Uluru at sunrise, a red monolith rising from the Central Australian desert

Best of Australia: The Definitive Guide

By Mr Scott Purcell, CFA - News

Updated: 18 April, 2026

Readtime: 12 min

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Australia is not a country you summarise. It is a continent dressed as a nation, with six capitals that operate on different cultural clocks, a food culture stitched together by four generations of migration, and a drinks scene that now wins on the world stage from Tasmania to the Margaret River. Covering all of it in one list is a fool’s errand. What you can do, and what Man of Many has spent a decade doing, is keep a working archive of the definitive picks: the best whisky, the best steak, the best drive, the best city weekend.

This page is that archive, built as a two-part index. If you are planning a trip, moving cities, or tired of the Google Maps shortlist, start with Best by City and pick a capital. If you are after something specific, scroll down to Best Australian . Sections are ordered by reader demand, so drinks, food and entertainment lead.

Best by City

Start here if you are planning a trip, visiting family, or just want the locals’ cut of a capital. Each hub is a standalone guide covering food, drinks, things to do, stays, style and shopping, updated by an editor who lives in that city. The spoke counts below are the number of editorially vetted sub-guides attached to each hub, ranked in rough order of how deep our coverage runs.

Best of Sydney, harbour-city intensity, 128 curated spots across food, bars, beaches, hotels and adventure.
Best of Melbourne, the laneway-coffee-sports overlap, 112 picks spanning cuisine, culture and nightlife.
Best of Brisbane, subtropical food and drink scene, 35 locals-first picks across the river city.
Best of Perth, isolation as a feature, 18 picks covering the west coast’s best food, beaches and bars.
Best of Adelaide, food, wine and short-stay magic, 8 tight picks for a long weekend in the City of Churches.

Best Australian Drinks

Australia’s drinks scene punches far above its population. Tasmanian single malts now win World Whisky of the Year trophies, the Barossa and Margaret River keep reshaping what premium Australian wine tastes like, and the craft brewing boom has filled every capital with operators worth a dedicated fridge shelf. The mid-strength segment is a distinctly Australian invention, the natural wine movement has grown from a Carlton experiment into a national force, and our gin distillers are now quietly exporting to London and Tokyo. These are the national drinks guides we update most often, ranked by what our readers actually open.

Best Australian Food

Australian food is a migrant story told through produce, and the country’s best operators are the ones who treat both halves seriously. The nation’s supermarket chocolate aisle is a global outlier, the protein category has exploded on the back of a fitness-first generation, and we have somehow turned the meat pie, the chicken schnitzel and the lamington into objects of genuine national identity. These are the food rankings our readers come back to when they need to pick a brand, a delivery kit, or a weekend treat.

Best Australian Entertainment

Streaming has rewired how Australians watch, but local storytelling has held its ground and the service stack in most Aussie living rooms now rivals anything overseas. Netflix alone ships more homegrown drama than it did a decade ago, and podcasts have become the quietly dominant daily medium for Australian men between twenty-five and forty-five. Use these guides to pick a platform without buyer’s remorse, find the Australian-made shows worth your Sunday night, or plan a long-weekend watchlist.

Best Australian Cars and Driving

The Australian automotive market is one of the most competitive in the world on a per-capita basis, with manufacturers tuning suspension, cooling and payloads specifically for our roads, tradie culture and fuel prices. The ute wars dictate the sales charts, electrification is finally accelerating, and cult imports like the Singer Porsche 911 have put the domestic enthusiast scene on the global map. These are the models, launches and head-to-head comparisons our readers ask about most.

Best Australian Style and Menswear

Australia has quietly built a generation of menswear brands, watchmakers and sneaker specialists that hold up against Milan, Tokyo or London. A boot-making tradition that now dresses Hollywood, a watch scene punching above its weight at Baselworld, and a denim movement that treats cut and weight as seriously as anywhere on earth. Our national style guides cut through the noise and point to the operators actually worth a wardrobe slot or an RM-style loyalty card.

Best Australian Sport and Fitness

Sport is the national religion, and Australia’s golf, tennis, AFL and rugby culture is as deep as anywhere on the planet per head of population. The country’s Top 100 Golf Courses list is a genuine global reference, LIV’s Adelaide week has redrawn the calendar, and our fitness influencer scene has professionalised fast. These are the courses, competitions and training operators we consider essential national reading.

Best Australian Travel and Escapes

Australia is effectively a continent, and how you cover it matters. The Great Ocean Road, the Red Centre, the Ningaloo Coast and the Tasmanian east coast are each world-class road trips in their own right, and private-island stays from Queensland to the Whitsundays sit at the top of the global luxury list. These travel guides are the starting point for an honest national itinerary, not a bucket-list rehash.

Best Australian Life and Money

The practical side of living here: wages, taxes, rules, jobs and the small civic knowledge that gets you through the year without looking like a tourist on a work visa. The salary data we publish is sourced from ATO and ABS benchmarks, the tax calculator is kept current against each budget, and the unofficial-rules explainer genuinely earns its keep with anyone moving between cities. These are our most-referenced national advice pieces, used by everyone from fresh graduates to expats.

Best Australian Home and Design

Australian design culture has matured fast. Homegrown furniture makers now ship internationally, the architect-led custom-build market has gone from niche to default for high-end buyers, and the record prices set at One Sydney Harbour have rewritten what premium residential looks like in this country. Start here for the most-read national home and design reading our editors have published.

If you have made it this far, you have the shape of how Man of Many covers Australia. The city hubs at the top are your locals-first map, the category hubs are your deep-dive rankings, and the FAQ below is the sanity check for anyone arriving fresh. Nothing on this page is static. Every list is scheduled for a review cycle, every ranking is re-argued when a new entrant earns its place, and the page you are reading now will look different in six months as new capitals, new restaurants, new whiskies and new cars rotate into our rolling coverage.

We publish this hub for one reason: Australia deserves a definitive, locals-first guide that does not flatten its regional character into a generic tourism brochure. Broadsheet does the daily openings. Time Out does the tourist gloss. Gourmet Traveller does the long-form restaurant review. Man of Many‘s job is the opinionated shortlist, the national ranking, the men’s-lifestyle lens that connects the car you drive, the boots you buy, the bottle you open and the weekend you plan. That is the masthead’s contribution, and this page is its index.

Frequently Asked Questions

What is the best of Australia for a first-time visitor?

Three cities and one road trip is the honest minimum. Sydney for the harbour, Opera House and eastern beaches, Melbourne for food, coffee, laneway bars and sport, and either Cairns for the Great Barrier Reef or Uluru for the red centre to round out the nature side. A week in Sydney and Melbourne plus a four-day regional trip gives visitors a defensible shortlist without trying to do the whole country in one go.

How do Australian cities compare for food?

Melbourne is the food capital by consensus, driven by deep Italian, Vietnamese and Greek communities and the country’s strongest coffee culture. Sydney leads on premium dining, seafood and harbourside rooms. Brisbane is the fastest-rising scene in the country thanks to subtropical produce and a wave of young operators. Adelaide punches above its weight for value and wine-matched dinners, Perth leads for fresh seafood and Asian-influenced cooking.

What are the best Australian drinks to try?

Tasmanian single malt whisky is the flag-planter: Lark, Sullivans Cove and Starward have put Australia on the world whisky map. For wine, start with a Barossa Valley Shiraz, a Margaret River Cabernet and a Tasmanian sparkling. For beer, a cold mid-strength lager at a pub on a hot afternoon is the unofficial national drink. A classic flat white still beats almost any coffee overseas.

What are the iconic Australian experiences?

A Sydney Harbour ferry at sunset. An AFL game at the MCG. Driving the Great Ocean Road. Snorkelling the Great Barrier Reef. Walking the Uluru base trail at dawn. A long lunch in the Barossa Valley or Margaret River. A Saturday sunrise swim at Bondi or an ocean pool on the Sydney coastline. None of these are novel picks, they are iconic for a reason, and the local quirks make them worth the trip.

What is the best Australian road trip?

The Great Ocean Road from Melbourne to the Twelve Apostles is the most famous and genuinely lives up to it. For something less trafficked, the Red Centre Way through the Northern Territory delivers the country’s most otherworldly landscapes, and the Pacific Coast run from Sydney to Byron Bay is the classic surf-and-stay drive.

What are Australia’s most iconic restaurants?

Attica in Melbourne and Quay in Sydney are the two most internationally awarded. Sean’s in Bondi is the cult seasonal pick, Lume in Melbourne routinely sits in world top 100 lists, and Orana alum chef Jock Zonfrillo’s legacy still shapes the Indigenous-ingredient movement. For casual classics, Chin Chin in Melbourne, Mr Wong in Sydney and Agnes in Brisbane all define their categories.

How should I plan a trip across Australia?

Pick two capitals plus one natural-wonder region and accept you will not see the rest. Distances are deceptive: Sydney to Perth is further than London to Moscow. A smart ten-day itinerary is three or four nights each in two capitals with a four-to-five-day regional loop in between. Domestic flights beat interstate driving for anything beyond 800 kilometres.

What is the best Australian souvenir or product?

An R.M. Williams boot, a bottle of Tasmanian single malt, an Akubra hat, a Blundstone chelsea, a T2 tea sampler, or a piece of Australian-made merino knitwear from the likes of P. Johnson or Oscar Hunt. Skip the plastic koalas and the Vegemite. The best Australian souvenirs are the ones Australians actually own.

When is the best time to visit Australia?

October to April for the southern capitals and coastline, when beach weather and major sporting and cultural events dominate the calendar. May to September is ideal for Queensland, the Northern Territory and Western Australia, when humidity drops and the outback becomes genuinely comfortable. Christmas through January is peak, so book early and expect domestic crowds.

Is Man of Many Australia’s biggest men’s lifestyle publisher?

Yes. Man of Many is independently owned, Australian founded and the country’s largest men’s lifestyle and style publisher by audience. We were named Mumbrella’s Media Brand of the Year for 2025, are a Climate Active-certified carbon-neutral digital publisher, and operate the Male Confidence Index, Australia’s primary first-party data set on male consumer behaviour.

Why Trust Us?

Man of Many has published more than 8,000 articles since 2012 and employs a team of editors who actually live in Sydney, Melbourne and Brisbane. We were named Mumbrella’s Media Brand of the Year in 2025, we operate Australia’s largest independent men’s lifestyle newsroom, and we are a Climate Active-certified carbon-neutral digital publisher. Our Male Confidence Index tracks what more than two million Australian men are thinking and spending on, giving this hub a first-party data foundation you will not find on a competitor’s sitemap. These guides are not scraped, AI-spun or recycled. They are the considered opinions of a newsroom that has skin in the game, argues about rankings in Slack before they go live, and updates them when the scene moves.