East Coast Semi-Guided Tour, Sydney to Cairns (30 Days)

Meet the crew you'll spend the next month with. The day opens with an overview session that runs through every stop, every inclusion and every question you came with, then there's a surprise group activity in Sydney (they keep it secret, and it's better that way) and a welcome dinner together. That night you board the overnight coach north and wake up in Byron Bay.

Accommodation

Overnight coach

Meals Included

Dinner

Your guide walks you round town on arrival, then it's a group dinner to mark night one. Next morning you're on the water for a guided river kayak, and in the afternoon you climb to Cape Byron Lighthouse, the most easterly point of mainland Australia, for one of the best views on the coast. Your hostel is 100 metres from the beach and has a rooftop bar, so the gaps between activities sort themselves: a surf, a swim, a sleep on the sand. The last night is a team night out. Your guide hands over here, and from Byron the group travels on with the app, the local guides at each stop and the support team on call.

Accommodation

Beachside hostel with rooftop bar

Meals Included

2 dinners

An Aboriginal guide takes the group around the Burleigh Heads headland and tells the story of the land and its people from the inside. Then it's the Gold Coast at full volume: beach days, theme and water parks if you want them, and the famous Surfers nightlife after dark.

Accommodation

Hostel dorm (6 to 8 beds, shared with your group)

Meals Included

2 dinners

Three days in Queensland's capital and you choose the pace. Rest up, ride the city ferries (the best views in town for the price of a ticket) and swim at the free South Bank lagoon by the river. Or go big with the two favourite add-ons: Moreton Island for sandboarding, kayaking around shipwrecks and snorkelling, and a day at Australia Zoo with the kangaroos.

Accommodation

Hostel dorm (6 to 8 beds, shared with your group)

Noosa National Park starts 500 metres from town, and the Fairy Pools you've seen all over Instagram are inside it. The group also gets an afternoon on the Noosa River in a round boat (bring your own snacks and drinks; it's that kind of trip), and the app tells you exactly where to be at sunset. The hostel here is the one people don't want to leave, with enough going on that some days you won't.

Accommodation

Hostel dorm (6 to 8 beds, shared with your group)

No hostel tonight. You sleep inside the Noosa Everglades national park in lakeside cabins and safari tents, and the kangaroos come out around you every evening. Grab a kayak or paddleboard and get on the lake, or sit by the water at the onsite bar. Day two goes deeper: a boat cruise, then a short, easy canoe on the River of Mirrors, the stretch so still the sky shows up twice. All gear supplied.

Accommodation

Lakeside cabins and safari tents in a wildlife retreat

K'gari means paradise, and it's the largest sand island in the world. You spend three days crossing it by 4WD: swimming in freshwater lakes, floating down lazy creeks, stopping at shipwrecks and driving the beach highway with your mates in the car. Over 21 with a full licence? You get a turn behind the wheel. Two nights you camp on the island with tents and sleeping bags provided, and the stars around the campfire are the best you'll see in Australia. Either side of the island you're at Rainbow Beach, with sunset from the Carlo Sandblow, before the long run north to Airlie Beach.

Accommodation

Hostel at Rainbow Beach, 2 nights camping on K'gari (all gear provided) and an overnight coach north

Meals Included

2 breakfasts, 3 lunches, 2 dinners

You see the Whitsundays twice. First from the sky: a 60-minute scenic flight over Heart Reef and the outer islands, included, not an add-on. Then from the water: a fast-boat day to Whitehaven Beach with snorkelling in the clear water around the islands. In between, Airlie does the rest, with its swimming lagoon, laneway bars and waterfront places to eat.

Accommodation

Hostel dorm (6 to 8 beds, shared with your group)

Meals Included

Lunch on the Whitsundays day

Ferry across to Maggie, the island everyone forgets to plan and then doesn't want to leave. If you haven't seen a wild koala yet, you will here, along with wallabies you can hand-feed. Walk the Forts Walk, hire snorkels, or split a tiny open-top hire car round the bays (the team sorts the bookings). It's the deliberate slow-down before the finale.

Accommodation

Hostel dorm (6 to 8 beds, shared with your group)

Nearly 3,000 kilometres from Sydney, the trip ends where it should. You spend a full day out on the Great Barrier Reef snorkelling the coral with reef fish and, if you're lucky, a turtle; scuba is there to add if you want it. Then the whole crew sits down for a farewell dinner. Cairns is the adventure capital of the coast, so if you can stay on, the add-ons are right here: white-water rafting, bungy, skydiving, the Daintree and Fitzroy Island. The tour ends on the final day, and you can leave at any time.

Accommodation

Hostel dorm (6 to 8 beds, shared with your group)

Meals Included

Reef day lunch, farewell dinner