How many days do you need in Australia?
Give each region about a week. Australia is the size of Europe, so a trip that looks like three cities on a map is three flights and most of your holiday in transit. One week is one region done properly. Two weeks is two. Sydney to Cairns overland is 14 days on a real trip; done in a fortnight it is one of the best runs in the country.
Checked on 6 October 2026.
This is the question we get asked more than any other, and it is almost always asked the same way: *I have ten days, can I fit Sydney, Cairns and Uluru in?* Here is the honest arithmetic, and the good news is that the shorter answer is usually the better holiday.
The one rule worth knowing
A week per region
- Sydney to Cairns is 2,400kmabout London to Moscow. Overland with the stops that make it worth doing, that is a 14 day trip.
- Uluru is not near anything.It is a 3 hour flight from Sydney and a 4.5 hour drive from Alice Springs. Give the Red Centre 3 to 5 days and it rewards you.
- Melbourne and Sydney are an hour and a half apart by planeso those two genuinely do pair up inside a week.
- Every internal flight costs you most of a dayby the time you have got to the airport, flown, and got to where you are sleeping.
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 is 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 is two internal flights and roughly three days of moving. It is doable, and plenty of people do it — but you will see each place for about two days. Swap Uluru out and the same ten days become the east coast done properly, which is the trip almost everyone tells us afterwards they are glad they took. Keep Uluru in, and give the trip 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.