Three nights on Sydney Harbour, three in the tropics for the Great Barrier Reef and the Daintree, then two in Melbourne for the laneways and the Great Ocean Road. Two internal flights do the heavy lifting.
FromUS$1,600per person, twin share — eight nights' hotel with breakfast and all guided touring. Budget separately for the two internal flights, which we quote with your dates. Compare the three hotel tiers
Fly into Sydney (SYD) and out of Melbourne (MEL). This is an open-jaw ticket and normally prices close to a return. The two internal flights are not included — Sydney–Cairns and Cairns–Melbourne. We book them for you once your international times are confirmed and quote them then, because the fare moves with the date.
Confirmation
Book at least 14 days before departure. Internal flights and reef boats are the constraints, and both price up sharply close in. We confirm within 24 hours of your deposit, and refund in full if we cannot secure your dates.
Australia is much larger than it looks on a map: these three places are 2,000 km apart and the flights are what make nine days work at all. Our Melbourne office handles the southern half of this trip in person.
The trip at a glance
Sydney
Days 1–3 · 3 nights
01
Arrival
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Arrival in Sydney AT LEISURE
Arrive at Kingsford Smith. Make your own way in — the transfer is not included — the centre is only 8 km north and the run takes about 25 minutes.
Check in and rest. Most flights from Europe and Asia land in the morning; stay awake until the evening and the jet lag halves.
Late afternoon in The Rocks — the first European settlement in the country, on the sandstone under the bridge, with the oldest pubs in Australia still trading in it.
Dinner on Circular Quay with the Opera House lit across the water.
Your guide will confirm the next morning’s start at check-in. Day 2 begins at 09:00 and finishes at a beach, so bring what you need for that.
02
Harbour
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The Harbour & the Coast Walk AT LEISURE
The Opera House at opening — more than a million tiles in two shades of white, and a working house with four venues rather than a monument.
Across the Harbour Bridge on the pedestrian walkway, which is free and gives you most of the view. The summit climb is a separate three-hour booking.
Out to Bondi for lunch, then the clifftop walk south — 6 km past four beaches and two ocean pools, finishing at Coogee.
Swim between the red and yellow flags and nowhere else. Australian rips are the real hazard on this coast, and the flags mark where the lifesavers are actually watching.
The walk is exposed the whole way. Hat, water and sunscreen — the UV index here reaches levels that do not exist in Europe.
Add to this day — approximate gate prices
Sydney Harbour BridgeClimbFrom about A$188Book aheadThe Sampler takes you halfway up the arch in about 90 minutes from roughly A$188; the full Summit climb runs A$358–428. Books out on clear weekends.
Bondi to Coogee coastal walkFreeSix kilometres of clifftop path. The best free thing in Sydney.
We can book any of these with your tour. Tell us which you want when you confirm and the tickets travel with your documents.
03
Mountains
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The Blue Mountains GUIDED
West to Katoomba and the Three Sisters — about 90 minutes from the city, and a different climate when you arrive.
The blue haze the range is named for is eucalyptus oil suspended in the air, refracting light at the short end of the spectrum. It is not smoke.
Scenic World for the cableway, the skyway and the railway that drops into the valley floor at 52 degrees — the steepest passenger railway anywhere.
A walk on the valley floor through temperate rainforest and old coal-mine workings, then back up for tea at Katoomba.
Sydney Zoo on the way back into the city, entry included — kangaroos and koalas at close range. You are back in town by about half past four.
Take a layer. Katoomba sits at 1,000 m and runs ten degrees colder than Sydney; in winter it occasionally snows.
In your price today — with your guide
Blue Mountains small-group day — Scenic World's three rides, national park fees and Sydney Zoo entry
Tropical North Queensland
Days 4–6 · 3 nights
04
Cairns
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North to the Tropics AT LEISURE
Morning flight to Cairns — 3 hours and roughly 2,000 km north, into a genuinely tropical climate.
Check in, then the Esplanade. The free saltwater lagoon there exists because the sea holds crocodiles year-round and box jellyfish from November to May.
Afternoon up to Kuranda — the 1891 scenic railway up through the gorge one way, and the 7.5 km Skyrail cableway over the rainforest canopy the other.
Back down for dinner on the waterfront.
Do not swim in the sea or any river up here unless a sign or a local says it is safe. That is not caution, it is the local rule, and the crocodiles are not theoretical.
Add to this day — approximate gate prices
Flight, Sydney → CairnsQuoted with your datesWe book itThree hours and about 2,000 km north. We book this with your tour and quote it once your international times are confirmed — domestic fares move with the date.
We can book any of these with your tour. Tell us which you want when you confirm and the tickets travel with your documents.
05
The reef
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The Great Barrier Reef GUIDED
Early boat out to the outer Great Barrier Reef — the ribbon reefs, which have clearer water and far fewer boats than the inner sites.
Two outer-reef stops with around five hours in the water, and lunch on board. Gear, lycra or stinger suit, safety briefings and in-water tutorials from the crew are all included.
Introductory dives are available on the day with no certification, from about A$90. Certified divers should bring their card and their logbook.
The reef is a living thing under real pressure — bleaching events have hit hard in recent years. The operators we use are Eco Certified and brief you on not touching anything, which matters more than it sounds.
If you are prone to seasickness, take something before boarding, not when you feel it. It is 90 minutes each way across open water.
In your price today — with your guide
Outer Great Barrier Reef full day, with lunch
Add to your reef day — approximate prices
Introductory diveFrom A$90Added to the reef day you are already on — no certification needed, and the crew take you down in a small group.
We can book any of these with your tour. Tell us which you want when you confirm and the tickets travel with your documents.
06
Daintree
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Daintree & Cape Tribulation GUIDED
North along the Captain Cook Highway, which runs between the rainforest and the sea for most of an hour, to the Daintree.
At around 180 million years this is the oldest continuously surviving rainforest in the world, and the only place on earth where it runs down to meet a coral reef.
A guided boardwalk with a naturalist, and a river cruise looking for estuarine crocodiles — which are reliably found, and are the reason nobody swims here.
Cape Tribulation in the afternoon: Cook named it in 1770 after putting his ship on the reef. The beach is magnificent and entirely unswimmable.
Insect repellent, and cover your legs on the boardwalks. Also watch for cassowaries on the road — they are two metres tall, endangered, and have right of way.
In your price today — with your guide
Daintree, Mossman Gorge & Cape Tribulation
Melbourne
Days 7–9 · 2 nights
07
Melbourne
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Laneways & the Market AT LEISURE
Morning flight south to Melbourne — 3 hours, and back into a temperate climate that will feel cold after Cairns.
Queen Victoria Market in the afternoon: seven hectares of open sheds trading since 1878, and the largest open-air market in the southern hemisphere.
Then the laneways — Hosier, Degraves, AC/DC Lane — a grid of service alleys that became the best coffee and street art in the country.
Melbourne takes coffee more seriously than anywhere outside Italy, and will make you a flat white properly. It is worth the detour it sounds like.
Melbourne weather changes fast — locals say four seasons in one day and mean it literally. Bring a layer and something waterproof whatever the forecast said.
Add to this day — approximate gate prices
Flight, Cairns → MelbourneQuoted with your datesWe book itThree hours south. We book this with your tour and quote it with the Sydney–Cairns leg.
Queen Victoria MarketFree to enterSeven hectares of open sheds trading since 1878. The food halls are the reason to go.
The lanewaysFreeHosier, Degraves, AC/DC Lane — the best coffee and street art in the country, and walking them costs nothing.
We can book any of these with your tour. Tell us which you want when you confirm and the tickets travel with your documents.
08
The coast
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The Great Ocean Road GUIDED
West out of the city to the Great Ocean Road, built by returned soldiers between 1919 and 1932 and dedicated to the dead of the First World War — the largest war memorial in the world.
The road runs 243 km between cliff and surf, through Lorne and Apollo Bay, with koalas in the roadside gums at Kennett River if you know where to look. Your guide does.
Through the Otways for a rainforest walk, then out to the coast again.
The Twelve Apostles in the late afternoon light — limestone stacks left standing as the cliff eroded behind them. There were never twelve; there are currently seven, and the sea is still at work.
This is a twelve-hour day and the road is winding for much of it. If anyone in the party gets carsick, sit them in front and say so at pickup.
In your price today — with your guide
Great Ocean Road & the Twelve Apostles
09
Departure
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Departure AT LEISURE
Breakfast, check out, and leave your bags with the concierge.
A last morning in the city — the arcades off Bourke Street, the gallery, or simply the best coffee you will have for a while.
Transfer to Tullamarine, about 30 minutes from the centre. Allow 3 hours for an international departure.
Declare anything organic on the way out and in. Australian biosecurity is the strictest in the world and the fines are immediate — food, seeds, wooden items, all of it goes on the card.
Our Melbourne office is here if anything needs sorting in person before you fly. Call the number in the footer and someone will come to you.
Your Hotels
Eight nights — three in Sydney, three in Cairns or Port Douglas, two in Melbourne, always with daily breakfast. In Sydney and Melbourne the tier mostly buys location; in the tropics it buys the pool and the shade, which after a day on the reef matters more than you would think.
Comfort · 4★
Central in both cities, and a pool property in the tropicsSydney CBD or Darling Harbour, Melbourne CBD or Southbank, and a Cairns hotel with a proper pool. Properties currently rated 8.5 or above by recent guests, with breakfast and 24-hour reception throughout.
Deluxe · 5★
Harbour-side in Sydney, and Port Douglas rather than Cairns townA Sydney room facing the water, a Melbourne hotel in the good end of the grid, and a resort at Port Douglas — which is an hour closer to the outer reef and a far nicer place to come back to.
Luxury · landmark 5★
The Opera House view, and a rainforest or beachfront lodge up northThe Sydney addresses people know by name, Melbourne’s best, and a lodge in the Daintree or on Four Mile Beach. At this tier the tropical nights stop being a base and become the reason to go.
You will know exactly where you are staying before you pay a balance. We name the property in your confirmation, in writing, as soon as the room is held — and if it is ever unavailable for your dates we substitute at the same tier or better, never below it.
Restaurants worth trying
Breakfast is in the price. Every other meal is yours to choose, so here is where we would eat. We do not arrange any of these and you would pay for them yourself. They are simply places we rate, near where the trip goes. Tick any you like and they appear on the map.
Suggested, not included. Opening hours and prices are theirs, not ours — and a place that is busy at eight will be busy whether or not you booked through us.
Tour Price
All prices are per person, twin share, in US dollars — the figure below is what you pay us. Travelling alone is possible; the single supplement covers sole use of the room.
Hotel tier
Per person, twin share
Single supplement
Comfort — 4★ hotels, twin share
from US$1,600
+US$560
Deluxe — 5★, Port Douglas, twin share
from US$2,035
+US$885
Luxury — landmark 5★ and rainforest lodge
from US$2,400
+US$1,160
Included
8 nights' accommodation with daily breakfast, in the hotel tier you choose · the Blue Mountains day · a full outer-reef day with lunch and snorkelling gear · the Daintree and Cape Tribulation day · the Great Ocean Road day · English-speaking guides
Not included
Airport transfers, which we exclude on every tour to keep the headline price honest — we will quote them with your booking · Introductory or certified dives on the reef, from about A$90 · the Sydney Harbour Bridge climb · Opera House tours and performances · the two internal flights, Sydney–Cairns and Cairns–Melbourne, quoted with your dates · international flights · the Australian ETA or visa · lunches and dinners other than the reef day · travel insurance · tips
How the flexi tour works. Choose any departure date and a hotel tier → we confirm availability and the exact price within 24 hours → pay a deposit to hold it → your final documents and vouchers arrive by email a week before you fly. There is no group to join and no fixed departure day.
Seasonal pricing. The figures above are the cheapest months to do this trip. No single month is low season in all three cities — Cairns is cheapest in the wet, Sydney and Melbourne in winter, and never at the same time — so this window is the floor for the itinerary as a whole. Australian summer, December to February, is high season in the south and costs substantially more, with Christmas and New Year higher still — but it is the wet season in Cairns, with heat, humidity and stingers in the water. May to September is the best time for the reef and the Daintree and mild in Sydney, though Melbourne is properly cold. Your quote will show the exact figure for your dates.
Budget separately for: reef dives from about A$90, the Sydney Harbour Bridge climb from about A$180, Opera House tours, the Australian ETA or eVisitor (free to about A$20 depending on nationality), international flights, most lunches and dinners, and travel insurance.
Start your booking
Tell us who you are and when you want to go.
We’ll reply within a business day with the price and what’s available.
A deposit holds it, and comes back in full if we can’t get your dates.
✓
That is with us
If you do not hear from us, email
info@dltravel.net and we will pick it up.