Australia — Sydney, Gold Coast & Melbourne

The oldest European-settled quarter of the city, on the headland between the Opera House and the bridge. Sandstone warehouses now hold pubs and galleries, and the weekend market fills the laneways on Saturdays and Sundays.

• Walk the sandstone laneways
• First view of the Opera House from the quay
• Watch the ferries come and go

Jorn Utzon's performing arts centre on Bennelong Point, finished in 1973 and now a World Heritage Site. The shells are clad in over a million tiles in two shades of white. The exterior and forecourt are free to walk; the interior tour is ticketed separately.

• Walk the forecourt steps
• See the shells close up from the northern boardwalk
• Photograph it with the bridge behind

The steel arch that opened in 1932, known locally as the coathanger. The south-eastern pylon has a museum and a lookout up two hundred stairs with the best view back over the Opera House. The BridgeClimb over the arch itself is a separate, longer activity.

• Climb to the Pylon Lookout
• Walk part of the pedestrian span
• See Luna Park across the water

A kilometre of sand in the eastern suburbs, patrolled by surf lifesavers and busy year round. The coastal path south to Bronte and Coogee runs along the cliffs past the Icebergs sea pool at the southern end.

• Swim between the flags
• Walk the Bondi to Bronte clifftop path
• Look down on the Icebergs pool

A redeveloped dock on the western side of the city centre, now a waterfront of restaurants, the aquarium, the maritime museum and the Chinese Garden of Friendship. It lights up well after dark.

• Dinner on the waterfront
• Visit the Chinese Garden of Friendship
• Cross the Pyrmont Bridge on foot

A wildlife park at Doonside on the western edge of Sydney, kept mainly for Australian species. Kangaroos and wallabies wander loose in the walk-through enclosures, and there are koalas, wombats, dingoes and a large reptile house.

• Hand-feed the kangaroos
• See the koalas at close range
• Watch the penguin and reptile talks

Three weathered sandstone pillars above the Jamison Valley at Katoomba, named Meehni, Wimlah and Gunnedoo in the Gundungurra story attached to them. The Echo Point lookout is the main viewpoint; the Giant Stairway drops down beside the rock for those who want it.

• View the Sisters from Echo Point
• Walk part of the Prince Henry Cliff Walk
• Look for Katoomba Falls across the valley

Three rides working the same valley from different angles — a glass-floored cableway across it, a railway down into it on a gradient steep enough to be uncomfortable, and a skyway over the gorge. A boardwalk through the rainforest at the bottom links the railway to the cableway.

• Ride the Scenic Railway down
• Walk the rainforest boardwalk
• Come back up on the Cableway

A twelve-minute crossing from Circular Quay to the zoo wharf at Mosman, passing under the bridge approach with the Opera House astern. It is the cheapest good view of the harbour there is.

• Sit on the open rear deck
• Photograph the skyline from the water
• Take the cable car up from the wharf

A zoo on a north-shore hillside directly opposite the city, so many of the enclosures have the harbour behind them. Start at the top after the cable car and walk down. The koala, platypus and Australian bird sections are the ones to prioritise if time is short.

• Walk down from the top entrance
• See the koala and platypus houses
• Catch the free-flight bird show

A film-studio theme park at Oxenford built around the DC and Looney Tunes characters, and the one with the heaviest roller coasters on the coast. The daily parade runs down the main street in the afternoon.

• Ride the big coasters early
• Catch the street parade
• Meet the character performers

A marine park on the Broadwater spit at Main Beach, mixing rides with dolphin, seal and penguin presentations and a rescue and rehabilitation programme you can see working. The better choice for families with younger children.

• See the dolphin presentation
• Walk the penguin and shark exhibits
• Ride the monorail across the park

The largest of the three by area, at Coomera, combining thrill rides with an Australian wildlife section holding koalas and a tiger enclosure. The WhiteWater World park sits next door on the same site.

• Ride the tower attractions
• Hold a koala in the wildlife section
• See the Tiger Island presentation

A sanctuary in the southern Gold Coast run by the National Trust of Queensland, best known for the wild rainbow lorikeets that come in to be fed morning and afternoon. It also runs a working wildlife hospital, and there is a decent Aboriginal cultural performance on the daily programme.

• Join the lorikeet feeding
• Watch the free-flight bird show
• See the wildlife hospital viewing window

The centre of the Gold Coast strip, where the surf beach runs right up against the towers. SkyPoint on level 77 of the Q1 building is the only beachside observation deck in the country, and the coastline reads clearly from Coolangatta to Brisbane on a clear day.

• Go up to the SkyPoint deck
• Walk the beachfront esplanade
• Browse the Cavill Avenue shops

The timber arch at Eastern View marks the start of the road and remembers the soldiers who built it between 1919 and 1932. Bells Beach, a short way back towards Torquay, is the reef break that hosts the long-running Easter surfing contest.

• Photograph the Memorial Arch
• Look down on the Bells Beach break
• Read the road's construction history

A short road through manna gums just off the coast road, and one of the more reliable places to see koalas in the wild rather than in an enclosure. King parrots and cockatoos come down to the roadside as well.

• Look up into the gum trees for koalas
• Watch for king parrots
• Stretch your legs on the gravel track

Limestone stacks standing offshore in Port Campbell National Park, left behind as the cliffs eroded. There were never twelve, and the count keeps dropping as they collapse — one fell as recently as 2005. Boardwalks run from the visitor centre to the two main lookouts.

• Walk both cliff lookouts
• Take the helicopter flight if you want it
• Go down the Gibson Steps to the beach

A narrow inlet a few minutes west of the Apostles, named after a clipper wrecked on the reef here in 1878 with only two survivors. Steps lead down to a sheltered beach between the cliffs, and a short loop walk takes in the blowhole and the cemetery.

• Walk down to the gorge beach
• Follow the shipwreck story boards
• See the razorback ridge on the loop

The city centre is a grid with a second, narrower city threaded through it — Hosier Lane for the street art, Degraves and Centre Place for the coffee, and the nineteenth-century Block and Royal arcades. Queen Victoria Market has been trading on the same site since the 1870s.

• Walk Hosier Lane
• Coffee in Degraves Street
• Buy from the market deli hall

A cool-climate wine region an hour north-east of the city, known for pinot noir, chardonnay and sparkling wine. Healesville Sanctuary in the same valley keeps only Australian native species and is the best place in Victoria to see a platypus. Tastings and sanctuary entry are charged separately.

• Visit two or three cellar doors
• See the platypus at Healesville Sanctuary
• Lunch at a winery restaurant

Little penguins, the smallest species there is, come out of the surf at Summerland Beach after dark and cross the sand to their burrows in groups. You watch from tiered boardwalk seating. Cameras and phones must stay off entirely — the flash disorients the birds and rangers enforce it.

• Take your seat before sunset
• Watch the birds cross to the burrows
• Stop at the Nobbies boardwalk beforehand