8 Off-Beaten-Track Getaways That Take The Path Less Travelled

Whether hiking off-piste in a ski region out of season or venturing to far-flung islands, travelling off the beaten track can reveal the very best of our country.

1. Snowies Alpine Walk, NSW

Travelling with: Elizabeth Whitehead

The Snowies Alpine Walk, which launched in December 2024, is a major new hike that weaves together existing and pre-existing trails into a spectacular four-day, 56-kilometre loop around the alpine roof of Australia. This hike encourages visitors to linger beyond the winter months and reveals the striking landscapes that lie beneath the snow. Think meadows of alpine wildflowers, yawning valleys, and rivers steeped in mythos, like the Snowy River that played muse to bush poet Banjo Paterson.

walking through a forest of snow gums, Snowy Mountains — The hike guides walkers through a forest of snow gums. (Image: Elizabeth Whitehead)

2. Heyscape tiny cabins, WA

Travelling with: Megan Arkinstall

There’s something intoxicating about being holed up in a tiny cabin nestled in the wilderness. Heyscape has 25 cosy but premium off-grid cabins across Western Australia with locations that include: a winery in the coastal region of Yallingup; a property where horses and sheep freely roam in Serpentine; and a regenerated cattle farm near Denmark, a region where towering karri trees meet rugged coast. The brief is to slow down and unwind, with WA’s natural beauty the only distraction.

Yallingup interior — Unwind in a tiny cabin in WA’s wilderness. (Image: Chriss Web)

3. Rumi on Louth, SA

Travelling with: Megan Arkinstall

the private retreat exterior of Rumi on Louth — Rumi on Louth is a private retreat set off the coast of the Eyre Peninsula. (Image: Robert Lang Photography)

A once untamed 19th-century sheep station has been rewilded to become South Australia’s first-ever private island accommodation, set off the coast of the Eyre Peninsula. Rumi on Louth features king rooms, one-bedroom suites and a private retreat that sleeps 10, all with views of the vast ocean beyond. Experiences include kayak fishing, beach picnics, e-bike hire and stargazing. Hire the entire island for exclusive use for up to 22 of your equally intrepid mates. Currently in phase one of opening, named Rumi Reveal, phase two is set to be unveiled late 2025 and will see the addition of 26 earth-sheltered villas complete with organic gardens, chicken coops and a wellness spa with onsen-style hot baths – all operating entirely off-grid and expanding upon the island’s existing sustainable ethos. For more off-grid escapes on the Eyre Peninsula, see family-run business EYRE.WAY, which has just launched Bandari, its third luxe tiny home in the region.

an aerial view of Bandari, EYRE.WAY — Bandari is EYRE.WAY’s third luxe tiny home in SA.

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4. The Overland Track, Tasmania

Travelling with: Megan Arkinstall

The Overland Track is known the world over for being a spectacular but challenging alpine walk in Tasmania’s remote wilderness. Tasmanian Walking Co. operates a seven-day Cradle Mountain Signature Walk through the World Heritage-listed area to Lake St Clair, Australia’s deepest natural lake. The 65-kilometre-long trail takes in craggy summits, temperate rainforest, waterfalls and glacially carved lakes. Retreat to private huts each evening to indulge in gourmet meals and local wines, recharging for the next day’s adventure.

scenic views of the Trek Cradle Mountain — Trek Cradle Mountain. (Image: Tourism Tasmania)

5. An eco lodge stay in Capertee Valley, NSW

Travelling with: Katie Carlin

Sunvale is a remote bush escape that blends glamping with luxurious lodge amenities to deliver the ideal group getaway accommodation. The four-bedroom eco lodge is part of Turon Gates Mountain Retreat, a 2428-hectare property that offers camping, glamping and cottage stays in NSW’s Capertee Valley. Rooms branch out from the communal living area with a long galley kitchen and 10-seater table at its heart. A striking glass fireplace is positioned in front of bifold doors that open onto the multi-level deck to reveal stunning mountain views – best observed from the woodfired hot tub with a glass of wine in hand as the sun sets.

the four-bedroom eco lodge at Turon Gates Mountain Retreat — The four-bedroom eco lodge is part of Turon Gates Mountain Retreat. (Image: GM Hotographics)

6. Tiwi Islands, NT

Travelling with: Megan Arkinstall

A visit to ‘The Island of Smiles’, 80 kilometres north of Darwin, offers insights into the proud Tiwi people who make up 90 per cent of the population and have a distinct language and culture. The islands have long attracted fishermen (for barramundi) and art collectors (there are five Tiwi-owned art centres). Travel by ferry or small plane for a day trip, or stay to watch the sunset from Tiwi Island Retreat, which has luxury tents and rooms with ocean views.

an aerial view of the Tiwi Islands Retreat — Venture to the Tiwi Islands. (Image: Tourism Australia/Shaana McNaught)

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7. The Tarkine, Tasmania

Travelling with: Taylah Darnell

There’s no place quite like Gardiner Point to make you feel like you’re the last person on Earth. Known as the Edge of the World, this windswept lookout in Tasmania’s wild north-west marks the tip of the Tarkine – a region that embodies natural beauty as much as it does complete isolation. Join a guided tour with Tall Timbers to explore its craggy coastline, ancient rainforests and buttongrass plains, all backdropped by the bitter-cold Bass Strait. Bookend your trip with a stay in Stanley. The tiny fishing village is full of surprises, like an ancient volcanic plug known as The Nut and Hursey Seafoods, winner of the 2024 National Seafood Industry Restaurant Award.

the Nut, Tasmania — The Nut is a volcanic plug that rises 152 metres from the sea. (Image: Mattea Carson)

8. Island-hopping in WA

Travelling with: Megan Arkinstall

Rugged Christmas Island is often referred to as ‘the Galápagos of the Indian Ocean’. Lying 1500 kilometres off the coast of Western Australia, the island is best known for its annual red crab migration. But it is also on the radar for nature-lovers drawn to its rich biodiversity, tropical rainforests, protected wetlands and diverse wildlife. A short flight away, the Cocos Keeling Islands are made up of 27 atolls with white-sand beaches fringed by palm trees, and coral reefs teeming with marine life. Visit the far-flung islands for an adventurous tropical escape that you won’t need to share with the masses. See also adventure tours and fishing charters in the Mackerel Islands, off the coast of the Pilbara, and Abrolhos Islands, 60 kilometres west of Geraldton.

the Cocos Keeling Islands — Explore the marine life beneath the surface of Cocos Keeling Islands.

Video credit: Visit Victoria/Tourism Australia

The Grampians just might be the ultimate antidote for the metropolis, writes one returning Aussie ready to disconnect from the modern world and reconnect to the Great outdoors.

There are no kangaroos back in Chicago: they’re all here in the Grampians/Gariwerd. In the heart of the Grampians National Park’s main gateway town, Halls Gap, pods of eastern greys are eating grass beside my parked rental car beneath the stars. Next morning, when I see the backyard of my rented villa on the edge of town for the first time, there are kangaroos feeding beside a slow-moving creek, lined with river red gums.

Five hundred metres up the road, 50 or so of them are eating by the side of the road in a paddock. I pull over to watch and spot three emus. Yellow-tailed black cockatoos fly overhead towards the tall green mountains just beyond town.

‘Kee-ow, keee-oww’… their calls fuse with the maniacal cackle of a kookaburra (or 10). Gawd, how I’ve missed the sound of them. Far above, a wedge-tailed eagle watches, and there you go: the ‘great birds of Australia’ trifecta, all half a kay from the town limits.

Exchanging city chaos for country calm

kangaroos near Halls Gap, Grampians National Park — The park is renowned for its significant diversity of native fauna species. (Image: Visit Victoria/Robert Blackburn)

I’ve come to the Grampians to disconnect, but the bush offers a connection of its own. This isn’t just any bush, mind you. The Grampians National Park is iconic for many reasons, mostly for its striking sandstone mountains – five ridges run north to south, with abrupt, orange slopes which tumble right into Halls Gap – and for the fact there’s 20,000 years of traditional rock art. Across these mountains there are more than 200 recorded sites to see, created by the Djab Wurrung, Jardwadjali and Gunditjmara peoples. It’s just like our outback… but three hours from Melbourne.

I’ve come here for a chance at renewal after the chaos of my life in America’s third-largest city, Chicago, where I live for now, at the whim of a relative’s cancer journey. Flying into Melbourne’s airport, it only takes an hour’s drive to feel far away from any concept of suburbia. When I arrive in Halls Gap two hours later, the restaurant I’m eating at clears out entirely by 7:45pm; Chicago already feels a lifetime ago.

The trails and treasures of the Grampians

sunrise at Grampians National Park /Gariwerd — Grampians National Park /Gariwerd covers almost 2000 square kilometres. (Image: Ben Savage)

Though the national park covers almost 2000 square kilometres, its best-known landmarks are remarkably easy to access. From my carpark here, among the cockatoos and kangaroos on the fringe of Halls Gap, it only takes 60 seconds’ driving time before I’m winding my way up a steep road through rainforest, deep into the mountains.

Then it’s five minutes more to a carpark that serves as a trailhead for a hike to one of the park’s best vantage points, The Pinnacles. I walk for an hour or so, reacquainting myself with the smells and the sounds of the Aussie bush, before I reach it: a sheer cliff’s edge lookout 500 metres up above Halls Gap.

walking through a cave, Hollow Mountain — Overlooking the vast Grampians landscape from Hollow Mountain. (Image: Robert Blackburn)

There are hikes and there are lookouts and waterfalls all across this part of the park near town. Some are a short stroll from a carpark; others involve long, arduous hikes through forest. The longest is the Grampians Peaks Trail, Victoria’s newest and longest iconic walk, which runs 160 kilometres – the entire length of Grampians National Park.

Local activities operator Absolute Outdoors shows me glimpses of the trail. The company’s owner, Adrian Manikas, says it’s the best walk he’s done in Australia. He says he’s worked in national parks across the world, but this was the one he wanted to bring his children up in.

“There’s something about the Grampians,” he says, as he leads me up a path to where there’s wooden platforms for tents, beside a hut looking straight out across western Victoria from a kilometre up in the sky (these are part of the guided hiking options for the trail). “There are things out here that you won’t see anywhere else in Australia.” Last summer, 80 per cent of the park was damaged by bushfire, but Manikas shows me its regrowth, and tells me of the manic effort put in by volunteers from town – with firefighters from all over Australia – to help save Halls Gap.

wildflowers in Grampians National Park — Spot wildflowers. (Image: Visit Victoria)

We drive back down to Halls Gap at dusk to abseil down a mountain under the stars, a few minutes’ walk off the main road into town. We have headlamps, but a full moon is enough to light my way down. It takes blind faith to walk backwards down a mountain into a black void, though the upside is I can’t see the extent of my descent.

Grampians National Park at sunset. (Image: Wine Australian)

The stargazing is ruined by the moon, of course, but you should see how its glow lights up the orange of the sandstone, like in a theme park. When I’m done, I stand on a rocky plateau drinking hot chocolate and listening to the Aussie animals who prefer nighttime. I can see the streets of Halls Gap off in the distance on this Friday night. The restaurants may stay open until 8pm tonight.

What else is on offer in The Grampians?

a boat travelling along the Wimmera River inDimboola — Travelling along the Wimmera River in Dimboola. (Image: Chris McConville)

You’ll find all sorts of adventures out here – from rock climbing to canoeing to hiking – but there’s more to the Grampians than a couple of thousand square kilometres of trees and mountains. Halls Gap may be known to most people, but what of Pomonal, and Dimboola, and Horsham? Here in the shadow of those big sandstone mountains there are towns and communities most of us don’t know to visit.

And who knew that the Grampians is home to Victoria’s most underrated wine region? My disconnection this morning comes not in a forest, but in the tasting rooms and winery restaurants of the district. Like Pomonal Estate, barely 10 minutes’ drive east of Halls Gap, where UK-born chef Dean Sibthorp prepares a locally caught barramundi with lentil, pumpkin and finger lime in a restaurant beside the vines at the base of the Grampians. Husband-and-wife team Pep and Adam Atchison tell me stories as they pour their prize wines (shiraz is the hero in these parts).

dining at Pomonal Estate — Dine in a restaurant beside vines at Pomonal Estate. (Image: Tourism Australia)

Three minutes’ drive back down the road, long-time mates Hadyn Black and Darcy Naunton run an eclectic cellar door out of a corrugated iron shed, near downtown Pomonal. The Christmas before last, half the houses in Pomonal burnt down in a bushfire, but these locals are a resilient lot.

The fires also didn’t stop the construction of the first art centre in Australia dedicated to environmental art in a nature-based precinct a little further down the road (that’s Wama – the National Centre for Environmental Arts), which opened in July. And some of the world’s oldest and rarest grape vines have survived 160 years at Best’s Wines, outside the heritage town of Great Western. There’s plantings here from the year 1868, and there’s wines stored in century-old barrels within 150-year-old tunnels beneath the tasting room. On the other side of town, Seppelt Wines’ roots go back to 1865. They’re both only a 30-minute drive from Halls Gap.

Salingers of Great Western — Great Western is a charming heritage town. (Image: Griffin Simm)

There’s more to explore yet; I drive through tiny historic towns that barely make the map. Still part of the Grampians, they’re as pretty as the mountains behind them: full of late 19th-century/early 20th-century post offices, government offices and bank buildings, converted now to all manner of bric-a-brac stores and cafes.

The Imaginarium is one, in quirky Dimboola, where I sleep in the manager’s residence of an old National Australia Bank after a gourmet dinner at the local golf club, run by noted chef and teacher, Cat Clarke – a pioneer of modern Indigenous Australian cooking. Just south, I spend an entire afternoon at a winery, Norton Estate Wines, set on rolling calico-coloured hills that make me think of Tuscany, chit-chatting with owners Chris and Sam Spence.

Being here takes me back two decades, when I lived here for a time. It had all seemed as foreign as if I’d driven to another planet back then (from Sydney/Warrane), but there seemed something inherently and immediately good about this place, like I’d lived here before.

And it’s the Australian small-town familiarity of the Grampians that offers me connection back to my own country. Even in the better-known Halls Gap, Liz from Kerrie’s Creations knows I like my lattes with soy milk and one sugar. And while I never do get the name of the lady at the local Ampol station, I sure know a lot about her life.

Kookaburras on a tree — Kookaburras are one of some 230 bird species. (Image: Darren Donlen)

You can be a local here in a day; how good is that? In Chicago, I don’t even know who my neighbour is. Though each day at dusk – when the kangaroos gather outside my villa, and the kookaburras and the black cockatoos shout out loud before settling in to sleep – I prefer the quieter connection I get out there in the bush, beneath these orange mountains.

A traveller’s checklist

Staying there

Sleep beside the wildlife on the edge of Halls Gap at Serenity.

Playing there

abseiling down Hollow Mountain — Hollow Mountain is a popular abseiling site.

Go abseiling under the stars or join a guided hike with Absolute Outdoors. Visit Wama, Australia’s first environmental art centre. Check out Dimboola’s eccentric Imaginarium.

Eating there

steak, naan bread and beer at Paper Scissors Rock in Halls Gap — Paper Scissors Rock in Halls Gap serves a great steak on naan bread.

Eat world-class cuisine at Pomonal Estate. Dine and stay at much-revered icon Royal Mail Hotel in Dunkeld. The ‘steak on naan’ at Halls Gap brewhouse Paper Scissors Rock, can’t be beat.

Dunkeld Arboretum in Grampians National Park — The serene Dunkeld Arboretum.

For Halls Gap’s best breakfasts head to Livefast Cafe. Sip local wines at Great Western’s historic wineries, Best’s Wines, Seppelt Wines and Norton Estate Wines.

two glasses of beer at Paper Scissors Rock in Halls Gap — Sink a cold one at Paper Scissors Rock.

8 unexpected getaways that take the path less travelled in Australia

Whether hiking off-piste in a ski region out of season or venturing to far-flung islands, travelling off the beaten track can reveal the very best of our country.

1. Snowies Alpine Walk, NSW

2. Heyscape tiny cabins, WA

3. Rumi on Louth, SA

4. The Overland Track, Tasmania

5. An eco lodge stay in Capertee Valley, NSW

6. Tiwi Islands, NT

7. The Tarkine, Tasmania

8. Island-hopping in WA

Qantas releases over 170,000 discounted regional fares from $99

The 10 best Aussie beach towns for an easy coastal getaway

Australia’s top 10 historic towns worth exploring now

The 10 Aussie towns made for nature lovers and adventure seekers

This scenic Victorian region is the perfect antidote to city life

The Grampians just might be the ultimate antidote for the metropolis, writes one returning Aussie ready to disconnect from the modern world and reconnect to the Great outdoors.

Exchanging city chaos for country calm

The trails and treasures of the Grampians

What else is on offer in The Grampians?

A traveller’s checklist

Staying there

Playing there

Eating there

Whether hiking off-piste in a ski region out of season or venturing to far-flung islands, travelling off the beaten track can reveal the very best of our country.

1. Snowies Alpine Walk, NSW

2. Heyscape tiny cabins, WA

3. Rumi on Louth, SA

AI Prompt

4. The Overland Track, Tasmania

5. An eco lodge stay in Capertee Valley, NSW

6. Tiwi Islands, NT

7. The Tarkine, Tasmania

8. Island-hopping in WA

Qantas releases over 170,000 discounted regional fares from $99

The 10 best Aussie beach towns for an easy coastal getaway

Australia’s top 10 historic towns worth exploring now

The 10 Aussie towns made for nature lovers and adventure seekers

The Grampians just might be the ultimate antidote for the metropolis, writes one returning Aussie ready to disconnect from the modern world and reconnect to the Great outdoors.

Exchanging city chaos for country calm

The trails and treasures of the Grampians

What else is on offer in The Grampians?

A traveller’s checklist

Staying there

Playing there

Eating there

Whether hiking off-piste in a ski region out of season or venturing to far-flung islands, travelling off the beaten track can reveal the very best of our country.