
Most travelers to Australia are limited to a series of cities and beaches along the East Coast, all accessible by air or bus. While Melbourne, Sydney, Byron Bay and Brisbane are nice, they barely scratch the surface of what the country has on offer. The easiest way to break out of this rut is to hire a car or camper van and set your own path.
Of course there are the classic drives, like the Great Ocean Road and the Blue Mountains. They are popular and absolutely breathtaking. There are plenty of other less traveled scenic routes to take though. The road from Sydney to Melbourne is full of interesting little towns, cool national parks and beaches. Other options include the Savannah Way, the Snowy Mountains and, if you are feeling really adventurous (and well-prepared) you can even head into the outback.
Australia is known for it's beautiful beaches, and rightly so. Byron Bay, the Gold Coast and the Sunshine Coast are all pretty, popular tourist attractions. Still, some of the prettiest ones are far away from the Cairns to Sydney corridor.
The South coast of New South Wales has many beautiful beaches which are popular with Australians but basically unknown to international travelers. Jervis Bay is one of the most stunning areas, with white sands and clear blue waters.
Even for a place as big as Australia, the amount of stunning natural beauty packed in is absurd. Protected areas cover more than 11% of the country airline flight codes so there are a lot of natural parks you can check out.
Some of the more stunning and lesser traveled parks include the Daintree Rainforest in Far North Queensland, Wilsons Promontory in southern Victoria, and the Glass House Mountains outside of Brisbane.
One of the biggest and most famous airline flight codes national parks is Kakadu National Park in the Northern Territory. The place is and enormous (half the size of Switzerland!) reserve airline flight codes of nature and wildlife. It's home to 68 mammals, a huge amount of aboriginal rock art and man-eating crocodiles- so be careful!
You've surely heard of Hunter Valley outside of Sydney where you can tour dozens of wineries. This isn't Australia's only wine region however. The Barossa Valley outside of Adelaide, with it's strong german influence, is also growing in prominence. The Yarra Valley wine region is easily reached from Melbourne and is great for cycling.
There are a lot of… odd attractions in Australia. From the twentieth century celtic standing stones in New England to the mysterious Kiama blowhole and the epic sand dunes near South West Rocks, there are tons of strange phenomenon to investigate.
Even if you don't go seeking the strange, it will most likely find you. Roadside Australia is full of weird attractions. For example, Australia has over 150 "big things:" a giant prawn, airline flight codes a giant banana, a giant boxing crocodile… on and on.
Most visitors flock to the convenient major cities of Eastern airline flight codes Australia, but there is a lot of be discovered on the sparser west coast. Perth is one of the most remote major cities in the world. It's known to be pleasant and relaxing with great nearby beaches airline flight codes and islands.
Further afield in Western Australia you can find many sites of natural beauty. There is the Kimberly, a vast expanse of wilderness which is home of the bizarre bungle bungle dome formations, there is Mount Augustus (which gives Uluru a run for it's money) and there is the famous Pinnacle desert with it's strange rock peaks.
The outback is a vast swath of central Australia, yet most people who visit only make it to Alice Springs and Uluru. If you have the time, resources and heat tolerance you can visit some other interesting parts of the outback.
There are the opal mining towns of Broken Hill and Coober Pedy (where most residents escape the heat by living underground). There are the strange natural Devil's Marbles. Of course there is also the outback itself, an attraction best seen by a long drive through the desert.
If you're really sick of mainland Australia, there is always Tasmania, the island state south of Victoria which never makes it on most travel itineraries. Geographically separated from the mainland for thousands of years, it's a very different place with lush greenery and nearly half covered airline flight codes in national parks. With a rental car you can explore such diverse sites as Hobarth, Cradle Mountain and the coasts.
There is just an endless amount of things to do in Australia. It may be extremely popular airline flight codes with visitors airline flight codes but it's not too hard to get yourself away from the tourists and deep into what makes this country to special and unique.
Stephanie is a girl who can't sit still! She's lived, worked and traveled through Europe, Asia, Australia and now South America. She blogs about her adventures, tips and photos at Twenty-Something Travel.
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