Australia with children: what works, what does not, and what we change

What makes a family trip to Australia go wrong is never the country. It is the flight count, and it is the month.

The three rules we apply

One: three internal flights maximum on a two-week family trip, and preferably two. Adults absorb a travel day. Children pay for it twice, once on the day and once the following morning. Every flight we remove buys a real day.

Two: three bases, not five. Our family route holds to three deliberately, with four or more nights in each. Unpacking once is worth more to a family than an extra region.

Three: the month decides more than the itinerary. A family trip in the December and January school holidays means high summer on the coast, peak prices, and a red centre that is dangerously hot with the walks closed from mid-morning. April to June and September to November are better for a family than they are for anyone else. See Australia month by month.

What genuinely works

Sydney harbour by ferry. Public transport that costs a few dollars and functions as an activity. Circular Quay to Manly, then a swim at Shelly Beach and fish and chips on the way back. Children who are bored by cities are rarely bored on a boat.

The ocean pools. Sydney’s coastline has dozens of them, seawater pools cut into the rocks, free or nearly free, calm enough for small swimmers and interesting enough for large ones. Bronte, Bondi’s Icebergs, Coogee’s Wylie’s Baths, and the northern beaches ones nobody visits.

Taronga Zoo, and then a wildlife sanctuary rather than a second zoo. Taronga has the harbour view and the sky safari, which does half the work. Beyond that, we prefer a small sanctuary or a rehabilitation centre where a keeper actually talks to your children, over a large park where they walk past enclosures.

Kangaroos in the wild at dusk. Free, everywhere, and better than any enclosure. A golf course at six in the evening outside almost any regional town, a headland in the Grampians, the Blue Mountains. The rule is that Australian wildlife is mostly nocturnal or crepuscular, so a wildlife day that starts at nine in the morning sees very little.

A pontoon on the reef, deliberately. For families with children under about eight, a well-run pontoon is the right answer and we book it without apology. A fixed stable platform, a slide, a semi-submersible for the child who will not put their face in the water, a glass-bottom boat, staff who supervise properly and a place to sit down. Small children on a small boat far offshore for eight hours is a different and worse day. The criteria are in which Great Barrier Reef trip is worth the money.

The red centre with a guide who is good with children. The base walk at Uluru is flat and long, which suits children better than a climb would have. A guided morning with an Anangu guide, told as story rather than as lecture, holds an eight-year-old completely. Kata Tjuta is a shorter and more dramatic walk than the numbers suggest.

Melbourne trams and the Great Ocean Road in two days. Trams are a free activity in the central zone. On the road, the koalas at Kennett River, the Twelve Apostles at the end of the day when the coaches have gone, and a night at Apollo Bay so nobody spends six hours in a car.

Tasmania, if you have the season. December to March, and it is the single best Australian region for a family that likes being outside. Short walks, wombats at dusk at Cradle Mountain, penguins coming ashore at night, and a museum in Hobart that older teenagers will remember.

What does not work

A five-region itinerary. It does not work for adults either. With children it produces four airport mornings and a family that stops speaking to each other.

The red centre in December and January. Daytime highs regularly pass 104°F (40°C), the main walks close from mid-morning when the forecast reaches around 97°F (36°C), and the middle of the day is spent indoors. If your only possible dates are those weeks, we would build the south and Tasmania instead and leave the centre for another trip.

Long self-drive days in the north and the centre. Distances between fuel stops are long, phone coverage disappears, and rental agreements restrict driving at dawn and dusk in remote areas because of wildlife on the road. We build family driving days at half the length we would for a couple.

The big theme parks on the Gold Coast, as part of a two-week trip. They are perfectly good theme parks and they are not why you flew for twenty hours. If your children want a theme park day, we would rather add it to a longer trip than have it replace the reef or the centre.

An eight-hour boat day for a five-year-old. Covered above, and worth repeating because it is the most common thing we redesign.

Booking Sydney over the summer school holidays without knowing it. Roughly mid December to late January is the most expensive and busiest period of the Australian year, because every Australian family is also on holiday.

What we change by age

Under five. Two bases, not three. Sydney and the reef, with a pontoon day. Skip the centre, because the walks are the point and they are too long. Apartment accommodation with a kitchen, which Australia does very well.

Five to nine. The sweet spot for Australia. Three bases, wildlife, water, a pontoon or a very small boat, the Uluru base walk done in sections with a picnic. Guides who talk to the children rather than over them.

Ten to thirteen. Everything opens up. Snorkelling properly, an introductory dive at the upper end of this range if the operator allows it, the Valley of the Winds walk, sea kayaking in the Whitsundays or at Freycinet, surfing lessons on the east coast.

Teenagers. Give them one thing that is theirs: a dive course, a surf camp morning, a climb, a photography day, the art museum in Hobart. And accept that a beach afternoon with a phone signal is a legitimate part of a family holiday.

Practical things that matter more here

The sun. This is the single thing we repeat most to families. Ultraviolet levels are higher than most visitors are used to, and burn times in summer are short. Rash vests in the water rather than sunscreen alone, hats with brims, and shade in the middle of the day. Australian schools enforce a no hat, no play rule, which tells you how seriously the country takes it.

Water safety. Swim between the flags on patrolled beaches, and treat that as an absolute rather than a suggestion. Rip currents are the real risk, not sharks. In the tropical north, swim in netted enclosures during stinger season, roughly November to May, and obey crocodile signage completely.

Distances and coverage. A 400 km sign means 250 miles and roughly four hours. There may be no phone signal for much of it. Snacks, water, downloaded entertainment and a fuel plan.

Flights. Full-service carriers include bags and seat allocation. On a family trip, the extra $40 a leg is worth it for the ability to be rebooked when something goes wrong.

Food. Easy. Cafes are used to children, portions are generous, and the bakeries solve most problems. A pie, a sausage roll and a milkshake is a legitimate lunch and every child in Australia has eaten it.

Jet lag. The real one. Arriving from Europe or North America, plan two low days at the start and accept that the first three mornings begin at four. Building the trip with a stop in Asia on the way, which is how we build most Australian trips, makes this substantially easier on children. The wider comparison is in Asia with children.

The shape we recommend most often

Thirteen days, three bases, two internal flights. Sydney for four nights with the harbour, the ocean pools and one day in the Blue Mountains. The tropical north for four nights with a reef day, a spare reef day and the Daintree. Then either the red centre for three nights in the right months, or Melbourne and the Great Ocean Road in the wrong ones, and a buffer night in a gateway city before the flight home. That is Australia with children in 13 days, and the reasoning behind the flight count is in how many days do you need in Australia.

Plan this trip

Tell us your children’s ages and your dates, and your named specialist will build a family route with the flight count kept down and the pace built for the youngest traveller. Free first proposal, no obligation.

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Keep reading

• Australia: the complete guide to planning your trip
• Which Great Barrier Reef trip is worth the money
• Australia month by month, starting with the red centre
• Asia with children, and where it is easiest
• Australia with children, 13 days
• All our Australia trips

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