10 Unique Christmas Holiday Destinations in Australia

Choosing the road less travelled is fine in theory – but it helps if you’ve got something to choose from. So, to fill your summer with places and pastimes that never even occurred to you, here are ten Christmas destinations you might have left off the wish list.

1. Victoria’s northeast: the perfect summer playground

The famous entrance into Bright on a autumn morning, along the Great Alpine Rd in Victoria, Australia

Not just a winter destination, Victoria’s northeast doubles as the perfect summer playground – especially from bases such as Bright or Mount Beauty, just over 300 kms from Melbourne via the Great Alpine Road. Cycle the Bright Rail Trail, comprising more than 94 kms of sealed path along the disused railway line from Bright to Wangaratta; it has a gentle gradient to suit all ages.

Bright also has plenty of cafes and restaurants and is an access point for Mount Buffalo and its many great walks and lookouts. In the Ovens Valley, visit the Snowline Deer and Emu Tourist Farm, where kids can hand feed red deer and emus or take a farm tour in a US Army WWII Scout Car.

As locals have discovered, Mount Beauty is a great family destination, where even wineries are family-friendly; kids have plenty of space to run around while parents can enjoy a wine tasting. Wineries in the area include Ceccanti and Mount Bogong Estate, specialising in that most fickle of cool climate wines; pinot noir. And if that’s not enough to keep you occupied, try nighttime wildlife spotting or bird watching with Gippsland High Country Tours , or fishing on the Kiewa River .

2. Discover the world’s oldest fossils at Lake Mungo National Park

Some of the oldest fossils in the world have been found at Lake Mungo National Park, part of the Willandra Lakes World Heritage Area in the southwest corner of NSW.

Learn all about this fascinating place, which is home to the longest continuous physical records of Aboriginal life (dating from 40,000 to 60,000 years ago) on day tours through the Visit Mungo site .

Lake Mungo was once a 135 square kilometre inland freshwater lake, before it dried up around 14,000 years ago; on the various tours available, you’ll learn about bush tucker plants and medicines, visit the Mungo National Parks Visitor Information Centre , see the historic woolshed built by Chinese labourers, then finally the Great Walls of China – an amazing 30km crescent shape of eroded white sand dunes concealing examples of cooking hearths, middens (campfire areas) and burial sites.

You’ll learn more about the ways of the local Barkindji people on the way back to Wentworth.

3. Help save the frogs in the Border Ranges and Watagan Mountains of NSW

Volunteers can join conservationist Dr Michael Mahony on Australia’s Vanishing Frogs, a conservation research project sponsored by Earthwatch to study the rapid decline in the native frog population in the Border Ranges and Watagan Mountains of NSW.

Earthwatch is a not-for-profit organisation sponsoring conservation research projects both in Australia and overseas, where paying volunteers work alongside scientists to collect data research.

Frog populations are dwindling around the world, and on weekend or week-long projects volunteer families can join one of a series of bush camping expeditions which set off from Newcastle to find, catch, weigh, measure, determine the sex of, then release frogs in order to observe their behaviour and record their calls. You’ll also encounter a huge variety of other daytime and nocturnal wildlife, including birds, possums and kangaroos – when you’re not swimming in the river or sitting comfortably around the campfire, that is.

Cooking duties are shared, with all meals prepared over an open fire (no takeaways here), and the bush camp has toilets and hot showers.

4. All the adventure at Lord Howe Island

For a laidback family holiday, you can’t beat Lord Howe Island – a veritable paradise for kids, with swimming, fishing, snorkelling, bushwalking and bike riding. Youngsters are happy on the lagoon beaches where the water laps the shell-strewn sand. Cycle and walk with a backpack of barbecue supplies for lunch, stroll through the palm forests, play a round on the nine-hole golf course, or take a cruise around the island to see the other side of spectacular mounts Gower and Lidgbird.

The island has a precious World Heritage Listing, with rare native flora and fauna that can be seen up close on tours with local resident Ian Hutton, or discovered through his guidebooks. From lookout points on Lord Howe, which is surrounded by the most southerly coral reef in the world, you can see the Admiralty Islands, Mutton Bird Island and towering Ball’s Pyramid away in the distance.

You can also look down into the clear waters and see turtles swimming by – just the sort of moment that ensures that Lord Howe creeps into your blood. No wonder entire extended families return here year after year. Places to stay with families or for couples… check out our guide to the best Lord Howe accommodation.

5. Esperance: the world’s best (secret) family destination?

The beautiful isolated beaches of Esperance, WA.

Sorry to blow the whistle, but flying, driving or taking the train down to Esperance, some 720 kms southeast of Perth, you’ll find a family destination that’s really hard to beat. In the area the tourism people call WA’s “secret south", this is the coastline with everything – beautiful beaches, islands, wildlife (kangaroos can sometimes be seen sunbathing on the beach) and many other local attractions.

Esperance has holiday units, apartments, plenty of campsites and cabins and, while you’ll spend loads of time at the beach, there’s an Aquarium with a touch pool, an adventure playground on the Esplanade and a Mini Steam Express train, all guaranteed to thrill the kids.

You can hire canoes, go snorkelling and diving (check out the Lapwing and Sanko Harvest wrecks) and walk through the wetlands, which have bird hides for bird watching. Take a wildlife cruise to look for dolphins, seals, Cape Barren geese and sea eagles, too.

Pink Lake is another stellar local attraction, along with the Cape Le Grande and Fitzgerald National Parks, with 4WD tours along the coast. Inland, visit Telegraph Farm west of Esperance for all your camel, deer, llama, emu, kangaroo and buffalo spotting needs.

6. Go wild in Victoria’s Snowy River National Park

Victoria’s Snowy River National Park is home to Little River Gorge, the state’s deepest, carved through limestone and sandstone by the Snowy River. Cars of any type can enter the park at McKillops Bridge, where sandy beaches, rapids and shallow rock pools create an excellent swimming spot; for hiking and bush walking, the 18km Silver Mine Walking Track and the short Snowy River Trail also start here.

Things to do in this National Park include horse trail riding at Karoonda Park , a lodge and camping retreat that also conducts tours and guided trail rides ranging from one hour to several days. Rafting, caving, abseiling and rock climbing are also available and mountain bikes can be hired for self-guided tours.

Tours of the Snowy River are available with Snowy River National Parks Discovery Tours, along with 4WD tours and guided mountain biking. Kayaking or canoeing along the Snowy River is a brilliant way to see the rugged river gorges, with trips ranging from a couple of hours to several days, with overnight camping on the sandbars.

7. Become water babies in South Australia’s Fleurieu Peninsula

Water and plenty of it is the draw card of South Australia’s Fleurieu Peninsula, with aquatic activities on both coastal and inland waterways. On the coast at Victor Harbor on the it’s the laidback life, with fishing from jetties, beaches and boats.

There’s surfing and body boarding, scuba diving and sailing – with charter boats and cruises available when you want to be on the water rather than in it. Activities for summer holidays also include cycling, rollerblading, skating, kite flying and trips on the SteamRanger Cockle Train.

Granite Island, just off Victor Harbor, is home to more than 2000 Little Penguins and an oceanarium for learning more about local marine life. There are penguin tours at dusk and dolphin cruises by day – walk along the causeway or travel in a heritage tram drawn by Clydesdale horses.

The Greenhills Adventure Park is a great place for kids, with a water slide, moon bikes, a maze, tractor train rides, paddleboats and a 12.5-metre climbing wall.

Inland, the countryside is extremely pretty, with steep, rolling hills criss-crossed by waterways, cool pools for swimming, waterfalls and picnic places.

8. Manly: the ultimate Christmas by the beach

Manly beach, Sydney on a busy summer’s day.

Yes, it’s busy and the beach is crowded – but Sydney‘s Manly has a year-round holiday atmosphere, making it relaxing but fun and upbeat at the same time. Close to the many beaches on this lovely NSW Northern Peninsula, this is a place to take surf lessons at a surf school, go body boarding and sailing.

Not staying in Manly? See it all in a blur with Bonza Bikes’ Sydney and Manly Beach Tour , a full-day guided tour including ferry ride, biking through Manly, North Head and Sydney’s historic business district – adults $119, kids $95. Bonza Bikes also has a Sydney Harbour Bridge Ride (adults $95, kids $75), with a ride over the bridge and around the North Shore.

9. Discover vintage trains in NSW and VIC

Kids love trains and there are vintage steam and electric train rides to be had in many parts of Australia. In Victoria, Puffing Billy is the remaining survivor of the narrow-gauge steam trains from the 1800s. It runs three or four times daily from its station at Belgrave to Emerald Lakeside Park or Gembrook, stopping at the Menzies Creek steam train museum (open weekends and public holidays). At Emerald Lake, the model railway at Lakeside Park has more than two kilometres of track.

South Australia’s Pichi Richi Railway runs heritage train journeys on the oldest remaining section of the famous old narrow-gauge Ghan railway from Quorn and Port Augusta, while the Great Lithgow Zig Zag Railway in the NSW Blue Mountains has round trips of about 1.5 hours from Clarence Station on this engineering masterpiece of a railway line.

For something completely different, ride a section of one of the world’s great train journeys on the Ghan (Adelaide to Darwin via Alice springs) or the Indian Pacific (Sydney to Perth via Broken Hill and Adelaide). Of course you need to make sure it isn’t dark all the time you’re travelling, but these trains do have kids’ menus so this could be just the ticket.

10. Head to the Snowy Mountains for gold, archery and horses!

A terrific base for skiing in winter, Lake Crackenback Resort in the NSW Snowy Mountains is just as great for holidays during the warmer months, with a range of self-catering luxury apartments and houses and a wide range of activities available.

Here’s just a small sample of the facilities up for grabs: a nine-hole par-three golf course, indoor swimming pool, an archery field, horses and stables, canoes for splashing about on Lake Crackenback, mountain bikes, bushwalking trails, tennis, badminton and volleyball courts, and excellent spots for trout fishing.

There are also Kosciuszko Alpine guided walks that start from here, as well as a series of walks in and around the property.

What else?

Babysitting can be arranged and a kids’ club is available Monday, Wednesday and Saturday evenings from 6.30-9pm that includes dinner, plaster pot painting and a movie ($18 per child, 5-12 yrs).

There are five gas barbecues around the resort, a grocery store, a cafe and a restaurant – so you can combine meals out with self-catering. Quite the perfect arrangement for families.

Slow down and find your rhythm on a Murray River journey through time and place.

Trust is a funny thing. It seems not that long ago that my mother was insisting on pouring the milk into my cereal bowl, because she didn’t trust me not to slosh it over the table, and yet here I am on the Murray River at Mildura in far north-west Victoria, being handed the keys to a very new and very expensive luxury houseboat.

After a crash course in how not to crash, I’m at the wheel of the good ship Elevate – pride of the All Seasons fleet – guiding her upstream past red-ochre cliffs as pelicans glide above the rippled river and kookaburras call from reedy banks. There’s a brief moment of breath-holding while I negotiate a hairpin turn around a jagged reef of skeletal, submerged gum trees, before a cheer rings out and calm descends as the timeless river unfurls in front of us.

The Murray River winding through Yarrawonga. (Image: Rob Blackburn)

Setting sail from Mildura

Murray River birds — Home to a large number of bird species, including pelicans. (Image: The Precint Studios)

A journey along the Murray River is never less than magical, and launching from Mildura makes perfect sense. Up here the river is wide and largely empty, giving novice skippers like myself the confidence to nudge the 60-tonne houseboat up to the riverbank where we tie up for the night, without fear of shattering the glass elevator (the boat is fully wheelchair accessible) or spilling our Champagne.

My friends and I spend three days on the water, swimming and fishing, sitting around campfires onshore at night, and basking in air so warm you’d swear you were in the tropics. The simplicity of river life reveals an interesting dichotomy: we feel disconnected from the world but at the same time connected to Country, privileged to be part of something so ancient and special.

Stop one: Echuca

19th-century paddlesteamers — A historic 19th-century paddlesteamer cruises along the Murray River. (Image: Visit Victoria)

The six-hour drive from Melbourne to Mildura (or four hours and 20 minutes from Adelaide) is more than worth it, but you don’t have to travel that far to find fun on the river. Once Australia’s largest inland port, Echuca is the closest point on the Murray to Melbourne (two hours 45 minutes), and you’ll still find a plethora of paddlesteamers tethered to the historic timber wharf, a throwback to the thriving river trade days of the 19th century. The PS Adelaide, built in 1866 and the oldest wooden-hulled paddlesteamer operating in the world, departs daily for one-hour cruises, while a brand-new paddlesteamer, the PS Australian Star , is launching luxury seven-night voyages in December through APT Touring.

The town is also a hot food and wine destination. St Anne’s Winery at the historic Port of Echuca precinct has an incredibly photogenic cellar door, set inside an old carriage builders’ workshop on the wharf and filled with huge, 3000-litre port barrels. The Mill, meanwhile, is a cosy winter spot to sample regional produce as an open fire warms the red-brick walls of this former flour mill.

Stop two: Barmah National Park

Just half-an-hour upstream, Barmah National Park is flourishing, its river red gum landscape (the largest in the world) rebounding magnificently after the recent removal of more than 700 feral horses. The internationally significant Ramsar-listed wetland sits in the heart of Yorta Yorta Country, with Traditional Owners managing the environment in close partnership with Parks Victoria. Walkways weave through the forest, crossing creeks lined with rare or threatened plants, passing remnants of Yorta Yorta oven mounds and numerous scar trees, where the bark was removed to build canoes, containers or shields.

The Dharnya Centre (open weekdays until 3pm) is the cultural hub for the Yorta Yorta. Visitors can learn about the ecological significance of the Barmah Lakes on a 90-minute river cruise, led by a First Nations guide, or take a one-hour, guided cultural walking tour along the Yamyabuc Trail.

Stop three: Cobram

Continue east to Cobram to find the southern hemisphere’s largest inland beach. Swarming with sun-seekers in summer, the white sand of Thompson’s Beach is shaded by majestic river red gums and dotted with hundreds of beach umbrellas, as beachgoers launch all manner of water craft and set up stumps for beach cricket. But the beach is at its most captivating at sunset, when the crowds thin out, the glassy river mirrors the purple sky, and the canopies of the gum trees glow fiery orange.

The region is also home to some fine resorts and indulgent retreats. Yarrawonga Mulwala Golf Club Resort has two riverside championship golf courses, luxury apartments and self-contained villas. While not strictly on the Murray, the historic wine town of Rutherglen is rife with boutique (and unique) accommodation, including an exquisitely renovated red-brick tower in a French provincial-style castle at Mount Ophir Estate. Fans of fortified wines can unravel the mystery of Rutherglen’s ‘Muscat Mile’, meeting the vignerons and master-blenders whose artistry has put the town on the global map for this rich and complex wine style.

Stop four: Albury-Wodonga

First Nations YindyamarraSculpture Walk — First Nations Yindyamarra Sculpture Walk is part of the Wagirra Trail. (Image: Carmen Zammit)

Follow the river far enough upstream and you’ll arrive at the twin border cities of Albury-Wodonga. The Hume Highway thunders through, but serenity can be found along the five-kilometre Yindyamarra Sculpture Walk – part of the Wagirra Trail that meanders through river wetlands just west of Albury in Wiradjuri country. Fifteen sculptures by local First Nations artists line the trail, conveying stories of reconciliation, enduring connection to culture, local Milawa lore and traditional practices. It feels a long way from Mildura, and it is, but the pelicans and kookaburras remind us that it’s the same river, the great conduit that connects our country.

A traveller’s checklist

Staying there

New Mildura motel Kar-rama. (Image: Iain Bond Photo)

Kar-Rama is a brand-new boutique, retro-styled motel in Mildura, with a butterfly-shaped pool and a tropical, Palm Springs vibe. Echuca Holiday Homes has a range of high-end accommodation options, both on the riverfront and in town.

Playing there

BruceMunro’s Trail of Lights in Mildura — Bruce Munro’s Trail of Lights in Mildura. (Image: Imogen Eveson)

Artist Bruce Munro’s Trail of Lights installation, comprising more than 12,000 illuminated ‘fireflies’, is currently lighting up Mildura’s Lock Island in the middle of the Murray. Murray Art Museum Albury (MAMA) is a hub for contemporary art, with a rotating roster of exhibitions, and is a major outlet for young and First Nations artists.

Eating there

Mildura’s diverse demographic means it’s a fantastic place to eat. Andy’s Kitchen is a local favourite, serving up delicious pan-Asian dishes and creative cocktails in a Balinese-style garden setting. Call in to Spoons Riverside in Swan Hill to enjoy locally sourced, seasonal produce in a tranquil setting overlooking the river.

10 unusual Christmas holiday destinations in Australia