As a travel journalist I often get asked to list good places to visit. here’s some my top ten about Australia.
1.The most popular departure point for those looking to snorkel and dive the Great Barrier Reef, Cairns is a popular destination to catch a daytrip to the reef. There are various companies that offer different cruises out to the reef. You may choose between day-cruises or overnight cruises, which vary greatly in price, anywhere from around to 0.If you arent yet qualified to dive, but cant possibly go on a day tour to the Great Barrier Reef without doing so, just about all cruises will give you the chance to do a resort dive, with no experience needed. Virtually all operators have an green tourism rating, which means you dont have to worry about damaging the great barrier reef while you are snorkelling.
2.Considered the Hot Air Ballooning capital of Australia, the Atherton Tableland is just a short drive from Cairns. Hot Air has a ballooning package that includes a 5 am pickup from your accommodation, a hot breakfast and champers for approximately 0 . Enjoy the picturesque landscape at sun up, enjoy 30 minutes flying in a hot air balloon, and is concluded with breakfast and champagne in scenic and popular resort town of Port Douglas. Checking out the gorgeous views from the air in a balloon makes this a must do.
3.Just south of Cairns, Mission Beach is the perfect departure point for the Great Barrier Reef. The beach is a 8 mile long, white sandy beach, with fantastic views of Dunk and a handful of other islands just within sight. There is a small village there, where you can learn more about activities like sea kayaking or skydiving, though many would be perfectly content soaking up the sunlight and swimming in the crystal clear water.You can stay in Mission Beach, though most will be driving from Cairns. If you did not rent a car or RV for your [holiday|vacation|trip}, there is a company that offers a coach transfer service named Mission Beach Dunk Island Coaches, which takes scenic routs between Port Douglas, Cairns, and the Cassowary coast.
4.Tropfest is the world’s largest short film festival and is held early in February each year in Sydney’s Domain. Tropfest also screens nationally in Australia’s capital cities. The aim is to ‘showcase the work of emerging filmmakers and to give them the chance to screen their films for their peers in a festive environment’. For everyone else it’s a chance to watch free films while drinking beer on a hot summer’s night. Each film has to contain a ‘signature item’, something inanimate the organisers decided months previously to ensure the film was made for Tropfest. The event began in 1993 when a local actor/director John Polson screened one of his own short films at the Tropicana Caf in Darlinghurst. 200 people crammed the caf. The next year 2000 showed up and chaos reigned on the caf strip. Last year it’s estimated 100,000 watched the festival in The Domain, while millions more filled the interstate venues.
5.The Big Day Out is a summer music festival and Oz’s biggest travelling party. Like a mobile Glastonbury the show has featured in recent years bands like Limp Bizkit, and PJ Harvey. In the past top acts such as the Red Hot Chili Peppers and Iggy Pop have made the trip to Australia. From what started as a one day festival in Sydney on Australia day now travels all around Australia and even to New Zealand. It’s a not to be missed activity for anyone under 30, local or tourist.
6.The thing to do at Uluru – climb to the top of it. Located near Alice Springs aka the Outback, Uluru, one of the World’s Heritage Sites, is a large sandstone formation standing over 300 m in height and turns different shades of bright red throughout the day, particularly so during sunrise and sunset. More importantly, Uluru is a spiritual source for the Aboriginal people who also believe that a curse is placed on anyone who takes rocks away with them. In the tourist information center, there is a display of rocks that have been posted back from tourists who took them home. There is a long chain extending along the side of the mountain that acts as a handrail for the hike up and the views from atop this magnificent site are simply unforgetable. The local Indigenous people do not like tourists climbing Uluru, however this decision is your choice.
7.The largest continuous area of rainforest in the country, the Daintree National Park is a protected area of unbelievable rainforest an hour or so north of Cairns. The Daintree, which encompasses around 1200 square kilometers, is not only World Heritage listed, but is also home to a large variety of flora and faunaincluding marsupials, frogs, birds and the endangered tree kangaroo. Generally thought to be the oldest rainforest in the world, the Daintree forest is over 138 million years old and has more than 450 different species of bird, including 25 species that are found nowhere else in the world. There are lots of day hikes that allow adventurers to [see|experience|explore} parts of this beautiful rainforest by themselves, as well as guided tours that can help teach you about the local history on your way.
8.The Great Australian Bight is absolutely incredible. The Great Ocean Road runs right along the Southern Ocean where it impressed me that the next piece of land south is Antarctica. There are interesting sites to see like the weathered rock formations of the Twelve Apostles, volcanic craters that became lakes, waterfalls, and beaches. And there’s nothing like experiencing the lifestyle and culture of the quiet, coastal towns that have the privilege of being situated on this brilliant coast.
9.Attend a surf school and experience the surfing lifestyle. Have you ever dreamed of surfing the waves? Well, now is your chance. Surfing is huge in Australia. Not just as recreation, but also as a lifestyle. There is something special about the people that live and breath surfing. They have a natural ease and lust for life, that is hard to find elsewhere. And it’s difficult to understand it until you actually try it. The two seconds of elation while you stand on the board for the first time, with knees shaking like drumsticks will live with you always. At least long enough to recover from the wave that will try to kill you three seconds later. If you ever imagined that surfing was easy, you were definately wrong. Surfing is extremely hard, and can be near impossible, but totally worth it.
10.Port Arthur is a great tourist destination full of Australian history. Founded as a penal settlement in 1831, Port Arthur once served the British Empire as a timber station. Industry in the area soon followed and by the 1840s Port Arthur had a convict population of over 1000. However, by the 1870s the convicts were gone and left the buildings of the period that stand to this day that weren’t destroyed by fires in the late 19th century. Tourists soon followed with an interest in viewing the “horrors” of a British penal colony. Protection of Port Arthur as a important site was established with the creation of the Scenery Preservation Board in 1916. Today, ongoing archeological studies continue to dig up the penal colony past. Don’t miss the night ghost tours.
I hope these help any future visitors to Australia.