Australia on your own, with company when you want it

In some ways, Australia is the easiest long-haul destination in the world for a British traveller on their own. There is no language barrier. The food, the shops and the systems are familiar, and the country is generally safe, with good healthcare and a well-developed tourist industry. Australians are, in general, sociable, informal and quick to strike up a conversation, and a solo traveller in a café, a pub or on a ferry is likely to find someone to talk to if they want to. The culture of travelling on your own is well established. Generations of young people from all over the world have spent a year working and travelling around Australia, and older travellers on their own are just as common.

The challenge is distance

The difficulty of Australia is not culture but scale. The country is roughly the size of the continental United States, and its great sights are thousands of kilometres apart. Sydney to Uluru, Uluru to Cairns, Cairns to Adelaide: each leg is a flight of several hours, or days by road. Organising all of that alone, with flights, transfers, hotels and tours, is perfectly possible but takes time and effort. There are also long stretches on the road, in the outback in particular, that are better not driven alone by someone unfamiliar with the conditions. Distances between fuel stations can be great, mobile phone coverage is patchy, and animals on the road at dusk are a real danger.

That is where travelling in a group helps. Much of the organising is done before you set off, the long distances are shared with others, and there is company at the end of a long day in the desert or on the reef. But a good trip for a solo traveller also leaves time to be alone: a free afternoon in Sydney to walk the harbour, or a morning on a beach without a schedule.

Eating out, and getting about alone

Eating alone in Australia is easy and entirely normal. Café culture is strong in all the cities, Melbourne above all, and a breakfast or lunch on your own at a café counter is a pleasure rather than an awkwardness. Pubs serve meals at the bar. Many restaurants are informal, and some allow you to bring your own wine, a long Australian habit.

Within the cities, getting about alone is simple. Sydney's ferries, Melbourne's trams and the public transport of the other cities are straightforward to use, and walking is often the best way to see the centres.

Meeting people is easier than many solo travellers expect. Free walking tours, organised day trips, wine tastings in the Barossa and boat trips to the reef all bring strangers together for a few hours, and Australians themselves are generally happy to chat. On a group trip, the shared experience of a sunrise at Uluru or a day on the reef tends to turn fellow travellers into companions quickly.

The solo tours

Just You's Australian Highlights, twenty-two nights, is designed for solo travellers. Its route takes in Sydney and the coast to the north, Port Stephens, Port Macquarie, Byron Bay and Brisbane. It also covers Cairns, for the Great Barrier Reef, and Uluru and Alice Springs in the Red Centre. In the south its places include Adelaide, the vineyards of the Barossa Valley, the old German village of Hahndorf, and Warrnambool on the Great Ocean Road.

Just You's Australian Highlights with New Zealand Add-on, thirty-six nights, covers much the same Australian route, with Melbourne as well, and adds Auckland and the geothermal town of Rotorua in New Zealand. For anyone making the long journey alone and unlikely to repeat it, it is a way to see both countries in a single trip.

A few practical points

The seasons are reversed. Summer, from December to February, is hot in the centre and wet in the tropical north. Spring and autumn are the most comfortable seasons across much of the country, and winter is the best time for the north and the centre. The sun is fierce all year, and the Australian advice to slip on a shirt, slop on sunscreen and slap on a hat is worth taking seriously. And allow a few days at the start to recover from the flight. The jet lag from Britain is considerable, and it is easier to enjoy company when you have slept.