Australia/Where to Go & What to Do
Where to Go and What to Do in Australia (2026)
Australia is roughly the size of the continental US with a fraction of the population outside a handful of cities, which makes "where to go" a genuinely different planning problem than most countries — the standard east coast route between Sydney and Cairns covers a real slice of what's worth seeing, but it's also the most crowded, most Instagrammed stretch of the country, and plenty of travelers never look past it simply because it's what every guide leads with.
Where to go
Lonely Planet / generic travel apps — the standard route
Lonely Planet's app and most mainstream travel guides are built around the east coast trail — Sydney, Byron Bay, Gold Coast, Cairns, with the Great Barrier Reef and Fraser Island as the marquee stops. It's a genuinely well-trodden route for a reason: it's a good route, with hostels, buses, and tour operators built entirely around travelers moving along it.
Where it falls short: the trail is so heavily covered that half the country is effectively invisible in comparison. Byron Bay looks incredible in every guide and is also one of the most crowded, most expensive stops on the entire route, precisely because every guide sends people there.
Facebook groups and regional forums — the unofficial layer
"Backpackers in Australia" and dozens of state and town-specific groups carry real-time information no app captures — road closures, which town has an event on this weekend, which region just had a flood or a fire that changed access. It's a genuinely useful layer, and also the least structured — a post from six weeks ago is buried under a hundred newer ones and impossible to verify against anything official.
WikiCamps / route planners — the road-trip layer
Covered in more detail in the accommodation guide, WikiCamps and similar road-trip apps are strong on "what's between point A and point B" — points of interest, lookouts, swimming holes, campsites — with a genuinely large, well-maintained database built by other travelers.
What to do
Viator / GetYourGuide — the big-ticket tours
Viator and GetYourGuide are where most travelers book the marquee experiences — reef trips out of Cairns, Uluru sunset tours, Sydney harbor cruises. Wide selection, easy cancellation on most listings, and reviews from actual past customers.
They work best for a trip with a fixed schedule booked a reasonable amount ahead. For a more flexible or last-minute trip, checking availability a few days out rather than months in advance usually works fine and avoids locking in a schedule too early.
Eventbrite / local listings — one-off events
Eventbrite covers ticketed events reasonably well when organizers actually list there, but a lot of what's genuinely worth going to — a free beach bonfire, a pub trivia night, a farmers' market — never gets a ticketing page at all. It's not really Eventbrite's fault; it's built for events that need a ticketing system, and most casual local activity doesn't.
Hostel noticeboards and word of mouth — the real layer
The genuinely dominant channel for "what's actually worth doing this weekend near me" is still a physical noticeboard or a conversation in a hostel kitchen. It's current, it's local, and it's completely unsearchable the moment you leave that hostel — information that dies the day you check out.
Side by side — where to go
| Lonely Planet | Facebook groups | WikiCamps | |
|---|---|---|---|
| Scenic routes & sights | Yes, best depth | Word of mouth | Yes |
| Current conditions (roads, closures) | — | Real-time, unsearchable | Some, via reviews |
| Free camps on route | — | — | Yes, best depth |
| Searchable later | Yes | No — buried in feed | Yes |
Side by side — what to do
| Viator | Eventbrite | Hostel noticeboard | |
|---|---|---|---|
| Big-ticket tours | Yes, best selection | — | — |
| Ticketed local events | — | Yes | — |
| Free / casual local stuff | — | Rarely listed | Yes, best depth |
| Searchable after the fact | Yes | Yes | No |
Feature details taken from public app store listings and community sources, mid-2026 — features change, so check current conditions and listings before committing to a route or booking anything.
The gap nobody covers
Most travel content in Australia over-indexes on the same handful of stops because that's where the traffic already is, which makes it self-reinforcing — the busiest places get the most coverage, which sends more people there, which generates more coverage. The regions that get skipped aren't skipped because they're not worth it; they're skipped because nobody's incentivized to write about them as heavily.
"What to do" has a smaller version of the same gap: the big platforms need volume and structure to justify listing something, which filters out most of what's actually cheap and local. The noticeboard layer has the good information but it evaporates the moment you leave town — this is the one area where word of mouth still beats every app, and it's worth just asking at your hostel desk before opening anything else.
If you're planning a route around seasonal work rather than sightseeing, that's a genuinely different question covered in the working holiday guide — an employer directory ends up being a more current, more structured routing tool for that specific case than any tourism app.
How the regions actually break down
- East coast (NSW/QLD): The standard trail, well served by every tourism guide, but also the most crowded and most expensive per night on average.
- Northern Territory / North QLD: Fewer crowds, a harsher climate, and genuinely different scenery — the Kimberley and Kakadu region reward the extra effort to get there.
- South Australia / Victoria: The Great Ocean Road and the Barossa/Adelaide Hills wine regions are well covered but still less crowded than the equivalent stretch up the east coast.
- Western Australia: Consistently under-covered relative to how good it is — genuinely worth the detour for both scenery and space, but distances are brutal and require real trip planning.
What actually works, in practice
- Booking a specific big-ticket experience (reef, Uluru, harbor cruise): Viator or GetYourGuide, booked a few days ahead once your schedule is confirmed if your trip is flexible, or further out if dates are fixed.
- Finding a ticketed local event: Eventbrite, though check the venue's own Instagram too, since a lot of smaller organizers skip ticketing platforms entirely.
- Finding out what's actually worth doing this weekend: ask at the hostel desk or in the kitchen — it sounds old-fashioned, but it's genuinely still the best-informed source for anything free or local.
- Avoiding the most crowded stretch of the east coast: consider Western Australia or the Northern Territory instead — less coverage in generic guides usually means fewer crowds, not less to see.
FAQ
Should I follow the standard east coast trail in Australia?
It's well-trodden for a reason — good infrastructure, hostels, and buses — but it's also the most crowded and expensive stretch of the country. Worth weighing against less-covered regions like Western Australia if you have the time.
Is Western Australia worth visiting?
It's under-covered in most generic guides but has genuine scenery and far fewer crowds — the tradeoff is distance, since towns can be hundreds of kilometers apart with long stretches of nothing in between.
What's the best app for finding free things to do in Australia?
There isn't a strong single app for this yet — hostel noticeboards and word of mouth still outperform any listings platform for free, casual local activities.
Should I book tours like the Great Barrier Reef in advance?
If your dates are fixed, booking further ahead is safer for popular experiences. If your trip is flexible, checking availability a few days out usually works fine and avoids locking in a schedule too early.
Alex Turner is a travel blogger who has spent extended stretches of time in Australia, moving between cities, road trips, and regional stays.