Cruise Sydney Harbour over lunch, enjoying local flavours while the city’s waterfront landmarks come into view. See the Sydney Harbour Bridge and Opera House from the water, along with the coves and shoreline that shape the harbour.

The harbour has long been central to Sydney’s life and remains an active setting for ferries and boats. Travelling across it gives you room to appreciate both the landmarks’ scale and their relationship to the city.

AAT Kings

• 2 Dinner (D)
• 12 Breakfast (B)
• 3 Lunch (L)

• Day 1: Flights to arrive prior to 12 noon into Melbourne AirportDay 13: Flights to depart anytime from Sydney Airport
  Airport to Hotel transfers are available to purchase on request.
  Flights to and from your tour are not included in the tour price.
  Internal-holiday flights IncludedPlease note that prices include land and internal-holiday airfares, which AAT Kings will book to fulfil the holiday itinerary:
  Day 4: Melbourne to Ayers RockDay 6: Ayers Rock to CairnsDay 9: Cairns to Sydney

• Warm layers in cooler months
  Camera
  Comfortable walking shoes
  Sunglasses, sunscreen and hat
  Water bottle

• Low level of fitness required.

Meet your Travel Director and fellow travellers over a welcome dinner at South Wharf, beside Melbourne’s Yarra River. The small-group setting offers an easy way to get acquainted while sharing a meal.

South Wharf’s restored industrial buildings and waterside setting reflect the area’s working-port past. Settle into Melbourne’s riverside atmosphere as the city lights come on across the water.

Explore Melbourne on a guided walk through its laneways and arcades, finding tucked-away corners that are easy to miss from the main streets. Look for street art, intimate cafés and the details that give these narrow passages their character.

The city’s historic arcades preserve traces of nineteenth-century Melbourne, while its laneways remain a canvas for contemporary creativity. Hear local stories that connect these layers of the city.

Meet a local Anangu artist and try your hand at Aboriginal dot painting in the Ulu?u region. This participatory MAKE TRAVEL MATTER® Experience offers time to learn through making, rather than simply viewing finished works.

Hear about the artist’s approach and explore how art can express connections to Country. The encounter gives a personal perspective on living Anangu culture while keeping the artist’s own knowledge and creative practice at its centre.

Cruise to the Great Barrier Reef from Cairns and discover its underwater world by snorkelling among coral gardens or viewing marine life from a semi-submersible. A tropical lunch is served onboard, with time to relax between reef activities.

This World Heritage-listed reef system supports an extraordinary variety of coral and fish. Seeing it from both above and below the water reveals the colours, movement and scale that make it one of Australia’s defining natural environments.

Step inside the Sydney Opera House on a private guided tour and gain a behind-the-scenes perspective on one of the world’s best-known performing arts venues. Explore its interior spaces and learn how the building works as a place for live performance.

Designed by Danish architect Jørn Utzon, the sail-like roof forms beside Sydney Harbour made the Opera House an architectural landmark. The tour adds the stories and practical details behind its celebrated silhouette.

Stroll along the promenade at Bondi Beach and take in the sweep of sand, Pacific surf and busy beachfront. Enjoy time to observe the swimmers, walkers and café culture that make Bondi part of everyday Sydney life.

Bondi is closely associated with Australia’s coastal culture, but its appeal is also in the simple rhythm of the shore. Soak in the seaside atmosphere at a relaxed pace, with space to pause for views across the bay.

Explore the Art Gallery of New South Wales on a guided tour focused on First Nations and Australian art. Engage with works that offer different perspectives on Country, identity and the nation’s creative history.

The experience includes a Be My Guest lunch celebrating native ingredients, extending the cultural encounter beyond the gallery. Art and food provide two distinct ways to consider the traditions and contemporary voices that shape Australia.

Visit Phillip Island for the Penguin Parade, where little penguins come ashore from the sea around dusk. Watch this wildlife encounter from designated viewing areas as the birds make their way toward their burrows.

The island’s southern coastline provides habitat for these small seabirds, and the evening viewing follows their natural return to land. This Optional Experience is at additional cost and bookable on tour.

Travel along the Great Ocean Road on a day tour from Melbourne, taking in the changing coastline of Victoria’s southwest. See the Twelve Apostles, limestone stacks rising from the Southern Ocean near sheer cliffs.

Built in the early twentieth century as a memorial to Australians who served in the First World War, the road is now known for its coastal scenery. This Optional Experience is at additional cost and bookable on tour.

Experience Field of Light near Ulu?u at sunrise, when thousands of illuminated stems create a glowing pattern across the desert. Walk among the installation and watch the scene change as daylight reaches the surrounding landscape.

Created by artist Bruce Munro, the work offers an artistic contrast to the outback’s natural forms and colours. This Optional Experience is at additional cost and bookable on tour.

Ride the Kuranda Scenic Railway through the rainforest-clad ranges above Cairns toward the mountain village of Kuranda. Look out across steep gullies and tropical scenery as the train follows a historic route through the Barron Gorge area.

Built in the late nineteenth century, the railway remains a distinctive way to encounter the region’s landscape and engineering heritage. This Optional Experience is at additional cost and bookable on tour.

Glide above the canopy on the Skyrail Rainforest Cableway, taking in a broad view of the tropical landscape between the Cairns area and Kuranda. The elevated journey reveals layers of vegetation that are difficult to appreciate from the forest floor.

This region forms part of the Wet Tropics of Queensland World Heritage Area, recognised for its ancient rainforest ecosystems. This Optional Experience is at additional cost and bookable on tour.

Explore the Blue Mountains on an optional day tour from Sydney, taking in dramatic escarpments, forested valleys and far-reaching viewpoints. The change from harbour city to sandstone plateau offers a different perspective on New South Wales.

The mountains lie within the World Heritage-listed Greater Blue Mountains Area, recognised for its extensive eucalypt forests. This Optional Experience is at additional cost and bookable on tour.

Watch sunset over Ulu?u from a dedicated viewing area in the Central Australian desert. As the light changes, the sandstone surface shifts through warm reds and deeper purples against the broad outback sky.

Ulu?u is part of Ulu?u-Kata Tju?a National Park, a World Heritage-listed landscape of enduring importance to its Anangu Traditional Owners. A smaller group allows space to take in the changing light and scale of the rock.

Witness sunrise over Ulu?u as the first light reaches the sandstone and brings its ridges and textures into view. The quiet desert setting offers a different perspective on this landmark from the warmth and colour of sunset.

Rising from the plains of Ulu?u-Kata Tju?a National Park, Ulu?u holds deep cultural significance for the Anangu people. Pause to observe the rock within the wider landscape, not simply as a distant silhouette.

Join a guided tour at the base of Ulu?u to see the sandstone formation at close range and hear stories of the Anangu, its Traditional Owners. This MAKE TRAVEL MATTER® Experience brings cultural meaning to a landscape often known only through photographs.

Discover how Anangu knowledge and connection to Country shape understanding of Ulu?u and its surroundings. Walking near the rock reveals its changing surfaces, sheltered spaces and immense scale.

Walk into Walpa Gorge at Kata Tju?a, following a path between two of the formation’s towering sandstone domes. Their steep walls frame the sky and create a striking sense of scale as you move deeper into the gorge.

Kata Tju?a, meaning “many heads” in Pitjantjatjara, is part of World Heritage-listed Ulu?u-Kata Tju?a National Park. The walk offers a close look at a landscape distinct from, yet culturally connected to, nearby Ulu?u.