How many days do you need in Australia?

Australia is close to 2,500 miles (4,000 km) from the east coast to the west and roughly 2,000 miles (3,200 km) from the tropical north to Tasmania. It is comparable in size to the mainland United States, or to Europe without Russia. Sydney to Uluru is about three hours in the air. Sydney to Cairns is about three hours. Melbourne to Perth is over four. No train solves this, and no drive is worth the days it costs.

So the real question is not how many days you have. It is how many mornings you are willing to spend at an airport, because each one costs you most of a day at the front end and the emotional energy of a hotel change at the back end.

Our working rule: a flight costs about two thirds of a day even when everything runs. Four internal flights on a fourteen day trip is our ceiling. Five is a trip about Australian aviation.

What each length actually buys

Under seven days

One region. Sydney and its surroundings, or Melbourne and the Great Ocean Road, or the reef out of Port Douglas. You can do it well and there is nothing embarrassing about it. What does not work is a five day trip with two internal flights in it, which is what people try to build when they have flown a very long way and feel they must see everything.

If you have under a week and you are already in the region, we would put you in one place and use the time properly rather than sample three.

Eight to ten days

Two regions, or Sydney plus one. The three combinations that work:

• Sydney and the reef. Four nights in Sydney with the Blue Mountains, four in Port Douglas. Two flights.
• Sydney and the red centre. Four nights in Sydney, three at Uluru and Kings Canyon. Two flights.
• Melbourne, the Great Ocean Road and Tasmania. The southern option, and the best of the three in December to March. Two flights, or one plus a ferry.

What does not fit in ten days is all three of Sydney, the centre and the reef. It technically fits. It fits the way a suitcase closes when you sit on it.

Twelve to fourteen days

The standard three: Sydney, the red centre and the reef. Four internal flights, three regions, and it is not rushed if the order is right. This is the most common Australia trip we build, and it is what Australia in 14 days is.

The order matters more than people expect, because the Uluru to Cairns leg does not always exist. A direct service between Ayers Rock Airport and Cairns runs in some seasons and some years and not others. When it does not run, the connection goes through Sydney or Brisbane and eats most of a day. We check what actually flies on your dates and build the sequence around that rather than around the shape of the map. The reasoning is set out in the best two-week route through Australia.

Fourteen days also comfortably holds a different and quieter trip: Sydney, Melbourne and the Great Ocean Road, and a week in Tasmania. Two flights, one region less, considerably more time on the ground.

Fifteen to seventeen days

The standard three plus one of the following: Melbourne and the Great Ocean Road, or a proper week in Tasmania in place of the reef, or three extra nights spread across what you already have.

Our own preference at this length is the last one. The difference between two nights in Port Douglas and four is a weather day for the reef, which is worth more than another city.

Twenty-one days

Four regions with room to breathe, or a genuinely different Australia. Three weeks is where the southern half becomes possible as its own trip: Sydney, Melbourne, the Great Ocean Road, Kangaroo Island, the Barossa and Tasmania, which is what Australia in 21 days, the southern half does. It is also the minimum for adding Western Australia or the Top End to anything, because both are five hours of flying from the east coast.

Three weeks is also the honest minimum for combining Australia and New Zealand. Two weeks split between them produces two half trips that both feel unfinished, and the two countries travel completely differently: Australia by air, New Zealand by road.

The subtraction, in practice

The first thing we do with an Australia brief is take things out. Here is the order in which we take them.

1. The fifth region. Almost always. It is a flight, a hotel change and a lost day for a day and a half of actual seeing.
2. The long-distance train. The Ghan and the Indian Pacific are experiences rather than transport. On a two week trip a train leg costs a day and several hundred dollars for a journey a flight covers in three hours. If the train is the point of the trip, we build the trip around it instead.
3. Perth on an east coast itinerary. Five hours of flying each way. It belongs in its own trip.
4. Darwin and Kakadu bolted on. Wonderful, dry season only, and a trip in itself.
5. A domestic flight on the day of the international departure. We do not do it. Weather in the north and the centre cancels flights, and there is no recovery on the last day.

What a day actually holds in each region

• Sydney. Three to four days. The harbour is the reason to be there. The coastal walk from Bondi to Coogee, about 4 miles (6 km), is the best free thing in the city. The Blue Mountains work as an overnight rather than a day trip.
• The red centre. Three nights minimum. One night buys a sunset and an airport. Three buys the Uluru base walk at dawn, Kata Tjuta’s Valley of the Winds, Kings Canyon and a guided day with an Anangu guide.
• The reef. Three nights minimum in Port Douglas or Cairns. Two reef-capable days, so that wind on one of them does not cost you the reef entirely, plus a Daintree day.
• Melbourne. Three days, slowly. It is a food and coffee city and it does not perform for you.
• The Great Ocean Road. Two nights on the road. It is about 150 miles (240 km) to the Twelve Apostles and it takes far longer than the distance suggests.
• Tasmania. Seven to ten days for Cradle Mountain, Freycinet, the Bay of Fires, Bruny Island and Hobart. Five days is the compressed version and it works.

Plan this trip

Tell us how many days you actually have and which two or three things matter most, and your named specialist will tell you what fits and what we would leave for next time. Free first proposal, no obligation.

Start planning

Keep reading

• Australia: the complete guide to planning your trip
• The best two-week route through Australia
• How much does two weeks in Australia really cost?
• Australia month by month, starting with the red centre
• Australia in 21 days, the southern half
• All our Australia trips

Frequently asked questions