Cities
12 cities and 897 places, with how to get around.
Sydney
New South Wales
A harbour city with public ferries, beaches to the east and north, and several free-entry museums in the centre. Music venues and clubs are spread across Darlinghurst, Surry Hills, Newtown and Marrickville. Transport runs on Opal, which has daily and weekly spending caps.
112 places
Melbourne
Victoria
Melbourne is the capital of Victoria. It has trams, free museums, many music venues, and sporting events and festivals all year. Ferries cross the bay from the city, and there are tours to the Great Ocean Road and Phillip Island.
91 places
Brisbane
Queensland
Brisbane is the capital of Queensland, with a subtropical climate and a river that crosses the city. Translink public transport costs 50 cents per trip, several museums and gardens charge no entry, and Moreton and North Stradbroke islands are reached by boat.
92 places
Gold Coast
Queensland
Gold Coast is a coastal city in south-east Queensland, with 54 km of beaches, theme parks to the north and rainforest inland. Surfers Paradise has hostels and clubs; Burleigh, Currumbin and Coolangatta have surf and live music. Translink public transport has a flat fare of 50 cents.
74 places
Perth
Western Australia
Perth is the capital of Western Australia and faces the Indian Ocean. It has hot, dry summers, free public transport on Sundays with a card and, very close by, Fremantle, Rottnest Island and beaches such as Cottesloe. Here we gather what we have been able to confirm, with prices seen in November 2026.
71 places
Adelaide
South Australia
Adelaide is the capital of South Australia and has a little over a million people. The centre is a grid surrounded by parks, with beaches to the west and hills to the east. It has free-entry museums on North Terrace, music venues on Hindley Street and a festival season between February and March.
61 places
Cairns
Queensland
Cairns is a tropical city in northern Queensland. Boats leave from here for the Great Barrier Reef, along with day trips to the Kuranda rainforest and the Daintree. The centre is flat and can be covered on foot, and much of what is on offer revolves around tourism.
69 places
Darwin
Northern Territory
Darwin is a compact tropical city with two seasons: the wet and the dry. Markets, festivals and many outings are concentrated between April and October. Job listings for Working Holiday makers in the Territory are grouped under tourism and hospitality, agriculture, construction and events.
78 places
Hobart
Tasmania
Hobart is the capital of Tasmania, beside the Derwent River and at the foot of kunanyi / Mount Wellington. It has markets, museums and music venues in the city, and day trips to Bruny Island, Port Arthur and Freycinet. Public buses and ferries are free until 30 June 2027, and there is harvest work on the island almost all year.
55 places
Canberra
Australian Capital Territory
Canberra is the capital of Australia, about 3 hours by car from Sydney, and in 2023 the territory had more than 466,500 residents. It has Parliament and several free national museums, a lake with boat trips and nature reserves to the south. The YHA network lists no hostel in the territory.
50 places
Byron Bay
New South Wales
Byron Bay is a beach town next to the easternmost point of Australia, in northern New South Wales. There is a lot of tourism: surf schools, dive trips to Julian Rocks, kayaking, hostels and live music almost daily. It has no airport or long-distance train, so you arrive by road, often from Ballina or Gold Coast.
57 places
Sunshine Coast
Queensland
The Sunshine Coast is a strip of beaches and towns about 100 km north of Brisbane, from Caloundra to Noosa, with a hinterland of mountains and rainforest. It has buses with a flat fare of 50 cents, markets from Wednesday to Sunday and boat trips from Mooloolaba and the Noosa River. Further north, Rainbow Beach is one of the starting points for K'gari.
87 places