Australia

Australia is less a single destination than a continent of them. You can be watching the sun rise over Sydney Harbour on Monday and standing in red desert silence at Uluru by Thursday, and the two will feel like different countries.

Most first trips build around the east coast: Sydney for the harbour and beaches, Melbourne for coffee, laneways and live music, and Cairns as the gateway to the Great Barrier Reef. Add Brisbane and the Gold Coast if you want theme parks and surf, or fly west to Perth for wineries, wildflowers and the Indian Ocean sunsets that locals quietly think are the country's best.

Timing matters more here than in most places, because the seasons run opposite to the northern hemisphere. December to February is peak summer and peak crowds; September to November and March to May bring warm days, thinner queues and better prices. Northern Queensland is a separate calculation again, where the dry season from May to October is the comfortable window.

Distances are the thing most travellers underestimate. Sydney to Perth is a five-hour flight, roughly London to Cairo. A fortnight is realistic for two or three regions done properly; trying to see the whole country in ten days means spending most of it in the air. We plan around that constraint rather than against it.