Australia's Best Kept Retreats Exposed

This country isn’t just worth visiting only because of the kangaroos but because of it’s outback retreats and wine-producing towns.

For the adventure seekers
Trek the Flinders Ranges National Park which is north of Adelaide. This 950 square kilometre park encompasses 1,118 meter-high peaks, craggy mudstone and shale, and wildlife spotted plains. You can also get an up-close view of 650-million-year-old fossils in Wilpena Pound, an 8,000-hectare amphitheatre.

For hiking beginners, this park is the best place to put those newly-purchased hiking boots into use as this park has a very accommodating staff armed with trail advice and detailed maps for your walk which would take from 30 minutes to 5 hours starting at the Rawnsley Park Station. Your route will begin from the Pine Caves loop leading up a moderately steep path, across the Kangaroo Creek then reaching up to the rocky hollow of the Ulowdna range.

If you’re feet gets tired, then the 20-minute plane ride over Lake Eyre, which is Australia’s largest salt lake is the next best option which Flinders range also offers. Biking is also a luxury activity here with more than 8,000 kilometers of backroads and forest tracks along the Mawson trail which extends from Flinders Range to the Baroosa wine valley.

For the wine-lovers
An outback environment such as Australia isn’t short of good wine. Healsville, Yarra Valley’s unofficial capital, is approximately 50 kilometers of Melbourne. This is that city where Hunter Valley is to Sydney, a wine collector’s paradise. This place boasts of its Chardonnays and Pinot-Noirs.

You can sample local vintages at the Innocent Bystander Winery which is a new, modern wine-making operation complete with in-house bakery and restaurant.