The Big Lap With a Difference

Stay: Discovery Parks Darwin is close to town and on a direct bus loop to tourist hotspots. Darwin Free Spirit caravan park has family fun sorted with three pools, a jumping pillow and live entertainment.

ADELAIDE

• Start at the 150-year-old Adelaide Central Market with Food Tours Australia.
• Join a Feast on Foot tour for a multicultural feast and insight into street art.
• A Segway Sensation tour of the Riverbank Precinct will test your balance or let Eco Caddy do the pedalling while showing off Adelaide’s history, architecture, street art, and best coffee nooks. 
• Visit the Adelaide Zoo to see the only giant pandas in Australia.
• Take a tram to Glenelg to see our favourite family beach.
• Walk along North Terrace to see the historic university buildings, Art Gallery, Museum, Parliament House, State Library and Government House.
• As the sun sets, join the Adelaide Bar Boys on a cocktail, gin, whiskey or wine trek around town.
• Catch a game at Adelaide Oval then get a bird’s-eye view of all the action from above on the Roof Climb. 
• There’s a festival almost every month from the Fringe and WOMADelaide to the Adelaide Festival, Tour Down Under, Tasting Australia, Winter Reds, and the Christmas Pageant.
• Get a taste of SA’s four major wine regions in one spot — the National Wine Centre — right next to the Adelaide Botanic Gardens.

Stay: There are two parks 30 minutes from town on the coast — BIG4 West Beach Caravan Park and Discovery Adelaide Beachfront park at Semaphore. Adelaide Caravan Park is closer to town and is located on the River Torrens with access to 37km of bike and hiking trails.

BRISBANE 

1. Scale Brisbane’s Story Bridge for the best city views.
2. Catch a public ferry to cruise the river or do a tour with River City Tours and Cruises.
3. Visit Queensland’s most notorious prison, Boggo Road Gaol.
4. Try Beer Yoga at Felon’s Brewery and find out how Queensland’s liquid gold, XXXX, got its name on the XXXX Ale House Brewery Tour.
5. Step it out on a Walk Brisbane tour.
6. Discover Brisbane’s Indigenous history on a BlackCard Cultural Tour.
7. For a touch of culture, the Museum of Brisbane examines how Brisbane and its people continue to change.
8. GoMA, the Gallery of Modern Art at Southbank, features two galleries devoted to contemporary Indigenous Australian art. Queensland Art Gallery, in the same Cultural Precinct, suits all tastes.
9. Brisbane Powerhouse is where to go for everything creative, including theatre, music, comedy, film, visual arts and festivals.
10. Catch a CityCat to Eat Street Northshore for a feast. Go before you get hungry, because choosing from 70 traders is difficult.

Stay: Brisbane Holiday Village is a 15-minute drive to Brisbane. They have bike tracks and daily bird feeding. Newmarket Gardens Caravan Park is 4km from the CBD and 1.3km walk to the train line and Monte Carlo Caravan Park, Carina is 6km from city.

SYDNEY

1. You have to see The Rocks, where European settlers stepped ashore in 1788. Discover the colonial history, markets, museums, and galleries on your own or join The Rocks Walking Tours or I’m Free walking tours.
2. Scale Sydney Harbour Bridge on Bridge Climb.
3. Tour backstage at Sydney Opera House and toast the view at the Opera Bar.
4. Cruise Sydney Harbour on the public ferry from Circular Quay
5. Take the ferry to Manly for a beach stroll and Watson’s Bay for takeaway fish and chips at Doyle’s.
6. Visit Taronga Zoo — the zoo with a view. Spend a night in a safari-style tent and Roar and Snore.
7. Darling Harbour has rows of restaurants and bars right next to Wild Life Sydney Zoo and Sea Life Sydney aquarium.
8. Eat your way around the world without leaving the city on one of these multicultural food tours — Gourmet Safaris, Taste Cultural Food tours, I Ate My Way Through or Mia Cucina.
9. To learn about Indigenous history, Royal Botanic Garden has an Indigenous Culture Tour. At the Blak Markets you’ll find Indigenous arts and crafts, clothes, jewellery, beauty products, and bush foods.
10. Walking trails and hidden beaches are dotted along the foreshore, which is part of the Sydney Harbour National Park. The 2.5km Bondi to Bronte coastal walk starts at the legendary Bondi Icebergs ocean pool.

Stay: NRMA Sydney Lakeside Holiday Park at Narrabeen is 29km from the city and is serviced by bus and airport shuttles. Discovery Parks Lane Cove is a 15-minute drive from the CBD. Ingenia Holidays Sydney Hills (at Dural) is 30km north-west of the city, and there’s an Ingenia at Nepean River at the foot of the Blue Mountains.

MELBOURNE

1. Brunch is a must in this coffee-obsessed city. Food tours including Foodie Trails, Walk Melbourne or Drinking History Tours will show you the best cafes.
2. Visit Queen Victoria Market for fresh produce and souvenirs.
3. Lose yourself in the laneways or book a Hidden Secrets or Melbourne Street Art tour if you prefer the guided option.
4. See the ‘G’ — the MCG — the largest stadium in Australia.
5. Step into The Edge — an 88-storey high glass cube that slides out of the Eureka Skydeck building.
6. Stroll around the Royal Botanic Gardens along the Yarra River and Fitzroy Gardens in the city and visit the Docklands for parklands, Etihad Stadium, restaurants, and the Melbourne Star ferris wheel — now permanently closed.
7. Shop in Bourke Street Mall, on Bridge Rd and Chapel St, and in DFO at Flinders Street Railway Station, then take a tailored Fashion by Foot tour with two personal stylists.
8. For entertainment, the East End Theatre District has six historic theatres within easy walking distance of each other.
9. Take a City Circle Tram Tour or see Melbourne from the water on a Yarra River Cruise.
10. For culture vultures, go to the National Gallery of Victoria, Federation Square, Parliament House, Immigration Museum, and the State Library (built in 1856).

Stay: BIG4 Melbourne Holiday Park offers a rural setting 9km from town and has access to public transport. If you can handle a 45-minute commute, Crystal Brook Tourist Park in Doncaster East is in a bush setting with kookaburras, ducks, and lorikeets that come in for a daily feed.

HOBART 

1. Take a fast ferry ride to MONA — Australia's largest private museum and one of the most controversial private collections of modern art and antiquities in the world. It will leave a lasting impression!
2. The Hop On Hop Off bus takes you to all the tourist hotspots.
3. Historic Cascade Brewery, opened in 1824, is the oldest functioning brewery in Australia. Take a tour and taste the brew.
4. Spend the night with paranormal investigators at the Old Hobart Gaol to experience the weird happenings at one of Hobart's oldest buildings.
5. The Old Hobart Pub Tour combines history with a pub crawl. Winning!
6. For the best (or worst) of Hobart’s scandalous past, join the Hobart's Dark Past tour.
7. Shoppers rejoice! Think vintage, design, boutique, produce, crafts, jewellery, woodcrafts, and coffee and the 170 stalls at Salamanca Market have it all.
8. A short stroll up the hill from Salamanca is one of Hobart's oldest suburbs, Battery Point, full of Tasmania’s early colonial architecture.
9. Mt Wellington/Kunyani rises 1271m over Hobart. From the ground, you can see distinctive dolerite columns known as the Organ Pipes. The summit is only a 30-minute drive from the CBD and from the Pinnacle Observation Shelter you can see all over Tasmania’s capital, Bruny Island, and down towards the South West Wilderness area.

Stay: Family-friendly Barilla Holiday Park in Cambridge is just 15 minutes from town.

Soccer, cricket, and putt putt are just a few of the activities at Discovery Parks Hobart - 11km out.

PERTH

1. A walking tour with Two Feet and a Heartbeat will cover the history, highlights and hidden secrets like Wolf Lane.
2. Continue the stroll through Yagan Square to WA Museum Boola Bardip for a hands-on culture fix.
3. Find your inner balance and embrace the fun of a Segway Tour along the Swan River.
4. Stroll around Barrack Street Jetty and Elizabeth Quay on the waterfront and linger at The Island — it’s a restaurant, microbrewery and garden bar.
5. Explore Kings Park on a free guided walk, get a bird’s-eye-view from the tree-tops and visit the Aboriginal Arts Gallery.
6. Take a bus or cruise to Fremantle to see the Prison and Fremantle Markets.
7.  Rottnest Island is just 90 minutes from Perth in a Rottnest Express fast ferry. Visit the quokkas, explore by bike or Hop-on, Hop-off bus and brace yourself for a fast and furious Adventure Rottnest whale-watching spin.
8. All buses are free in the city limits, so use them to get around and free CAT buses go to the tourist hot spots.
9. Walk across Matagarup Bridge to Optus Stadium. Sports nuts can go behind the scenes on a stadium tour.
10. Take a deep breath, strap into a harness and try the Matagarup Bridge Climb. Watching the sunset from the top is just spectacular.

Stay: Just 25 minutes from the CBD and in the heart of a wine region is Discovery Parks Swan Valley. Closer to town (7km) is Perth Central Caravan Park or for the full resort feel, try Karrinyup Waters.

To read up on more destinations you should add to your adventure to-do list, head over here.