Australia Holidays

Australia's sheer size encompasses a diversity of geography and features the world's largest coral reef, several mountain ranges, dense, tropical rainforest, arid desert and vast open plains of grass and scrub. Guests who join us aboard Australia's legendary train The Ghan will encounter many of these incredible landscapes on one of the world's greatest railway journeys between Alice Springs at the country's heart and Adelaide on the south coast.

Size also dictates Australia's complex climates which vary depending upon the region and time of year. Generally speaking, northern Australia from the Red Centre upwards enjoys year-round warmth. Northern tropical regions have a wet season from November to April and a dry season May to October. As you head further south in Australia, and therefore closer to Antarctica, temperatures fall. Other than the tropical regions Australia has four seasons, but as the country is located in the southern hemisphere they are reversed, so December to February is the height of summer, June to August the depths of winter.

Modern Australian cuisine extends far beyond the infamous barbecued shrimp, meat pie and cold lager. Boasting the world's third largest fishing zone, Australia offers some of the finest seafood available with specialities including salmon, lobster, oysters and tuna, as well as the freshwater Barramundi which inhabits Northern Australia's rivers. Roast meats are typically popular and in addition to lamb, beef and pork, kangaroo meat is not uncommon and, in some restaurants, cuts of ostrich or crocodile. Australian delicacies to look out for are stone-baked damper bread, Anzac biscuits and the Moreton Bay Bug; a smaller crustacean relative of the lobster with firm flesh and a distinctive flavour.