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Top Ten Australian Destinations

  • December 8, 2015
  • By 50 Shades
  • 14 Comments
Top Ten Australian Destinations

I have been inundating you all in the past 12 months with my wonderful photos and stories of our adventures touring around Australia. But now it is someone else’s turn to list their top Australian destinations as voted by over 5,000 people around the world.

I have fortunately visited all but three of these destinations. Thanks to Experience Oz for this list:

#10 Kangaroo Island, SA

Kangaroo Island lies 112Kms south-west of Adelaide in South Australia. It is an extremely popular tourist attraction because of it’s pristine seas, granite rock formations and large abundance of wildlife such as Australia fur seals, kangaroos, wallabies, little penguins and birdlife. We never visited this island due to the fact that the island is mostly a National Park and we could not take our dog with us.

Kangaroo Island

Kangaroo Island

#9 Margaret River, WA

Delectable fresh produce, delicious wines and great surfing complete the picture in the Margaret River region 277Kms south of Perth in West Australia. I have been fortunate enough to visit Margaret River on two occasions and both times toured many of the great wineries and farms in the surrounding area. The beaches west of Margaret River are infamous when it comes to surfing and attract the best surfers from all over the world.

Winery in Margaret River Region

Winery in Margaret River Region

#8 Ningaloo Reef, WA

A fringing tropical reef off the mid-north coast of West Australia, the Ningaloo Reef is home to 200 species of hard coral, 50 soft coral and over 500 species of fish. You can snorkel off the beaches at Coral Bay and Cape Range National Park in Exmouth or swim with the giants of the sea, the gentle whale sharks. It is diving heaven protected by the Ningaloo Reef Marine Park

Ningaloo Reef Whale Shark Swim

Ningaloo Reef Whale Shark Swim

#7 Gold Coast, Qld

My own hometown and popular beach tourist destination in South East Queensland, the Gold Coast is renowned for it’s beautiful beaches, theme parks, water activities, glitz and glamour of world-class resorts, non-stop nightlife, wide choice of restaurants and the green of the Gold Coast Hinterland.

View of North Burleigh Beach

View of North Burleigh Beach

#6 Port Douglas, Qld

Touted as one of the top Queensland tourist destinations where the rich and famous like to hang out, Port Douglas is located in 70Km north of Cairns in Far North Queensland. It’s known for its beach and golf resorts, and as a jumping-off point for tours to the Great Barrier Reef.

Port Douglas, Far North Queensland

#5 Uluru/Ayers Rock, NT

This spectacular red rock or dome rises out of the Central Australian desert in the heart of Australia in the Northern Territory. It’s a massive sandstone monolith, sacred to indigenous Australians and believed to be about 700 million years old.

Uluru/Ayers Rock

Uluru/Ayers Rock

#4 Rottnest Island, WA

Rottnest Island is an island off the coast of Western Australia, located 18 kilometres west of Fremantle, near Perth. On its shores there are 63 stunning beaches, 20 beautiful bays and many coral reefs and wrecks, as well as many unique plant and animal species.

Rottnest Island

Rottnest Island

#3 Cairns, Qld

The gateway to Queensland’s tropical far north, Cairns is a stylish city, which is also renowned for its relaxed, tropical climate and laid back ambience. From here you can explore the beauty of the Daintree National Park, the scenic railway and skyrail to Kuranda and dive the Great Barrier Reef.

Cairns

Cairns

#2 Whitsundays, Qld

Lying in the heart of the Great Barrier Reef, in the warm waters of Australia’s Coral Sea are 74 tropical islands known as The Whitsundays. The majority of the Whitsunday Islands are spectacular, tropical deserted islands, but eight offer a variety of resort accommodation, all with the Great Barrier Reef and fringing coral reefs at their doorstep. But they also offer some of the best Whitsunday Island Beaches.

Whitsunday Islands

Whitsunday Islands

#1 Kimberley Region, WA

One of the world’s last wilderness areas, The Kimberley’s are made up of rugged gorges, epic waterways and incandescent ocean, in Australia’s north-west corner of Western Australia. I think it deserves its spot as number one destination in Australia – it will blow your mind away!

Geikie Gorge, The Kimberley

Geikie Gorge, The Kimberley

So what do I think about these selections? I think the voters have it pretty right. I am surprised however than not one of our cities made it into the top ten. e.g: Sydney or Melbourne. I’m also astonished that Tasmania nor the Great Ocean Road in Victoria didn’t rate a mention. I also think that Port Douglas could possibly be categorised as part of Cairns considering the short distance between the two.

What are your thoughts? Do you have a top ten of Australian destinations?

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By 50 Shades, December 8, 2015 Kathy was a 50 something year old when she started up this blog 6 years ago, but has since turned over another decade and is now in her early 60s. She is married with two adult children and lives on the Tweed Coast of New South Wales, Australia. Kathy enjoys living life to the fullest and loves to keep fit and active by maintaining a healthy diet and exercising regularly. Some of her interests include reading, photography, travelling, cooking and blogging! Kathy works part-time as a freelance writer but her real passion is travelling and photographing brilliant destinations both within Australia and overseas and writing about it.
  • 14

50 Shades

Kathy was a 50 something year old when she started up this blog 6 years ago, but has since turned over another decade and is now in her early 60s. She is married with two adult children and lives on the Tweed Coast of New South Wales, Australia. Kathy enjoys living life to the fullest and loves to keep fit and active by maintaining a healthy diet and exercising regularly. Some of her interests include reading, photography, travelling, cooking and blogging! Kathy works part-time as a freelance writer but her real passion is travelling and photographing brilliant destinations both within Australia and overseas and writing about it.

14 Comments
  • Sharon Smith
    December 8, 2015

    Hi KATHY, I feel blessed to have visited all of these fantastic Australian destinations except No. 10, kangaroo Island. All are wonderful and worthwhile, I agree with your opinion on Cairns and Port Douglass being considered the one location, you don’t usually visit one without the other so they could be amalgamated. The great Ocean road probably should have got a mention and Tassie is always forgotten although it is more than worthy!! I am happy for the Capital Cities to be left out of this list, I am interested in more natural destinations. Karijini national park would be high on my list of places to visit. Journey to the centre of the earth tour must be one of the most thrilling things I have done in Australia. My husband Alistair says that the overland trail in TAS is not to be missed, so there is another couple for bloggers to consider. Thanx for the enjoyable info KATHY. Xx

    • Kathy
      December 8, 2015

      Me too Sharon. I always feel that it was a privilege to see most of our amazing country. We didn’t get to Karijini NP and I’m sad that we didn’t. As for the journey to the centre of the earth tour – I’ve never heard of that? When we were in Tassie we stopped at Lake St Clair where the overland trail begins. We really should have stayed longer and completed this hike (even though it was snowing on Cradle Mountain at the time!) The Eyre Peninsula in South Australia was pretty high up there on my favourite places in Australia too. :)

  • Jo at Lifestyle Fifty
    December 8, 2015

    Great to see that WA is heavily featured – normally we are the forgotten state ;) Agree that the Kimberley is one of the last great wildernesses – magnificent and untouched. I wonder how long that will last ;) I love the tropics though and the Whitsundays are pretty high on my list, so too Cairns and Port Douglas.

    • Kathy
      December 8, 2015

      WA definitely deserves to be on the top ten list. Rottnest Island did surprise me somewhat and also I think that SA has other destinations apart from Kangaroo Island that rate higher in my opinion. eg: Eyre Peninsula. :)

  • Michelle Weaver (@pinkypoinker)
    December 8, 2015

    I agree. Port Douglas and Cairns should have been combined as Far North Queensland. Where was Tassie? The trouble is Australia has so many great places you really can’t narrow it down to ten!

    • Kathy
      December 8, 2015

      Poor Tassie always gets forgotten! I think more people should go there. It is absolutely stunning. Yes I agree ten places isn’t enough. We have so much beauty in our country.:)

  • Red Nomad OZ
    December 8, 2015

    It’s SO hard to narrow it down to just 10! I can think of a lot of other places to add, but then I’m not sure which ones I’d bump off the list to make room! So maybe we just need a TOP 100!! There really ARE that many great places in OZ!

    • Kathy
      December 9, 2015

      It is a difficult choice. A Top 100 would be better.Tourists who come to Australia barely scratch the surface and I always tell them they need to get off the beaten track a bit to see the REAL Australia. I was surprised by Rottnest Island and Kangaroo Island (although I’ve heard it is magical). Rottnest is easily accessible from Perth/Fremantle but Kangaroo Island is 200Km from Adelaide and I would have thought not many tourists would visit there.:)

  • Rae Hilhorst
    December 8, 2015

    I to feel blessed that WA is mentioned several times. Tasmania is on my wish list x

    • Kathy
      December 9, 2015

      Well you know how I feel about WA – it is the BEE’S KNEES! I love the diversity of your state. :)

  • budgettraveltalk
    December 9, 2015

    I think there should be more than 10. Also in the grand scheme of things maybe Port Douglas and Cairns could be combined as a Destination like Margaret River in W.A.

    • Kathy
      December 9, 2015

      Yes ten is a limiting number. Like everyone else I think I could think of at least another 20 remarkable places to see in Australia. :)

  • NOMAD/nester _ Julie Small
    December 11, 2015

    Damn we live in a gorgeous country!! My favourite of these is Kangaroo Island – can’t rave about it highly enough. But you have now made my bucket list just that little bit longer :)

    • Kathy
      December 11, 2015

      We certainly do Julie. I love every piece of Australia and hope to see even more of it whilst I’m still able. I’m so disappointed we never made the trip to Kangaroo Island. We were right on it’s doorstep but decided not to take our caravan across on the ferry as it was very expensive. :)

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