier Reef. This is a bucket list worthy adventure and you need two days to do it. This is because most of the best dive sites are farther out and take several hours to get to. Two days exploring the Great Barrier Reef is totally worth the extra money this overnight tour will cost you. Read more about our tour here.
Return to Cairns in the evening and stay another night there.
Day 9 – Daintree National Park
Take a day tour into the Daintree National Park. Most day trips include visits to Port Douglas, Cape Tribulation and plenty of time in the rainforest.
Stay overnight in Cairns.
Day 10 – Brisbane
First, get another early morning flight from Cairns to Brisbane for the final leg of your trip. We caught another early flight and were in Brisbane before lunch. Once in Brisbane, rent a car as you’ll be driving the Pacific Coast from Brisbane to Sydney.
You’ll likely arrive in the afternoon and there are two great options. First, you can drive a few hours to the Australia Zoo. Alternatively, you can drive a little less for an amazing beach just outside of Brisbane. Some of the best beaches are along this stretch of the Gold Coast and Sunshine Coast. Whatever you choose to do it will be fabulous.
Day 11 – Brisbane
Next, spend the day exploring Brisbane.
Whatever you end of doing, make sure to check out the Lone Pine Koala Sanctuary. This is one of the best zoos we’ve ever been to and the opportunity to interact with Australian critters here is amazing.
Day 12-15 – Australia’s Pacific Coast
Spend 4 days making your way down the sunshine coast as you drive one of Australia’s best road trips.
One the end of day 14 of this Australia itinerary, stay overnight in Newcastle.
Day 16 – The Blue Mountains
Start early in the morning so you can spend one full day exploring the Blue Mountains. Additionally, don’t forget to take a tour of the Jeolan Caves as well.
Day 17 – Bondi Beach
First, spend the morning driving to Sydney, specifically Bondi Beach. Spend a few hours here relaxing and soaking up the sun. After you’re done at the beach, do all or part of the Bondi to Coogee Coastal walk.
Next, return your rental car. You won’t need it to get around Sydney if you are staying near public transport so this will save you a bit of money. Then head to your Sydney accommodations to get checked in a drop off luggage.
Stay overnight near public transportation in Sydney.
Day 18 – Sydney Sights
Spend the first day in Sydney doing a hop-on-hop-off tour of Sydney. We love these types of tours in large cities as it gives us an opportunity to learn about everything but only focus time on the things that interest us.
However, there are two sights that every Sydney visitor needs to see and that is the Sydney Harbour Bridge and the Sydney Opera house.
Day 19 – More Sydney
Spend the final day of your Australia itinerary, exploring more of Sydney. There is plenty of history and nature to explore in Sydney. Don’t forget to stop in at the Australian Museum to learn all about the country you’ve been tramping around for the past three weeks of this Australian itinerary.
Day 20 – Travel Home
Finally, wake up and enjoy your last breakfast in Australia on this final day of your Australia itinerary. Catch a flight home.
Want To Adjust the Australia Itinerary?
One Australia Itinerary
With one week in Australia, most people stick to New South Wales. Honestly, this wasn’t our favorite area in Australia. However, it is the region with the most to do packed into the smallest area, which makes it a great spot if you are short on time. It also makes it cheaper as you have to spend less on transportation costs.
- Day 1-3 – Sydney – follow Days 17-19 above
- Day 4 – Blue Mountains – follow Day 16 above
- Day 5-7 – Drive Australia’s Pacific Coast from Sydney to Brisbane, make sure to stop at least one night in Byron Bay
Additionally, with one week in Australia, you could pick two cities to base yourself in and then explore farther afield with days trips.
Our suggestion would be Melbourne and Cairns, our two favorite cities in Australia.
- Day 1 – Melbourne
- Day 2-3 – Great Ocean Road trip
- Day 4 – fly to Cairns, see Cairns
- Day 5-6 – Great Barrier Reef liveaboard
- Day 7 – Daintree Rainforest tour
However, we understand that most people want to see Sydney on a Australian vacation. So this one week in Australia itinerary includes Cairns and Sydney.
- Day 1-2 – Sydney – follow Days 17-18 above
- Day 3 – Blue Mountain day trip
- Day 4 – fly to Cairns, see Cairns
- Day 5-6 – Great Barrier Reef liveaboard
- Day 7 – Daintree Rainforest tour
Two Week Australia Itinerary
Two weeks in Australia is possibly the hardest Australia itinerary to decide upon. Because you can see a ton of different things OR you can really delve in to a few areas and do some road trips. We would recommend visiting Cairns, Sydney and Melbourne and doing short trips from those areas.
- Day 1-2 – Melbourne, with a day trip (or half day trip) to Phillip island
- Day 3-4 – Great Ocean Road trip
- Day 5 – fly to Cairns, see Cairns
- Day 6-7 – Great Barrier Reef liveaboard
- Day 8 – Daintree Rainforest tour
- Day 9 – fly to Sydney
- Day 10-12 – Sydney, follow days 17-19 above
- Day 13-14 – Blue Mountains
Four Week Australia Itinerary
With four weeks in Australia, you can add in a visit to Uluru. Honestly, most three week Australia itineraries include a visit to Uluru and skip Victoria. However, when we visited Australia, we’d just got done spending a lot of time in Arizona, so we were kinda desert rock-ed out. However, with four weeks in Australia, you can visit Victoria, then South Australia, the Northern Territory, then Queensland and lastly New South Wales.
- Days 1-5 – Victoria – follow the Day 1-5 itinerary above
- Day 6 – Continue driving the Great Ocean Road on to Adelaide
- Day 7 – Take a day trip to Kangaroo Island
- Day 8 – Explore Adelaide in the morning, Fly to Alice Springs in the afternoon
- Day 9 – Explore Alice Springs
- Day 10-13 – Explore Uluru, including Kata Tjuta and Kings Canyon
- Day 14-17 – Queensland – follow the Day 6-9 itinerary above
- Day 18-28 – New South Wales – follow the Day 10-20 itinerary above
We hope that this three week Australian itinerary has helped you to plan your own Australia vacation. If you need more inspiration for planing your Australian vacation, check out all of our Australia posts here.
