Is vegetarian and Indian food easy to find in Australia?

Very. Australia has one of the largest Indian diasporas anywhere, and Sydney, Melbourne, Brisbane and Perth all have proper Indian restaurants rather than hotel approximations, along with Indian grocery shops. Vegetarian eating is straightforward well beyond that, since Australian cafe culture caters heavily to vegetarians and vegans and menus label clearly. Jain requirements are understood in the Indian restaurants and worth flagging elsewhere. Remote areas such as the Red Centre have far less choice, so plan around that leg.

Sydney or Melbourne: which should I base in?

Sydney for a first visit. It has the harbour, the Opera House, ocean beaches inside the city and the Blue Mountains an hour away, and it is the easier airport to fly into from India. Melbourne is the city people often prefer once they have seen both, built around laneways, coffee, food and sport, with the Great Ocean Road as its day trip. If you only have four nights for one city, take Sydney. If you have a week and you like eating, Melbourne repays the extra days. The flight between them is ninety minutes, so on a two week trip you do both.

Is Australia good for families with children?

Yes, with one caveat that decides the itinerary. Safety, healthcare, food and English are all straightforward, and the wildlife parks near Sydney and Brisbane deliver kangaroos and koalas reliably, which is usually what children actually came for. The Gold Coast has the theme parks. The caveat is distance: three internal flights in ten days will exhaust a young family, so a trip built around two places works far better than one that chases the whole east coast. Long-haul flights from India also mean a day at each end for recovery.

Do I need to hire a car in Australia?

Not for the cities, and yes for some of the best parts. Sydney and Melbourne have good public transport and parking is expensive, so a car there is a liability. But the Great Ocean Road, the Blue Mountains, the Yarra Valley and the Daintree are all far better with your own vehicle, and hiring for those two or three days rather than the whole trip is the usual answer. Australians drive on the left, which is familiar for Indian drivers, and an Indian licence is generally accepted alongside an international permit. Distances between towns are long and fuel stops sparse outside the coast.

Can I see kangaroos and koalas in the wild?

Kangaroos, easily. They are common across the country and you will see them at dusk on the edges of almost any country town, in the Blue Mountains, and around Uluru. Koalas are harder, because they sleep some twenty hours a day high in eucalyptus trees, and spotting one wild takes patience and often a guide. Kangaroo Island in South Australia, Raymond Island in Victoria and the Great Otway area along the Great Ocean Road are the reliable wild places. If seeing them matters more than seeing them wild, the wildlife parks near Sydney and Brisbane are honest about being parks and deliver every time.

Australia Travel Guide & Tourism (2026)

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Australia Travel Essentials

Region: Oceania Countries

Ideal Duration: 10 to 14 days for the east coast, 3 weeks for more

Currency: Australian Dollar
(AUD)

Best Time: Spring (September to November) and Autumn (March to May)

Budget for Food & Drinks (per day in USD): Budget: $20-40
Mid-range: $50-80

Accommodation Cost (per night in USD): Dorm bed: $15-30
Budget: $50-100
Mid-range: $120-200
Luxury: $250 and above

Visa Policy for Indians: eTA or visa, depending on purpose and length of stay

Visa Policy for Other Nationals: eTA or Visa, depending on nationality and purpose

Getting In Australia: Sydney Airport (SYD), Melbourne Airport (MEL), Brisbane Airport (BNE) Read More

Getting Around Australia: Trains, buses, domestic flights, and rental cars Read More

Tourist Places to Visit In Australia

Sydney

Melbourne

Great Barrier Reef

Brisbane

Gold Coast

Uluru Kata Tjuta National Park

All Tourist Places In Australia

Must Know Before You Travel to Australia

Visa before you fly: every Indian traveller needs a visitor visa granted in advance, applied for online. There is no visa on arrival. Allow several weeks and do not book non-refundable flights until it is approved.
Declare everything at the border: Australia's biosecurity rules are strict and enforced on the spot. Food, spices, seeds, wooden items and anything of plant or animal origin must be declared, and undeclared items bring immediate fines.
Distances are continental: Sydney to Cairns is a three hour flight and Perth is five. Internal flights are unavoidable on any real itinerary, so budget for them rather than planning around driving.
Seasons are reversed: December to February is high summer and June to August is winter. The Indian summer holidays fall in an Australian winter, which suits the tropical north and not the south.

Australia Tourism

Australia is the trip people save for. It is a continent rather than a country, so the single decision that shapes everything is how much of it you try to see. The standard first visit is the east coast: Sydney, then the Great Barrier Reef at Cairns, then Melbourne, with Uluru added by those who want the Red Centre. Two weeks is the working minimum. It is expensive, the flights are long, and almost nobody comes back wishing they had gone somewhere closer.

Australia is the only country that is also a continent, and one number explains the planning: Sydney to Perth is a longer flight than London to Moscow. Every itinerary is about what to leave out. The east coast holds most of what first-time visitors come for, strung between Cairns in the tropical north and Melbourne in the cool south, and almost everyone flies between those points rather than driving. Two weeks is the realistic minimum, since the flights from India alone take the better part of two days.

Sydney is the arrival city and the postcard one, with the Opera House, the harbour ferries, ocean beaches inside the city limits and the Blue Mountains an hour inland. Melbourne, ninety minutes away by air, is built around laneways, coffee, food and sport, with the Great Ocean Road as its day trip. North of Brisbane the country turns tropical and the Great Barrier Reef begins, more than two thousand kilometres of coral reached from Cairns and Port Douglas. Inland at the centre, Uluru rises out of flat red country, and the walks around its base pass rock art and waterholes that the aerial photographs never show. Two things to plan around: the seasons are reversed, so September to November and March to May suit Sydney and Melbourne while the tropical north runs its dry season from May to October, which lines up with the Indian school holidays. And the wildlife is easier than expected, with kangaroos visible at dusk near almost any country town, though koalas take patience and usually a guide.

New South Wales

Queensland

South Australia

Tasmania

Victoria

Western Australia

Best time to visit Australia

March to May and September to November are the best times to visit Australia if you are going to the southern cities. The seasons are reversed, so these are autumn and spring. The tropical north runs backwards from all of that. Cairns, Darwin and the Great Barrier Reef are wet from November to May a... (Read More)

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What two weeks in Australia looks like

Two weeks is the working minimum and the standard shape is east coast. Four nights in Sydney, including the Blue Mountains and a day on the harbour. Then fly north to Cairns for three or four, which is the Great Barrier Reef and the Daintree. Then south to Melbourne for three, with the Great Ocean Road as the day out. That leaves two or three nights to add Uluru, which needs its own flight, or the Gold Coast if children are involved. Ten days means dropping one city. Anyone trying to add Perth or Tasmania to a fortnight is planning two holidays and will enjoy neither.

The Great Barrier Reef, and how to actually see it

The Reef is not one place, it is two thousand kilometres of it, and where you go from matters more than most itineraries admit. Cairns is the usual base, with day boats running to the outer reef, and Port Douglas an hour north is the quieter alternative with access to the Low Isles and the Agincourt ribbon reefs. The Whitsundays further south pair the reef with the beaches at Whitehaven. Day trips work, but liveaboard boats reach the sites that day boats cannot. Coral bleaching is real and the reef is not what it was thirty years ago, which is worth knowing before you go rather than discovering at the surface. It remains extraordinary.

Uluru and the Red Centre: worth the detour?

Uluru is a three hour flight from Sydney to a place with one small resort town and very little else, and that is exactly the point. The rock changes colour through the day and the walks around its base take you past rock art and waterholes that the aerial photographs never show. Kata Tjuta, half an hour away, is arguably the better walk. Climbing Uluru has been prohibited since 2019 at the request of the Anangu traditional owners, and the guided base walks are what replaced it. Two nights is enough, three if you want the Field of Light or a sunrise camel ride. It is expensive and remote and most people who go are glad they did.

Sydney or Melbourne: which one to base in

They are less alike than the rivalry suggests. Sydney is the postcard: the harbour, the Opera House, the bridge, ocean beaches inside the city and the Blue Mountains an hour away. It is the better first-timer base and the easier one to fly into. Melbourne is the city people prefer once they have seen both, built around laneways, coffee, sport and food, with the Great Ocean Road and the Yarra Valley on its doorstep. If you have four nights for one city, Sydney. If you have a week and like eating, Melbourne earns the extra days. On a two week trip you are doing both anyway, and the flight between them is ninety minutes.

Australia with family, and why distance decides the trip

Australia handles Indian travellers better than almost anywhere outside Asia. Every large city has genuine Indian restaurants rather than tokens, vegetarian and Jain food is straightforward, and a large Indian diaspora means most things are familiar. For families, the practical constraint is not food or safety but distance: children do not enjoy three internal flights in ten days, so a trip built around Sydney and the Gold Coast, or Sydney and Melbourne, works better than one that chases the whole east coast. Wildlife parks near both cities deliver kangaroos and koalas reliably, which is what children actually came for.

The things that actually catch visitors out

Four things catch Indian visitors out. The sun is the first: Australia's UV index is among the highest in the world and people burn in twenty minutes on a cloudy day, so sunscreen is not optional even in winter. The second is the beaches, where you swim between the red and yellow flags and nowhere else, because rips are the real danger rather than sharks. The third is tipping, which is not expected at all, since wages are high and the price on the menu is the price. The fourth is driving distances, which look reasonable on a map and are not: check the hours, not the kilometres, before planning a day trip.

FAQs on Australia

Do Indians need a visa for Australia?

Yes. Every Indian passport holder needs a visitor visa granted before departure, applied for online, and there is no visa on arrival and no electronic authority that can be arranged at the airport. Processing times vary and can stretch, so apply several weeks ahead and avoid booking non-refundable flights or hotels until the grant comes through. Check the current requirements and processing estimates on the official Australian Department of Home Affairs site.

When is the best time to visit Australia?

Remember the seasons are reversed. September to November and March to May are the comfortable windows for Sydney and Melbourne, with mild weather and lower crowds than the summer peak. December to February is Australian summer, excellent for the southern beaches and the busiest and priciest time of year. For the tropical north, meaning Cairns and the Great Barrier Reef, May to October is the dry season and the right window, which means the Indian summer holidays actually suit the reef rather well.

How many days do I need in Australia?

Two weeks is the realistic minimum for an east coast trip covering Sydney, Cairns and Melbourne, given that the flights from India alone consume the better part of two days. Ten days works if you cut to two cities. Three weeks lets you add Uluru or the Gold Coast without rushing. Perth, Western Australia and Tasmania do not belong in a first trip: they are a separate holiday, and trying to include them turns a good fortnight into a bad one.

How do I get to Australia from India?

There are now direct flights from Delhi to Sydney and Melbourne, and from Bengaluru to Sydney, running roughly twelve to thirteen hours. From every other Indian city you connect, most often through Singapore, Kuala Lumpur, Bangkok or a Gulf hub, which puts the total at sixteen to twenty hours. Sydney is the usual entry point for an east coast trip. If your itinerary ends in Melbourne or Cairns, flying home from there rather than backtracking saves a full day.

What does an Australia trip cost from India?

A two week east coast trip is commonly quoted between 3 and 6 lakh rupees per person including flights, which makes Australia one of the most expensive destinations you can fly to from India, alongside Japan. International airfare and internal flights together are usually the largest share, followed by accommodation. The costs that surprise people are the reef day trips and any Uluru leg, both of which carry a high per-person price. Travelling in the shoulder months and pairing two cities rather than three brings the total down meaningfully.

Is the Great Barrier Reef still worth seeing?

Yes, with honest expectations. Coral bleaching has damaged parts of the reef and it is not the reef of thirty years ago, which is worth knowing before you go rather than discovering underwater. What is still there is extraordinary, particularly on the outer reef and the ribbon reefs reached from Port Douglas rather than the closer inshore sites. Day boats work, liveaboards reach better sites, and you do not need to dive, since snorkelling over a good bommie shows you most of it.

Is Uluru worth the detour?

If you have the days, yes. It is a three hour flight from Sydney to a resort town with little else around it, which is part of what makes it work. The base walks take you past rock art and waterholes that the aerial photographs never show, and Kata Tjuta nearby is arguably the better walk of the two. Climbing was prohibited in 2019 at the request of the Anangu traditional owners, so the guided walks are the experience now. Two nights is enough. On a ten day trip it is a stretch; on a three week one it is the part people remember.

Australia Travel Guide