Hi everyone,
My wife and I are planning to do a 14 day trip starting 12/26/25 to 1/9/26 to Australia. This will be our first time there so we plan to base the majority of our stay in Sydney and Melbourne. We are both in our late 20s so open to any and all activities. We plan to fly in an out of Sydney and will likely travel through domestic flights in between. Currently planning to do first 5 days in Sydney (through NYE) then 4 days in Melbourne.
Open to suggestions in either place but we hope to each many of the well known attractions. Always open to great day trips/tours out of either city. For Melbourne in particular, we want to do the penguin parade and Great Ocean Road.
The part that I am trying to figure out is what would be a good option for the extra 3-4 days. Ideally, we'd like to have some time out of the cities potentially on or near a beach. GBR is not a huge priority for us as my wife is hates snorkeling, etc. Therefore, I've been looking at options for other great beach areas that wouldn't require us to go all the way up north. I understand this is the holiday time so looking to get things booked early.
If anyone has any ideas or suggestions would be much appreciated.