Itinerary Details
Day 1 Welcome to Melbourne
Welcome to Australia's cultural capital, Melbourne. Upon arrival, you'll be transferred to the elegant Park Hyatt Melbourne, your home for the next three nights. Here, grand Victorian architecture stands alongside bold contemporary design, hidden laneways lead to acclaimed cafés and galleries, and leafy parks soften the edges of this vibrant city.
Park Hyatt Melbourne
Day 2 Aboriginal Melbourne: Past and Present
Before it was the Yarra, the river was the Birrarung, a source of food for the clans of the Kulin Nation. With an Aboriginal host, you walk its banks and follow its course. Your host points out where the Melbourne Cricket Ground now stands, once a Kulin gathering place, and a nearby scar tree that still carries the mark where bark was cut for a canoe or shelter.
Later, the walk moves to Fitzroy. Along Gertrude Street, sites important to the Aboriginal community sit beside murals painted by and for it, and the conversation turns to Aboriginal life in Melbourne today.
Park Hyatt Melbourne
Meals: B, L
Day 3 Lanes & Arcades Walking Tour
Melbourne keeps many of its favorite spots off the main streets. On a morning walk with a local guide, duck through Victorian-era arcades and down narrow lanes lined with street art, stopping at independent designers, specialty shops, and cafés that are easy to miss without someone who knows where to turn. Your guide fills in the history and architecture as you go.
By lunch, the city's layout makes sense, and you have a short list of places to return to this afternoon.
Park Hyatt Melbourne
Meals: B, L
Day 4 Fly from Melbourne to Adelaide
Adelaide is small enough to walk across in an afternoon. Colonel William Light laid out the city center in 1837 as a grid ringed entirely by parkland, and the plan still holds: a few blocks in any direction, the streets give way to lawns and gum trees. The afternoon is free to settle in.
Mayfair Hotel
Meals: B
Day 5 Kangaroo Island One-Day Adventure
Kangaroo Island is a haven for native wildlife, rugged coastlines and quiet beaches. At Emu Bay, watch for kangaroos near the shoreline before venturing inland to Duck Lagoon, where koalas rest in eucalyptus trees and native birds gather around the wetlands. A visit to a historic eucalyptus distillery offers a glimpse into the island's past.
At Seal Bay Conservation Park, walk with your guide among a colony of Australian sea lions. Watch pups playing in the surf, mothers nursing their young and large bulls resting on the sand. Explore the rugged coastline and secluded bays of the island's southeast before returning to Adelaide.
Mayfair Hotel
Meals: B, L
Day 6 Classic Adelaide: Culture and Heritage
Discover Adelaide's cultural heart, where grand government buildings, historic universities and tree-lined boulevards reflect the city's heritage. Admire Rodin sculptures at the Art Gallery of South Australia, explore the South Australian Museum and its desert garden, and see skilled conservators restoring paintings, books and textiles at Artlab. Wander through charming laneways and hidden corners known to locals, stopping to sample handcrafted chocolates at Haigh's and visit South Australia's own Jurlique skincare boutique. Pass the historic Adelaide Club and Queen Adelaide Club, gaining insight into the city's social history. Perhaps finish with lunch at the Art Gallery.
Mayfair Hotel
Meals: B
Day 7 The Ghan: Adelaide to the Outback
Step aboard the legendary Ghan. North of Adelaide, wheat country thins into mallee scrub, and the Flinders Ranges hold the eastern horizon before falling away behind the train. The Ghan takes its name from the cameleers, many from Afghanistan, who carried supplies through this country in the 1800s, long before the railway. Your private Platinum cabin is your base for the night, while gourmet regional cuisine and South Australian wines are served on board.
The Ghan (Platinum Cabin)
Meals: B, D
Day 8 Arrival in Alice Springs
The train stops at Marla, in the far north of South Australia, so you can step off with a coffee and watch the sun come up over the Outback. Back aboard, brunch is served in the dining car as the train continues north into the Northern Territory.
Alice Springs is Mparntwe to the Arrernte people, whose Country takes in the town and the MacDonnell Ranges around it. Your afternoon is open to visit local landmarks or venture further with a helicopter flight over the MacDonnell Ranges or camel ride across the ochre country outside town.
Crowne Plaza Alice Springs Lasseters
Meals: B
Day 9 Uluru at Sunset
Uluru rises dramatically from the red desert landscape, its immense scale becoming even more impressive as you approach. Walk with your guide along the base, visiting ancient rock art sites and the peaceful Mutitjulu Waterhole. Learn about the cultural and spiritual significance of Uluru to the Anangu people, the Traditional Owners of this land, as you explore the Mala Walk and hear stories passed down through generations.
As the sun begins to set, watch the changing colors of Uluru from the Talinguru Nyakunytjaku viewing area, with Kata Tjuta in the distance and a glass of sparkling wine in hand.
Sails In The Desert
Meals: B
Day 10 Kata Tjuta at Sunrise and A Night at Field of Light
Kata Tjuta means “many heads,” and at sunrise its 36 domes change color one after another. After a picnic breakfast, walk with your guide into Walpa Gorge between sheer conglomerate walls. Walpa means wind, and you hear why as it moves through the gap above you.
In the evening, you're taken to a dune with views of Uluru for sunset, canapés, and sparkling wine, accompanied by a didgeridoo. As darkness falls, 50,000 glass spheres of Bruce Munro's Field of Light sparkle across the desert. Dinner is three courses flavored with native ingredients, followed by a star talk on the southern sky. Afterward, you walk the paths through the installation, with a last look from the dune-top viewing area.
Sails In The Desert
Meals: B, D
Day 11 From the Red Centre to the Coral Sea
Leaving the red ochre sand of the Outback behind, by afternoon you're on the Coral Sea coast north of Cairns, where Thala Beach Nature Reserve occupies a private headland of rainforest between Cairns and Port Douglas. The rest of the day is unscheduled.
Thala Beach Nature Reserve
Meals: B
Day 12 Kuku Yalanji Country
The Kuku Yalanji have lived between the rainforest and the reef for countless generations, and their relationship with this land continues. With a Kuku Yalanji guide, you walk through rainforest and along the coastal flats, learning which plants are eaten and which are used as medicine, and tasting bush food along the way. On the tidal flats, you gather shellfish, try your hand at spear throwing, and, with luck, catch a mud crab. The day ends with a swim in a freshwater stream.
Thala Beach Nature Reserve
Meals: B, L
Day 13 Sailing to the Outer Great Barrier Reef
The Daintree's mountains follow you up the coast as the yacht sails out of Port Douglas toward the coral cays of Mackay Cay or Undine Reef. At the reef, a marine biologist leads a guided snorkel over gardens of giant clams and coral, with a chance of seeing turtles. If you'd rather stay dry, a glass-bottom boat goes over the same reef. Between swims, there's time to walk the white sand of the cay.
Thala Beach Nature Reserve
Meals: B, L
Day 14 Fly from Cairns to Sydney
Takeoff to Sydney and continue on the next stage of your adventure. Upon arrival, the day is yours to settle in and explore. Circular Quay, the ferries, and the Opera House are a short walk downhill from Shangri-La Sydney, which stands above The Rocks.
Shangri-La, Sydney
Meals: B
Day 15 Sydney from Bondi to Manly
See both sides of the Sydney Harbour in a single day. The morning starts in The Rocks, where the colony began, continues along Macquarie Street past Parliament House, St Mary's Cathedral, and Hyde Park Barracks, and pauses in the Royal Botanic Garden for a view across to the Opera House and Harbour Bridge. Sulphur-crested cockatoos and lorikeets are common here.
From there, you wind through the iron-lace terraces of Paddington and Woollahra, stop for coffee at a neighborhood café, and walk the cliff path from Tamarama to Bondi Beach. After crossing the Harbour Bridge to Middle Head and Mosman for lunch, you visit Manly Beach, where surfing first took hold in Australia, and North Head.
Shangri-La, Sydney
Meals: B, L
Day 16 An Evening at the Sydney Opera House
The day is yours until evening, when you take a guided tour of the Sydney Opera House. Jørn Utzon's building opened in 1973 on Bennelong Point, named for Woollarawarre Bennelong, a Wangal man who served as an intermediary between the Eora peoples and the first British colonists. Afterward, enjoy a two-course dinner at Bennelong, the restaurant beneath the building's sails, with Australian wine pairings.
Shangri-La, Sydney
Meals: B, D
Day 17 Farewell to Sydney
If your flight time allows, take one more walk down to Circular Quay before your private transfer to Sydney Airport.
Meals: B
