One Week Down Under: Iconic Australia Itinerary
What to expect on this itinerary
From watching the sunset in Uluru to cruising the Parramatta River, this handcrafted one-week Australian adventure will lead you on an exclusive journey to Australia’s icons in addition to incorporating tropical Queensland and Sydney’s most exclusive experiences. Australia is a land of icons and legends that can be mostly discovered in just about a week. Indulge in aboriginal encounters in an ancient forest, magnificent landscapes from the Great Barrier Reef to the red desert, and contemporary city wonder beside the beach.
Customizable Itinerary
Port Douglas – Rest and Relaxation
After landing at Cairns International Airport, you will be transferred to Port Douglas. While Cairns is a nice town, it does not actually have its own beach. Port Douglas is smaller, quieter, and draped along a brilliant stretch of sand. Today will be at your leisure. It is great to start slow, even if you only have a week. Once you have settled in to your accommodation, you can stroll barefooted along the Pacific, bask in the shade of towering trees, and check out a low-slung town that is dominated by cafe terraces and boutiques. There is so much to do during your one week in Australia, so take today to rest and ease into the atmosphere down under.
What's Included:
Port Douglas – Aboriginal Experiences
Port Douglas – The Great Barrier Reef
Uluru – Magnificent Uluru Sunset
Sydney – Parramatta Dinner Cruise
Sydney – Climbing Sydney Harbour Bridge
Sydney – Departure
Trip Highlights
- Uncover ancient secrets during a day of Aboriginal encounters near Port Douglas, where you will meet three different Aboriginal clans
- Embrace Sydney’s iconicity on a beautiful private tour through the old center and an evening show at Sydney Opera House
- Marvel at Uluru as sunset casts fresh colors across the world’s largest monolith
- Helicopter over the Great Barrier Reef and touch down to some incredible private snorkeling on untrammeled reefs
- Cruise through Sydney after dark on a sublime Parramatta dinner cruise
- Escape to the wilderness for a night with the Southern Sky at a remote red desert camp
- Lay back on Australia’s stunning beaches, including Bondi and Coogee in addition to a three-night waterfront stay in Port Douglas
Detailed Description
Australia is an enormous country. Tropical coastlines blur into a wild red center, indigenous forests meet with rolling mountains, and even the cities are defined by nature. Although it is massive, a superb travel infrastructure means that you can comfortably combine a full range of experiences in a short amount of time. This itinerary has been handcrafted to combine Australia’s icons and legends into one week of travel. Three nights in Port Douglas celebrate the country’s exotic allure, including beautiful Aboriginal encounters, the Great Barrier Reef, and a superb beachside lodge. Then, Uluru offers a dazzling 24-hour experience in the red desert wilderness before Sydney becomes an experience with a vibrant city energy.
To begin your journey, you will fly into Cairns and find nearby Port Douglas to be a perfect place to unwind after a long flight. Here, you can wander golden beaches, bask in the vibe down under, and gaze across the Pacific with your feet in the sand. On day two, you will meet three different Aboriginal clans, which will be a journey on land and water into the unique specialisms of these often misunderstood people. Exploring an indigenous forest with a local guide will help you understand bush survival before hunting and gathering along the coast shows you a different side to the culture. Afterward, an Aboriginal artist will help you record your day in true Aboriginal style by teaching you how to do a local form of art. Their artwork, which typically takes the form of paintings with dots and lines, reflects one way these people narrate their histories.
Afterward, you will fly directly to Uluru to explore the giant red rock at sunset. Here, you can walk around its sublime frame and gaze in disbelief at its size. Colors changes are remarkable out here, and the sense of wilderness will continue at your remote desert camp, where you will dine beneath the Southern Sky and embrace the solitude that Australia can create. After a morning with the fabulous domes of Kata Tjuta, Sydney will complete your seven-day journey. It is a magnificent place to be, and the city’s energy is impulsive and quick to impress. You can begin with a Parramatta dinner cruise before climbing the Sydney Harbour Bridge the following morning. A night at the opera will follow a city walking tour, and then you can relax on the beaches, which are as iconic as a country and as unique as the city.
Starting Price
$2,300 per person (excluding international flights)
Your Zicasso trip is fully customizable, and this sample itinerary is a starting place for your travel plans. Actual costs are dynamic, and your selection of accommodations and activities, your season of travel, and other such variables will bring this budget guideline up or down. Throughout your planning experience with your Zicasso specialist, your itinerary is designed around your budget. You can book your trip when you are satisfied with every detail. Planning your trip with a Zicasso travel specialist is a free service.
What's Included
The starting price is based on travel during the low season for a minimum of two travelers staying in shared 3-star accommodations. Please inquire for a custom trip quote based on your travel preferences and travel dates.
Verified Traveler Reviews
Based on 292 reviews
Our travel agent was excellent. We booked a 23 day trip during the Christmas and New Years holidays only a few short months before we were leaving so the logistics were difficult to say the least. Our travel company did a wonderful job in planning dozens of activities throughout Australia and New Zealand and it was all very well organized. We like adventure and we had some of the best adventures ever thanks to the recommendations of our travel agent. A dream trip that exceeded our expectations. Thanks so much!
Sydney was great! The Harbor Bridge Climb was so much fun as well as the tour of the opera house.
Our Uluru resort was the jewel of the trip. Very unexpectedly spectacular. The accommodations were unbelievable – wonderful spot and tremendous views. We enjoyed all the activities. A grand slam home run. The amount of time there was perfect and we were ready to move on when our time was up. The kids skydived in Uluru and loved it. Highly recommend it as it only took 45 minutes from start to finish and they land right next to the resort, so super convenient.
Port Douglas was fun. The private boat trip to Barrier Reef was awesome and we highly recommend. The snorkeling was fun. The spear fishing was also an adventure.
Hamilton Island was great. The Whitsundays were spectacular and Whitehaven beach was a treat. The hotel was a bit large and busy for our taste, but we understand that we didn’t have a lot of options given we booked so close to the trip. The Beach Club Christmas brunch was spectacular!! What a view!! The Koala visit was a huge hit with all. We hiked on many of the trails and really enjoyed Hamilton Island.
New Zealand was super fun as well. We loved the Franz Josef heli hike – definitely a highlight of the tour and we all thought worth the travel time to get there. The resort was very nice. We explored on our own and walked to the mining tunnel and hiked through it and saw glow worms.
Queenstown was also so much fun. Wine tasting was a wonderful afternoon. Kids Bunge jumped off the bridge near Arrow Town and had a blast. Arrow Town is also a cute spot to have lunch. The Shotover boat ride was so much fun. The flight to Milford Sound and cruise was spectacular.
We had pouring rain in Auckland, but still got out. Th hotel was nice and in a great location to get around. It would have been nice to have a pool, which we had not really considered until in rained for 3 days!
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Just returned from a wonderful trip to Australia. We visited Sydney, Uluru, Port Douglas/Great Barrier Reef, and Perth. All arrangements were seamless. Our trip included 3 different lodgings, 8 air flights, and many tours and experiences. All occurred with no problems! This is the easiest, most worry free travel experience I have ever had. Many thanks to this travel agent who coordinated our trip. She was attentive, organized, and efficient.
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As we brainstormed Australia trip, our goal was to scuba dive on great barrier reef. The tour planner did a great job of pointing out the pluses and minuses of live aboard 4 day option, highlighting jelly fish issue at Hamilton Island during December, long boat rides from Port Douglas, and ultimately guiding us to consider Fiji as a beautiful scuba option that was easy to access from land. He recommended VOMO island which turned out fantastic....easy to access from Nadi Intl airport, felt completely remote, excellent food and variety, beautiful accommodations, scuba diving 10 min off shore, hiking, snorkeling and fitness club to enjoy as well and literally no one on the beach in either direction. I would never have found this place without the tour planner and it was perfect for our entire family. I'd make the choice to go to VOMO island over Hawaii....definitely worth the extra flight time. The tour planner also chose the ranger penguin tour rather than the standard tour at Phillips Island near Melbourne which was a definite plus and gave us small viewing area of 30 people compared to the 4000 in the general viewing area. Apartments in Melbourne also had all the amenities we were looking for and in good location
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We just returned from the most amazing trip to Australia and Fiji over a three week period that cover Melbourne, the Great Ocean Drive to Port Campbell, the Penguin parade at Phillip's Island, Uluru in Ayers Rock, The Silky Oaks Lodge in Mossman Gourge, Great Barrier Reef from Port Douglas, and Sydney. I can not say enough good things about our travel agent with this company, who is Australian. When I told our agent we didn't want to "just see" Australia - we wanted to "do" Australia - she got me and "do" we did. We traveled with another couple so she was flexible to change our travel flights and tours as our "hot buttons" were discovered in the planning process. Our trip was packed full of activities yet left room to relax and enjoy the fabulous hotels she booked for us. Our favorite with the Silky Oaks Lodge which is literally built in the trees of the rainforest with the sounds of the babbling river below coming through out windows. It was the best "sound machine" ever for sleeping. We stayed at Mantangi Island in Fiji, a private island that is adult only and first class. It was full of honeymooners and offered beautiful snorkeling and other activities daily. Our burre (room) was gorgeous and the food was excellent and greatly varied with different menus daily. I highly recommend this resort where the staff and accommodations are excellent. I actually cried to say goodbye to our Fiji friends as we left. I had visited Australia 13 years ago and thought that trip was great but it didn't hold a candle to the sights and tours we enjoyed this trip. Well done and thank you for making our "retirement" trip extra special.
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Rick was our agent and we feel he did an outstanding, superb, wonderful job. My wife and I have made several trips overseas and were a little concerned about going on a three country trip on our own. But we have to give Rick major props!!! All our transfers, tours and connections went exactly as scheduled. absolutely no hiccups or late shows by any of our tours or transfers. All the tours were professional, courteous and clean and small group. The hotels were exactly as promised and directions were spot on. The pre-web based review turned out to be a wonderful addition and really helped us during our transfers from country, city and tour.
The island of Matamanoa Island in Fiji was wonderful. The adult only island was small enough to give a real tropical getaway feel and had all the necessary amenities to make us feel well taken care of. Walking 50 feet out our room and snorkeling in the reef was just what we had hoped for. The trip to Castaway island (where the movie was filmed) was fun. The snorkeling here was incredible!!! The staff was friendly and helpful and the restaurant had a variety of dishes that both my wife and I were pleased with. The table side crepe suzette was to die for.
Port Douglas is a wonderful seaside tourist town with lots of great restaurants and night life. The Great Barrier Reef snorkel was one of highlights. The sea was especially calm the day we went out and the water was clear. The fish and coral were magnificent. The reef tour was exceptional and the staff very knowlegable and took great care of us. In town, we especially liked "The Inlet" restaurant. Our hotel was right downtown close to all the restaurant's, but far enough off the street as not to have any street or bar noise. We went to the Sunday market and enjoyed the people, street entertainment and venders.
Sydney is a wonderful big city. Again, our hotel was very nice and short walking distance to everything. The Circular Quay, Opera house, Darling Harbor . The small group city tour was just what we wanted. We climbed the bridge at sunset, went to the Opera house and took a ferry to Manley and had a sunset dinner in a beach side restaurant, "Manley's". Returned on the 8:30 ferry under a wonderful clear full moon night to see the city lights, Opera House and the Bridge" welcoming us. A truly wonderful view!!!
We found it to be quite cooler in New Zealand (Christchurch). We arrived the morning of the Rugby World Cup, The New Zealand All Blacks won so everyone was in good mood. What's left of the city (after the earthquake of 2011) is slowly being rebuilt. Ricks suggestion of the Botanical Gardens was perfect. They are breathtaking and the museum was very worth while. The hotel was wonderfully comfortable and the courtyard beautiful. We left early to catch our train to Greymouth, which was spectacular!
We rented a car in Greymouth and drove south down the coast. Unfortunately we were weathered out in Franz Josef for our heli-hike. It turned out to be no problem as 20 miles down the road the weather cleared and we were able to stop and see the waterfalls and blue pools. We had a leisurely drive down the coast to Wanaka where we stay in a B&B. The owners are from England and are wonderful. They helped us with restaurant recommendations and reservations. They have a happy hour for all the guests and real fun. We got to meet other couples from other countries and shared travel stories. The nature hike was a hoot. Our guide was very informative, funny and took wonderful care of everyone on the trip. A real must do.
We had the most spectacular view of the lake from our room in Queentown. A highlight of the trip was the Dart River jet boat tour. What a fun ride and hike through the forest. At night we took the Gondola up the mountain and had dinner overlooking the city. Milford sound was also spectacular.
We ended our vacation in Dunedin and arrived early enough to go to the beer tour (fun). The following morning tour took us to where we saw giant Albatross' and the endangered yellowed eyed penguins with a boat cruise.
When we contacted Rick, we had a time line, a budget and a general idea of where we wanted to go but no specifics on anything. Rick put together an outstanding trip for us with many great tours and accommodations. We especially appreciated all the personal time Rick gave us with our numerous questions and concerns. We are highly recommending him.
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