Boutique Australia in 13 days: four places, four very good rooms
Australia at this level is not simply the same trip in better hotels. It is a different trip, because the money buys private access rather than thread count: a boat with six people on it instead of eighty, a guide who is a marine biologist or an Anangu traditional owner rather than a coach commentar
- Duration
- 13 days
- Pace
- Relaxed
- Hotel changes
- 4
- Best months
- Apr, May, Jun, Sep, Oct, Nov
- From
- $6,760 per person
Four places, four hotel changes, thirteen days. No day boats anywhere in this itinerary.
Who it suits: travellers who would rather pay for a smaller group than a bigger room, and who want the country’s four landscapes without hurrying any of them.
Day by day
Day 1: Arrive Sydney. A small harbour hotel rather than a large one, in Walsh Bay or Potts Point. Transfer, and nothing else.
Day 2: Sydney by water. A private launch for the morning: the working harbour, the beaches you cannot drive to, and coffee somewhere you would never find. Afternoon free. Dinner booked at a restaurant that takes reservations three months out, which is the sort of thing we do rather than describe.
Day 3: Sydney, on your own terms. A choice made when we build the trip rather than now: a private morning at the Art Gallery of New South Wales before opening, a day in the Southern Highlands, or the coastal walk and an afternoon doing nothing. One of the three, properly.
Day 4: To the red centre. Fly to Ayers Rock Airport, about three hours. A desert lodge outside Yulara, where the rooms face the rock across open sand and the number of guests is measured in tens.
Day 5: Uluru with the traditional owners. Sunrise, then the base walk, about 6.6 miles (10.6 km) and flat, with an Anangu guide and an interpreter at the sections that carry stories, which is the whole difference between seeing the rock and understanding it. Afternoon rest. Dinner outdoors under the desert sky.
Day 6: Kata Tjuta, and the country from above. Valley of the Winds early, about 4.6 miles (7.4 km), then a private helicopter over Kata Tjuta and Lake Amadeus in the late afternoon. The scale of the place is the thing that does not photograph, and this is the one way to get it.
Day 7: To the reef. Fly to Cairns, then light aircraft to an island. We shortlist by what the water actually does rather than by the brochure: the northern islands for the outer reef, the southern coral cays for reef straight off the beach and nesting turtles in season, the Whitsundays for sailing. The honest differences go in your proposal in writing.
Days 8 to 10: The island. A private boat to reef sites on two of the three days, with a marine biologist rather than a crew member with a microphone. One day with nothing on it. Snorkelling and diving are from the boat rather than from a queue. Where the island has a house reef worth swimming, we say so, and where it does not, we say that too.
Day 11: To Melbourne. Back to Cairns and south, about three and a half hours. A small hotel in Fitzroy or Carlton, and dinner somewhere the city argues about.
Day 12: Melbourne, or out of it. A private day in the Yarra Valley with three growers and a long lunch, or a guided morning through the laneways and an afternoon at the National Gallery of Victoria. Last night in the city rather than three hours away on the coast, deliberately, because a boutique trip should not end with a rushed drive.
Day 13: Departure. Morning free, transfer to the airport.
What is included
Accommodation in the room category we recommend, all internal flights including the island transfer, all private transfers with a driver, the private launch morning in Sydney, the Anangu-guided base walk, the private helicopter over Kata Tjuta, the desert dinner, two private reef boats from the island with a marine biologist, the Yarra Valley or Melbourne day, restaurant reservations that need booking months ahead, a day-by-day document with the reasoning behind every room, and a WhatsApp group with your specialist and our partners on the ground.
What we would change, and when
- Prefer landscape to cities? Swap Melbourne for three nights in Tasmania at a coastal lodge on the east coast, with a private day at Freycinet. It is the change we make most often on this route.
- Travelling in the wet season, November to April? The northern islands become unreliable and stinger season changes the swimming. We move you to a southern coral cay or move the reef to a different trip.
- Want to spend less without losing the good parts? Keep the Anangu-guided day and the private reef boats and drop the helicopter and one island night. That is roughly a fifth off, and it removes nothing that anyone remembers.
Related
Shape this trip around us All Australia, planned around the flights, because that is what decides the trip trips
