Of course you should visit Australia, the only question is how long you should spend there!
If you want to see Australia’s best, then yes, visit Perth, and the beautiful state of Western Australia. It may not have a Harbour Bridge or an Opera House, but it makes up for that with a great climate, the BEST beaches, a stunning outback, and incredible wine country.
Buuuut, if you can only visit Australia for a short time, the superstars of the country – Sydney and Melbourne – are fantastic cities. Then if you have more time you should consider some of the less well-known spots. I would suggest Tasmania (our southern island state, mentioned in the 2024 NYT list of places to visit!), as well as Darwin and the Northern Territory. Of course, my personal favourite is all the way over on the west coast, Perth. I started writing this while sitting inside on a cool and blustery July morning (remember that southern hemisphere = winter) in Perth, and, even with the tempestuous weather, I was still excited to be here.
As mentioned above, our seasons are opposite to the northern hemisphere. This means the end/beginning of the calendar year is our summer, and July is the middle of winter. We do in fact have a ski season in August! If you fancied checking out any of our many excellent ski resorts then you’ll want to be near Melbourne or Sydney around that time.
Language
Australia has one official language, English. Sometimes people can be hard to understand, but that’ll be likely due to their accent rather than them speaking a different dialect. Beyond this, there is little difference in the accents of locals across the country. This may be because we’ve not been a nation long enough to develop regional variations. But now I think of it, Queenslanders do tend to speak with a particular twang.
We also have over 250 indigenous languages, with more than 60 of them spoken across Western Australia alone.
Currency
Australia uses the Australian dollar, which is worth about 0.65USD. There will be some variation but the Aussie dollar is fairly stable. Still, check the exchange rate before you come out to visit.
You can also easily buy Australian dollars from banks and exchange counters before you travel to Australia.
You’ll want to save up when planning your trip Down Under, as it isn’t one of the most affordable destinations! Compared to Central Asia, which is quite affordable (though getting pricier!), we get a bit of a shock whenever we come back to Perth!
What do I know about Australia?
I was born and grew up in regional Western Australia. In that time I visited a few of the hot spots across the country: Sydney, Melbourne, Broome. I would love to see more of my country including Tasmania, Uluru (aka Ayers Rock), Darwin. Visit my About Me page to understand more about my perspective.
Check out my posts on Australia
Stay tuned for restaurant and hotel reviews, suggested itineraries, and location guides. Probably mostly based in Western Australia but I’ll do my best to get some East Coast content in there too!