New South Wales travel guide

• Sydney,
• Canberra,
• Byron Bay

New South Wales

From the surf to the sands. Endless beaches, eucalyptus forests surrounding romantic lakes, lonely farms and cattle stations, huge national parks from the deserts to the rainforests, subtropical heat and freezing temperatures in the ski areas of the Snowy Mountains--New South Wales has it all.

New South Wales is the oldest and most populous state of Australia--but once outside of Sydney, with its four million people, you would not notice it. It has a coastline over 1000 km long, with plenty of secluded beaches, in the Snowy Mountains you can hike for days without encountering another soul, and in pubs of tiny outback towns, strangers are still an event. For many visitors who land at Sydney’s airport, the state’s fascinating capital overshadows the rest of New South Wales. But remember that the state--with 801,600 square km it is more than twice the size of Germany--includes countless, often hidden, paradises.