2 weeks in Australia - Places to visit during trip around country

2 weeks to cover all those cities is a very short period of time. I'd recommend 1 week per state. Keep in mind that it is almost the same size as the US but our major cities are a lot further away from each other. To do both sides of the country, I'd recommend you set aside 4 weeks as a minimum otherwise you'll rush and not be able to appreciate it as much.

Also, how much is the budget? Since Australia is big, its expensive to travel around. We even have a farm that is bigger than the entire country of Belgium.

I'd recommend you'd stick to the eastern states and maybe come back another time for Perth and Adelaide. Places like Sydney and Melbourne need at least 4 full days minimum each to properly absorb. 

To do the Blue Mountains, you could easily jump on a coach in Sydney for $200 and do a day tour. 

This is a bit of a vague question as there are a LOT of things to do in Australia, even if you remove aquatic and sporting activities. There are world class zoos to visit, amazing museums, decadent restaurants, opportunities for long distance road trips or you could easily spend 2 weeks shopping. 

In Tasmania, you should see Wineglass Bay, the Cadbury Chocolate Factory and Cascade Brewery. In Brisbane, go to the XXXX Brewery and the Streets Beach. Adelaide's Haigh's Chocolates tour is free and includes sweets. Kangaroo Island is a bit much for a day tour, so stay overnight. 

Blue Mountains is easily accessible by train from Sydney. Just take it to any of the towns (Leura or Katoomba) and walk into the national park. Greyhound bus is an easy way to get between cities on the East Coast, but you can get cheap JetStar flights between Sydney and Melbourne. Hope this helps!

I agree with Christopher, 6 cities it way too much. You have 14 days and 6 places to hit up. It will take you about a day to travel between places (for a rough example it's a 4 hour flight from Sydney to Perth, plus 1 hour transfers either side, plus getting to the airport 1 hr early, plus picking up luggage = at least 8 hours transit).

What I would do is whittle it down to 2 cities, tops 3. it sounds like Tasmania is important to you so do that, and, being a Sydney-sider I'd definitely recommend Sydney, but Melbourne is also very nice (and closer to Tasmania so it might make more sense). I'm not an expert on Melbourne, but it's pretty easy to get around, the food is good, the small bars are cool and there are nice day trips to do to places like the Mornington Peninsula...

Hi Belen

Tasmania has some great places to visit. I live in Melbourne and I have been there four times in the past four years and am always amazed at hidden gems that it has to offer. It has more forest, mountains and more wildlife than most of Australia and gets very few overseas visitors. It has the most "English" looking towns in Australia. I very highly recommend a visit to Hobart (capital of the state of Tasmania) and the Museum of Old and New Art (MONA). The museum is the personal project of an eccentric Tasmanian multi-millionaire who has spent over $200 million on the best and strangest of modern art and many beautiful ancient pieces.  It is a unique brain-changing experience and you can take a wonderful modern ferry up the river to arrive there. I also recommend the tiny town of Strahan on the far west coast – a lovely patch of wilderness.

I agree with the other Trippy members that you must change your itinerary plans given you only have two weeks. If you visit each of Tasmania, Brisbane, Sydney, Melbourne, Adelaide (and Kangaroo Island) and Perth, you will be spending fully 7 days of your 14 days waiting around in airports and transiting to cities (which is expensive). It would be like visiting Lima, Bogota, Buenos Aires, Montevideo, Rio and Caracas in two weeks. My wife is from Chile and we have had family members from Chile visiting here a number of times. We have learnt the lesson on not doing too much when travelling around – especially in the first few days. Australia is enormous – almost the size of the United States.

I suggest you dump Brisbane and Adelaide (and therefore Kangaroo Island) and maybe also dump Perth. Brisbane and Adelaide are nice cities but they don’t hold any particular unique interest (in my opinion). Perth is a stunning city – wonderfully bright, clean and organised but is also a problem because it takes so long to get to (nearly 4 hours flight from Melbourne).  Kangaroo Island is nice but it will take two and a half days to see it as it is more than two hours south of Adelaide, then a 45 minute ferry trip – too far and too expensive for just a day trip. There are hundreds of other great places to see kangaroos in Australia. Near Melbourne at Ballarat there is a wildlife park (http://www.wildlifepark.com.au/) where you can see kangaroos taken from Kangaroo Island – they are especially placid and friendly (because they were never hunted on Kangaroo Island). If you do go to Perth you will probably want to go to Rottnest Island as it has some unique wildlife and is only a fast 30 minute ferry ride from the southern suburb of Fremantle.

From Melbourne it is only a 40 minute flight to Launceston in Tasmania or 55 minutes to Hobart and the flights are quite cheap ($140 USD return).

To get around in each state is quite easy – there are many specialist bus services for back-packers. For the Blue Mountains you can take a train to Katoomba from Sydney (2 hour trip) and then see the sights on the Blue Mountains explorer bus - http://www.explorerbus.com.au/home.aspx

You might also consider the weather in September. In Sydney it will be about 23 degrees and it is one of the drier months (5 wet days per month). In Melbourne it will be about 17 and it is one of the wetter months (raining 10 days per month). Perth will be 20 degrees and a little wet like Melbourne. In Tasmania it will be a cool 15 degrees but relatively dry. Note also that there are school holidays in September so internal air-fares might be higher than normal – that might reduce your schedule further.

When you arrive after the long flight from Chile you will be tired and jet lagged and a little culture shocked. I think starting with four days in Sydney, then two or three days in Melbourne, four days in Tasmania and then another two days in Sydney before you fly back would be a great trip. You might also consider the Australian capital – Canberra. It has no life but many tourist attractions and is unlike any city in South America (totally planned and neat).  With this itinerary you won’t have seen the truly amazing Australian desert or the completely different tropical north but they really need two or three weeks on their own if you are going to do a proper trip without exhausting yourself. Next time!

Louisa's Walk , South Bruny National Park, Flinders Island Adventures, and Blue Mountains will be phenomenal experience on high peak. In respect with transport and accommodation if you want to rent a car, you can check out the company I work for, campervan rentals in Australia.

If you're going to stay in Melbourne, I would choose a hotel that's right in the CBD, like the ibis Styles Melbourne, The Victoria Hotel, (https://www.victoriahotel.com.au/). It's nice and very reasonable, plus they often have packages.

St Kilda is also nice if you want to be close to the beach, but you'll need to take public transportation if you want to see all the attractions in the city center. So it really depends if you prefer to be close to the sea, or right in the middle of Melbourne :)

Sorry for the long answer......I have done a lot of driving around Australia and you can easily spend one week driving from one city to another, stopping at all the great places on the way.

To give you a rough idea it can take about 8 hours to drive between major cities. I did Tasmania in a week, I was really pushing it some days and it can only be done by driving.

To even attempt all of those cities in 2 weeks (and i wouldn't) you cannot go by bus / road. The only option is plane and even then as it has been said, you will spend all your time in transit. 

Someone suggested to cut down the itinerary. If you really want to go to Tasmania, you will need to rent a car. I met plenty of people who were trying to get around by buses and said that is was very difficult / expensive to get to where they wanted. You catch the ferry from Melbourne to Tasmania, so Melbourne is a given.

Can you drive?? I know you said you don't want to rent a car, but if you can drive and are in Melbourne I would recommend hiring a car and doing the short 3 days great ocean drive self drive. I drove from Melbourne to Adelaide and I would say it was boring driving after the great ocean road, but the great ocean road was amazing. 

Suggested itinerary  -

2 days Melbourne

7 days Tasmania (getting there is an overnight ferry, do not book the sleeper chairs, most are broken and do not recline. You can share cabins or get your own)

- Launceston, Hollybak zip line, Cataract gorge, St Columbia falls, Bay of fires, Wineglass bay, Tessellated pavement, blowhole, Tasman Arch, devils kitchen, Port Arthur, MONA, Salamanca markets. 

1 day Melbourne

3 days Great ocean road

1 day Melbourne 

You should really go check out High coffee at the InterContinental

Adelaide it is a great experience if you are into coffee.

You need at least a week to drive all around Tasmania, a few tips to enjoy the best of it:

• Don't spend too much time in Hobart, and travel clockwise
• Wake up early (4-5am), when the sun leaves, animals are everywhere so don't think about driving at night
• Take a ride on Australia's oldest steam locomotive in Strahan
  
• Hike in Cradle Mountain, no special skills needed, plan where you will stay in advance
• Stop in St Helens and continue your trip to Wineglass Bay, if you're lucky you'll spend your day alone with Kangaroos on the white sand beach!
• Get LOST - the island is an open Zoo, literally