Wine lovers can enjoy the combination of Aussie hospitality, French gastronomy, and viniculture at Dominique Portet Winery. Bringing nine generations of French winemaking traditions to Aussie soil, Dominique Portet Winery is the brainchild of Bordeaux-born winemaker Dominique Portet. It produces everything from Provence-style rosés to Bordeaux blend reds, all with a distinctive Aussie twist.
Best known as the home of the Formula 1 Grand Prix, which takes place in Melbourne every March, Albert Park is a leafy inner-city retreat that has a lake with swans, as well as sports venues, playgrounds, and a skyline view. Take a stroll along the lakeside boardwalk, or rent a boat to explore the lake.
Housed in a Victorian marketplace more than 100 years old, the Fremantle Markets are a Western Australian institution. A visit to the markets offers not only the chance to shop for fresh food and unique gifts, but also to soak up the atmosphere and enjoy the entertainment offered by a rotating schedule of street performers.
Head to the Australian Sports Museum inside the Melbourne Cricket Ground (MCG) for all things Aussie sport. Learn about Aussie Rules Football, cricket, tennis, horse racing, and more. Australian sports heroes are brought to life using holograms and displays, which is fun for the entire family, sports enthusiast or not. You might leave inspired to take up a sporting challenge.
Established in 1894, McLaren Vale’s Wirra Wirra Vineyards are a South Australia institution—but one with a sense of fun. Besides the cellar door, deli, and everything you’d expect from a working winery, there’s a giant bell, a medieval siege machine for hurling watermelons, and a Flintstones-style boundary fence known as “Woodhenge”.
Adelaide’s shopping epicenter—Rundle Mall—is home to over 700 retail stores and four department stores, plus food, sculptures, and, often, street performers. The original Rundle Street was an Adelaide shopping favorite as far back as the 1870s and Rundle Mall’s Victorian arcades preserve its historic charm.
Aussies know Palm Beach, in Sydney’s Northern Beaches, as the backdrop for the country’s long-running soap opera Home and Away. But some of Sydney’s most exclusive real estate is nestled among the forested hillsides that surround “Palmy,” as locals call it. Travelers love the long, slim peninsula with its spacious, sandy beaches, clear waters, and great accommodation and restaurants.
Cottesloe Beach’s gentle waves and sugar-soft sand might make you forget that you're in the middle of a major Australian city. Cott, as it’s affectionately known, is one of Perth’s most popular spots for swimming, surfing, snorkeling, or sipping cocktails while watching the sun set over the Indian Ocean.
Mainland Australia’s oldest surviving lighthouse, the Cape Otway Lightstation perches high on a cliff above the Bass Strait. A Great Ocean Road landmark, it offers spectacular views, including whale watching in season. Travelers can delve into history at the telegraph station and a World War II radar bunker or stay in heritage cottages on site.
The stretch of the Sunshine Coast that makes up Maroochydore is a surfer's heaven and a popular destination with those chasing waves. Over 15 miles (25 kilometers) of beach lends itself to surfing, swimming, jet-skiing, picnicking, or just relaxing. Surfing competitions are not uncommon, so be sure to keep your eye out for the pros.
With 122 almost entirely uninhabited islands and a vast expanse of coral reef stretching along the Coral Coast, the Abrolhos Islands are Western Australia’s answer to the Great Barrier Reef. Visit for world-class snorkeling, wreck dives, marine life, and bird sightings.
While you could always venture into the outback in search of Australia’s natural wonders, the Australian Museum makes getting up close to the wild a whole lot easier. Wander through air-conditioned hallways filled with more than 40,000 artifacts, including examples of rare native minerals and exotic tropical birds.
Hailed as having some of the best views in Sydney, West Head Lookout lets you soak up panoramic vistas of Lion Island Nature Reserve, Hawkesbury River, and the beaches of the central coast—to name just a few. Facing directly out from the lookout in Ku-ring-gai Chase National Park, you can also see Broken Bay on the left and Pittwater on the right, plus sparkling blue water and lighthouses perched on the headlands.
Winding for 75 miles (120 kilometers) from Yarramundi to Broken Bay, the Hawkesbury River is the longest coastal river in New South Wales, and easily accessible from Sydney. With generally calm waters, it’s a popular river for water activities; several historic coastal towns can also be found along its shores.
Australia's Watarrka National Park protects one of the Northern Territory’s most legendary destinations: Kings Canyon. It's a rocky red desert park of rugged geological formations and sheer-edged sandstone gorges plummeting to waterholes and unexpected oases of cycad palms. Walking trails lead to lookouts for views over the canyon, and there are picnic tables at the sunset-viewing area and Kathleen Springs.
While Town Beach isn’t Broome’s largest beach, it’s just a stone’s throw from the center of town. Popular with picnickers who lay out their spreads on grassy areas and public tables, the landscaped beach also draws visitors looking for the Staircase to the Moon, a local phenomenon whereby moonlight creates what looks like a staircase climbing the sky.
Just north of downtown Hobart, the hilly bushlands of Queens Domain stretch along the banks of the Derwent River. City dwellers head here to escape the urban bustle and enjoy recreational activities, which take place in the many parks, sporting complexes, and walking trails.
One of the oldest buildings in South Australia, Adelaide Gaol is remarkable for its architecture, its history, and—allegedly—its ghosts. During its years of operation, 1841–1988, the jail housed over 300,000 prisoners, 45 of whom were executed on-site. Today it offers an interactive exhibition, a range of food options, and a shop.
Nourlangie (Burrungkuy) is an escarpment in the Kakadu National Park that displays 20,000 years of Aboriginal history and culture. It’s one of the most significant Aboriginal rock art sites in the area; you can see paintings of a European sailing ship and white men, which represent the first contact between cultures.
The 29-mile (46.5-kilometer River Torrens Linear Trail traces the River Torrens (Karrawirra Parri from the Adelaide Hills through Adelaide city and out to Henley Beach. Good for walkers, runners, and cyclists, many sections of the trail can be enjoyed as circuits. Head out along one side of the river then return on the opposite bank.
Spiders, snakes, and saltwater crocs are just some of the Australian species on display at this Sydney zoo. From the Outback to Tasmania, the country’s diverse ecosystems are represented in 10 themed zones. Enter the nocturnal section of the zoo to see sugar gliders, wombats, and other creatures you’re unlikely to spot in the wild.
The only way this bay’s name could be more perfect is if it was “Turquoise Bay, White Sand, Warm Water, Great Snorkeling.” In Western Australia’s Cape Range National Park, Turquoise Bay has repeatedly been voted one of Australia’s best beaches. Visitors come to relax, swim, and snorkel at the Ningaloo Reef, which is so near the shore you can just walk out to it.
This private nature reserve is known for a rockscape of unusually-shaped boulders, deep swimming holes free of crocodiles, and a community of Mareeba Rock Wallabies, first identified as a new and endangered species here in the mid-1990s. Visitors can walk short nature trails, mingle with the wallabies, and spend the night in cabins or powered campsites.
A UNESCO World Heritage Site and one of Western Australia’s oldest buildings, Fremantle Prison is an important reminder of Australia’s convict history. Built in the 1850s by the very convicts who inhabited its cells, the prison was notorious for its deplorable conditions and brutal capital punishment.
Part of Darwin Military Museum, the multimedia Defence of Darwin Experience transports you back to one of the most pivotal moments in the city’s history—the Japanese Bombing of Darwin on Feb 19, 1042. Learn about life in the Northern Territory during the war and uncover the long-untold stories of those who experienced it first-hand.
As an island state, Tasmania’s history is inextricably bound to the water, and the Maritime Museum of Tasmania dives deep into this heritage. Its collections explore how the sea has impacted the populations who have lived here throughout history, from Aboriginal peoples to European whalers to modern-day residents.
Set in the Cleland Conservation Park, just 20 minutes outside Adelaide, Cleland Wildlife Park is home to a wealth of Australian animals, most of them roaming free. It’s possible to hand-feed native fauna, including kangaroos, wallabies, and emus, while the park offers up-close experiences with koalas, wombats, and more.
A pocket of wilderness in the Margaret River region of Western Australia, next to the coast, the Boranup Karri Forest is part of Leeuwin-Naturaliste National Park. It’s known for its karri trees and draws visitors for its bushwalks and photo ops of the densely packed trees and other foliage.
Jewel Cave is the largest show cave in the Margaret River region and part of Western Australia’s Leeuwin-Naturaliste National Park. Tucked beneath a forest of karri trees and filled with dramatic stalactites, helictites, and crystals, it’s also home to the largest straw stalactite in Australia—more than 17 feet (5.4 meters) long.
Powder-soft white sands, gleaming turquoise waters, and rippling waves make Vivonne Bay one of the photographed spots of Kangaroo Island. Throw in some epic sand dunes, magnificent sunsets, and wildlife-watching opportunities, and it’s easy to see how this was once voted Australia’s Best Beach.
