How to Spend 1 Week in Australia

It was so overwhelming to cram all of Australia into 1 week (you can’t). I learned a lot from my trip, and hopefully this will help you plan yours!

Before we went to Australia, we decided that our criteria were good beaches, fun hikes, and yummy cafes. I probably spent more than 30 hours researching because there is just so much information online! In the end we decided to stick to NSW and Queensland and save the rest of Australia for another trip.

Our itinerary: Sydney – Cairns – Sydney – Byron Bay

Day 1: Sydney

We flew direct from SFO to Sydney and spent that day in Sydney. We stayed in the Surry Hills area which is known for (according to Wikipedia) a stylish cultural and cafe scene with hip coffee joints, fashion boutiques and global eateries. Exactly our style 🙂

We chose the Paramount House Hotel which has an industrial chic vibe AND a coffee shop right downstairs (very important). They also have a unique gym upstairs which is effectively class-only. Guests get free access of the gym.

Trying to figure out where to eat in Sydney? For lunch, we ate at the acclaimed Esther Restaurant (make reservations ahead of time). The house-made bread with caviar is one of the best starters I’ve ever had, before strolling around Crown Street.

We also had a lot (a lot) of flat whites. There are a lot of good coffee shops in Sydney but our favorites were Single O, Reuben Hills, and Paramount Coffee Project.

Day 2: Cairns

Because we aren’t big city people, we flew out to Cairns the next day. We didn’t see the Sydney Opera House and I don’t really feel bad about that!

We decided to stay in the town of Cairns to have more access to restaurants (and the casino – heheh), and took a Great Barrier Reef tour with Sailaway Port Douglas. My husband unfortunately fractured his shoulder right before this trip so we cancelled our scuba dive and opted for a snorkel. The good news is because the water is so clear and the reef is so shallow, we didn’t feel like we missed much.

See my more in depth post on Cairns vs Port Douglas here.

Day 3: Cairns

We spent our 2nd day in Cairns doing stuff on our own – hiking, swimming and a coffee refill of course (Caffeind is a great option)

Many hikes are also south of Cairns, including Crystal Cascades and Fairy Falls, Tully Lookout and Josephine Falls. We opted for a closer, less famous hike called Clamshell Falls. The road to the hike led us past the beautiful Behana Gorge Road

We flew back to Sydney that night to start our NSW roadtrip

Day 4: Sydney to Port Macquarie

We had debated a few different roadtrips. There are so many to choose from but most of them require 10+ days, and we are on a short timeline (I only get 15 vacation days a year at my job!). In the end, we decided on Sydney to Byron Bay, and then flying back to Byron Bay to save time.

The 5.5 hour drive was pretty straight forward. I picked up a matcha latte before heading out and barely ran into traffic on the way out. We arrived in Port Macquarie around 3pm and checked into our Airbnb before wandering around town.

The town itself is quite small and most people will say that Port Macquarie is too boring but not worth the trip. We personally came here to Dive Fish Rock Cave which seemed like a once in a lifetime opportunity. Unfortunately the weather turned and we weren’t able to do the trip.

Day 5: Port Macquarie

Assuming the weather held up, this would be your dive day!

We ended up switching plans and went surfing in the morning at Flynn’s Beach.

In the afternoon we went to Port Macquarie Koala Hospital. If you want to see koalas rehabbing, this is the place to do it. It’s a little small but it’s nice to see koalas in a non-zoo like environment. We got really lucky and had a wild koala come in during our visit.

Day 6: Byron Bay

This was our FAVORITE part of Australia. My husband and I used to live on Venice Beach, so we had already assumed we would love Byron Bay. Even with those high expectations we absolutely loved it. The town itself feels small but it’s not boring – tons of cute shopping, good restaurants/cafes, and of course the beach.

We spent our afternoon walking around Cape Byron Lighthouse which is right in town. The entire track is around 3.7km and took us 1.5 hours with really slow walking and stopping for photos. Afterwards we had an acai bowl snack at The Pressed Pantry.

Later in the afternoon, we went 30 min out of town for a swim at Killen Falls. It wasn’t very crowded on a weekday afternoon which was great. We had the entire place to ourselves before a small group came by. The water is really warm and makes for a great swim spot, although the mosquitoes really started coming out at sunset.

For dinner, we initially wanted to eat at Treehouse on Belongil but there were sooo many mosquitoes even some locals left. I got 5 bites in the 5 minutes I was staying in line, so we left real quick. We went to The Mez Club instead for a buzzy, vibrant dinner.

Day 7: Byron Bay

The next morning we went to the famous Top Shop breakfast spot. It’s not in the main downtown area so it feels a little more local.

After that I wanted to do a little shopping since getting Australian brands is typically harder in the US! There are a ton of local stores and since the downtown area isn’t very big, you could easily aimlessly wander around in a couple hours if you want to. Otherwise there are some good guides online here.

Before heading out, I wanted to check out The Folk for an iced matcha latte before going 20 minutes out of town to The Farm. The Farm is exactly what it sounds like.. a farm with a restaurant and bakery – and it’s on a big lot so you can wander around! It was really fun to look around and eat at the restaurant for lunch. Almost everything is sourced local.

We had a 6PM flight out of Sydney for our last day and wanted to maximize any remaining time we had by heading to Bondi Beach.

For dinner we thought we could walk in to Totti’s but at 6pm they said they were no longer taking walk-in’s because of how full it was. Highly recommend making a reservation if you want to eat there – it looked awesome. Instead we went to Society Pizzeria which turned out to be an AMAZING alternative. It was a really warm and buzzy vibe. A bit packed which was exactly what we wanted. Also the pizza was delicious.

Unfortunately other than this dinner, Bondi Beach didn’t end up being one of our favorite spots… more on that below.

Day 8: Sydney/Bondi Beach

We stayed at Hotel Ravesis in the heart of Bondi to be central to everything. Looking back, the hotel didn’t offer too much and we probably should’ve opted for a cheaper Airbnb. We unfortunately didn’t receive exceptional customer service and it didn’t feel very local. Access to the hotel bar is convenient but the town is fairly small so it wouldn’t have been too bad from an Airbnb.

That morning, it was raining (again – in peak summer!) but we did the Bondi to Coogee Walk anyway. We originally wanted to swim at Bondi Icebergs Club but after walking there I wasn’t super impressed. It doesn’t look ANYTHING like Instagram which I guess makes sense given the rain, but it’s just kind of funny to have a real life Instagram v Reality moment.

There were a ton of people surfing at Bondi Beach even though it was raining but it wasn’t super appealing to me. Instead we walked around the downtown area, stopped for a ton of flat whites, and went to Shuk, an Israeli place for brunch.

Overall as I mentioned above we didn’t love Bondi. It’s way more commercial and since we had just come from Byron Bay it was easy to compare & contrast.

Overall Recommendations

Here are my overall recommendations if you are heading to Australia:

• Spend some time in Sydney if you like good food and coffee!
• Bondi Beach is very commercial like Santa Monica if that is your vibe…
• Otherwise make the extra effort and head over to Byron Bay. Ideally we would’ve liked to spend 3 days here
• Cairns and Port Douglas are VERY different bases for exploring the Great Barrier Reef. Do some research before you head over there. 2-3 days is good here
• Port Macquarie is a good spot if you want to dive with nurse sharks or if you’re a bit older, otherwise it can be skipped.
• We skipped the Gold Coast because it seemed like a less ritzy Miami. Also we don’t have high rise buildings on vacation 🙂
• We thought of a few other places like Uluru, Kangaroo Island, and Rottnest Island but again we were on a tight timeline and wanted to stick around our main airport hub of Sydney

Have you been to Australia before? What are your recommendations?