Australia Travel Costs

These are per-person figures for a couple sharing a room; solo travellers in private rooms should add 30 to 40 percent. Sydney sits at the top of each range, regional towns and Adelaide or Hobart towards the bottom.

The trip-wrecker is not the daily spend but the big fixed costs: the long-haul flight, two or three domestic flights at AUD 150 to 400 each, and one or two signature tours at AUD 250 to 700. Add those separately, as the sample totals near the end of this page do.

Beds take the biggest single share of any Australian budget, and the city matters more than the season. In Sydney a hostel dorm in Kings Cross, Central or near Bondi Beach costs AUD 40 to 70 ($26 to $45) a night, more on summer weekends and at New Year; a basic private room is AUD 130 to 180, a 3-star hotel 200 to 320, and anything with a harbour view starts around AUD 400. Melbourne runs about 10 to 15 percent cheaper: dorms AUD 35 to 55 in the CBD or St Kilda, mid-range hotels 170 to 280.

Cairns and Airlie Beach are the cheapest backpacker towns in the country because hostels compete hard and often bundle a free dinner. The outlier is Uluru: every bed sits inside the single Ayers Rock Resort at Yulara, so even the campground and the lodge dorms cost more than a city hostel, and hotel rooms there run AUD 400 or more in the June to August peak. Broome in the dry season and Byron Bay in summer are similarly overpriced for what you get.

Two ways to cut costs: campgrounds and caravan parks charge AUD 25 to 45 for an unpowered site and 40 to 70 for a powered one, with cabins from about AUD 110, and they exist in every coastal town; and house-sitting or a sublet on a monthly basis brings the nightly figure down sharply if you are staying put. For the long-stay picture see our Australia digital nomads guide.

Eating out every meal is the fastest way to blow an Australian budget. A cafe breakfast of smashed avocado or eggs on toast with a flat white comes to AUD 25 to 35, a coffee alone to AUD 5 to 6, and a sit-down restaurant dinner with one drink to AUD 50 to 80 a head. Pub meals are the best-value hot dinner: a schnitzel, steak or fish and chips costs AUD 25 to 35, and many pubs run weeknight specials (AUD 15 to 22 schnitzel or steak nights). Cheap eats are Thai, Vietnamese, Chinese and Indian restaurants in city centres and suburbs, where a noodle dish or curry is AUD 16 to 24, food courts at AUD 13 to 20, a bakery meat pie at AUD 6 to 9, and a kebab or sushi rolls at AUD 10 to 15.

Self-catering changes everything. Coles and Woolworths are in every town, Aldi is the cheapest of the big three, and almost every hostel and campground has a kitchen. A week of groceries for one person cooking two meals a day costs AUD 90 to 130; a loaf of bread is AUD 3 to 5, a litre of milk about AUD 2, a dozen eggs 6 to 8, and a cooked chicken from the supermarket deli around AUD 13. Supermarkets discount bread, meat and prepared food in the last hour or two before closing. Public parks and beaches have free electric barbecues, which is how Australians eat outdoors cheaply.

Distance is the hidden cost of Australia (our Australia getting around guide covers every mode in detail). Domestic flights on Qantas, Virgin Australia and Jetstar are usually the cheapest way to cross the country, especially booked six to eight weeks ahead. Typical one-way economy fares with a bag:

Jetstar’s base fares exclude checked bags (AUD 25 to 60 extra) and seat selection, so compare like with like. Flights in and out of Ayers Rock and Broome are expensive because of limited competition; flying into Alice Springs and driving 450 km to Uluru can be cheaper for a group.

City public transport is reasonably priced. Sydney’s Opal fares run AUD 3 to 6 a trip with a daily cap of around AUD 19 on weekdays and around AUD 9 on weekends, and you can tap on with a contactless card. Melbourne’s myki costs AUD 5.50 for two hours or AUD 11 for a day, and trams in the CBD Free Tram Zone cost nothing. Brisbane and south-east Queensland charge a flat 50 cents a trip on TransLink buses, trains and ferries, the cheapest city transport in the country. An Uber across a city is AUD 20 to 45; airport taxis AUD 50 to 100. Fares change annually, so check before you go.

Campervans are the classic way to do the east coast or Tasmania. A basic two-berth from budget firms runs AUD 70 to 150 a day off-peak and AUD 150 to 300 from December to January, with larger Britz or Apollo motorhomes from AUD 200 to 450. Read the small print: one-way fees (AUD 100 to 500), insurance excess reduction (AUD 30 to 50 a day if you want a zero excess), and bans on unsealed roads. A small rental car is AUD 50 to 110 a day.

Many of Australia’s best sights are free: every beach, the coastal walks of Bondi to Coogee and Cape Byron, state art galleries and museums in every capital, the Royal Botanic Garden in Sydney, and most national parks in New South Wales and Queensland for walkers. Paid sights run from AUD 30 to 60 for zoos, aquariums and Opera House tours, while the Sydney Harbour Bridge climb costs AUD 300 to 400 depending on the time slot.

The national parks with fees are mostly the famous ones. Uluru-Kata Tjuta National Park charges AUD 38 per adult for a 3-day pass or AUD 50 for a 12-month pass, and under-18s enter free; buy it online through Parks Australia (uluru.gov.au) or at the entry station. Kakadu has its own pass of a similar order, Tasmania sells a Parks Holiday Pass per vehicle that covers all its parks for eight weeks, and Victoria and NSW charge vehicle entry at a handful of parks such as Kosciuszko and the Blue Mountains car parks.

Australia is a card-first country: contactless Visa, Mastercard and phone payments work for almost everything, from a AUD 5 coffee to a bus fare, and some cafes no longer take cash. Amex is accepted less often and attracts higher surcharges. Many businesses add a card surcharge of 1 to 2 percent, which must be shown at the till, and cafes and restaurants often add 10 to 15 percent on Sundays and public holidays. ATMs are everywhere in towns; the big four banks (CBA, Westpac, NAB, ANZ) charge foreign cards around AUD 3 to 4 per withdrawal on top of your own bank’s fee, so a fee-free travel card pays off. Always choose to be charged in AUD when a card terminal offers your home currency. Carry some cash for remote roadhouses, markets and honesty-box campsites.

Tipping is not expected. Wages are high and service is included in prices; rounding up a taxi or leaving 10 percent after an excellent dinner is a kindness, not an obligation. A prepaid SIM or eSIM from Telstra, Optus or Vodafone costs AUD 30 to 50 for 28 days with generous data; Telstra has by far the best coverage in rural and Outback areas.

Visitors can claim back the 10 percent GST (and the wine equalisation tax) through the Tourist Refund Scheme (TRS) on goods costing AUD 300 or more (including GST) from a single business, bought within 60 days before you leave. Keep the original tax invoices, carry the goods in your hand luggage, enter your claim in advance on the TRS app to speed things up, and claim at the TRS counter after passport control; the counter closes 30 minutes before departure. Food and services do not qualify. Rules are set by the Australian Border Force, so check the details at abf.gov.au before you shop.

• Fly early, and fly mid-week: domestic fares double in school holidays and late December; book six to eight weeks out and fly Tuesday to Thursday.
• Cook and BYO: supermarket meals and BYO restaurants cut daily food and drink costs by half or more.
• Use free public barbecues and beaches: a park barbecue dinner with friends is the Australian norm, not a budget compromise.
• Travel in shoulder season: March to May and September to November bring lower beds and car hire everywhere except the tropical north, where May to October is peak.
• Pick one reef base and one Outback trip: each reef or Uluru excursion costs hundreds, so choose quality over quantity.
• Use Brisbane’s 50-cent fares and Melbourne’s free trams: stay where public transport is cheap and skip the car in cities, where parking runs AUD 30 to 80 a day.
• Download WikiCamps and FuelMap: they find free or cheap campsites and the cheapest fuel on your route.

These are per person, sharing a room, excluding the international flight. For day-by-day plans see our Australia itineraries; for the cheaper months see the best time to visit Australia.

In US dollars, a mid-range fortnight is roughly $3,000 to $4,200 before the flight to Australia. Return flights from the US West Coast or Europe typically add $900 to $1,800.