The Best Two-Week Route Through Australia

There is a standard two-week Australia route and it is standard because it is right: Sydney, the red centre and the reef. Three regions, four internal flights, fourteen days.

What varies, and what actually decides whether the trip works, is the order. That is set by the flights rather than by the map, which is the single hardest thing to accept when you are planning from the other side of the world.

Here is the route we build most often, argued properly, with the alternatives named at the end.

The route in one line

Sydney, four nights. The red centre, three nights. The tropical north, four nights. A buffer night in a gateway city before the flight home.

That is thirteen nights of accommodation across fourteen days, and it holds nine or ten real days of Australia once you subtract the flying.

Why this order, and when we reverse it

The three legs are Sydney to Ayers Rock Airport, Ayers Rock Airport to Cairns, and Cairns back to a gateway city. The middle one is the problem.

A direct service between Ayers Rock Airport and Cairns exists in some seasons and some years and not in others. When it is running, this order is clean and the trip flows south to north. When it is not, the connection routes through Sydney or Brisbane and costs you most of a day, at which point we reverse the trip: Sydney, then Cairns, then the centre, then home from Sydney or Melbourne. Same three regions, same four flights, one fewer wasted morning.

We check what actually flies in your specific weeks before we write day one. Anyone who hands you a fixed order without doing that is copying a template. The wider arithmetic on flights and days is in how many days do you need in Australia.

Days one to four: Sydney

Day 1. You land, usually early morning after an overnight flight, and the room is not ready. Do not plan anything. Walk, eat, get light on your face and go to bed at a local hour. We build this day as deliberately empty and we mean it.

Day 2. The harbour, which is the reason Sydney exists as a thing people cross the world for. A ferry to Manly, which is public transport at a few dollars and better than any harbour cruise. The Opera House from the water and then from the steps. The Royal Botanic Garden and Mrs Macquarie’s Chair.

Day 3. The Bondi to Coogee coastal walk, about 4 miles (6 km) of cliff path past four beaches, then a swim in an ocean pool. Afternoon in an inner suburb: Surry Hills, Newtown or Chippendale, for the eating and the bookshops. If you want one guided half day in Sydney, make it a First Nations walk around the harbour foreshore, which reframes everything you looked at yesterday.

Day 4. The Blue Mountains. We prefer this as an overnight rather than a day trip, and when the trip is tight we do it as a long day with a guide and a walk in it rather than a coach stop at a lookout. Three Sisters, the Grand Canyon track, and a village dinner.

Four nights in Sydney is right. Three works. Two is a mistake at the end of a very long flight. Detail on all of it is in Sydney in four days.

Days five to seven: the red centre

Day 5. Fly to Ayers Rock Airport, about three hours. Arrive in the early afternoon, and do nothing energetic. Sunset at Uluru from the viewing area, which is a slow colour change over about forty minutes and better than the photographs because the photographs cannot show how the light moves.

Day 6. The base walk at dawn, around 6 miles (10 km) on the flat, which takes three to four hours with stops and is the single best thing in the centre. Rest in the middle of the day, because the middle of the day in the centre is not for walking. Kata Tjuta in the late afternoon: the Walpa Gorge if you want short, the Valley of the Winds if you want the real thing.

Day 7. A guided morning with an Anangu guide, which is the day people talk about afterwards. Then either Kings Canyon, which is a three and a half hour drive each way and deserves an overnight if you can find it, or a slower day at the Cultural Centre and a second sunset from a different angle.

Three nights minimum. One night buys a sunset and an airport. If your dates fall in December or January, read Australia month by month before you commit, because the walks close from mid-morning when the forecast passes around 97°F (36°C) and in those months that is most days.

Days eight to eleven: the tropical north

Day 8. Fly to Cairns and drive an hour north to Port Douglas. We put people in Port Douglas rather than Cairns most of the time. It is closer to the northern outer reef, quieter in the evening and the small-boat operators there are the best we work with.

Day 9. The reef. A small-group boat to the outer ribbon reefs, two or three sites, snorkelling or an introductory dive. Which operator matters more than which port, and the difference between a good day and a disappointing one is under $150. The full argument is in which Great Barrier Reef trip is worth the money.

Day 10. The Daintree and Cape Tribulation, which is the other reason to be in the north: the oldest continuously surviving rainforest on earth meeting the sea. A guided day with someone who can find the cassowary and explain the plants beats a self-drive, and a night walk is better than the day one.

Day 11. The spare day. This is deliberate. If the wind cancelled day nine, this is when you go to the reef instead. If it did not, this is a beach day, or Mossman Gorge, or a second reef day for the people who want it. We do not build a two-week Australian trip with only one reef-capable day.

Days twelve to fourteen: home, with a margin

Day 12. Fly to Sydney, Melbourne or Brisbane. A night in the gateway city.

Day 13. One more day in the city, at a low pace, with the things you did not get to at the start. If you swapped Sydney out earlier, this is a Melbourne day and it is a good one.

Day 14. Fly home.

We do not put a domestic flight on the same day as an international departure. Weather in the north and the centre cancels flights routinely, and there is no recovery on the last day. The buffer night is not padding, it is the cheapest piece of protection in the itinerary. This shape is published day by day as Australia in 14 days.

The three alternatives, and who each is for

Swap the reef for Tasmania

For travellers who have snorkelled somewhere good before, and for anyone travelling December to March when Tasmania is at its best. Sydney, the red centre, then seven days in Tasmania: Hobart and its art museum, Bruny Island, Freycinet, the Bay of Fires and Cradle Mountain. Two flights rather than four, far more time on the ground, and the walking is better.

Swap the red centre for Melbourne and the Great Ocean Road

For a first trip in December or January, when the centre is not walkable after breakfast. Sydney, Melbourne, two nights on the Great Ocean Road, then the reef, with stingers and the wet season accepted as the trade. Less iconic, considerably more comfortable.

The southern half, three weeks

Not a two-week route at all, and we mention it because it is the one people wish they had known about. Sydney, Melbourne, the Great Ocean Road, Kangaroo Island, the Barossa and Tasmania, mostly by car, with two flights. It is the trip we build for people who have seen the postcards and want the country. It runs as Australia in 21 days, the southern half.

What we take out of this route when someone asks us to add something

Adding a region to a two-week trip means removing days from the three you have. Our order of resistance, from what we will happily do to what we will argue about:

Adding Melbourne, replacing one night in Sydney and one in the north. Acceptable, and it is classic Australia in 15 days at fifteen days rather than fourteen.
Adding the Whitsundays. Only by taking the north out entirely, not in addition to it.
Adding Perth or the Top End. We will say no, politely, and explain that each is five hours of flying and a trip in itself.
Adding a long-distance train leg. A day and several hundred dollars for a journey a flight covers in three hours. If the train is the point, we build a different trip around it.

Plan this trip

Send us your dates and we will check what actually flies in those weeks before we suggest an order. Your named specialist builds the first outline with real hotels, real flight numbers and real reef operators. Free, and with no obligation.

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Frequently asked questions

Is fourteen days enough for this?

Yes, for these three regions, done properly. It is not enough for four, and the fourth is what turns a good trip into a series of airports.

Should we start in Sydney or Melbourne?

Sydney, for a first visit, because the harbour is the strongest opening the country has and because the flight connections are better. Melbourne is the better second city and the better food city.

What if the reef day is cancelled?

That is what day eleven is for. If both days blow out, which is rare, we will move you to an inner reef site or a coral cay, and your specialist and our partners in the north handle it on the group chat rather than leaving you to ring an operator.

Can we do this self-drive?

Within each region, yes, and we build it that way often. Between regions, no. The driving distances are measured in days.

When should we book?

Six to nine months out for December and January, or for the good desert rooms and the small reef boats in the shoulder months. Four to five months is comfortable otherwise. —

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The best two-week route through Australia