5 weeks in Australia - SOLO

I traveled for 3 weeks solo, no car and found it very easy to plan with so much information online and in English. I used day tours sometimes- for example, a tour to see koalas and the fairy penguins in Melbourne, a night hike in the Daintree and Hartley's when in Cairns.
Likely if you provide more details about your interests more suggestions can be offered...

My husband and I were in Australia for a bit over a month this past January/February. Here's our itinerary. Its quite rough, I just did some quick cut/pasting:

Saturday, January 17, Arrive Sydney,
Tuesday, January 20. Leave Sydney fly to Melbourne
Sunday, January 25, Leave Melbourne for Great Ocean Road
-Bell’s Beach (Surfing)
-Split Point Light house
-Memorial Arch (talk about the GOR and people who built it)
-Devil’s Elbow Cove
-Lorne Visitor Center
-Erskine Falls(, 13 min from highway, easy walk from park lot to view platform, 30 minutes to go to base)
-Teddy’s Lookout (2 km Lorne, perched high above spectacular views along the Great Ocean Road)
-Kennet River Nature Walk (Koalas (across from campground), parrots, kookaburras, wallabies, walk begins on Grey River Road. Park at Kafe Koala (has birds)
-Marriner’s Lookout (north of Apollo Bay, grand views from parking, 10 minutes along a well-kept but uphill path
-Mait’s Rest Rainforest Boardwalk (800m,30 min., thru eucalyptus (Otway National Park)
-Cape Otway Light (Possibly)
Monday, January 26 Leave Apollo Bay continue Great Ocean Road, drive to Port Campbell, restaurants, Waves
-Marengo (if didn’t do it previous day)
-Mait’s Rest Rainforest Boardwalk (if didn’t do it previous day)
-Cape Otway Light (if didn’t do it previous day)
-Stevenson Falls (wheel chair accessible, 650 m return)Mike
-Beauchamp Falls(2.5 km through forest)
-Triplet Falls (2km, 3 cascade falls Mike
-Gibson Steps
-12 Apostles
-Loch Ard Gorge (site of ship wreck) and blowhole
Tuesday, January 27,Leave Port Campbell drive to Port Fairy, Restaurants Coffin Sally’s (4-10), Merrijig Kitchen (6-11), sites
-London Bridge (once connected to land and then collapsed)
-Bay of Islands(limestone pillars, beach to left, caves to right, 2 viewpoints)
-Bay of Martyrs
-The Grotto, (700m boardwalk, trail down steps, natural porthole
-Childers cove
-Tower Hill Reserve, Victoria’s largest dormant volcano Visitor center (10-4) Lava Tongue Boardwalk (LOTS of animals
Wednesday, January 28, See Tower Hill if didn’t on 1/27, Drive to Hall’s Gap via Dunkeld (2 hours),
• Visitor Center
• Venus Baths, 2.3 km round
• Pinnacle Lookout 4.2 km, round, 2.5 hours, stops include Grand Canyon, Bridal Veil Falls, Lookout
• The Balconies, 2 km
• Boraka Lookout (at end of 5.4 km road)
• Reeds Lookout (at parking, nice at sunset
• Mackenzie Falls, 1.9km
• Fish Falls, from Zumsteins Picnic are, 4.8 km, about 2 hours
Friday, September 30 Drive to Bendigo via Ararat
Saturday, January 31, Sleep Bendigo
Sunday, February 1, Drive Bendigo to Healsville,
Wednesday, February 4, Drive from Healsville to Melbourne airport (1 Hour drive) Fly to Hobart arrive. Drive to Eaglehawk Neck. (1 hour) Try to see Tasman Park sights
Friday, February 6, Finish any Tasman sites, if necessary,Stops, take C335 and C320, Freycinet Nat Park, Lighthouse, Waterfall Lookout, Honeymoon Bay. Springvale vineyard, Friendly Beaches, Bicheno, Blowhole, The Gulch,
Saturday, February 7, Drive to Cradle Mountain stops at “The Gardens”(Bay of Fires), Humbug Point, possibly Eddystone Lighthouse,
Sunday, February 8, Tour Cradle Mountain see “to Do “
Monday, February 9, Drive to Mt. Field,Nelson Waterfall ( short hike, about 27 km past Queenstown. Also, Franklin River Trail (1km, grade 1, 25 min, The walk starts off the Lyell Highway (A10), approximately 60km east of Queenstown.33 km after Nelson’s) Mt Field about 2 hours after Franklin River Trail Self Meal, Russell Falls, Horseshoe falls Tall Trees circuit To Do in Mt. Field, visitor center, hike to Russell Falls (1.4 km, 25 min), Tall trees
Tuesday, February 10, Drive to Hobart, drop car, Hobart 2 nights
Thursday, February 12 plane to Sydney, pick up a car, drive to Katoomba, Blue Mountains
Saturday, February 15, Drive to Sydney, return car
Monday, February 17, Fly home

Great for SE Australia, but you left out Philip Island to see the Penguins come in from the ocean.

Also, you didn't plan to see much of Sydney. We did the Blue Mountains on a bus tour for a day trip, can' see spending more than than that.

Why are you skipping the Great Barrier Reef?

@geovagriffith, this trip was taken earlier this year. We only had the days we had. Australia is a big country. We spent five days in Sydney, three at the beginning and two at the end. We chose Tasmania to get away from the heat. We LOVED Tasmania. We didn't go to the Great Barrier Reef, because we'll do the northeast area when the weather is more conducive to what we want to do. We think we'll love Adelaide including Phillip Island. Also, we saw penguins in New Zealand. Adelaide would have been blistering in January, and we decided to do Tasmania and save Adelaide for a cooler time of year. We really enjoyed the Blue Mountains and did a lot of hiking. We were happy to have a car and a couple days.

@OP, be sure to take into account weather. The difference in weather in the north is dramatically different than other parts of the country.

Wow. Great information here! I started with the flight to/from Australia and then looked at accommodation. Chat GPT suggested 12 days I. Sydney. Then a week a week in Melbourne and a week in Cairns/ Port Douglas. Finally a flight from
Cairns to Brisbane. I’m planning only 4 days there before flying g back to Sydney and heading home. I’m worried that I’m not giving myself enough time in Brisbane.
It suggests Days 1-7 going to Opera House and Harbour Bridge; Circular Quat and Rocks; Bondi Beach and walk to Coogee; Ferry to Manly and Watson sunset Ferry. Days 8-10 are day trips yo Blue Mountains; Hunter Valley wine; and Taronga Zoo or Botanical Gardens. I’ve been told that Port Douglas would be better for me than Cairns. And that’s where I would book a reef tour. See Daintree rainforest. Kuranda skyrail and scenery highway. Whew! Anyway I’ve been trying to plan this without using a premium travel service and not sure which tours need to be pre-booked.

Oh and I’m using only public transportation. I’m not too sure about driving on the other side of the road. And there’s just me.

Be aware that compared to other places in Australia, Sydney is quite expensive. We did all you plan in Sydney plus museums, churches and botanical garden in the days we had. One day we just rode on the ferries and got off for short walks. I think I'd take a bus to Katoomba and then overnight for the Blue Mountains. We did like Sydney a lot, but 12 days would have been too much. I know there are bus trips/day tours from Melbourne for the Great Ocean Road.

I have used ChatGPT as a starting point and then made major modifications.

Okay so maybe 12 days in Sydney is too much. I’ll look at that again.

"We think we'll love Adelaide including Phillip Island".

Did you mean Kangaroo Island? Philip Island is in Victoria, which is a VERY long way away from Adelaide (865km to be precise).

Also, as an Adelaidian by birth, I am frequently there over Christmas and can say that January is not "blistering" - this year it was about 35C, great weather for the beach. Typically there would be a week or so of 40C, but usually in February. All very bearable.

Ah yes, Simon, Philip Island is the one by Melbourne. Again, we purposely skipped it, and made other choices, like adequate time on the GOR and Tasmania. All I can say is when we planned the trip, forum folks warned me of the possible heat in Adelaide, worse than Melbourne. We were in Australia mid January to mid February. We had several days at 100 F in Melbourne and 100F in Bendigo and over 90F in Halls Gap. We are not beach people, we tend to be siteseeing or hiking. We were glad to escape the heat for gorgeous Tasmania.

These details are helpful, thank you! I am arguably a fast walker and also not into lengthy restaurant meals, solo, I can see a lot in a day. You may have a much slower pace - but:
Days 1-7 going to Opera House and Harbour Bridge; Circular Quat and Rocks; Bondi Beach and walk to Coogee; Ferry to Manly and Watson sunset Ferry. Days 8-10 are day trips yo Blue Mountains; Hunter Valley wine; and Taronga Zoo Botanical Gardens
This sounds like too many days? Obviously you will be exhausted your arrival day, but at the same time you could do your 1-4. I saw a performance the opera house instead of the tour.
I didn't do anything with wine but your first four places are logically connected for a few hours if you choose a hotel centrally located. From the harbor you are already at the ferry to the zoo. I did Bondi Beach and the fabulous shore walk a second day- I think it was 3 full days and then took the (easy) train to Katoomba and stayed overnight in the Blue Mountains which was plenty for me.
Trip Advisor has some good itinerary suggestions and so do the Australian tourism websites.

Those 7 days ChatGPT suggest for Sydney can be comfortably done in 3 including the Botanical Gardens and Toronga zoo. The Blue Mountains is best done by train, then bus or Uber. If you like beautiful walks through ancient forests with spectacular views, spend at least one night. Leura is the best town IMO to stay at. Depending on where else you are visiting, I wouldn't bother visiting Hunter Valley. It is a long way from Sydney and Melbourne & Adelaide have better wine regions close by with easy day tours that visit some lovely wineries.

Australia is very easy to DIY so I wouldn't recommend a guided tour, particularly if you are a spontaneous person. I would also not rely on ChatGPT too much, particularly when the Australian TA forum is so helpful and will offer some very good and practical advice with a better sense of time frames from locals and quite a few regular visitors that are also solo travellers.

Last year I was in Australia for 4 weeks with a friend. We started in Melbourne and spent 4 nights there. One of our days we took a day trip to the Great Ocean Road. We stayed busy during our 3 full days including an Australian football game and two of our evenings we saw a comedy show and a play. We also went to museums, the botanical gardens and other things. I feel like we got a nice overview and feel for the city. Then we flew to Hobart for 4 nights. With 3 full days we were able to take 2 all day tours out of town, explore the town, go to the Female Factory in Hobart (for women convicts) and spent our final afternoon with a delightful forum member who graciously showed us around. From there we flew to Brisbane. We spent 3 nights there before joining a 9 day tour. On our own we explored Brisbane and took a boat to a Koala sanctuary where we saw a large variety of animals. We joined our tour in the late afternoon where we went on a short walking tour, had dinner and the next day flew to the Whitsundays where we stayed in Airlie Beach. I won’t get too involved with our tour schedule but we worked our way up the coast, staying in Mission Beach, Cairns, Port Douglas and then back to Cairns for the final night. We then flew to Sydney and stayed 5 nights before flying home. I felt that 5 nights allowed us plenty of time of time in Sydney, we took ferries to other places and a bus to Bondi Beach. We also went to the Botanical Gardens, walked over the bridge, and many other things. We saw a performance at the Opera House. If we had an extra day I would have taken a day trip to the Blue Mountains.

The tour company we used was Via Travel. We took a Boutique Tour with a maximum of 16 people. I think their tours must be different from other tours I’ve heard of (it’s the only tour I’ve ever taken) because when we started in Brisbane the only other people on the tour was a couple who had already been on the tour from Cairns. They were not with us for the whole tour, finishing their segment in Cairns before we continued north. At that point it was just us and the tour guide, so we essentially got a private tour.

https://viatravel.com.au/

I think 4 or 5 days in Sydney is plenty, even if you included a day tour to the Blue Mountains during that time. I don't know why ChatGPT thinks you need to see both Bondi and Manly beaches. I loved seeing the penguins on Philip Island. I enjoyed both the Botanical Gardens and the Captain Cook Gardens(not sure if that's the correct name) in Melbourne.

Cala, it is the Fitzroy Gardens. In 1934, a Russell Grimwade, purchased and sent a cottage belonging to James Cook, the explorer's parents brick by brick to be reconstructed in the Fitzroy Gardens in Melbourne. It is known as "Cooks Cottage" even though Captain Cook actually never lived in it.