I disagree. Cut out Sydney and Cairns. Adelaide has a quiet charm not
found in most other Aussie cities and Melbourne is much more interesting
than Sydney. You will have plenty of diving and aqua and tropical
opportunities in Asia, so Cairns might have some duplication.


I know you are trying to be provocative, but maybe the OP doesn't.

Melbourne is a great place, as I said. I grew up there, apart from anything
else. But I am struggling to find any unique or special thing that it has
that sets it apart from other big Western cities. There is some nice civic
architecture - the so called "Paris end of Collins Street" - but a few
blocks of nice buildings that could be in Europe is not enough tp drag me
1,000 kms south from Sydney. To suggest that a Norwegian tourist in
Australia in summer should be in Melbourne rather than Sydney (a great party
city, with the world's best beaches) is ludicrous.

Adelaide is also nice. Des Moines and Tulsa are also nice, and about the
same size as Adelaide. Are you visitting them when you are in the States?

Cairns is one of the few tropical Western cities in the world. It is also
the only place in the world where two world heritage sites adjoin (the
rainforest and the reef). It is unique. Similarly, there is no city like
Sydney in the world. Finally, they lie at opposite ends of a 3,000 kms
stretch of the QLD and NSW coast that includes the Great Barrier Reef,
hundreds of islands and attols, interesting tropical hinterland, knock-out
beaches and communities (Byron Bay, Noosa, Nimbin, Mullumbimby ...). Sydney
is a must see destination if you visit Australia; if you are here for more
than a few weeks, so is Cairns. Melbourne and Adelaide are not.