🇦🇺Australia
A harbour city where the commute is a ferry, a laneway city that takes coffee as seriously as sport, and the reef and rainforest meeting at the top. Expensive, very far away, and about as easy as long-haul gets.
Cities
A small tropical city that exists to get you onto the Great Barrier Reef and into the oldest rainforest on earth. Two World Heritage sites meet here, and almost nothing else in town competes.
Laneways of street art and coffee roasters behind a grid of Victorian arcades, a tram network that's free in the centre, and a city that treats sport and brunch with equal seriousness. Australia's cultural capital, and it will tell you so.
A harbour city where the commute is a ferry and the beach is on the bus route. Expensive, outdoors-obsessed, and about as easy as long-haul travel gets for an English speaker.
At a glance
How Australia’s cities compare. Rough 2025–2026 figures.
| City | Cheap meal | Mid-range hotel | Transit ride | Avg. monthly salary |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 🇦🇺 Cairns | $9.00–15 | $85–160 | $2.00–3.50 | ≈ $4,400 |
| 🇦🇺 Melbourne | $10–16 | $95–185 | $0.00–3.75 | ≈ $5,100 |
| 🇦🇺 Sydney | $10–17 | $110–210 | $2.60–4.00 | ≈ $5,300 |