Five or six days free after Sydney — Byron Bay, the Gold Coast, or something better?
ByronOr keep going north, which five days is just enough for.
Byron, if you want the five days to feel like a holiday. Something better exists if you want to cover ground. Byron is a small town where everything is walkable and the days are about the water — five nights with the activities booked, including a 15,000ft skydive onto the beach, is $699. The Gold Coast is worth it only if theme parks are the point. The option most people do not consider: fly to Brisbane and head north instead — seven days gets you K'gari, the Whitsundays and the Great Barrier Reef, from $1,449.
Checked on 6 October 2026.
Five or six spare days at the end of a Sydney trip is one of the most common shapes a trip to Australia takes, and there are really three answers depending on what you want the days to feel like.
The three options
| Option | Suits | Roughly |
|---|---|---|
| Byron Bay | Slowing down. One small town, the lighthouse at sunrise, kayaks, whales in season. Everything walkable. | $369 to $699 with nights and activities booked |
| Gold Coast | Theme parks and high-rise beach. Genuinely good if that is what you are after, and divisive if it is not. | Accommodation and park tickets |
| Keep going north | Covering ground. Brisbane up to Cairns takes in K'gari, the Whitsundays and the reef. | From $1,449 for seven days |
If you pick Byron
Five days is exactly the right length for it, and the packages book the nights and the activities together so there is nothing to arrange on arrival.
| Package | Length | What you do | Where you sleep | From |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 3 Day Byron Bay Nature Package | 3 days, 2 nights | — | 2 nights in a dorm at Arts Factory Lodge, a short walk from the bus stops, with check-in from 1pm on day 1. The lodge runs its own activities — yoga, drum circles, didgeridoo carving and poi. Parking and luggage storage are included. | $369 |
| 4 Day Byron Bay Budget Package | 4 days, 3 nights | — | 3 nights in a private king room at Arts Factory Lodge, with check-in from 1pm on day 1. The lodge runs its own activities — yoga, drum circles, didgeridoo carving and poi. Parking and luggage storage are included, and reception will hold bags after check-out. | $459 |
| 5 Day Byron Bay Ultimate Package | 5 days, 5 nights | — | 5 nights at a central Byron Bay hostel, a short walk from the bus stops and the beach. | $699 |
Getting to Byron is up to you — the nearest airport is Ballina, about 30 minutes, and the Gold Coast is around an hour.
- The lighthouse at sunrise.Cape Byron is the most easterly point of mainland Australia, so it gets the country's first light.
- Kayaks off Clarkes Beachwith a dolphin guarantee on the three day package.
- Whale watching roughly June to Novemberon the four day one.
- A 15,000ft skydive landing on the beachon the five day — which is the one people book it for.
The option worth considering
Five or six days is just enough to go north properly. A short flight to Brisbane and the 7 day run to Cairns gives you K'gari, the Whitsundays sail and a day on the Great Barrier Reef, with the bus passes booked before you travel and every night arranged. You finish in Cairns rather than back where you started, which works if you are flying home from there.
What we would actually do
- Flying home from Sydney?Byron. You can get back easily and the five days stay restful.
- Flying home from anywhere else, or onward to Asia?Go north. It is the better five days and you end up somewhere useful.
- Travelling with children?The Gold Coast, honestly — the theme parks are the best in the country and nothing else on this list competes for a ten-year-old.
- Want one thing to remember?The skydive at Byron or the Whitsundays sail. Both are on this page.
How far you can get
If you are weighing up whether a longer run fits the days you have, the arithmetic is on our how many days do you need in Australia page, and the honest take on Byron as a day trip is on can you do Byron Bay as a day trip.
Where this comes from. What each package includes, where you sleep, the activities and prices are that trip's own details as held on its page here, and prices update on their own. Whale season is the published humpback migration window for the east coast.