How many days do you need in Australia?
Give each region a week. Australia is the size of Europe, so three cities on a map means three flights and half your holiday in departure lounges. One week does one region properly. Two weeks does two. Sydney to Cairns overland runs 14 days, and a fortnight spent on it is one of the great trips in the country.
Checked on 6 October 2026.
Everyone arrives at this the same way: *I've got ten days — can I fit Sydney, Cairns and Uluru in?* You can. You'll also spend three of those days in airports. Here's the arithmetic. Cutting one place usually buys you a better trip.
The one rule
A week per region
- Sydney to Cairns is 2,400km.Roughly London to Moscow. Overland, stopping where it's worth stopping, that's a 14 day run.
- Uluru sits on its own.Three hours' flying from Sydney, four and a half hours' driving from Alice Springs. Give the Red Centre three to five days and it pays you back.
- Melbourne and Sydney are 90 minutes apart.This is the one pair that slots into a single week without a fight.
- Budget most of a day for every internal flightonce you've counted the taxi, the terminal and the trip from the airport at the other end.
What fits, by how long you have
| You have | What fits beautifully | The trip |
|---|---|---|
| 4 to 5 days | One region, no flights. The Red Centre, or Tasmania, or the Whitsundays and the reef. | 5 Day Tasmania · 3 Day Uluru |
| 7 days | Brisbane to Cairns overland. K'gari, the Whitsundays and the Great Barrier Reef in one run. | 7 Day Brisbane to Cairns |
| 10 days | The same run at a pace where you stop properly, or two regions with one flight between them. | 10 Day Brisbane to Cairns |
| 14 days | Sydney all the way to Cairns overland. This is the trip people come back raving about. | 14 Days Sydney to Cairns |
| 21 days and up | The east coast plus the Red Centre, or Melbourne to Cairns the long way. | 21 Days Melbourne to Cairns |
Flying into Sydney? Here's what each length buys you
14 Days Sydney to Cairns Budgetfrom $199914 days, 13 nightsHostel, Boat, Camping14 days. Sydney to Cairns, the whole east coastView trip
17 Days Sydney to Cairns Adventurefrom $279917 days, 17 nightsHostel, Boat, Camping17 days — the same run with more time in each stopView trip
21 Days Sydney to Cairns Adventurefrom $324921 days, 20 nightsHostel, Boat, Camping21 days — adds the places most people skipView tripIf you have less than a fortnight and you are flying into Sydney, the move most people are happiest with is to fly up to Brisbane or Cairns and travel one direction overland, rather than trying to bookend the country.
Short on time? These are the strongest weeks in Australia
| Trip | Length | Starts and finishes | From |
|---|---|---|---|
| 7 Day Brisbane to Cairns Highlights | 7 days, 6 nights | Brisbane / Cairns | $1449 |
| 10 Day Brisbane to Cairns Highlights | 10 days, 9 nights | Brisbane / Cairns | $1999 |
| 5 Day Tasmania Tour | 5 days, 4 nights | Hobart / Hobart | $939 |
| 7 Day Perth to Exmouth & Return | 7 days, 6 nights | Perth / Perth | $1799 |
| 3 Day Alice Springs to Darwin Tour | 3 days, 2 nights | Alice Springs / Darwin | $799 |
Prices are per person and update from our booking system, so what you see here is what it costs today.
The three-stop plan, honestly
Sydney, Cairns and Uluru in ten days means two internal flights and about three days on the move. Plenty of people do it, and they get roughly two days in each place. Drop Uluru and those same ten days become the east coast done properly: K'gari, the Whitsundays, the reef. That's the trip people write home about. Keep Uluru and give the whole thing fourteen days instead.
Want us to work it out for you?
Tell us your dates, where you land and where you fly home from, and we will send back a plan that fits. Ask us — we do this every day and there is no charge for it.
Where this comes from. Distances are road distances. Trip lengths, start and finish points and prices are each trip's own, as held on its page here, and the prices update on their own from our booking system.