A road trip along Australia’s East Coast is a bucket list item for many. If you’re planning a road trip in Australia but you’re not sure where to start then this three week itinerary will give you some ideas.
This itinerary contains highlights such as Sydney, the Whitsundays, and Cairns, and visits a good mixture of cities, beaches and the natural sights that Australia is famous for. You’ll also find top tips for driving in Australia.
This road trip itinerary starts in Sydney and ends in Cairns. Of course, you could also do the trip the other way round.
Enjoy planning your trip to Australia’s East Coast!
If you’re looking to stay longer, it’s a good idea to consult migration agents Melbourne to see which visas you can get.
Getting there
We booked our flights with Etihad Airways as they worked out the cheapest and we booked a bundle through Carlton Leisure including some internal flights. I used Skyscanner to find the cheapest option for flights.
We flew from Manchester Airport to Melbourne, then Melbourne to Sydney. At the end of the trip we flew from Cairns back to Sydney and then from Sydney back to Manchester – phew!
During our flights we had a couple of hours’ stop over in Abu Dhabi. The flights took around 22 hours in total, including the stop over.
Melbourne
Although technically not on the East Coast of Australia, Melbourne is well worth a visit. As a city it’s also well-connected transport-wise so it’s easy and cheap to fly from here to Sydney, the first stop on our road trip itinerary.
We visited some of our family in Melbourne and so we were staying in the suburbs in Chelsea. While we were here we visited the Domaine Chandon winery in the Yarra Valley, Victoria.
This is a great day out if you love wine and sparkling wines, you get to explore the winery and taste several wines. Just make sure you have a designated driver with you!
We also explored the cool neighbourhood of St Kilda. St Kilda is home to a colony of little penguins and just before dawn you can see them coming to shore.
This is such a special experience and one not to be missed. It can get very busy so try to visit on a weeknight if you can.
Sydney
Obviously Sydney is a must visit with every East Coast Australia trip and it’s a great place to start. I fell in love with Sydney when we visited and it ended up being my favourite place in Australia.
We explored all the sights of Sydney including the Opera House and the Botanical Gardens. We also did the Sydney Harbour Bridge Climb, a once-in-a-lifetime experience.
My favourite thing to do in Sydney is the Bondi Beach to Coogee coastal walk. Bondi has such a cool vibe, while we were there there was a skateboarding tournament.
We enjoyed Bondi so much that we spent another couple of days here at the end of our trip.
In Sydney we picked up our camper van which we booked through Ratpack Travel. The pick up spot was close to the city centre so it was a great introduction to driving in Australia.
Where to stay in Sydney
We stayed at YHA Sydney Central, a hostel in the city’s CBD next to the train station. This is a really social hostel so it’s perfect if you’re travelling on your own in Australia.
Byron Bay
In this surfer’s paradise apparently there is a great walk up to a lighthouse (according to Where’s Mollie) which is best done at sunset and you can kayak with dolphins – I’m sold! Go Sea Kayak have invited us to go kayaking with them so I’m super excited to (hopefully) spot some dolphins.
Here’s what we got up to in Byron Bay.
Gold Coast
Famous for it’s long sandy beaches, the Gold Coast also has the largest subtropical rainforest in the world. Apparently the nightlife is incredible too!
Surfer’s Paradise is a suburb of the Gold Coast and definitely worth a visit. As the name suggests, it’s a great spot for surfing with a 3km stretch of golden sand and rolling surf.
Places to stay in the Gold Coast
Brisbane
We met up with friends who live in the city when we got to Brisbane who showed us around the city. Everyone knows that locals make the best guides!
It literally rained for the entire time when we visited Brisbane! But, nothing rains on my parade, so here’s some things to do in Brisbane when it’s raining.
Image courtesy of YHA Australia
While we’re in Brisbane we’ve been invited to stay at Brisbane City YHA for two nights which I’m super excited about as it has a rooftop pool and bar!
Airlie Beach – Whitsundays
I’d wanted to do a sailing trip in the Whitsunday Islands as soon as we started talking about Australia. The trips take in Whitehaven Beach and a few different snorkelling stops and you can bring your own alcohol on board.
I think I would recommend just taking a day trip to Whitehaven Bay and some snorkelling spots, rather than doing the two night boat trip that we did. The weather for our Whitsundays boat trip was so hot that it made sleeping quite uncomfortable.
However, Whitehaven Bay was absolutely incredible. The sand has a high silica content so it’s almost pure white and really grainy and you can also paddle alongside lemon sharks and stingrays in the clear water.
You’re given stinger suits to wear in case of jellyfish!
Places to stay in Airlie Beach
Townsville
I thought that Townsville might be a good place to stop off on our way to Cairns and I heard there’s a really good YHA hostel there which has made it onto lists of some of the best hostels in the world.
Travelling doesn’t always go to plan and we ended up stuck in Townsville for two days due to flooding. Let me tell you, there is not much to do here when it’s raining.
Cairns
Cairns was our final stop with our camper van on our East Coast Australia road trip.
Because of the Townsville saga we arrived at Cairns later than we were planning which left us with less time there than we would have liked and so we missed out on some big tours and trips. We really liked Cairns as a city and we did get to do a sunset cruise which was lovely.
I would have liked to have done the Uncle Brian’s Rainforest Tour which I’ve heard is really good.
The Thredbo Lost Weekend
If you’re looking for something a little bit different to include on your East Coast Australia road trip itinerary then add a weekend trip to the alpine resorts of Thredbo and Perisher to your list. The beaches and sunshine is milder here, but the train/bus from Sydney to Thredbo is only a tenner and it makes your Aussie itinerary much less ordinary if you include this unique side-weekend.
If you’re visiting the East Coast in the winter (UK summer) then you can actually go on a ski holiday at this time of year and it’s suitable for beginners, intermediates, and advanced skiers with purpose built safe runs, off piste challenges, and a wide variety of terrain.
Both of Australia’s top ski resorts of Thredbo and Perisher are half way between Sydney and Melbourne. It’s only a six hour drive from Melbourne if you want to get there faster. Unfortunately we ran out of time to do this when we visited, but it’s on my list for our next visit.
22 Responses
Great plan! Love it, you are gonna have an epic time and I definitely recommend Uncle Brian’s tour!
Ahhh putting it on my MUST DO list then! Thanks so much!
I will be so interested to hear how you get on as we’re doing a very similar trip in June. Can’t freaking wait! We haven’t got much of a plan other than fly into Sydney then up to Brisbane and road trip it from there to Cairns. So if you find anything awesome to do along that stretch let me know!
Ahhh that’s amazing! I will definitely let you know all the must-dos! I’m getting ridiculously excited now, get me on the beach!