City Buzz, Hilltop Hikes & Wildlife Encounters - Family Fun in Southern Australia

Fourteen days through southern Australia with children in mind, using internal flights for the long legs and a hire car for everything worth driving.

Sydney opens it with two nights, a private city or beach tour, the Fish Market and the Botanic Gardens. Kangaroo Island follows by way of Adelaide and the ferry from Cape Jervis, and Seal Bay there holds the third largest Australian sea lion colony in the country, visited on a guided beach walk among the animals rather than from a platform. Whales, dolphins and penguins are all possible offshore depending on season and luck.

The Grampians come next after a flight to Melbourne, two nights at Halls Gap with Mackenzie Falls, the Pinnacle lookout, the Balconies rock formation at Reed Lookout and Aboriginal rock art in the shelters, some of it thousands of years old.

Then the Great Ocean Road, which is the driving highlight. Apollo Bay is reached through the rainforest of the Great Otway National Park, with koalas in the trees around Cape Otway lighthouse, and the Twelve Apostles and London Bridge are limestone stacks left behind as the cliffs eroded. A family surf lesson follows at Torquay, then two nights in Melbourne with a city tour, the street art and the little penguins that come ashore at St Kilda at dusk. The trip finishes back in Sydney with a night at Taronga Zoo. Original Travel include the hire car, internal flights, accommodation, the tours and lessons, concierge access, a 24-hour helpline and carbon absorption. International flights and most meals are separate. Prices run from 3,300 to 4,500 pounds per person.