Australia is six flights wide. These are the days worth landing for.
Which reef boat gets you past the day-trip pontoons. What a Whitsundays sailing day costs once lunch is in it. Whether Uluru at sunrise beats Uluru at sunset. Reviews of every tour you can book across Australia.
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03Australia has no single front door. Pick a coast, then a day out.
Sydney for the harbour, Melbourne for the road west, Cairns for the reef, Perth for the island ferry, Hobart for Bruny Island, Adelaide for the Barossa. Six bases, and the best day out from each.
Sydney: the harbour first, the mountains on day three.
Everything in Sydney →
The bridge and the Opera House take one morning between them. The rest of the city argues about which beach and which ferry. Two hours west the Blue Mountains fall away in sandstone, and the temperature falls with them.
Ferry, sightseeing boat or dinner cruise
The cheapest harbour cruise costs about what a public ferry does and covers much the same water. Pay up only for the evening sailings, where the table is the point rather than the route.
Blue Mountains, and how long it really takes
Katoomba is two hours out, and the tours worth booking build in a walk rather than three lookouts and a gift shop. Ride the Scenic World railway in the morning, before the coaches land.
The Opera House, from inside the shells
The building reads as one roof from the ferry and as ten thousand tiles up close. The official walk goes backstage into the concert hall and out onto the podium, and it is the cheapest thing on this page.
Australia’s most-booked days out.
Every Australian tour we have reviewed →Reef boats, mountain day trips and one harbour walk keep coming out on top. Here is the order, and what each one costs.
1
Opera House Guided Tour with Entrance Ticket
Explore Sydney Opera House interiors, theaters, and hidden viewpoints on a one-hour guided tour with live guides and an entrance ticket.
From · $33
Read our review →
2
All Inclusive Blue Mountain,Scenic World,Lunch,Koalas,ferry
from $204
3
Great Ocean Road Small-Group Eco Tour from Melbourne
from $106
4
Great Ocean Road, 12 Apostles, Wildlife Tour
from $94
5
Ocean Rafting: Whitehaven Beach, Snorkelling & Hill Inlet Lookout
from $149
6
Laid back, Yarra Valley Wine Tour: Wine, Cider, Gin, Beer + Choc
from $93
7
Blue Mountains Full-Day Trip
from $148
8
Great Ocean Road Reverse Itinerary Boutique Tour – Max 11 Guests
from $106
Reef pontoon, Whitsundays yacht or a harbour ferry. Pick your deck.
More of Australia is reached by hull than by road. The outer ribbon off Cairns, Whitehaven from an anchored yacht, humpbacks off the Gold Coast between June and November.
Quokkas, penguins and humpbacks: Australian wildlife runs to a timetable.
Nothing here is guaranteed except the penguins at Phillip Island, who come ashore at dusk every night of the year. The rest turns on season and tide, so the date you book matters as much as the operator you book with.
- 1Blue Mountains Adventure: Scenic World, Zoo & Koala Photofrom $144
- 2Whale Watching Adventure Cruisefrom $63
- 3Taronga Zoo Ticketsfrom $38
Uluru changes colour twice a day and you have to be there for it.
The rock sits a short transfer from Yulara and a five-hour drive from Alice Springs, and every tour out there is built around sunrise or sunset rather than the middle of the day. Kata Tjuta is half an hour further west and takes a fraction of the crowd.
What a day out in Australia actually costs.
Every tour on the site, grouped by price. Plenty of the best Australian days cost less than the airport transfer that got you into town.
Harbour ferries, city walks, zoo entries and the short runs out of town.
The full-day standards: Blue Mountains, the Great Ocean Road, wine country and the inshore reef boats.
Outer-reef cruises, Whitsundays sailing days, scenic flights and the once-a-trip splurges.
Three things that happen nowhere but Australia.
Beaches and wine regions exist everywhere. A penguin parade on a nightly timetable, a reef visible from orbit and a monolith that changes colour on cue do not.
The Penguin Parade
Little penguins, the smallest species there is, surf in at Summerland Beach and cross the sand to their burrows in the half hour after sunset. Rangers hold the crowd on boardwalks and the birds walk between them. No lights and no cameras, and a start time that shifts by two hours across the year with the sunset.
- 1Phillip Island Penguin Parade Eco Tour★★★★★★★★★★ 4.8 · 1,211 reviews
- 2Phillip Island Penguins & Wildlife Day Tour from Melbourne★★★★★★★★★★ 5.0 · 867 reviews
- 3Phillip Island Penguin and Koala Highlights Day-Trip from Melbourne★★★★★★★★★★ 5.0 · 775 reviews
The Outer Reef
The reef you want is the outer ribbon, an hour and a half offshore, where the water clears and the bommies rise to a few metres under the hull. The big boats moor at pontoons and hand out gear and lunch. The small operators run three sites and skip the queue for the glass-bottom boat.
- 1Great Barrier Reef Snorkeling and Diving Cruise from Cairns★★★★★★★★★★ 4.5 · 3,714 reviews
- 2Great Barrier Reef Cruise by Premium Catamaran★★★★★★★★★★ 4.9 · 3,567 reviews
- 3Passions of Paradise Great Barrier Reef Cruise by Catamaran★★★★★★★★★★ 5.0 · 2,564 reviews
Uluru and Kata Tjuta
The rock is 348 metres of arkose sandstone standing alone on the plain, and it goes from ochre to deep red in about eight minutes at sunset. Climbing closed in 2019 at the request of the Anangu traditional owners, so the day is the base walk, the Mutitjulu waterhole and the domes of Kata Tjuta to the west.
- 1Australian Outback Spectacular Dinner & Show★★★★★★★★★★ 4.6 · 974 reviews
- 2Day Trip to Uluru with BBQ Dinner★★★★★★★★★★ 4.6 · 761 reviews
- 3Drover’s Sunset Cruise includes Smithy’s Outback Dinner and Show★★★★★★★★★★ 5.0 · 665 reviews
Four Australian days that will not wait for you.
Most of this country can be arranged over breakfast. These four run on boat manifests, ranger caps and a sunset that moves every week.
- 01Penguin Parade, & Wildlife Encounters Eco Tour from MelbourneViewing is ticketed, capped by seating tier, and starts when the sun goes down. Summer nights go months ahead.
- 02Ocean Rafting: Whitehaven Beach, Snorkelling & Hill Inlet LookoutThe Whitsundays day boats work one tide window at Hill Inlet. Miss the sailing and the next one is tomorrow.
- 03BridgeClimb SydneyClimb groups are small, weather-dependent and timed to the minute. Dawn and twilight slots go first and there is no standby queue.
- 04Day Trip to Uluru with BBQ DinnerYulara is one resort town with a fixed number of beds and coaches. Through the cool months the sunrise tours sell out with the hotels.
November to May, the tropical north trades beaches for waterfalls.
Box jellyfish are in the water off north Queensland and the Top End right through the wet, so reef operators hand out stinger suits and the beaches empty. The same rain fills Litchfield, greens the Daintree and turns the Kakadu escarpment into waterfalls. Go inland, and go up.
By kind of day: reef, rock, road or cellar door
Sydney, the mountains, Melbourne, the reef: the run almost everybody does first.
Blue Mountains
UluruThe newest Australian tour reviews.
The rest of the new ones →
Mandurah: Sightseeing Dolphin Cruise with Tour Guide
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Sirromet Winery Tour with Tasting & 2-Course Lunch
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Award-Winning Hunter Valley Wine & Cheese Tour from Sydney
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Ultimate Daintree Rainforest Wildlife Experience Cruise
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Dreamworld Gold Coast 1-Day Pass – Thrills & Wildlife Encounters
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Barefoot Luxury Mount Tamborine Winery Tour from Brisbane
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Tamborine Mountain Local Winery Tour with Lunch
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Swan Valley Full-Day Winery Experience with Lunch from Perth
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Full Day Swan Valley Cruise & Wine Tasting With Lunch
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Mt. Field, Mt. Wellington and Wildlife Day Tour
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