Anyone got any suggestions of where to holiday in Aus over summer?

Its a big country and I am unsure of where to start tbh.So thought I'd see if others have suggestions

Don't care if we drive or fly. I just want to go somewhere for a holiday that isn't in South Australia

My requirements are

1) Don't want to holiday in SA. Total change of scene somewhere different.

2) No camping out in the bush or remote locations.

3) Kid friendly (school age)

4) Don't mind a holiday camp but it needs to have a bit more than a bouncy pillow and mini golf as its activities IYKWIM

We had a great trip to Tasmania.

Flew into Hobart and then traveled up to Launceston. Spent a couple of night at Tamar Valley and wished that I had the youngsters with me....Cataract Gorge is well worth a visit with the kids...more than that, it's a must do!

I went up to Brisbane earlier this year and was pleasantly surprised. Really well worth a trip. Loads to do. Traveled up to Noosa and down to the Goldcoast. Am going back with some of the grandchildren to do the theme parks and spend some more time in Brisbane. Queensland during our winter might be a better idea!

We are going to Sovereign Hill at Ballarat in October. Heard lots of good reviews but not been before.

I think, as Tamara says Qld is better in our winter.

Great Ocean Rd is fab if you haven't done that. Loved Apollo Bay.

Agreed! Well worth doing great ocean road, even part of it if not all.

Did you ever get to kangaroo island? I know it's still SA but it's amazing.

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Canberra is a great place to visit - Questacon, the Mint, Parliament House (old and new - we spent longer in Old Parliament House than the new one), the National Arboretum, the War Memorial (you can spend a day at the Memorial), Telstra Tower. Canberra has a zoo and aquarium, a dinosaur museum, the Australian Museum, The National Museum, the National Gallery.... You can drive although you would have to go through some remote to get there and it would mean an overnight stay but well worth it - when we looked into flying most of the flights seemed to go via Sydney or Melbourne!

Or Sydney - don't think I can list everything Sydney would have.

Or the Great Barrier Reef,

Or the Ningaloo Reef

Or the Gold Coast for the theme parks (you can get great deals on Scoopon)

Or Darwin for the heat, the crocs and the spiders

Do you have friends or family in other states? When we are looking to go somewhere sometimes we pick somewhere we can drop in on friends we haven't seen for a long time and plan a holiday around that.

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Do you have friends or family in other states? When we are looking to go somewhere sometimes we pick somewhere we can drop in on friends we haven't seen for a long time and plan a holiday around that.

We do (Brisbane, Sydney, Melbourne and elsewhere) but I'm not sure I want to stay with other people. My last couple of holidays have been spent with family and friends and I really want to get away just with my own family and do our thing.

Great Ocean Road is appealing as are the Snowy Mountains but not sure about the fire risk there that time of year.

Yes sorry my perfect holiday means going to stay somewhere nearby and seeing them as part of the holiday, a day outing, dinner somewhere, but not staying with them just enjoying the drop in and catch up factor as a small part of the trip. I find in Australia we are all so much more open to little drop ins from inter state visitors without the expectation of having to stay for days.

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Canberra is a great place to visit - Questacon, the Mint, Parliament House (old and new - we spent longer in Old Parliament House than the new one), the National Arboretum, the War Memorial (you can spend a day at the Memorial), Telstra Tower. Canberra has a zoo and aquarium, a dinosaur museum, the Australian Museum, The National Museum, the National Gallery.... You can drive although you would have to go through some remote to get there and it would mean an overnight stay but well worth it - when we looked into flying most of the flights seemed to go via Sydney or Melbourne!

 

Or Sydney - don't think I can list everything Sydney would have.

Or the Great Barrier Reef,

Or the Ningaloo Reef

Or the Gold Coast for the theme parks (you can get great deals on Scoopon)

Or Darwin for the heat, the crocs and the spiders

I have never been to Canberra. Is there really plenty to do? I may be taking my grandson there for a walking competition and it's one place that wasn't really on my list of places to see!

I think that my next places to visit may be Cairns and Darwin (but you can keep your spiders!)...

We loved Canberra on our honeymoon, stayed for a few days. I will come back and post later . I think it's a stop off on a Sydney visit rather than a holiday destination. Go there as part of a bigger plan.

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Tamara, we took my Mum when she was over at Christmas because she's always been interested in politics, so we chose it over a few days in Sydney; we did a round trip via Broken Hill, Parkes (to see the Dish) and back through Hay (we stayed on a sheep station). It was great. We had 3 nights in Canberra and thought that would be long enough but it wasn't; like I said we could have spent a day in the War Memorial instead we crammed it into a couple of hours, Mum and I did the Old Parliament House while my husband took the children to Questicon and they were finished before we were (although I think they could have done more, they were just done) and we didn't get to the zoo/aquarium or the arboretum or a load of other places, the Mint was really only an hour or so but interesting (and free). I would definitely go back again to see the rest.

https://www.awm.gov.au/

My daughter went to Canberra on a school excursion for a week and they packed heaps in to 5 days! The Mint, war memorial, questicon, parliament houses, botanical gardens, cockington green gardens, laser quest, national dinosaur museum, australian institute of sports. She said 'it was amazing they just didn't have time to spend enough time at each place' I't was so much fun'. And thats coming from a grumpy 13 year old!!