Australia is one of the most popular travel destinations in the world. It is known as a major backpacking, camping, road trip, surfing and diving destination; no matter your travel style there is something to draw you there. Australia seems to be on, almost, everyone’s bucket list, young or old. For me, when deciding to take a gap year after graduation the choice of destination was easy, I always knew I wanted to travel Australia and I needed no persuasion. I made the decision that I wanted to go on my lunch break while eating a £3 meal deal in a Tesco canteen (where I worked while I studied) and less than 48 hours later I had booked my flight. I had been to Australia once before when I was 15 to attend a world youth conference for young people, I was there for 3 weeks but only got to see a handful of places and it was very rushed - so I decided to take this adventure as if I had never been before and travel it all again. I opted for the one year working holiday visa because I planned to travel for a month or so and then get myself a job… Instead I ended up travelling for 6 months without stopping to work and spending all my savings because I got FOMO too bad to stop travelling with everybody I had met (note to self, its ok to miss a night out or not do things when other people are doing them, you don’t ever miss out on as much as you think you do).

Anyway, enough about how I got there, that part isn’t the exciting part. Below I have included my top 10 things (in no particular order because I couldn’t possibly compare everything) that I think you must do when you travel to Australia.

1. New Years Eve in Sydney

Before I left Scotland, I had planned absolutely nothing for my trip to Australia, all I had booked was a hostel in Brisbane for my first two nights and then I would take it from there. The only thing I was certain about was the fact I wanted to be in Sydney for NYE and I was absolutely not missing out on it. A few weeks into my travels and NYE plans were being brought up with almost every single person I met. Everyone I spoke to was either prebooking events in Sydney or were choosing to go elsewhere because Sydney was ‘too expensive’ or ‘not going to be worth it’. I’m here to tell you to ignore everyone else - they are all wrong. I struggle to put into words just how incredible NYE in Sydney was… and to top it off I did it for free. I stayed in Wake Up Sydney hostel and spent the day drinking there with friends. The hostel was pretty much empty because most other people we had been talking to had either booked tickets for events for between $250 -$600 or others had left the hostel at 9am to stand outside all day to bag themselves ‘the best spot’. Bearing in mind this is peak summertime in Aus there was absolutely no chance I was standing outside all day in 40-degree heat. We left the hostel at 5pm and decided to wing it, we got the tram straight to the harbour and walked round to the bridge. We then went into a pub until around 8pm and when we came out, we managed to get the most perfect spot under the bridge to watch the fireworks and bring in the New Year. It wasn’t as plain sailing as I’ve just described, we had to run at the last minute to secure a spot and we literally had the jump over the gate as they closed it over to stop anyone else getting in, but we did make it and it was soooo worth it!

2. Whitsundays

The Whitsunday Islands located in Airlie Beach was a definite must do on my list. Hands down this was one of my most memorable trips in Australia! Whether you want to dive, snorkel, sail, relax or have a party, there are no shortage of things to do at Airlie Beach. Me being me, I wanted to experience it all so decided to grab a spot on the ‘Atlantic Clipper’- a 3 day/2-night sailing tour. The boat itself was incredible, it had a pirate ship vibe about it, 3 levels, 52 people, jacuzzi on the top deck, 2 water slides, snorkelling, scuba diving and all-inclusive food; what more could you want? Each night we all drank bags of goon and partied on the top deck, the stars were so bright and the ocean was surprisingly calm. Before I had got onto the boat I had heard recent horror stories of shark attacks happening up nearly Airlie Beach but didn’t think much of it. But believe it or not on night one a shark actually circled our boat for a while, we were all hanging over the edge of the top deck watching it (now that I think about it, after having a few drinks this was probably dangerous). Each day we had different activities on and off the boat. If you are looking for fun, have a good sense of humour and love to party but also adventure then this boat is a must in my opinion!

3. Fraser Island

Fraser Island was one of the first trips I experienced in Australia as I headed up the east coast from Brisbane. I went on the tour from Rainbow Beach to Fraser Island. This was another experience I have some of the best memories from. Everyone doing the tour stayed in the same hostel the night before where we all got put into our car groups before heading off at 6am the next morning to the Island. The entire Island is sand, and it really is breath taking to see. This was another trip that was 3 days and 2 nights, for this trip we camped on the island in tents. Each night a different car took it in turns to cook/clean up. After dinner we spent the evenings playing drinking games around camp and as the night got later we headed down to the beach to drink some more as camp had a 10pm curfew. Anyone who has done this before will know, but you have to take a giant stick down to the beach with you to battle off any dingo’s that come near. Honestly, when I was first told this I laughed because if you haven’t seen one before, dingo’s appear to be the cutest looking little wild dogs. Wrong - dingo’s can actually be very dangerous so every night we all stayed so close together in case one came near us. During the days there were planned activities as part of the tour, we drove around the island in our 4X4 jeeps and it was so much fun, each beach we ended up on the water was a different shade of mesmerising blue. Again, I cannot express enough how great this experience was.

4. Brisbane

Now for anyone who has travelled Australia before then you will know what I mean when I say you will either love or hate Brisbane, there is literally no in between. I personally absolutely loved it, but most people I met really hated Brisbane. I was travelling with my best friend and she spent 6 months studying in Brisbane the year before, so I don’t know if this had a part to play in it or not, but I think because she knew all the good places to go and things to do it made it a lot easier. From what I gathered from a lot of people who hated Brisbane they felt like there was nothing to do, and actually there are so many good things about Brisbane. I’ll mention a few things below that I think are a must do in Brisbane:

· East Street: Eat Street is on every Friday, Saturday and Sunday throughout the summer and is full of old shipping containers that have been made into food stalls. It has the most vibrant atmosphere, with food options from almost every corner of the planet, a range of craft shops and live music and comedy. It costs around $3 entry and you can spend the whole night there.

· Ride on the river taxi: River taxi’s run up and down the banks of Brisbane. They are free for certain distance and I absolutely recommend hopping on one to get a good view of the Brisbane skyline for free. It’s a fun way to adventure and get around the city.

· Southbank and the lagoon: Southbank is vibrant and a great place for drinks or a meal with views of the city skyline. The lagoon is also in the Southbank which is a free outdoor lagoon for everybody to enjoy. The views from the lagoon really are amazing.

· Botanical gardens, Story bridge, Fortitude Valley; there are so many more fun places to go and visit in the city- hiring an electric scooter is so popular and one of the best ways to get around.

5. 1770

When I originally planned a stop at 1770 it was mainly because it was one of the only places to stop between Fraser Island and Magnetic Island. We also really wanted to learn to surf and we were told this was the cheapest place to get a surf lesson on the east coast. We spent two days here and we had so much fun! Day one we booked a surf lesson, it was meant to be 2 hours long, we paid $50 and got to use a go pro on the end of our surfboard to grab over 100 pictures from our experience. The company were great, after the 2-hour lesson the coaches got out the water and left us in the water practicing and having fun for another couple of hours. I definitely recommend a surf lesson here, our group was nice and small, there were 4 of us in it so we got so much attention from the coaches. Day 2 we booked a motorbike trip with a company called ‘Scooter Roo’. This was another one of my highlights on the east coast, it lasted just over 4 hours and we scooted from Agnes Water to 1770; we stopped for forest walk which was lovely, we then took a scooter ride through a natural wildlife park where there were kangaroo’s hopping around for miles, this was incredible. Despite the fact the town of Agnes Waters had a really bad sour smell (honestly was horrendous), the overall experience here was so much fun and I would go again tomorrow if I could!

6. Christmas at Bondi

Christmas was something I had booked really early on as I was told it would book up fast, and I am so glad I did because everyone who told me that were correct! If I could tell anyone anything to do in advance of travelling the one thing is to make Christmas plans in advance if you want to spend it somewhere popular. Being away from home at Christmas can be hard so the last thing I wanted was to be stuck somewhere or in an awful hostel that made me not want to be there. I booked to stay at Wake Up hostel in Bondi and it was such a great hostel. They had events every day and night, tours and parties. The hostel had a roof top terrace which was great place to meet others. At Christmas in Australia last year the bush fires were extremely bad so my dream of having an Aussie BBQ on the beach for Christmas dinner was short lived. However we did have our traditional Aussie BBQ food in the hostel and we were woken on Christmas morning to a free roof top champagne breakfast- what more could you want? Christmas at Bondi was incredible, it is something I think has to be experienced at least once in a lifetime. However, if I was to do it again, I think I would spend Christmas on Coogee; don’t get me wrong Bondi was amazing, but it was extremely busy (sounds like a foreign language saying that now with the Coronavirus outbreak, but we were honestly shoulder to shoulder on the beach). Halfway through the day we headed to one of the other beaches along the cost and there was a massive rave on the beach, shortly after we arrived the police sadly shut it down but it was so much fun. Whether you spend Christmas on Bondi or any other beach in Australia I can imagine it is an incredible experience and one that will not be forgotten (particularly if you are from a cold country like mine and are used to Christmas in the snow).

7. Magnetic Island

If you are anything like me you may never have heard of Magnetic Island before, but you will have seen the pictures of the barbie cars in Australia, right? If you have then this is the location! I literally went to Australia knowing I wanted to drive a barbie car but had no idea where it was that everyone did that, its Magnetic Island. The Island itself was beautiful. We hired the barbie car on our first full day on the Island and kept it for two days to travel, without a car it may be hard to get around the public transport is nothing like Edinburgh or London. We spent the first half of the day taking pictures in the car at different viewpoints (I know this is ridiculous, but you can’t hire the barbie car and not take a picture in it, can you?). There are forests on the Island where you can spot wild Koala’s, we spent a few hours there spotting all the different Koalas. We then went to all the beaches and found the most perfect spot to watch sunset on the pier.

8. Cairns

I absolutely loved my time in Cairns, we travelled to Cairns twice and in total spent around 15 days here. The first time we went we did the proper tourist things such as scuba diving in the Great Barrier Reef and travelling up the coast to Cape Tribulation. Both of these things were so much fun and I definitely want to do them again. But my real love for Cairns came from Gilligan’s. Gilligan’s is a party hostel in Cairns and is so much fun! Every night there is a different themed night, if you cant stay for a full week but you want to go I fully recommend making sure you are there the night of Pirate Bingo. You can win so many free prizes and it is so funny to watch, participate and just embarrass yourself. Every night we booked our bus ticket to leave Cairns and 6 nights in a row we cancelled our tickets so we could stay a bit longer. The hostel itself is so clean as well and they offer such cheap meals. If you are a backpacker then you’ll know we love cheap and cheerful.

9. Melbourne

If I could change one thing about my time in Melbourne it would have been to stay longer. By the time I made it to Melbourne I had been travelling for around 4 months so as you can imagine I had collected a lot of extra items. We chose to fly to Melbourne from Sydney and leave most of our luggage with friends to make the trip a bit cheaper, but because we didn’t take much with us we only went for 5 days. We did manage to bag ourselves some tickets for the Australian Open, so for any tennis enthusiasts out there this was absolutely amazing and if you ever get the chance to go I recommend it. While we were in Melbourne, we did all the local tourist things around the city and I really fell in love with it. Being from Scotland Melbourne really reminded me of Glasgow and it had a much more homely feeling to it in comparison to Sydney, obviously the two cities are incomparable, and I absolutley loved both, but Melbourne felt more like home. We hired a car and headed out to St Kilda for sunset one night and we walked along the pier and saw all the penguins, it was beautiful. If you are reading that confused don’t worry, I was so shocked as well, penguins in Australia?? But it’s true. We also visited the beach huts on Brighton beach which I think is a must do in Melbourne, just to say you have been there. For one of our last days, we spent one whole day travelling the Great Ocean Road, I was with my best friend, so we took it in turns to drive and made every stop on the way. We left Melbourne at 9am and made it back at about 10pm. The Great Ocean Road is a must do when in Australia, if you have the time then I recommend spending longer and staying in places along the way.

10. Sydney

I know I’ve already covered Sydney at NYE but travelling to Sydney in general, any time of the year is an absolute must do. I spent so long in Sydney, a good 4 months of my travels were spent with Sydney being my base point. I would leave for a few days and come back. A lot of my friends that I had met along the way were working here and it was also the city I wanted to find work in. I could talk all day about my favourite things to do or see in Sydney, but I will list a few of them below;

· El Camino: If you love margaritas then this is the place to go, El Camino is a Mexican restaurant that offers frozen margarita happy hour where giant Margaritas are $4.50. It is located down at the Sydney Rocks and is an absolute must do!

· Enjoy a night out at Side Bar: Side Bar is the Wake Up Sydney hostel club. Every night side bar offers a different themed night, from neon paint to foam parties to silent discos. If you think of the best student night you could ever imagine this club will match it. Whether you stay at the hostel or not you have to. Try Side Bar at least once.

· Sydney Harbour Bridge: It’s pretty standard when visiting Sydney, it would be weird fi you didn’t visit the bridge really. But in all honesty, even after 4 months of being there I never once got bored of the view and would still find myself going walks to specifically see the bridge.

· Sydney Opera House: Pretty much the same as above, it’s a standard thing to do in Sydney. I never went to see a show but I know a few theatre enthusiasts who did and they said it was incredible, so if you love that kind of thing you have to give it a shot.

· Luna Park: This is a theme park based on the northside of Sydney Harbour Bridge. It’s such a fun day out and the rides are actually really good despite them looking like children’s rides from a distance.

· Botanical Gardens: The botanical gardens in Sydney are beautiful, its such a nice place for a walk, or to sit and enjoy the sunshine and take in the views of Sydney.

· Visit Manly: Manly can be visited by boat, I went a few times while I was in Sydney and it was one of my favourite things to do. It felt like I was on holiday whenever I got off the boat at Manly (I mean the whole trip was a holiday for me but this felt like another holiday if that makes any sense).

· Bondi to Coogee walk: The coastal walk from Bondi to Coogee is amazing and so worth it. The walk itself can take anywhere between 1 hour and 3 hours or more, depends how often you stop really. There are so many hidden beaches between Bondi and Coogee that you don’t often hear about and this is the perfect way to see them, and build up your tan – win, win!!

· Speed boat around Sydney Harbour: For my Christmas last year my mum and dad didn’t really know what to get me because I was so far away so they bought me a ticket for a speedboat tour and it was SO fun! I managed to convince a few of my friends to join it with me and we had the best day ever. Highly recommend this one.

· Eat at Spiced Alley: Spiced Valley offers cuisine from all over Asia. Anything you could think of I’m pretty sure you could find here. It’s an outdoor food court, similar to Eat Street in Brisbane but on a smaller scale and down an alley. We came here a few times for a nice treat away from hostel life and cooking pasta for dinner every single night.

· Go to Surf Camp: Surf Camp was something I wanted to do for a while and I finally decided to do it in February, Surf Camp Australia collected me from my hostel and we went to the camp about 2 hours south of Sydney. It was a 5 day camp, I surfed for about 6 hours every day and every night we did games night and drinks back at camp. It cost around $800 but all meals were included, all surf equipment and accommodation for the week so I would say it was definitely worth it. It was also a great place to make friends, if I could do anything differently it would have been that I did it sooner.

· Eat at Lord of the Fries: Hands down the best vegan fast food place in the world and you heard it here first! This place was honestly amazing, they had restaurants in Melbourne and Brisbane as well but the first place I tried it was Sydney.

· Treat yourself to Café Sydney: The most beautiful restaurant, with views over Sydney Harbour bridge and the Opera House. It was a bit pricey for my b backpacker life but I was lucky enough that my friends family were over visiting and treated me to a meal here. If anybody is ever in Sydney for a special occasion or fancy treating themselves this is the place to go.

· SASH Sundays: If you love to party then SASH Sundays are some of the best days/nights in the city. Particularly popular with backpackers, SASH host a Sunday Day Sesh and Sunday Night Sesh every Sunday full of techno. Even if this isn’t your scene I recommend trying it out just once, promise it wont disappoint if you enjoy partying.

· Go to Ivy on a Thursday: Ivy bar has a rooftop pool. Every Thursday is backpacker night at Ivy and almost every hostel in the city hosts pre drinks for this before putting on a bus or transport to get there. I’ve never been in a club that is so busy before, honestly its hard to move at points. But the club is between two buildings, about 5 floors and has music for all tastes. It’s another one of those must do’s.

· Watch the sunset from Horbny Lighthouse: I am obsessed with sunrise and sunset and I chase it literally everywhere I go so I can find the best spot. If you are like me and love sunset then you have to go to Horbny Lighthouse, this is the best spot I found in Sydney for Sunset.

I’ve just looked at the word count of this post and can’t get over the fact I’ve managed to write 4,000 words this easily. When I was at uni I would be ripping my hair out trying to think of words to write for my essays, anyone else? I’ve certainly talked enough so I’ll leave this blog post here but on one final note, if anybody is debating travelling to Australia (or anywhere else in the world for that matter) solo or with friends then I am here telling you to go, I promise you will have the time of your life.

Lots of Love,

Graduate Girl Talks x

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