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DAY 1: WELCOME TO MELBOURNE
Fly in when it suits you: the pick-up from Melbourne (Tullamarine) Airport is included on any day before the tour starts, and extra hostel nights can be added when you book. You stay at Little Drifter, a hostel on the edge of the city centre, sharing dorms with your group. In the evening you meet your guide and everyone else over a welcome dinner beside the Yarra River, Birrarung to the Wurundjeri people, then stay on for drinks by the water as the city lights come on.
Overnight: Melbourne (Little Drifter)
DAY 2: LANEWAYS, NAARM AND CHINATOWN
The morning walk heads through the CBD to Hosier Lane, covered floor to ceiling in street art that changes almost overnight. Next comes a guided Aboriginal walking tour about the Wurundjeri people and Naarm, the city's traditional name, and the long history of the place before the towers went up. The afternoon is free for ACMI, the Australian Centre for the Moving Image, or the National Gallery of Victoria, founded in 1861 and the oldest public gallery in Australia. Dinner is in Chinatown on Little Bourke Street, settled during the 1850s gold rush and one of the oldest Chinatowns in the Western world.
Overnight: Melbourne (Little Drifter)
DAY 3: YOUR DAY, OR THE GREAT OCEAN ROAD
A free day. The group can add a guided day trip along the Great Ocean Road, built by soldiers home from the First World War between 1919 and 1932 and still the world's largest war memorial, to the cliffs, the rainforest and the limestone stacks of the Twelve Apostles (booked as an extra when you book). Staying in town? Your guide gives you a list of places to try. If you're on a Working Holiday visa, this is a good day to work through the free Welcome Pack or book a one-on-one with the Welcome to Travel team.
Overnight: Melbourne (Little Drifter)
DAY 4: BRIGHTON TO ST KILDA
Today is Melbourne's beach side. You start at Brighton Beach among its 82 bathing boxes, each painted by its owner, and walk the bayside path north towards St Kilda, about 2 relaxed hours with plenty of stops. Halfway along, the small hill at Point Ormond gives the best view of the city skyline across the water. Lunch is included. In St Kilda there's free time for the beach, the shops and Luna Park, whose grinning entrance face has greeted visitors since 1912, and the day ends with drinks as the sun goes down over the bay.
Overnight: Melbourne (Little Drifter)
DAY 5: QUEEN VICTORIA MARKET AND THE SKYDECK
The morning starts at Queen Victoria Market, trading since 1878 and one of the biggest open-air markets in the Southern Hemisphere, for fresh produce, good coffee and souvenir stalls. Then the group rides up to Melbourne Skydeck on the 88th floor of the Eureka Tower, about 285 metres up, for a view over the whole city and the bay. The rest of the afternoon is yours (the domed reading room of the State Library is close by) before a final group dinner in the CBD.
Overnight: Melbourne (Little Drifter)
DAYS 6 TO 7: MELBOURNE TO SYDNEY BY NIGHT
Saturday is a free day to finish your first week at your own pace: hunt through the op shops of Fitzroy, find more laneways, or rate as many coffee shops as you can manage in a city that takes its espresso very seriously. Degraves Street, a narrow lane of cafés between Flinders Lane and Flinders Street Station, is a good place to start. That evening you board an overnight bus for the 870 km run up the Hume to Sydney, waking up on Sunday in your next city.
Overnight: Overnight bus to Sydney
DAY 8: WELCOME TO SYDNEY
Your second week starts in Sydney. You check in at Wake Up Sydney Central, a big backpacker hostel opposite Central Station, and meet a new guide. In the evening you meet your guide and the rest of the group at a meet and greet, then sit down to a welcome dinner and head up to a rooftop bar for drinks above the city skyline. Around 80% of people on these trips come on their own, and the group chat opens a week before, so you'll already know a few names.
Overnight: Sydney (Wake Up Sydney Central)
DAY 9: THE ROCKS AND ABORIGINAL SYDNEY
A guided morning on the cobbled lanes of The Rocks, where the convicts and marines of the First Fleet made camp in 1788, brings you out on the harbour between the Sydney Opera House, opened in 1973, and the Sydney Harbour Bridge, opened in 1932. Your guide points out the best photo spots on the way. In the afternoon an Aboriginal cultural tour shows you the city as Gadigal country, part of the oldest living culture on earth. Dinner is at Spice Alley, a fairy-lit laneway of Asian street-food stalls off Kensington Street in Chippendale.
Overnight: Sydney (Wake Up Sydney Central)
DAY 10: YOUR DAY, OR THE BLUE MOUNTAINS
A free day. You can add a guided day trip to the Blue Mountains, about 90 minutes west, a World Heritage-listed wilderness since 2000, to see the sandstone pillars of the Three Sisters at Katoomba and walk into the rainforest below the cliffs. Staying in town? Your guide gives you a list of places to try beyond the itinerary. If you're on a Working Holiday visa, this is a good day to work through the free Welcome Pack (bank account, tax file number, jobs) or book a one-on-one with the Welcome to Travel team. No meals are included today.
Overnight: Sydney (Wake Up Sydney Central)
DAY 11: COOGEE TO BONDI AND DUDLEY PAGE
The group walks the 6 km clifftop path from Coogee to Bondi, past six beaches: Coogee, Gordons Bay, Clovelly, Bronte, Tamarama and Bondi. There are some hills and plenty of stops. At Bondi, look for the Icebergs ocean pool at the southern end, home to a winter swimming club since 1929, then cool off with frozen yoghurt at Yo-Chi. The day ends at Dudley Page Reserve in Dover Heights, a grassy clifftop slope with the Pacific on one side and the whole city skyline, Harbour Bridge included, on the other. Dinner follows.
Overnight: Sydney (Wake Up Sydney Central)
DAY 12: FERRY TO MANLY
The 30-minute ferry to Manly runs past the Opera House, with the Harbour Bridge behind you, and out across the harbour towards the heads, the same crossing ferries have made since the 1850s. First stop is ButterBoy for a cookie, then the day is yours. Walk round to Shelly Beach in the Cabbage Tree Bay Aquatic Reserve, where blue groper swim right up to snorkellers, find the Manly Wormhole, a short tunnel cut through the rocks to a hidden swimming spot, and finish with your feet in the sand. The group meets for dinner in the evening.
Overnight: Sydney (Wake Up Sydney Central)
DAYS 13 TO 14: A FREE WEEKEND IN SYDNEY
Two days in Sydney with no plan, staying on at the same hostel. Go back to your favourite spot from the week, try a neighbourhood you haven't seen, like the terrace houses and cafés of Newtown or Surry Hills, or catch the train to the beach. Royal Botanic Garden, founded in 1816 and the oldest scientific institution in Australia, is a free walk round the harbour from the Opera House to Mrs Macquarie's Chair. Some of the best days on a long trip are the ones nobody planned for you.
Overnight: Sydney (Wake Up Sydney Central)
DAY 15: SYDNEY, THE EAST COAST BEGINS
Your East Coast trip starts in Sydney with a meet and greet in the early afternoon, where your Welcome to Travel guide runs through the next 30 days and answers every question you have. Then the group heads off for a secret activity, followed by a welcome dinner together. That night you board the first of two overnight buses, heading north up the Pacific coast for about 760 km and waking up in Byron Bay.
Overnight: Overnight bus to Byron Bay
DAYS 16 TO 18: BYRON BAY
Your guide starts with a walk around town, then a group dinner to celebrate your first night. Next morning you're out on a guided river kayak, the first of many trips on the water. In the afternoon you climb to the Cape Byron Lighthouse, first lit in 1901 on the most easterly point of mainland Australia; from the track below it, dolphins and, in winter, humpback whales often pass close in. Between activities there's time to surf, sit on the beach or wander the shops. Your last night in Byron is a team night out. Two dinners are included.
Overnight: Byron Bay (Surf House, 100 metres from the beach, with a rooftop bar)
DAYS 19 TO 20: SURFERS PARADISE AND BURLEIGH HEADS
From Byron the group carries on together without your guide, with everything set out in the Trip Loop app and the team a message away. On the Gold Coast an Aboriginal guide leads you round Burleigh Heads, Jellurgal in the Yugambeh language, a headland whose stacked basalt columns are lava from the Tweed volcano that erupted some 23 million years ago. The rest is up to you in Surfers Paradise, a seaside village called Elston until 1933, when it took the name of its most famous hotel. Hit the beach, a theme park or the nightlife. Two dinners are included.
Overnight: Surfers Paradise
DAYS 21 TO 23: BRISBANE
In Queensland's capital you choose the pace. Want to recharge? Head to South Bank, the site of World Expo 88, where Streets Beach is a free lagoon with real sand beside the river, and ride the CityCat ferries for the best views of the city. Want more? Two popular extras: a day on Moreton Island, where you can sandboard the dunes and snorkel the Tangalooma Wrecks, a line of 15 ships sunk on purpose as a breakwater, and a day at Australia Zoo, which Bob and Lyn Irwin opened in 1970 as a small reptile park.
Overnight: Brisbane
DAYS 24 TO 26: NOOSA
Noosa has beaches, a good food scene and a national park right on the edge of town. Follow the coastal track through Noosa National Park to the Fairy Pools, two rock pools near Granite Bay that the waves top up at high tide; go near low tide, when they're calm enough for a swim. Keep looking up into the gum trees on the way, as koalas are often spotted in the park. One afternoon the group takes to the Noosa River in a Roundaboat, a round, flat little boat you drive yourself (bring your own snacks and drinks). Your guide's sunset spots are in the app.
Overnight: Noosa (Bounce Noosa)
DAYS 27 TO 28: THE NOOSA EVERGLADES
Next you move inland into the Noosa Everglades, one of only two everglades systems on earth (the other is in Florida). You stay together in cabins and safari tents at Kangarooms, right in the national park, where kangaroos graze around camp every evening. Grab a kayak or paddleboard for the lake, or a beer from the brewery on site. On your second day a boat cruise takes you up the River of Mirrors, where tea-coloured water, stained by tannins from the paperbarks, reflects the forest so perfectly it's hard to tell where the bank ends. Then you paddle a short stretch by canoe.
Overnight: Noosa Everglades (Kangarooms cabins or safari tents)
DAYS 29 TO 34: RAINBOW BEACH AND K'GARI
Before and after the island you stay at Rainbow Beach, named for its coloured sand cliffs, and watch the sun go down from the Carlo Sandblow, a 15 hectare dune above town. From Inskip Point the barge crosses to K'gari (Fraser Island), at 123 km long the largest sand island on earth and World Heritage-listed since 1992. Over three days by 4WD you swim in freshwater lakes, float down creeks, see the wreck of the Maheno, driven ashore by a cyclone in 1935, and sit round the campfire under the stars. If you're 21 or over with a full licence, you can drive. Two breakfasts, three lunches and two dinners are included.
Overnight: Rainbow Beach, with 2 nights camping on K'gari (tents, sleeping bags and gear provided)
DAYS 35 TO 37: AIRLIE BEACH AND THE WHITSUNDAYS
You see the Whitsundays twice: first from the air, then from the sea. The included 60-minute scenic flight passes over Heart Reef, a natural heart of coral about 17 metres across on Hardy Reef. Then a fast boat takes you out among the 74 Whitsunday Islands, named after the passage James Cook sailed through in 1770, for snorkelling and a visit to Whitehaven Beach, 7 km of sand that is about 98% pure silica, so white it stays cool underfoot. Lunch is included on the boat day. Back in Airlie Beach there's the free lagoon pool, laneway bars and waterfront restaurants.
Overnight: Airlie Beach
DAYS 38 TO 40: MAGNETIC ISLAND
A short ferry from Townsville takes you to Magnetic Island, named by James Cook in 1770 because he thought it upset his ship's compass. 'Maggie' is the place to slow down before the finish. Walk the Forts Walk, a track past the gun emplacements and command post built in the Second World War to guard Townsville, with wild koalas in the gum trees along the way, descendants of a few brought over in the 1930s. Feed the rock wallabies at Geoffrey Bay at dusk, hire a snorkel, or hire one of the open-top pink 'Barbie cars' to tour the bays.
Overnight: Magnetic Island
DAYS 41 TO 44: CAIRNS AND THE GREAT BARRIER REEF
Nearly 3,000 km after leaving Sydney, you finish in Cairns with a full day out on the Great Barrier Reef, World Heritage-listed since 1981 and the largest coral reef system on earth. Snorkelling is included, so look for clownfish in the anemones and, with luck, a turtle; an intro scuba dive can be added. That night the group celebrates with a farewell meal. Cairns is also the base for white water rafting, the Daintree rainforest, bungy jumps and skydives if you want to stay on. The tour ends on the last day, and you can leave whenever you like. Lunch and dinner are included on the reef day.
Overnight: Cairns
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