Australia for 21 days in November

Enjoy that Houston to Sydney flight - it's one of the longest in the world at 17.5 hours!

I briefly started planning a trip to Australia and kind of got frustrated and abandoned it. It's a bigger country than many realize. I can't get 21 days off work and even 14 would be a stretch. I think what I was planning was something like: Sydney - fly to Cairnes/Port Douglas - fly to Melbourne - drive Great Ocean Road to Adelaide - fly back to Sydney to connect home. A sailing trip to the Whitsundays looked cool if I could squeeze it in. The outback (Alice Springs/Uluru) seemed like more hassle than it was worth.

Hopefully an expert will chime in here, because I would like to get there someday.

Lived in Brisbane for a little over 2 years so was able to travel extensively throughout the country. Of all those things you mentioned, I'd honestly skip Alice Springs. I rented a camper van with some friends and drove from Adelaide to AS and while that trip was very enjoyable (because of the company), AS is pretty unremarkable. They have Uluru (Ayers Rock) which is just something to check off the list of places to be seen, but I wouldn't go out of my way to visit AS.

Visiting Cairns for the Great Barrier Reef is a must. It's continues to shrink and die at a rapid pace, so you must visit while you can. I also recommend going with a company that goes pretty far off the coast. If you stay too close, the water can be quite dirty on some days and the clarity is not the best. Overall though, absolute must place to stop. There's even a sign in the water that shows where Steve Irwin was stung by the sting ray. It's remarkably close to shore in a canal.

I loved Darwin as well and visiting Kadadu national park. You have to be careful going for a swim in the swimming holes are there are crocs everywhere (and believe me, those post signs saying DO NOT SWIM!) but what's the fun in that?! Looking back it was quite idiotic, but hey I'm still here to tell the tale.

I could go on and on about Aus, I love that place like a second home. I'm happy to answer and specific questions you have, places to visit, etc, just keep them coming. As someone else said, Great Ocean Road is amazing and you can really do that in just a day or 2. They've even got some nice wineries in Adelaide if you have time there. Catching a footie game (Aussie rules football) should be something to do as well.

I pretty much have decided not to go to the outback on the trip -- just too difficult to get all the way out there without sacrificing another city/area.

Right now I have planned to go to Sydney, Melbourne, Hobart, Adelaide, Cairns/Port Douglas, Brisbane/Gold Coast. I'm still in the air about Darwin... I need to plan a day or two to just relax and maybe do laundry since I'll be there for 22 days. If I go out to Uluru, then I'm having to rush to get from place to place.

Any thoughts?