Holiday Attractions & Landmarks To Include In Tours To Australia

As a very large nation, Australia has hundreds of landmarks and tourist attractions to offer. The most recognized among them is probably the Sydney Opera House. With its sail-like arches, it represents nowadays Australia just like Big Ben is emblematic to England or the Eiffel Tower symbolizes France. The project belongs to Jorn Utzon, a Danish architect, who actually won the "Pritzker Prize" for his accomplishment. Finished in 1973, the Sidney Opera House was opened by Her Majesty Queen Elisabeth II and today there are performed 3,000 shows annually, with a total audience of more than four million people. Apart from the spectacles, there are available guided tours that take interested vacationers to the backstage and around the whole building. The attraction of the building is so powerful that over 200,000 people take part yearly in these circuits.

Another great point of interest in Sydney is the Sydney Harbor Bridge, locally also known as "The Coathanger". It is the most massive steel bridge in the world and its highest point above the ground is 440 feet (roughly 134 meters). The bravest visitors can take part in the "Bridge Climb". They are escorted through catwalk to the top central part of the majestic structure, a point from where they take delight in spectacular views on the Sidney Harbor and the city. These kind of adventure tours take place both day and night, enabling climbers to experience different panoramic pictures. The place named "The Rocks", situated at the bridge's foot, is considered the birthplace of historical Sydney, and today the entire neighboring area is full of restaurants, cafes, shops, and art galleries.

One of the most famous natural attractions in Australia is the Great Barrier Reef on the coast of Queensland. It is one of UNESCO World Heritage sites and the largest coral reef in the world, encompassing over 2,900 individual atolls. The formation is huge, stretching about 1,615 miles (2,600 kilometers) in the Coral Sea and having an area of 115,830 square miles (300,000 square kilometers). Actually, The Great Barrier Reef is also the only living structure visible from outer space! The richness of aquatic life is also stunning - more than 1,500 species of fish live there together with unique creatures like sea turtle, dugong, saltwater crocodile, sea snakes, different dolphins, and even whales. In addition to the natural beauty, 30 shipwrecks add historical value to the area. Due to its peerless beauty, the reef area gets more than two million visitors per year, most of them accommodating in Cairns. Fortunately, "The Great Barrier Reef Marine Park" protects a large part of the zone, limiting human activities like fishing and tourist visits.

Australia is also famous for being home to kangaroo, thus Kangaroo Island has become an important landmark in the nation. It is the third largest island in the country and a natural heaven for Australian wildlife. Besides kangaroo, that are hopping all around the island, there are gentle koala sleeping in the trees and weird platypus walking by the streams. In fact, this is one of the best sites for viewing wildlife accompanied with beautiful wonders of the nature - the island has striking rocks and magnificent caves on the coast. It is also famous as the world's oldest bee sanctuary and for the fantastic honey produced there, being the only place on Earth where voyagers can still find Ligurian honey bees. Belonging to the most famous Australian tourist attractions, Kangaroo Island draws over 140,000 sightseer every year, with more than 25% of them coming from Europe.