Australia
Two cities, one coast, six weeks, and you don't organise a thing.
44 days from Melbourne to Cairns: guided arrival weeks in Melbourne and Sydney, then the East Coast with K'gari by 4WD, a Heart Reef flight, Whitehaven and the Great Barrier Reef.
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$6,289 AUD
per person
Booked with Wanderlust, an Australian travel business based in Byron Bay (ABN 34 636 612 523). We handle your booking ourselves, before and after you travel.
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The whole classic route in one booking: a week in Melbourne, a week in Sydney, then a month up the East Coast to Cairns. Melbourne gives you the laneways and street art, an Aboriginal walking tour, Brighton to St Kilda on foot and Queen Victoria Market. An overnight coach takes you to Sydney for The Rocks, Bondi, Manly and a second crew of new mates.
Then the coast. A guide takes the group from Sydney to Byron Bay, local guides run the big days and a support team and trip app cover the rest: Surfers Paradise, Brisbane, Noosa, two nights in lakeside cabins inside the Noosa Everglades, three days on K'gari by 4WD with two nights camping, Airlie Beach and Magnetic Island. The Whitsundays come twice, with a 60-minute Heart Reef scenic flight included and a Whitehaven Beach boat day, and the finale is a full day on the Great Barrier Reef.
43 nights booked, airport pick-up in Melbourne, Working Holiday help in both cities, and plenty of free days built in so six weeks never feels like a bus tour. For 18 to 39 year olds; most come solo.
Guided arrival weeks in Melbourne and Sydney
Overnight coach Melbourne to Sydney
60-minute Heart Reef scenic flight included
3 days on K'gari by 4WD, 2 nights camping
Whitehaven Beach and Whitsundays snorkelling
Great Barrier Reef snorkel day from Cairns
Your Melbourne Airport pick-up is included on any day before the tour. Tonight you meet your guide and your group over dinner on the Yarra River, then riverside drinks as the city lights come on.
The morning takes you through the laneways to Hosier Lane, where the street art changes overnight. Then an Aboriginal walking tour tells the story of the Wurundjeri people and Naarm, Melbourne's traditional name, long before the skyline. The afternoon is yours for ACMI or the NGV, the biggest gallery in the Southern Hemisphere, and the day ends with dinner in Chinatown, one of the oldest in the world.
Add a guided Great Ocean Road day trip for the cliffs, the rainforest and the Twelve Apostles (an optional extra), or use your guide's list to explore the city on your own terms. On a Working Holiday visa? Pick up the free starter pack and book a one-on-one with the team on jobs and getting set up.
Melbourne has a beach side, and today proves it. Start at Brighton's rows of painted bathing boxes, walk the coast to St Kilda with a stop at Point Ormond for the best skyline view in the city, then take free time in St Kilda before drinks as the sun drops over the bay.
Morning at Queen Victoria Market, one of the biggest open-air markets in the Southern Hemisphere: coffee, produce and the souvenir stalls. Then up the city's observation deck for the 360-degree view, a free afternoon for the State Library or the museums, and a last group dinner in the CBD.
Op shops, laneways and as many cafés as you can rate in two days. On the second evening you board the overnight coach to Sydney and wake up in the next city.
Your airport pick-up is included on any day before the tour, so land early if you like. Tonight you meet your guide and your group over a welcome dinner, then head up for rooftop drinks with the city lit up below.
The overnight coach drops you into Sydney for chapter two. Tonight the Sydney group meets over a welcome dinner, then rooftop drinks above the skyline.
Add a guided day trip to the Blue Mountains, 90 minutes away, for the cliffs, rainforest and the Three Sisters (an optional extra), or take your guide's list of places beyond the itinerary and explore Sydney with or without the group. On a Working Holiday visa? This is the day for the free starter pack and a one-on-one with the team on jobs and getting set up in Australia.
One of the great coastal walks: six beaches, cliff-top views and the Pacific all the way. The group starts at Coogee, walks the trail to Bondi with a sweet stop at Bondi's cult dessert bar on the way, and finishes at Dudley Page Reserve, which has the best view back over the city, before dinner.
Thirty minutes on the Manly ferry with the Opera House sliding past and the Harbour Bridge behind you: the best-value harbour cruise in Sydney, and it's included. In Manly the first stop is a much-loved bakery, then you walk out to Shelly Beach, find the Manly Wormhole and finish with your feet in the sand.
Two free days before the coast: revisit a favourite, explore somewhere new, or rest up for the month ahead.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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Public reviews of the operator who runs this tour on the ground.
"It was amazing. Everything was so good organized. … was such a nice guide, and she helped with everything when we had questions. I would absolutely do it again."
Ramona F
Tripadvisor review
"Welcome to travel has been an absolute incredible way to begin my Australia journey."
Jack H
Tripadvisor review
"I came to Sydney with no idea where to start with my working holiday visa and Welcome to Travel sorted everything out for me. … They also planned my entire East Coast trip which took all the stress out of it."
Tom
Tripadvisor review
Traveller reviews, source shown on each · shown as excerpts.
Melbourne
50 Days
4.6 (980 · TourRadar)
Melbourne to Cairns
Some meals included
$7189 AUD
≈ $144/day
Melbourne
11 Hours
Melbourne
12 Hours
From
$6289
Save $206
