With its sun-kissed climate, beautiful beaches and unique wildlife, Australia is the perfect place for the extended family holiday of a lifetime.
So if you’ve saved the necessary cash and can take a few weeks away from work and school, the next step is to start planning.
With that in mind, here are 10 tips for traveling Down Under with your tribe.
- Perfect prep
Your ideal itinerary will depend on lots of variables, like your total trip duration, the age of your kids and personal preferences — the Australia.com website has lots of facts and planning info to help.
- Theme parks
The Gold Coast has theme parks aplenty, but Dream World is the largest and one of the best. Your kids will be entertained for hours on end with wild rides and awesome animal presentations.
- Wildlife Parks
Australia is renowned for its indigenous wildlife, and at Caversham Wildlife Park in Perth you’ll get close to unique and unusual furry friends like wombats, koalas and kangaroos – pretty cool.
- Sydney
With its iconic Opera House and Harbor Bridge, Sydney stakes its claim as the most famous city Down Under. But it’s also a fabulous place for families, with everything from surfing at Bondi Beach and horse riding at Centennial Park to the trendy Darling Harbor waterfront.
- Uluru
Uluru (or Ayers Rock) is a gigantic sandstone monolith in the middle of the nation’s Northern Territory and it’s possibly Australia’s most famous natural attraction. If you want to visit this special site, ayersrockresort.com.au has info on accommodation and activities like camel rides.
- Great Barrier Reef
The Great Barrier Reef is another wonder of the natural world nestled Down Under and it’s a mesmerizing place to visit with families. Great Barrier Reef Tours organised with boat trips from Cairns, Port Douglas or Airlie Beach allow you to sightsee and scuba dive in crystal-clear waters.
- Kombi hire
The wide open spaces of Australia inspire a powerful sense of adventure, so hiring a renovated retro VW Kombi van to drive across country makes the most of this new-found freedom. Hireakombi.com has plenty to choose from.
- International flights
Australia’s reasonably remote, so flights from the US or any other location can be expensive. Find the best family flight bargains on comparison sites like Skyscanner and Kayak.
- Domestic flights
The quickest way to navigate Australia’s vast distances is by booking flights with domestic carriers like Virgin Blue, Jetstar and TigerAir – check their websites for availability.
- Airport parking
If you’re flying internally for a weekend away and want to stash your kombi or hire car safely, Looking4.com has parking deals for small airports like Newcastle as well as larger hubs like Sydney.
The level of logistical planning required for a family trip to Australia might seem intimidating at first, but by working your way systematically through these 10 tips, you’ll feel confident about heading off on vacation half a world away.
So ends our list, but please share your own Australian family travel tips in the comments section.
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