Explore Australia

Drive down a road in Australia and you might discover one of the best surfing beaches in the world, a meteorite crater, a fibreglass trout, an ancient rainforest, a rock art painting from one of the oldest cultures on Earth, or a local with a lot of stories to share. Whatever adventure you're looking for, Explore Australia has everything you need to plan your next holiday on this diverse and surprising island continent.

Published every year since 1980, Explore Australia is the most comprehensive guide to Australia's regions and towns. It's designed for people travelling Australia by car, and is organised by states, which are then split up into cities, regions and towns, each detailing what you should see in the area. The guide also reveals interesting armchair travel facts, like famous bushranger hideouts, where you can still fossick for gold, how towns were discovered by European explorers, as well as information on Australia's first peoples.

Explore Australia (35th edition) has had a thorough revamp, giving it a personality overhaul – to make it more engaging and inviting, to appeal to both a younger and more diverse group of travellers, along with the already converted. The book draws on the nostalgic appeal of the road trip and harks back to the very best in the earlier editions, both in design and content. This latest edition taps in to travel being an adventure – its aim being to inspire travellers to hit the road to see all that is awe-inspiring, fun, exhilarating, even quirky, about travelling in Australia.

We’ve made the book’s contents a bit more of a curated journey, focusing largely on getting out of the city and hitting the country and outback roads.

State opener: Each state opener is introduced with a striking photo, and some key points about what that state has to offer.

City: The 4-pages of city coverage features a classic design that highlights some of that city’s top attractions, together with a strong selection of inspirational images. Day trip offerings are included for those who have time to head out of the city to, for example, the Bellarine Peninsula or the Yarra Valley in Victoria, or to take a short flight across to the Tiwi Islands from Darwin, with suggestions of some cool things to do while you’re there.

Regions: The state regions have been reinstated and renamed to make their coverage clearer – for example, Victoria's South-West Coast is now called 'Great Ocean Road and the Otways.' We list all the new regions, but in the text we focus specifically on top touring/holiday regions, like the Blue Mountains in NSW, Cape York in Queensland or the Kimberley in WA, and have provided fresh new maps to accompany them.

Towns: The towns have been completely re-written to give them a more friendly and personal tone – once again, more of a curated guide. We no longer have the icons in the text, describing these elements in the text instead. And we’ve cut the meal and accommodation sections – as they were a bit tokenistic and went out of date so quickly. We have reintroduced breakout boxes that feature interesting aspects within each state, such as South Australia’s world class wine regions or the Top End’s fearsome crocodiles.

Get out and discover the real Australia with Explore Australia.