Australia Less Traveled

Day 1
Arriving in Melbourne in the early morning, you’ll pick up your automatic rental car and travel downtown to your comfortable, chic hotel for the evening. The day is at leisure to explore Melbourne’s café-filled laneways and shopping arcades, or just to relax from jet lag. Get a good night’s sleep, because tomorrow you’ll get an eyeful of the scenery in the hinterlands!
4-star hotel in downtown Melbourne

Day 2
Today you begin your real adventure. Drive several hours along the famed Great Ocean Road, one of our favorite place to take pictures. It’s filled with wind-swept and wave-ravished beaches, stunning seaside cliffs, opportunities to spot plenty of kangaroos in the wild, an option to take a helicopter ride over the beautiful Twelve Apostles, and the remote, historic Cape Otway Lightstation. At the end of the day, you’ll relax at Port Fairy, a charming seaside town where your bed & breakfast awaits right on the riverfront. Read more about the Great Ocean Road on our blog. 
3.5-star bed & breakfast in Port Fairy

Day 3 (B)
Continue driving along the coast towards Adelaide, past national parks and forest preserves to the peninsula that is home of Robe, a beachside town with more charming cafés and comfortable bed & breakfast accommodations.
3-star bed & breakfast in Robe

Day 4 (B)
You’ll reach Adelaide today, following the coastal drive further to the north, past the turn-off for Kangaroo Island and into Australia’s fifth-largest city of 1.3 million, the “twenty minute city” and the capital of the state of South Australia. You’ll nestle into your deluxe hotel for the evening, one of the best Adelaide has to offer.
4-star hotel in downtown Adelaide

Day 5 (D)
Today it’s a five-hour drive to your home of wild bush luxury, Arkaba Station, located in the “bushy” Outback of the Flinders Ranges. North of Adelaide, the Flinders Ranges offer ample opportunities for hiking, exploring, wildlife spotting, aboriginal history lessons, 4WD safaris, mountain biking, and other daily guided activities.
5-star Arkaba Station in the Flinders Ranges

Days 6-7 (B,L,D)
These two days are at your leisure to enjoy all that Arkaba Station has to offer. Our mates, your hosts, will take excellent care of you as you explore this working sheep station homestead. If you’d like to spend a day enjoying the complimentary wines and warm fireplace, you’re welcome to do that too.
5-star Arkaba Station in the Flinders Ranges

Day 8 (B)
Drive back to Adelaide today and catch a flight to Perth, Australia’s western-most city. Perth has great weather and fabulous beaches, with more hours of sunshine than any other Australian capital city. Full of museums, parks and shopping arcades, Perth is great for off-the-beaten-track urban touring and for getting into the countryside for fine wines, eco-tours, and river cruising.
4-star hotel in downtown Perth

Day 9
This is a day at leisure to enjoy whatever it is that excites you most about Perth. Try a day tour to Rottnest Island (home of unique flora and fauna and good snorkeling and diving). Or perhaps you’d prefer to tour the wineries of the Margaret River region. Or maybe the beaches are best for your travel style. Whatever it is you’d like to do, we’ll arrange it seamlessly for you.
4-star hotel in downtown Perth

Day 10 (D)
A flight to Exmouth today brings you to one of the most remote Luxury Lodges of Australia, Sal Salis on the Ningaloo Reef. Sal Salis is the ultimate luxury camping experience, with five-star tented accommodations (think of those on safari in South Africa), guided snorkel trips, guided kayak snorkels, guided gorge walks, all meals and beverages included in the rates. From April through October is the best time to go, when the whale sharks are out in the waters and you can go swimming with these gentle giants. Snorkeling, swimming and diving are available right off the beach, which is 50 meters from the lodge, one of the great benefits of heading to Ningaloo rather than the Great Barrier Reef. By going to Ningaloo, you also avoid the hordes of tourists who head for that other, more famous reef on the East Coast of Australia. Read more about Ningaloo on our blog.
5-star Sal Salis Wild Bush Luxury Tented Camp

Days 11-12 (B,L,D)
Complete leisure to enjoy Sal Salis, with whale shark swimming included from April-October. Try one of the many watersports or land-based activities available complimentarily at Sal Salis or just sit back and enjoy the beach and grassy sand dunes just outside of your luxury tent.
5-star Sal Salis Wild Bush Luxury Tented Camp

Day 13 (B)
Today is a flight northeast to Broome, where you’ll pick up a rental car and drive to famous Cable Beach. With two nights to spend here, you’ll have plenty of time to see why Cable Beach is known for its sweeping sandy landscape and why the area is known for its small-town Western Australia charm.
3.5-star resort at Cable Beach

Day 14
Daytime is at leisure to enjoy Cable Beach and Broome today, but this evening will be quite the strange encounter as you mount a camel and ride Cable Beach as the sun goes down, waves lapping at your camel’s feet. A gentle rock back and forth makes for a comfortable ride on the back of one of the world’s most bizarre creatures.
3.5-star resort at Cable Beach

Day 15 (D)
Fly to the capital city of the Top End, Darwin. Pick up your rental car and drive a couple of hours to your final remote stop, Wildman Wilderness Lodge at Kakadu National Park’s Mary River Wetlands. Specializing in “wetlands safari,” Wildman is set in breathtaking scenery with access to one of the most fascinating and remote national parks in the nation, filled with wildlife. You’ll be in one of their stand-alone cottages, or “habitats,” which offer the premium accommodations in this remote and wild setting.
Wildman Wilderness Retreat

Day 16 (B,L,D)
Depart the lodge this morning and travel to Kakadu National Park via the Old Jim Jim Road. Stop for morning tea then travel across floodplains and billabongs. Immerse yourself in the Aboriginal history at Waradjin Cultural Centre. Journey on to Burrunggui to experience the oldest living culture on earth through ancient rock art and see amazing views of the Arnhem Land escarpment from Gun-warddehwardde lookout. Stop for a sumptuous picnic lunch at Anbangbang billabong. Lunch is worked off with a small hike to Nawurlandja lookout. After this short walk you travel down the Kakadu highway to Mamukala for a view over the wetlands.
Wildman Wilderness Retreat

Day 17 (B,D)
Half of your day is at leisure to enjoy the remoteness of your resort today. However, gear up for a  half-day tour of Mary River Rockhole, where you will have a mid-morning cruise on the Mary River. This is an excellent opportunity to see crocodiles, wetland birds and fantastic views across the vast Mary River floodplain. Nearby, you can go barramundi fishing, view Brian Creek Monsoon Forest, and check out the wildlife at a billabong.
Wildman Wilderness Retreat

Day 18 (B)
Drive back to Darwin today for an evening enjoying its mixed cultural heritage of Asian, European and Aboriginal descents. A short flight from Indonesia, Darwin is a melting pot of Australian and foreign cultures, and a great landing spot after trips to Kakadu National Park.
3.5-star hotel in downtown Darwin

Day 19
An early morning flight south and then a long-haul flight to North America take you out of the wilderness and back home from a trip seeing many sites that few tourists ever get to see when they travel to Australia. Definitely off-the-beaten-track, your vacation will produce fantastic stories that your friends will be hard-pressed to beat.