The best places in Australia to visit during the Northern Hemisphere summer

Broome, Exmouth, Cairns, Airlie Beach, Darwin and Uluru are the best bases for an Australian adventure during the British summer holidays.

The seasons in Australia

For many British travellers, the prime time to visit Australia is during the British winter – after all, the idea is to escape to the sun, and that’s when key destinations such as Sydney, Melbourne, Perth and Tasmania are at their warmest.

But Australia is a continent, and not everywhere Down Under follows the same weather patterns. Indeed, some Aussie destinations are best tackled between May and October. Most of these are in the tropics – where the seasons are wet and dry, rather than hot and cold, and it’s far more pleasant in the dry. But the same applies to the Outback. You want to be going there when it’s cooler.

So if you are planning to travel during the British summer holidays, or want to get the best of what tends to be regarded as Australia’s off-season, these are the places to steer towards.

Broome

Backed by deep red dunes, Broome has to be one of the world’s weirdest resort towns. Its prime attraction is the 22km long Cable Beach, which fishermen drive down in 4WDs, and camel tour operators plod across at sunset. There’s a strong Asian influence, the pearling industry heritage (as best explored at the Pearl Luggers museum) is riveting, and the huge tides expose both dinosaur footprints and WWII flying boat wrecks.

Broome is also the gateway to the rugged Kimberley region of Australia’s north-west, where spectacular rock formations, photogenic gorges, activity-packed outback stations and strange horizontal waterfalls can be strung together in an adventurous touring route.

Exmouth

The magic of Exmouth – the gateway to the Ningaloo Reef – is its isolation. It’s a mammoth 13 hour drive north of Perth (flying into Learmonth Airport is the sensible short cut around this) and it is proper outback right next to the coast.

The Cape Range National Park stretches down the western side of the North West Cape Peninsula, which is topped by the Vlamingh Head Lighthouse. Here, a string of beaches come with camp sites and rugged rockscapes behind them. The Ningaloo Reef – almost as spectacular as the Great Barrier Reef, and much less crowded – is just a few front crawl strokes offshore. Aim for Turquoise Bay if you fancy drift snorkelling over the reef.

It’s a great spot for kayaking, but the main lure in the Australia winter is swimming with whale sharks – the biggest fish on earth. These gentle giants appear between, roughly, March and August. Come later, and you can swim with humpback whales instead – the whale-swimming season is officially August to November.

Darwin

The Northern Territory’s capital brims with character – part rough-and-ready Aussie bloke, part Asian, part bohemian.  Top attractions include Crocosaurus Cove, where it’s possible to swim in a five metre crocodile’s enclosure, protected only by a see-through acrylic box, and the Museum and Art Gallery of the Northern Territory. This is strongest on wildlife and cyclones.

Darwin primarily acts as the gateway to the Top End’s national parks, however. The big three are Litchfield – with its termite mounds and waterfalls – Nitmiluk and Kakadu. Nitmiluk is home to the series of cruisable gorges known as Katherine Gorge, while Kakadu is a sprawling, intoxicating land of bird-packed wetlands, crocodile-spotting cruises, sandstone escarpments and ancient Aboriginal rock art.

Cairns

The most popular gateway to the Great Barrier Reef is big enough to feel like a real, small city – albeit one with a demob-happy, party vibe.

The Reef is obviously the main attraction, and if you’ve got time, it’s worth doing two different trips out there – the individual reefs visited have different qualities and aquatic life, while the cruises cater to different tastes. The Quicksilver catamaran cruise to Agincourt Reef is a great all-rounder, including an underwater observatory and a coral viewing tour in a semi-submersible as well as the usual snorkelling. You can also try beach-focused cruises out to Green Island and trips to the rainforest town of Kuranda via the Skyrail cable car and Scenic Railway train.

The Whitsundays

There’s plenty of reef to explore around the Whitsunday Islands further south, but it’s the islands themselves – many of which have outrageously impressive white sand beaches – that are the stars. It’s possible to stay on several of them, with options ranging from basic camping on Hook Island to high end luxury on Hayman Island.

Hamilton Island is the action-packed all-rounder, with several accommodation options and an enormous range of things to do including jetskis, wildlife walks, golf and quad biking.

The other way to tackle the islands is on a multi-day yacht cruise from the town of Airlie Beach. These range from backpacker party boats to crewed charters with spacious cabins.

The Red Centre

That big red rock from all the postcards is much better visited in the Australian winter, when the walks can be completed without excruciating heat. The sunset and sunrise viewings of Uluru will do for the photos, but there’s so much more to it. The roughly 10km base walk should be treated as mandatory, as should a side visit to the quieter and equally mysterious red rock domes of Kata Tjuta. The range of activities available from the Ayers Rock Resort  – including Aboriginal dot painting workshops, camel rides, stargazing experiences and dinner on the sand dunes – has massively expanded in recent years, too.

Best of the rest

Cape Tribulation: North of the Daintree River in Queensland’s tropics, this rainforest hideaway is one of the closest points to the Great Barrier Reef. Small group reef trips leave from the beach, but it’s also a great spot for rainforest boardwalks and – potentially – spotting the elusive cassowary.

Magnetic Island: Technically a suburb of northern Queensland’s largest city, Townsville, Maggie has carved a niche as an easy-going holiday destination. It has great beaches, watersports, several accommodation options and just enough real world life to make eating, drinking and shopping interesting. Head into the interior for a walk, and you’ve a great chance of seeing wild koalas.

Mission Beach: Between Cairns and Townsville, Mission Beach has long been an affordable holiday destination, but has carved itself a niche as an adventure tourism hotspot – skydives that land on the beach and whitewater rafting trips along the Tully River depart from here.

More Australia travel

Other Australia travel articles on Planet Whitley include:

• Australia’s scariest islands.
• Five underrated aspects of travelling in Australia.
• How to see kangaroos in Australia.
• The best ways to see the Great Barrier Reef.
• Why the Great Ocean Road is Australia’s classic road trip.