Complete Guide to Australia

Australia is as much a continent as a country: 4,000 km separate Perth from Sydney, and you need to cross three time zones to traverse the territory. From our agency, we design itineraries that embrace these distances rather than ignore them. The east coast, from Sydney to Cairns, concentrates the classics: Opera House, Blue Mountains, Gold Coast beaches and diving on the Great Barrier Reef departing from Port Douglas. The Red Centre, around Uluru and Kings Canyon, requires at least four days to make sense, with nights under one of the purest starlit skies in the southern hemisphere.

To the west, Western Australia remains confidential: Ningaloo Reef to swim with whale sharks between March and July, Karijini and its rust-coloured gorges, coastal drive to Broome. The Top End, around Darwin and Kakadu National Park, is visited during the dry season (May to October) for Aboriginal paintings and accessible waterfalls. Tasmania, often overlooked, offers six days of landscapes from the Overland Track to the Freycinet coast, with a temperate climate close to New Zealand.

Endemic wildlife structures many journeys: kangaroos and wallabies are encountered everywhere, koalas on Kangaroo Island or around Port Stephens, platypuses in Queensland's inland rivers. For a first trip, we recommend choosing two to three regions maximum over 18 to 21 days, rather than rushing from one end of the country to the other.