East Coast Explorer

Twenty-six nights down the whole Australian east coast in a motorhome, from Cairns to Sydney, with the flights included.

Cairns takes the first night in a hotel, then Port Douglas for three, the base for both the outer reef and the Daintree, with Cape Tribulation where the rainforest meets the sea. Mission Beach follows, then Airlie Beach, the mainland base for the Whitsundays, with a catamaran to Whitehaven Beach optional.

Rockhampton comes next by way of Eungella, the largest rainforest in Queensland, then Agnes Water and 1770 at the southern end of the reef. Noosa takes two nights with the everglades behind it, then Lamington National Park and its rainforest tracks, and Byron Bay for three. Coffs Harbour follows, with snorkelling and kayaking in the Solitary Islands Marine Reserve, then Port Stephens, which has twenty-six beaches and dolphins in the bay, and the Blue Mountains before Sydney, where the motorhome goes back and two nights in a hotel close the trip.

Flights, a night in a Cairns hotel, twenty nights of maui Beach motorhome hire sleeping up to four with zero-excess insurance and two nights in a Sydney hotel are included. Twenty-seven days is the longest Australian itinerary in the range and the pace shows it: three nights at Port Douglas and Byron Bay, two at several others. The dry winter months are the season for the tropical half, since the summer brings heavy rain and stingers in the water. Reef trips and island ferries want booking ahead, and no wildlife sighting can be promised.