Realistic family trips from Australia

This is where you can browse our family travel posts by destination.

Annual Leave Adventures focuses on trips that work around real Australian family life: school holidays, annual leave, public holidays, flight prices, budgets and kids who do not always care how beautiful the itinerary looks on paper.

Some destinations are big overseas trips. Some are short Australian breaks. Some are road trips. Some are trips we chose because the dates, flights and leave balance actually worked.

Australia

Tasmania

Tasmania is one of those places that looks easy to plan because it seems small on a map. In reality, it needs a bit of restraint, especially with kids.

Start with:

6 Nights in Tasmania With Kids: A Realistic Family Road Trip Itinerary

This post covers our 6-night Hobart, East Coast and Launceston loop, including where we stayed, how we paced the trip, what it cost and what we would do differently.

More Tasmania posts coming soon:

  • Tasmania family trip cost breakdown
  • Is 6 nights enough for Tasmania with kids?
  • Hobart with kids
  • Freycinet and Wineglass Bay with kids

Asia

Vietnam

Vietnam became our school holiday choice after a lot of annual leave maths, flight searching and questioning whether we really had enough time for the trip.

Start with:

The School Holiday Trap: And How We Ended Up Booking Vietnam

This post explains why we chose Northern Vietnam, why we landed on 8 nights, and how we made the dates work around school holidays, public holidays and limited annual leave.

More Vietnam posts coming soon:

  • Northern Vietnam with kids: our 8-night itinerary
  • Hanoi with kids
  • Ninh Binh with kids
  • Lan Ha Bay or Ha Long Bay with kids
  • Sapa with kids
  • How much our Vietnam school holiday trip cost

Cruises

Cruises can be a practical option for families because accommodation, transport and food are bundled together. They are not always cheap, but they can make logistics easier.

More cruise posts coming soon:

  • What we liked and did not like about cruising with kids
  • South Pacific cruise with kids
  • Cruise costs for families
  • What to pack for a family cruise

Road Trips

Road trips are often where the annual leave equation becomes interesting. They can be cheaper than flying, but only if the distances, overnight stops and kids’ tolerance are realistic.

More road trip posts coming soon:

  • Short NSW road trips with kids
  • How far is too far to drive in one day with kids?
  • Road trip packing with cabin luggage and backpacks
  • How we plan family road trips without overdoing it

Future destinations

Some places we have travelled to, are planning, or may write about later include:

  • Fiji
  • New Zealand
  • Austria
  • Italy
  • Greece
  • Morocco
  • Japan
  • Philippines
  • Sri Lanka
  • Europe with kids

As the blog grows, this page will become a full destination library.

Not sure where to start?

If you are new here, start with the Start Here page.

If you want to understand how we plan around limited leave, visit Annual Leave Planning.

To see all posts, visit the Blog.