12 Apostles, Great Ocean Road, Victoria © Visit Victoria
Australia's best scenic flights
Take flight and see Australia from a whole new perspective with these luxury air tours.
On the Shellar Door experience, your seaplane pilot takes you on a 20-minute flight to the Broken Bay Pearl Farm. After touchdown, you’ll cruise the waterways and discover the local oyster farming and pearl industry. Before you head back, enjoy a ‘Pearlers' Platter’ – a bespoke picnic lunch with fresh Sydney rock oysters and pearl meat. And at the day’s end, relax in Sydney Seaplane’s Empire Lounge overlooking a Sydney Harbour sunset.
As the sun rises in Canberra, magnificent hot air balloons fill the sky. Experience the thrill of ascending over a changing landscape with Balloon Aloft Canberra. Get cosy in the basket as you float up to a prime position to watch the sun fill the valley and lake with soft morning light. Complete your morning with sparkling wine and breakfast to slowly ease into your day.
The “pub crawl” – gathering your mates and having one drink in a pub before heading on to the next pub – is an Australian tradition. In the Northern Territory, you can take it up a notch on the original Heli Pub Crawl with Airborne Solutions. Departing from Darwin, you’ll get to visit seven outback pubs across five hours. From landing on the beach to watching crocs and getting a bird’s-eye view of the outback, this is no ordinary pub crawl.
A Swan River Seaplanes trip allows you to get a taste of the extraordinarily beautiful Margaret River region. In the Margaret River, wine, cheese, seafood and uncrowded beaches are yours for the day. Just an hour after taking off from the Swan River and enjoying a scenic flight along the stunning coastline, you’ll disembark to explore Margaret River’s pretty township, indulge in some cheeky samples of local produce and enjoy a winery lunch.
Soak up the views of the Yarra Ranges, just outside Melbourne, on a winery day trip with Australian Air Safaris. You’ll head up to the King Valley wine region in northern Victoria and land on the airstrip at the Brown Brothers winery estate. After a private tour of the iconic winery, founded in 1889, you’ll sit down to a relaxed afternoon of fine dining before heading back to Melbourne.
If you’re short on time, an Air Whitsundays Seaplane experience offers the ultimate half-day out on the Great Barrier Reef. After departing from Airlie Beach, expect to gaze out of your window in awe as the blue hues of the Whitsundays and Heart Reef unfurl beneath you. Snorkel with colourful fish at Hardy Reef and sink your toes into the silica sands at Whitehaven Beach. This is a day to remember.
Wilpena Pound Resort lies in South Australia's ancient Flinders Ranges, a sacred place to the local Aboriginal Adnyamathanha people. The landscape is more than 600 million years old, and there’s no better way to see it than from the air. Take a scenic flight to soar over Wilpena Pound’s beguiling natural amphitheatre – a jaw-dropping 17km (10mi) long and 8km (5mi) wide – before reaching the glistening pink salt crystals of Kati Thanda-Lake Eyre.
The Great Ocean Road is one of Australia’s greatest road trips, fringing cool temperate rainforest, famous surf breaks and dramatic limestone cliffs for 243km (150mi). You’ll find one of the most impressive views at the 12 Apostles, which soar more than 45m (147ft) above the waves. Marvel at the limestone rocks and their neighbouring natural attractions from above on a 25-minute Bay of Islands scenic flight.
The Tasman Peninsula, south-east of Hobart, is one of Tasmania’s most dramatic landscapes, and you can fly over it on a full day out with Tasmania Air Tours. Gaze out your window to see jagged sea cliffs (the tallest in the Southern Hemisphere), waterfalls spilling into the wild ocean and two World Heritage-listed convict sites: Coal Mines and Port Arthur Historic Site. Landing at the latter, you’ll be guided around the 1800s buildings while hearing eerie stories of the past.
Experience the Red Centre in style on the five-hour Professional Helicopter Service’s One With The Lot Tour. The flight takes off at Ayers Rock Resort in Yulara before ascending over Uluru, the world’s largest sandstone monolith and its neighbour Kata Tjuta, a landscape of 36 giant domes. Both sites are spiritually significant to the local Aboriginal Anangu people and while you’re marvelling at them from above, it's easy to see why.
The Kimberley region is one of the world’s last wilderness frontiers where natural phenomenons, dinosaur footprints and 360-million-year-old rock formations meet. One of the most extraordinary landscapes is the UNESCO Bungle Bungles, which rise more than 300m (984ft) above the earth in Purnululu National Park. Gawp at these beehive-like black and orange domes – a sight that’s been seen by few – during the Ultimate Bungle Bungle Flight with HeliSpirit.
