Australia

⚠️ Entry rules and local regulations change without notice. Before booking, check entry requirements and local rules — visas, access, nature reserves, visitor quotas — with the official authorities.

Australia, the sixth-largest country in the world, is a continent in its own right. From the white-sand beaches of the Gold Coast to the red cliffs of the Outback, by way of the Great Barrier Reef (the planet's largest living structure, UNESCO-listed), the country offers unrivalled natural diversity. Sydney, with its iconic Opera House and Harbour Bridge, is one of the most beautiful cities in the world. Melbourne, the cultural capital, rivals it with its street-art laneways and its dining scene. Uluru (Ayers Rock), the sacred monolith of the Anangu people at the heart of the red desert, commands a unique spiritual fascination. Tasmania, tropical Queensland, the west coast with Perth, the Twelve Apostles on the Great Ocean Road, the Whitsunday Islands — Australia is a continent-destination that takes a lifetime to explore.

An island the size of a continent

Australia is the largest island and the smallest continent: 7.7 million km², the size of the contiguous United States, with 27 million people almost all of them along the eastern and south-eastern coasts. The interior — the Outback — is desert and semi-desert, ancient, flat and nearly empty, which is why the distances defeat first-time visitors: Sydney to Perth is further than London to Moscow, and driving across takes four days of doing nothing else.

It is also the oldest continuously inhabited land on Earth. Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoples have been here for at least 65,000 years, and the rock art of Kakadu and the Kimberley, the songlines, and Uluru — the great sandstone monolith at the centre of the country, returned to its Anangu owners in 1985 and closed to climbers since 2019 — are the deepest things the country has to show. The British arrived in 1788 as a penal colony; the modern nation dates from 1901 and is still working out the relationship between the two histories.

The classic first trip takes in Sydney and its harbour, the Great Barrier Reef — 2,300 kilometres of coral off Queensland, the largest living structure on Earth and visibly damaged by repeated bleaching — the rainforest of the Daintree, Uluru, and Melbourne; a second trip goes west to the Kimberley and Western Australia's coast, or to Tasmania. One trip cannot do it all, and trying to is the commonest mistake.

It depends where — the seasons are reversed and the country is huge

Australia has every climate at once. The south — Sydney, Melbourne, Adelaide, Perth — is best in its spring and autumn (September–November, March–May) and hot in summer; the tropical north — Darwin, Cairns, the Reef, the Kimberley — has a dry season from May to October, which is when to go, and a wet season from November to April of heat, storms, box jellyfish in the sea and closed roads. The Red Centre is scorching from November to March and pleasant from May to September. Plan the route around the season, not the other way round.

eVisitor, distances, and the sun

⚠️ EU citizens need an eVisitor authority (free, applied for online, usually issued within a day) for stays of up to three months; a passport valid for the stay. Flights from Europe take 21–24 hours with one stop, usually in the Gulf or Asia. Biosecurity is strict: declare all food, plant and animal products and used outdoor equipment on arrival.

Fly between regions — the distances make driving between cities a holiday in itself — and hire a car locally; driving is on the left. The sun is the real danger: UV levels are among the highest in the world, and the slip-slop-slap routine (shirt, sunscreen, hat) is not a slogan but a necessity. Swim only between the flags on patrolled beaches; rips kill more visitors than sharks ever have. Eat the seafood — barramundi, Moreton Bay bugs, Sydney rock oysters — the lamb, and the multicultural food of the big cities; drink the wines of the Barossa, Margaret River and the Yarra.

Essentials & your questions