Australia: Itineraries

First and foremost, Australia is massive. It is vast and varied with sometimes incomprehensible distances between locations. If you are used to countries where townships are a mere bus ride apart, then it's time to reset your sense of geography. While Australia's urban areas are sprawling and densely populated, towns in the outback can be many hours apart. With this in mind, it is important to be realistic when setting an itinerary. A month or two in Australia will give you a good look at the major sights, but a week would be more of a challenge - you're not going to see Sydney, the Great Barrier Reef, the Outback and the Tasmanian wilderness in seven days (unless transit lounges are your bag). So tailor your trip to suit your time constraints and your interests and try to cluster what you wish to see. Remember that flying from the west coast to the east coast of Australia is almost identical to flying from Los Angeles to New York (and a lot more expensive). Here are a couple of sample itineraries for a week-long stay in the Lucky Country.

Kick into Sydney and tear it up for 2 days of pure city living, shopping along Oxford St, posing in Bondi and sinking a few schooners in the many great old Sydney pubs. Then start heading north by flying to Byron Bay for a couple of days of beach-bumming and chakra-realigning. And to leave the sweetest taste in your mouth, push on even further up north and spend a couple of days diving on the sparkling Barrier Reef.

Fly into Melbourne, Australia's second-largest city situated in the southeast corner of the country. It's known for its love of the arts, so spend two days chowing down a steady diet of art, theatre, film and cafe-hopping. Then take an easy drive through the country for an overnight stay in Daylesford: spa-central. Unwind in the country environs and soak in the natural hot spas. Head back to Melbourne for a flight west to Adelaide where you can spend your final couple of days floating from winery to winery in the lush Barossa Valley with your nose firmly wedged into a wine glass.