Australia family trip summer 2026

[Gruffalosoulja]

Hello. I have an ambition to take my children to Australia, but I need a bit of help from Mumsnet.

In the summer of 2026, my children will be 5 and 9. With DH, it would be four of us travelling.

We would have 3 weeks, I think, and I would be quite keen to visit Bali and New Zealand in the same trip.

We are middle income, but this is such an ambition and a once-in-a-lifetime trip that I would like to start saving now.

How much would it cost, do you think? And would you do a package or plan yourselves? And where should we go?

I would be so grateful for a steer!

You can't do Australia, NZ and Bali in one 3 week trip. You can't 'do' NZ in 3 weeks, much less Aus. Of course you can visit both for less than 3 weeks and have an amazing time, but you will leave with plenty more still to see.

I wouldn't visit NZ in our summer (their winter). You won't see it at its best. It's all about the amazing scenery, which does look fab on clear, crisp winter days but much less so on drab, grey, drizzly dank ones.

Parts of Australia are well suited to a visit in our winter, so I'd think about what you want from a holiday and pick accordingly. Parts of the coast will still give you a great beach experience. The Blue Mountains for exploring and walking. Sydney for iconic city landmarks etc.

You'll probably need an internal flight or 2, so factor travel time in. 3 weeks will go by in a flash!

Brace for the 1st week to be getting over jet lag!

3 weeks is never enough to visit "Australia" and the. Bali and NZ.

Saying that it's been done.

Highlights are : Sydney - harbour bridge and opera house (inside as well!) is a must. Try and book a show and have dinner around there..

Manly is lovely.

Blue Mountains - cable car ride at scenic world

Queensland-Cairnes - take a boat out to the GBR - go snorkeling

Northern Territory - the national parks are incredible ....

Perth - could be your first stop!
Visit Fremantle and see Quokkas close up.

Melbourne - amazing city - but busy like Sydney....catch the trams ...walk the arcades - great coffee and food ..amazing city gardens

Canberra - if you have time. Parliament House and a whole host of incredible museums. Kids would love Questacon....
Walk around LakeBurley. Stay in the city lose to everything. It's a much calmer and quieter city that's in the bush.

Hope that helps!

New Zealand - have only been to Wellington -it was great!

Forget trying to visit Aus, NZ and Bali all in 3 weeks. You will spend more time in airports than you will seeing the place. We spent three weeks touring NZ and didn't get to all the places we wanted to go.

First of all it will help if you can tell us what you want to see. Do you want to visit the cities in Australia or the countryside? Do you want to spend 3 weeks driving?

In three weeks, I would aim to visit Sydney or Melbourne, Victoria, Queensland (reef, rainforest, tablelands) and somewhere in the centre like Alice Springs with a trip to Uluru or Kings Canyon while there. But that's me, I'm not a city lover.

Thanks, everyone.

We would only have 3 weeks in a summer holiday because of school. I am not keen on heat so going in their winter would be quite good for me!

I actually did this trip when I was five years old - NZ, Bali and Australia, and I really want it for my kids - we haven’t travelled much and, if I don’t plan and start saving now, it won’t ever happen for us.

I wouldn’t be looking to ‘do’ whole countries although Canberra sounds great - I had never thought to visit there.

I suppose we could not go to NZ, but I recall Bali as an absolute paradise and really do want to return. Is it still like that?

Factor for £10-12k if you want to travel within Aus and really make the most of things.

I honestly wouldn't do NZ/lower parts of Aus to coincide with the UK summer. That will be the middle of their winter and it can be bitterly cold at that time of year.

I've done this solo with DC, was aged 5. We didn't do Bali, but Sydney/Brisbane/Melbourne and NZ in our summer (their winter). 3 1/2 weeks.

I planned myself. We didn't want to do super cheap airlines (though they are available) so flew with Qatar for the long hauls. They were great. We paid £1,300 each, though with China Airlines it was around £900. Booked 5 months out but had been tracking flights. We flew into Sydney, then did Brisbane, then Melbourne, then NZ, and flew back via Melbourne.

Accommodation worked out the same price wise as we're used to in the UK (I aimed for £120pn) and we stayed in Airbnbs. Sydney was pricey but we adjusted and stayed in the cheapest place we could find as was in budget! This allowed us to buy groceries for breakfast and dinners and cut costs there. We ate out every day for lunch/snacks so we could sample all the great cafes/restaurants 😋 It was also good for DC to spend bits of downtime at the Airbnb as all the travel took a toll!

I'd say check with the internal flights, we found the 'more expensive' airline options worked out the cheapest as they included baggage allowance and the cost for a suitcase is easily more than the ticket on budget airlines!

Overall we paid roughly:
£2,600 for long haul flights
£1,900 Accom (we stayed a few nights with friends too)
£1,200 on internal/NZ flights
£1,000 eating out (lunches and snacks)
£900 on activities/entrance fees
£500 rental car for NZ + fuel
£350 groceries
£200 Public transport in all 3 Aus cities (DC was mostly free)
£200 Souvenirs

~ £8,850 total, for 1a 1c.

I echo what others have said. Why not go to Australia with a stopover in Singapore. There is lots of fun stuff for kids in Singapore. Go to Sydney and then to Queensland maybe.

Hmm. You're trying to recreate a trip from your childhood which will only end in disappointment. No, Bali isn't the paradise it seemed to you as a child.

You only have 3 weeks and you want to spend most of it in airports and are considering Canberra? Why?

I'd fly to Singapore for 3 nights and spend the rest in Sydney and Cairns and surrounds.

In UK summer, head north in Australia for some awesome tropical outdoor time. Darwin, Kakadu, Cairns. 3 weeks will touch the surface there. Please don’t try and add on NZ especially in winter- it will be a waste of money and too rushed to see anything much.

So a stopover in Singapore then Darwin, Kakadu, Cairns.

What would the budget be for four of us… £20 000?

@Gruffalosoulja if you are coming when UK is in Summer ...you will find parts of East coast Australia ..cold!
Sydney can also be rainy and cold in Winter - it's not all sunshine and beaches!
Plus risk of storms.

If it's the trip of a lifetime, take the kids out of school for a few weeks more.

Spring and Autumn in Australia won't be too hot.

..and if you are considering Canberra - forget the haters! They don't get it 😊 - Spring and Autumn time are amazing!!
We visited during their Floriade festival,toured amazing gallery's and museums and took a hit air balloon trip over the lake.

You could do Singapore and then Western Australia. Broome in the north will be hot and dry. I have been to Perth and surrounding areas in July and weather was pleasant.

You can't cover Australia, Bali, and NZ in 3 weeks... there's not enough time. You could possibly do 2 weeks Australia and 1 week Bali.

If you fly from Perth or Darwin, Bali is only about 3 or 4 hours away. (But Perth itself is already about 4 hours flight away from Melbourne)

I agree that Canberra is lovely but I wouldn’t make it a priority on such a short trip.

Personally, I’d just work my way up the east coast (but then I hate Melbourne and don’t love Adelaide). Fly to Sydney and rent a camper van and drive up to Cairns. And Darwin, if you have time. That is worth seeing. Aussie roads are much easier to drive on than in the UK. A camper van takes care of both transport and accommodation. And bear in mind that you can always park the van and check in to a 5 star luxury hotel if you decide you want a hot bath and room service for a few days. You could fly via Perth (direct flights from London) and then onto Sydney if you want to spend a few days in Western Australia.

FYI - I tried to do the North Island (only) of New Zealand in a week. We did more driving than sightseeing. I wouldn’t do three countries in three weeks. I think two countries in three weeks would be a massive stretch as it is.

Noting the ages of your kids, why would you only have 3 weeks? The summer holidays are 6 weeks long.

You seem to be blindly accepting every suggestion here without any thought. Canberra? Ok. Drop NZ? Ok. Singapore? Ok. Kakadu? Etc

I think you should delve into the forums on trip advisor. And I don't mean asking them to plan it for you, you'll get your arse handed to you for that. Really do your research. What is it you want? Do you want to see the famous sights of Sydney or experience the rainforests? The Great Barrier Reef? Uluru?

Take your time if this is the only chance you will get to do a big trip like this. Maybe even wait a year longer until the youngest is a bit older.

I've lived in Aus 20 years. If I was coming from the UK on a once in a lifetime trip, Canberra certainly wouldn't be my priority! Definitely don't try and do more than one country. I think you need to define a bit more what you really want to see. Australia is a huge country.

I have just returned from a month doing our trip of a lifetime to Australia with my DS 18 and DD 16. We had the most amazing time, they got involved with planning the trip and what they wanted to see and do as well.

We flew to Singapore first and spent two days there. I loved Singapore and we managed to see most of the sights in two days although would love to go back. Singapore airport is an event in itself., have a look online at everything that's in it.

Then on to Sydney for 5 nights in a house so we could eat cheaper but had one meal out a day either brunch or tea.

We walked over Harbour Bridge, ferry to Manly, train to Bondi, wandered round the city, opera house etc. Weather was about 13 degrees and Very windy so a bit like being at home!

Then flew to Brisbane - internal flights are really cheap and easy to get to places. I then hired a car - we were going to get a camper van but I thought two weeks in a small space in winter months with young adults might not work so we used booking.com and internet to plan where we would stay the following night.

Stayed on Gold Coast for 3 days at Burleigh Head, which we loved. Surf clubs and rugby clubs are great to eat in and people watch. Went to one theme park but loads of rides not open due to being winter so you would need to consider that for your DC.
Stayed in Brisbane for one night which was enough tbh and then went to steve Irwin's Australia zoo.
I loved it and was a birthday treat !

Part 2
After Brisbane we stayed at Noosa, Hervey Bay, Agnès water, Airlie Beach, Rockhampton, Mission Beach before staying with friends in Cairns.
Weather got progressively warmer as we headed north.

As I said we booked accommodation the night before and all worked smoothly as there was loads of availability , but wouldn't suggest doing that in their summer. We stayed in a variety of apartments, hotel, motels - up to you.

We had so many amazing experiences; whale watching in Hervey Bay, going out to the Whitsundays on a rib and snorkelling in Great Barrier Reef, bungee jumping in Cairns and the rain forests mountains of Kuranda.
Excursions cost quite a bit and I ordered a credit card with no charges for using abroad.

Cost
Flights £5k for long haul for three adults - I should have tracked them but wasn't organised enough
Internal flights £200
Car hire £400 for two weeks
Petrol - half the price in the UK
Accommodation £3300 but I was paying for two or three bedrooms with the age of my DC.
Food and beer is similar to UK prices

Internal flights are really easy and I probably would have dropped car somewhere and flown between cairns and Airlie beach as it's a helluva drive.

We packed a lot in and I'm not sure I could have done NZ and Bali as well.
My friends used to live in NZ and their winter is very similar to our winters so you won't see it are it's best .

I would absolutely steer clear of Bali and try Fiji instead.

Your kids are still quite young and your 5 year old will remember very little although you say this was your holiday of a lifetime, how much do you really remember?

Kindly, I think your kids are too young for this 'trip of a lifetime'.

Took ours 10/12; 3 weeks in Easter 2014; Singapore 3 nights, highly recommend; Sydney 4ish days, hotel (pre AirBnB), flew to Brisbane, Gold Coast (apartment); Mt Warning climb, Byron Bay, then Sunshine Coast (Buderim, Noosa) then family in Gympie, flew to Cairns, Atherton tableland, train/Skyrail; Daintree. GBR trip sadly spoiled by a recent cyclone, then 2 more days in Singapore, then home.

I'd avoid Bali, it's effectively Torremolinis for Australian youth; and why Canberra??

We did 3 weeks in Australia when ours were 11 and 12, in the summer of 2018. Think it cost 11k for 4 of us but flight prices have roughly doubled since then which could add another 5k or so now with internal flights as well plus we have an asd child so food budget was lower than without. Plus inflation so yes 20k sounds roughly right.

We flew to Sydney and didn't have any issue with jet lag and started off first day on Australian time zone. We started with breakfast with a koala at one of the zoos Featherdale I think then drove up to Port Stephens and went on a whale and dolphin watching cruise, saw about 150 and was very lucky with the weather and was 20C and sunny. Then also did night in Blue Mountains at the Sofitel, cold there at 10C and saw kangaroos in maybe Glendale. Also quickly round Sydney to Harbour Bridge boat trip opera house but was 14C and windy. Stayed in lovely hotel.

Flew up to Cairns were in was around 27C and sunny. Went on Seastar, small boat to Great Barrier Reef, went snorkelling and scuba diving, saw giant turtles, reef, beautiful beaches etc, Seastar was excellent. Stayed in AirBNB which had own tropical gardens and was lovely. Went to Daintree and saw rainforest and crocodiles. Went to Kuranda and on the steam train and to cuddle a koala and inland to a lake.

Stayed at Lumholtz Lodge in Atherton Tablelands were lady who is a former vet /zoo trained rescued injured tree kangaroos, and saw those, one jumped on my back, could also feed pademelon, possum and bottle feed bettong which kids loved. She told us where to see cassowary by the beach and were to see platypus and saw both. Then we stayed in a treehouse and they had pademelon, possum, wallabies and cassowary on site and could feed some of those. About 27C there. Spent around 2 weeks in Cairns /Atherton / Daintree coastal drive is amazing as well.

It would be very cold in NZ then. Never been to Bali but it doesn't get great reviews on here. Some stopover in Singapore but so much in Australia don't know if I would bother.

Penguinsa makes good points. We did Singapore to introduce our DC to Asia-lite. DH and I are seasoned travellers, via backpacking. Boy, has Singapore changed from 1987 to 2014!! Also for jet lag purposes though it floored us first morning waking in Sydney, tho.

We went at Easter, April?- but it was only in Cairns swimming pool water was tolerable. Our kids and Victorian kids were the only ones going in!

I did Australia in February of this year. I could only do two weeks due to work commitments but for me, I thought it was fine.

So, we flew Qatar Airways in Business Class. We chose Qatar as their flight arrival time was perfect for me, flight landed into Melbourne at 18:35. By the time we got out of the airport, it was 19:30! We had a shower by the time we got to bed and went straight to sleep as we were so shattered. I would recommend getting a flight into Australia, arriving early evening so you can avoid jet lag. Arriving early would ruin the trip imo as you’ll be tempted to sleep as soon as you get to the hotel.

We did Melbourne, Tasmania & Sydney.

Melbourne: we stayed at the W Melbourne - visit Queen Victoria Market, National Gallery of Victoria, Fitzroy (a trendy suburb), the Royal botanical garden. The trams within the city centre are completely free! I would recommend renting a car and driving out. We drove to the Twelve Apostles, alongside The Great Ocean Road. We made a few stop along the way in some cute towns to have lunch. We saw Koalas in Kennett River!

Tasmania: we flew into Hobart and based ourselves there. We stayed at The Tasman (gorgeous hotel with fabulous breakfast). The city itself is so-so (it reminded me of a medium sized city in the UK). We loved MONA, really quirky museum and the seafood was delicious as well had a good international scene of food - however where Tasmania really shines is its natural beauty. We drove to some stunning river waterfalls, went to a kangaroo sanctuary and got up close to feed kangaroos. It’s such a stunning place. I really loved it.

Sydney: the obvious ones are Sydney Harbour Bridge, Sydney Opera House however Sydney has so much to do! We loved bondi beach (a bit pretentious) and manly was good also! Don’t forget to visit the Blue Mountains - stunning! We stayed at the Langham which was nice.