ALONG THE GREAT OCEAN ROAD

Sydney might be Australia’s biggest city, and Canberra its capital, but any Melburnian will tell you that their city is the country’s cultural hub. It’s got vibrant arts and food scenes, it’s the home of Aussie rules football, and it’s regularly been voted the world’s most liveable city – after spending some time here, you won’t struggle to see why.

You’ll spend 3 nights at the Lyall Hotel, a luxury boutique hotel in the fashionable South Yarra district. Nearby are the Royal Botanic Gardens, acclaimed as one of the best of its kind in the world and a fantastic testament to the variety and colour of Australia’s plant life. Other sights not to be missed are the historic, magnificent State Library of Victoria, the buzzy Queen Victoria Market, and the iconic Melbourne Cricket Ground.

After 3 nights soaking up the sights and sounds of Melbourne, you’ll take to the road for a 2-hour drive west along the Great Ocean Road to the lovely town of Lorne. A hugely popular vacation spot among Australians and a classic stop-off on the Great Ocean Road, activities on offer here include whale watching (between May and September), fishing and surfing. Walking and hiking are great in this area too, with 10 waterfalls within 10 kilometres and a range of trails to take you past them; Teddy’s Lookout offers stunning views of the coastline and the Great Ocean Road winding alongside it.

You’ll spend 2 nights at La Perouse, a beautiful boutique B&B with something of a Riviera feel; the friendly owners Sue and Laurel were inspired to open a hotel by their trips to the south of France.

Taking to the Great Ocean Road once again, you’ll continue west for around 4 hours until you reach Port Fairy, a historic fishing village home to a rich variety of wildlife and an arts scene which punches above its weight. If you’re visiting in March, don’t miss the Port Fairy Folk Festival, which is one of Australia’s premier music festivals – make sure you check out the array of arts and crafts boutiques and antiques stores to be found in town, too.

Your hotel, Drift House, encapsulates Port Fairy’s historic and prosperous atmosphere, with its combination of an 18^th-century building and modern extension of steel and glass. Port Fairy’s historic centre is a great setting for a walk for history buffs, with many original buildings dating from the 1800s.

With your visit to Port Fairy you’ve reached the end of the Great Ocean Road, and you’ll make the 3.5-hour drive back to Melbourne to board a 1-hour flight to Adelaide. The capital of South Australia, Adelaide is often overshadowed by its bigger brothers Melbourne and Sydney to the east, but is emerging as a great destination in its own right, with superb food and music scenes livening up the old streets and historic buildings.

Founded on an ethos of religious tolerance, Adelaide is known as the City of Churches for its plethora of Christian buildings of a variety of denominations, and the city also has a long Jewish history and one of the oldest mosques in Australia.

Your home for the next 2 nights is The Playford, an upmarket, luxurious Art Nouveau-style hotel in Adelaide’s central North Terrace district.

After 2 nights enjoying the history and culture of Adelaide, it’s time to visit one of the world’s greatest wine regions as you drive inland into the Barossa Valley. You’ll stay at Kingsford Homestead for 2 nights, a luxury hotel in a traditional country estate built by a prominent Australian pastoralist in 1856.

Several of Barossa’s famous wineries, including Peter Lehmann, Rockford, Penfolds and Yalumba, are within easy reach of the estate, and the Clare Valley, famous for its Riesling white wines, is just half an hour away. As befits such an acclaimed wine region, the food in Barossa isn’t bad either - there are a number of world-class restaurants in the area, many of them contained within wineries. Hentley Farm, Appelation at The Louise and Fino Seppeltsfield are among the highlights.

The final stop on your Australian adventure is Kangaroo Island, the country’s third-largest island and a sanctuary for some of its most iconic species. Arriving by a short flight from Adelaide, you’ll check into your home for the next 3 nights, Sea Dragon Lodge: a serene collection of luxurious eco-villas on a private stretch of beach, Pink Bay.

Kangaroo Island is home to diverse landscapes, with thick forest, rugged scrubland, soaring cliffs and quiet lagoons, which together are home to a wide array of wildlife. As well as the eponymous ‘roos, there are echidnas, wallabies, bandicoots and seadragons, an icon of South Australia for which your hotel is named. One third of the island’s surface is national parkland, which can be explored on foot, by bike, or in myriad other ways. The island is also home to a fantastic gastronomy scene, thanks to its abundance of fresh seafood and artisanal producers. After three nights of eating, drinking and wildlife spotting on Kangaroo Island, your Aussie adventure comes to an end, and you’ll fly back to Adelaide to continue your onward journey.