Cave Painting Australian Aboriginal Art

Best places to travel in Australia?

From what I’ve seen about Australia makes me think I would fall in love with it. The accent and slang, the culture, the sights… This may sound stereotypical since not everyone in Australia is a tan, blonde, messy haired outdoorsy type surfer but I’m obsessed with that kind of lifestyle. I know I want to travel Australia and ride a Jeep through the outback, go see the mountains, but especially surf on the coast. The whole sporting culture and surfer lifestyle is amazing. Again, not trying to stereotype but I love the outgoing, gregariousness, and informality of the people.
I guess my questions are:
Where are the best places to do things like hang-glide, windsurf, longboard, shop, whitewater raft, sail, see The Aboriginal Art, scuba dive etc? I’m into any type of adventure or water sport.
Also if you could help define the differences in culture and environment between the districts?
Where is an area that pretty much matches my stereotype?
Any other input?

Hi Maria

It sounds like you should spend a few months travelling by car/van up the east coast from Melbourne to Cairns (or vice versa). Melbourne is Australia’s fashion and shopping capital, and is a groovy, arty city and very multicultural. While you are there you might like to consider a trip to Tasmania, which although it doesn’t really fit with what you’ve described it’s a fabulous place to visit. Tasmania is full of wildlife, wilderness, scenery and history and has a cooler climate.

The coast between Melbourne and Sydney has gorgeous beaches and little beach towns with lush hinterland. Jervis Bay is great for scuba diving and fishing and you can see the dolphins. Sydney is a vibrant city with spectacular beauty and plenty to see and do including a trip to the Blue Mountains (this is not boring, there is lots to do there including riding the steepest railway in the world). From Sydney to the Gold Coast has more fabulous beaches all the way. Byron Bay is a town where people like to live alternative lifestyles, it’s full of hippies.

The Gold Coast is one of Australia’s main tourist destinations. Apart from the beaches it has theme parks and lots of tourist activities, wildlife parks etc. As you head north from the Gold Coast the climate starts to change, the north of Australia has a distinct wet season in the warmer months and the weather is more tropical. The Whitsunday and other Queensland Islands are known for their sailing and scuba diving, there are islands to suit all tastes (families, singles etc), you should check out Fraser Island where you can see wild dingos and it’s a great place to go 4WDing.

Cairns is hot all year round with a very wet season in the summer. It has the Great Barrier Reef, Aboriginal Art, and the Daintree Rainforest with crocodile tours and wildlife tours etc, and it’s a great place to visit.

To see the outback you are best off to fly somewhere, because driving there is long and very little to see. Some possibilities are Uluru (Ayres Rock), Kakadu National Park, or Broome and the Kimberley for the real outback experience (you need to allow about 10 days for a Kimberley 4WD tour).

The west coast is also great, but the distances between the sights are larger and so realistically most people need to give it a miss unless they have at least 6 months in Australia.

If you don’t have time for all that then just stick to Sydney and Queensland, ie in particular the Gold Coast, the Queensland Islands, and Cairns, and come in May.

A walk through Artlandish Aboriginal Art Gallery

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