Holiday Overview
You will spend a couple of days taking in the sights of Sydney before flying up to the Gold Coast (flight included). You will then head north visiting the Sunshine Coast and spending a couple of nights on Fraser Island - the world's largest sand island. From here you head to Rockhampton and finally Cairns where you will cruise the world reknowned Great Barrier Reef.
States visited: New South Wales and Queensland.
2025 |
Prices |
Feb-03 | £4390pp Adult Twin / £5850pp Single |
Mar-03 | £4390pp Adult Twin / £5850pp Single |
East Coast Adventure - an AAT Kings Australia Escorted Tour includes:
- Return Scheduled flights from Heathrow
- Flight from Sydney to the Gold Coast
- 3 UNESCO World Heritage Sites including Great Barrier Reef, K'gari & Wet Tropics of Queenstown
- Tour Director plus local guides in select locations
- All accommodation
- 11 Breakfasts, 3 Lunch and 2 Dinners
- Overseas transfers & luggage porterage
Day 1 - Depart London Heathrow
Flights can be arranged from regional airports (there may be a supplement). Contact us for details
Day 2 - Sydney - Coffs Harbour
As much as you’ll want to linger in Australia’s largest city, this tour from Sydney begins on a high – Coffs Harbour is calling. On the mid-North Coast of New South Wales, this pocket of paradise has some of the state’s most impressive beaches, not to mention the glorious national parkland that surrounds. Follow the breeze (and lead of locals) to the beach for a dazzling end of day, before meeting your fellow adventure-seekers and Travel Director over dinner.
Meals Included - Dinner
Featured accommodation
BreakFree Aanuka Beach Resort
Day 3 - Coffs Harbour - Gold Coast
Fittingly, your east coast Australia tour takes you to the country’s most easterly point. It’s the stuff that postcards were made for, as you’ll discover when you reach the Cape Byron Lighthouse, standing proud over the Pacific Ocean. Dolphins are a common sight year round, and they’re joined by whales during migration. For lunch, we can point you in the direction of a tasty Byron Bay fish-and-chip shop – order a haul to eat with your feet in the sand. Which you’re going to see plenty of at your next destination.
Hotel - Novotel Sufers Paradise
Meals Included - Breakfast
Day 4 - Gold Coast
Your base in Surfers Paradise is the heart of the Gold Coast, a city that really does sparkle. Today you might choose to explore beaches (there are too many to count), lingering in light-filled cafés and restaurants. Or enlist in a Gold Coast tour to see another side of the ‘Goldie’ in the Mt. Tamborine hinterland – a hub for creatives and foodies. The city also breaks records for its extensive network of canals, which you might opt to explore on a leisurely cruise.
Hotel - Novotel Sufers Paradise
Meals Included - Breakfast
Day 5 - Gold Coast - K'gari (Fraser Island)
Follow the waves north to Hervey Bay, the gateway to World Heritage-Listed K’gari (Fraser Island). The ferry ride across the strait is a highlight, particularly during whale migration when these gentle giants come to the calm, protected waters to calve. Landing on K’gari, expect to see a lot of sand. This is, after all, the world’s largest sand island, and the only place in the world where rainforest grows from the sand.
Meals Included - Breakfast
Featured accommodation
Kingfisher Bay Resort
Day 6 - K'gari (Fraser Island)
The island also has a really long sand highway, which you’ll get to zip along on a 4WD Fraser Island tour across 75 Mile Beach, all the way up the east coast to the Pinnacles Coloured Sands, calm Eli Creek and the Maheno shipwreck, which offers quite the photo op. Just when you thought the island couldn’t get any prettier, Lake McKenzie appears on the horizon, this dazzling patch of blue formed only with rainwater. It’s a hard act to follow, but the ancient rainforest at Central Station and Wanggoolba Creek lives up to the challenge with its huge satiny, scribbly gum and kauri trees.
Meals Included - Breakfast and Lunch
Featured accommodation
Kingfisher Bay Resort
Day 7 - K'gari (Fraser Island) - Rockhampton
Back on the mainland you’re in Queensland’s cattle country. Case in point Langmorn Station, where the Creed family will welcome you with afternoon tea and a tour of the immense (and historic) cattle property – the original family homestead was built in 1873. The Creeds will regale you with stories about life on the land. The theme continues as you cross the Tropic of Capricorn to arrive in Rockhampton, the beef capital of Australia. See if it deserves its title sampling some of the town’s restaurants. Ask us for tips.
Hotel - Quality Hotel Regent
Meals Included - Breakfast
Day 8 - Rockhampton - Airlie Beach
Another town with an impressive title is Sarina, Australia’s sugar capital. If you’ve ever wanted to know how sugar cane is processed and distilled, you’ll find the guided tour at the Sarina Sugar Shed a sweet addition to the itinerary. And yes, you get to sample the wares. Continue, on a high, along the east coast to Airlie Beach, the gateway to the Whitsundays. Life moves at a leisurely pace here. Fall into step and take things slow tonight.
Hotel - Mantra Club Croc
Meals Included - Breakfast and Lunch
Day 9 - Whitsunday Island Free Time
The Whitsunday Islands need little introduction, the 74 tropical drops of land a beguiling union of powdery beaches and rainforest, all ringed by the Coral Sea. There are endless ways to explore this part of the Great Barrier Reef on tour – today, we’re letting you choose. Perhaps rise early for an optional helicopter ride over Heart Reef. Or catch a catamaran to Whitehaven Beach, with sand so high in silica it squeaks underfoot. Decisions, decisions.
Hotel - Mantra Club Croc
Meals Included - Breakfast
Day 10 - Airlie Beach - Cairns
After all the excitement of yesterday, today it’s time to relax and enjoy the scenery – more sugar cane fields and rolling green paddocks, all framed by the ocean and rainforest-clad mountains. Stretch your legs en route to Cairns and soak up this steamy part of the state.
Hotel - DoubleTree by Hilton
Meals Included - Breakfast
Day 11 - Cairns
The Cairns Esplanade is a hive of activity in the morning, with active locals out before the humidity of the day sets in. Keep pace, before cooling off in the Atherton Tablelands, a high tropical plateau of rainforest, including the heritage-listed Curtain Tree. And waterfalls, like Millaa Millaa Falls, where enormous iridescent Ulysses butterflies like to dance. Explore Kuranda before getting some perspective on the Skyrail Rainforest Cableway, high above the canopy of the Barron Gorge National Park.
Hotel - DoubleTree by Hilton
Meals - Breakfast
Day 12 - Great Barrier Reef
Just when you thought your outlook couldn’t get any better, your Cairns tour sees you zipping over the Great Barrier Reef on a high-speed catamaran. Snorkel with six of the world’s sea turtles bobbing over fans of coral, as well as so many fish you won’t know where to look. If you prefer to keep your head above water, the marine world can also be glimpsed from an underwater observatory and glass-bottom boat.
Hotel - DoubleTree by Hilton
Meals - Breakfast, Lunch and Dinner
Day 13 - Goodbye Cairns
Today concludes your tour in Cairns. Make your way to the airport for your onward flight.
Image Gallery
Sydney
Gold Coast
Fraser Island
Great Barrier Reef
Port Douglas
Fraser Island
Sydney Opera House
Sydney Harbour Bridge
Whitsunday Bay
Snoozing Koala
Sunshine Coast
Great Barrier Reef
Great Barrier Reef
Cairns
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