What is the best time to visit Australia

When it is winter in the northern hemisphere, Australia is basking in the Southern Hemisphere's summer, and vice versa. Midwinter in Australia is July and August, and the hottest months are November through March. Remember, unlike in the northern hemisphere, the farther south you go in Australia, the colder it gets.

The Travel Season

Airfares to Australia offered by U.S. airlines are lowest from mid-April to late August -- the best time to visit the Red Centre, the Top End, and the Great Barrier Reef.

High Season -- The peak travel season in the most popular parts of Australia is the Aussie winter. In much of the country -- Queensland from around Townsville and northward, all of the Top End and the Red Centre, and the northern half of Western Australia -- the most pleasant time to travel is April through September, when daytime temperatures are 66°F to 88°F (19°C-31°C) and it rarely rains. June, July, and August are the busiest months in these parts; you'll need to book accommodations and tours well in advance, and you will pay higher rates then, too.

On the other hand, Australia's summer is a nice time to visit the southern states -- New South Wales, Victoria, South Australia, Western Australia from Perth to the south, and Tasmania. Even in winter, temperatures rarely dip below freezing, and snow falls only in parts of Tasmania, in the ski fields of Victoria, and in the Snowy Mountains of southern New South Wales.

The best months to visit Australia, I think, are September and October, when it's often still warm enough to hit the beach in the southern states, it's cool enough to tour Uluru (Ayers Rock), the humidity and rains have not come to Cairns and the Top End (although it will be very hot by Oct), and the wildflowers are in full bloom in Western Australia.

Low Season -- October through March (summer) is just too hot, too humid, or too wet -- or all three -- to tour the Red Centre, the Top End, and anywhere in Western Australia except Perth and the southwest. The Top End, the Kimberley, and North Queensland, including Cairns, suffer an intensely hot, humid Wet season from November or December through March or April. In the Top End and Kimberley, this is preceded by an even stickier "buildup" in October and November. Some attractions and tour companies close, floodwaters render others off-limits, and hotels drop their rates, often dramatically. So if you decide to travel in these areas at this time -- and lots of people do -- be prepared to take the heat, the inconvenience of floods, and, in tropical coastal areas, the slight chance of encountering cyclones.

Steer Clear of the Vacation Rush -- Try to avoid Australia from Boxing Day (Dec 26) to the end of January, when Aussies take their summer vacations. In popular seaside holiday spots, hotel rooms and airline seats get scarce as hen's teeth, and it's a rare airline or hotel that will discount full rates by even a dollar.