Destination: Australia

Itinerary: Walk on the Wildside

Appreciate Australia's stunning natural beauty from the inside with unhurried walks through its pristine national parks.

Tasmania's wonderfully tangled interior is home to the famous 80.5km Overland Track, a trail traversing the Cradle Mountain-Lake St Clair National Park and treating walkers to volcano-blasted peaks, crystal-clear tarns and wild moorlands. Tasmania is also the setting for the rugged South Coast Track, which tiptoes around the edge of the sublime Southwest National Park. Jutting out from the Victorian coast is Wilsons Promontory National Park, with over 130km of walking tracks and beautiful beaches, while the Heysen Trail runs for 1200km across SA from Cape Jervis on the tip of Fleurieu Peninsula to the rocky gorges and sawtooth ridges of the Flinders Ranges National Park.

For another rough encounter, hit the 220km Larapinta Trail that follows the backbone of the West MacDonnell Ranges.

There's less strenuous walking on the rolling alpine plains of the Main Range in Kosciuszko National Park, home to Australia's highest peaks. And for unadulterated beauty, don't miss being surrounded by granite mountains, tropical forests and thick mangroves on the 32km-long Thorsborne Trail across Queensland's Hinchinbrook Island.