Adventure travel

Home to more than 10,000 beaches, heading to the coast for a swim or surf is etched into Australia’s national identity. Beyond taking a dip, here are some of the other experiences and activities to enjoy at the beach.

From white-knuckle bungy jumps to swimming with whale sharks, exhilarating adventures can be found all over Australia. Here are eleven of the best!

Though not yet at European levels of adoption, cycling is on the rise in Australia and is fast becoming one of the best ways to get about and explore its cities. We've chosen 6 of the most bike-friendly Aussie cities for you to pedal around to your heart's content.

Love the adrenaline rush that comes with staring down some roaring rapids? From fun day trips to epic, off-grid river odysseys, Australia has plenty of spots to get stuck into a froth-filled white water rafting adventure.

The UNESCO World Heritage-listed Blue Mountains are a bushwalker's dream, blessed with hundreds of well-maintained walking paths and stunning lookouts over sweeping valleys. Centring on the town of Katoomba, we've chosen seven of the best short walks amidst this sublime natural landscape.

Australia might not be home to the world’s highest peaks, but we sure have an incredible variety of mountains worth hiking. Here are just six spectacular summits to bag across the country and make it back to ground level in time for dinner.

Love doing your exploring with a paddle in hand? Us too. From sleepy canoe trips down wide, still rivers, to epic multi-day kayak trips to the country's wildest waterways, adventure's never far away when there's paddling involved. And the free upper body work out doesn't hurt either! Read on for a selection of the finest canoeing and kayaking adventures in Australia.

With an astonishing 34,000 kilometres of magnificent coastline to explore, Australia’s wealth of beaches, bays, islands, and reefs makes it one of the top destinations in the world for snorkelling and diving enthusiasts.

Home to the country's premier mountain biking destination, Thredbo, as well as hundreds of smaller parks and trail networks, NSW is fantastically equipped to provide endless weekends of fun for the mountain biking enthusiast.

With its abundance of mountainous terrain and stunning nature, Victoria is right up there with New South Wales as one of the leading destinations for mountain biking in Australia. Victorians sure have it good – this list only scratches the surface!

There's nothing like seeing some of the best scenery in Australia by foot. Better still, you can use some great YHA properties as a base for your next exploration. Discover amazing waterfalls, cliffs, coastlines and everything in-between.

Just a 90-minute drive west of Sydney or two hours by train, the World Heritage-listed Blue Mountains is the ultimate outdoor playground, with bushwalks galore along with plenty of other adventurous pursuits to enjoy in a blockbuster natural setting.

There are tons of great places in Oz where anyone can learn the fundamentals and get started on their surfing journey. With so many fantastic beaches and breaks for beginner surfers, it can be difficult to pick just one!

Tasmania is the undisputed champion of natural beauty and outdoor adventuring activities in Australia, so it should come as no surprise that amazing mountain biking awaits in the island state.

In contrast to the prevalence of road cycling culture, mountain biking is a relatively niche pursuit in South Australia. Nevertheless, there's excellent off-tarmac experiences to be had on two wheels in the hills and valleys surrounding Adelaide and beyond.

Though still an emerging destination for mountain biking, this massive state harbours plenty of great tracks and trails both up the coast and in various pockets inland. We just hope you don't mind a bit of sweat trickling out from under your helmet, because biking in Queensland can get HOT.

We hope you brought your Lycra, because it's time to hit the saddle! Just kidding – you don't need the full cycling kit to enjoy these stunning rides across Sydney, just a big bottle o' water, a bicycle of some kind and a sense of adventure!

Though lacking in mountains, there are still some great spots worth checking out for MTB lovers among the Northern Territory's rugged landscapes. We've picked out the best routes, trail networks and dedicated parks for you to enjoy.

While still possessing some of the neatly sectioned off parks and reserves of other states, the wild expanse of Western Australia features many long-distance trails and cross country dirt tracks. Here's our top picks for mountain biking in WA.

If you’re a lover of long walks over dunes, along windswept cliffs or with the tide lapping at your ankles, you may have come to the right place. In this article, we've dug up some of the best coastal and beach walks across Australia.