Australia is a continent, and the implications of that scale are the first thing any itinerary must accommodate. Six regions each make a distinct argument: Sydney for its harbor and the Pacific Rim dining culture it has generated; Melbourne for the culture, the Great Ocean Road, and the Barossa's proximity; Queensland for the Great Barrier Reef and the Daintree; South Australia for Kangaroo Island and old-vine Shiraz; Western Australia for Margaret River and, for those with the right operator, the Kimberley; Tasmania for MONA and the wilderness lodge circuit; the Northern Territory for Uluru and Kakadu.
No single visit covers all of them well, and this guide does not pretend otherwise. It argues for depth over breadth, for the Kimberley expedition over the one-hour reef trip, for the cellar door in the Clare Valley over the duty-free bottle at the departure gate. Australia returns the investment of genuine attention with a specificity that few places of its scale can match.
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