If you follow me on Facebook or Twitter then you’ll probably already have read that I’m off to Australia in May and, now that the flights have been booked I wanted to share with you all what my plans are for my time there.

I finish my last ever exam at university (how scary!) on Friday 4th May and fly out to Australia on Monday the 7th. I’ll be flying from Glasgow to Perth, on the West coast, to visit my older brother Iain who’s working down under for 6 months. He’s staying in a place called Rockingham (cool name right?!) just south of Perth. This will be my first ever time in Australia so I’m really excited and want to cram as much as possible into the short time I have there. Since I’ll have just finished my last exams I’m definitely looking forward to forgetting about university and blowing off a bit of steam!

View Western Australia in a larger map

From my arrival on Tuesday evening I’ll spend time exploring the nearby port city of Freemantle, and Rockingham itself, before my brother and I fly across the continent over to Sydney on Friday the 11th May. We’ll spend Friday to Monday exploring Sydney and the surrounding areas and I’m really looking forward to seeing Sydney Harbour, the Opera House and some of the smaller, quirky districts of the city.

From there, on Monday 11th my brother has to go back to work so he’ll fly back so Perth and I’ll head on to Melbourne for three nights. I’m  I’ve heard St. Kilda is a pretty cool place to explore and I’m looking forward to soaking up some Aussie beach culture there.

On Thursday 17th I’ll fly back to Perth and spend my last 6 days exploring the city of Perth and some more areas on the West Coast. I’ve heard all about Rottnest Island which is a small island just off the west coast. Apparently there are some adorable quokkas all over the island. What’s a quokka I hear you ask? It’s one of these little cuties…

Rottnest Quokka

As well as these little guys, Rottnest Island is supposed to have some amazing beaches and a laid-back vibe which sounds perfect to me. I know it’ll be Australian winter whilst I’m there but it’ll still be a whole lot warmer than Scotland!

The view from my brother's balcony in Rockingham! Take me there now!

It’s going to be an exciting, busy few weeks discovering as much of what Australia has to offer in the time I have. I also can’t wait to see my brother again, it’s been way too long since he left!

As I’ve never been to any of these places before I’d love if anyone could share any tips, recommendations, advice on what to do, (or what not to do!), hidden gems, places not to be missed etc. I’ll be too busy studying for finals to do as much research as I’d like for this trip so help from you guys would be much appreciated! Just leave a comment below or send me a message via the contact page. Even better, if you live in, or are going to be in any of these places at the same time, lets meet for drinks and share travel stories!