Australia, New Zealand & the South Pacific - In and around Melbourne or Perth?

My wife and I will be visiting Australia early next year for 15 days. We'll definitely be visiting Sydney and someplace in that general neck of the woods (by which I mean within a few hours drive) for about a week. For the other week, we were thinking about Melbourne and, again, somewhere else near there (which could mean hopping a plane to Tasmania, I supposed). But we've been wondering about spending the other week in and around Perth.

Any thoughts on this? I'd normally do some research leading up to the trip, but since these are award tickets we need to finalize in the next few days we'd like to at least nail down the two main stops--otherwise, it will cost to change the tickets down the line, if the award seats for the alternative destination are still available at all.

FWIW, we do a lot of international travel for both work and play, but this will be our first visit to Australia.

I feel a little ridiculous even posing this question, since I know it's a huge country and going back and forth to Perth would consume more than half a day each way. It's sort of like someone asking me whether they should visit relatively close Boston in addition to New York City if visiting the USA, or whether they should do San Francisco in addition to NYC instead. But then again, I know I'd tell them to make the second stop San Francisco!

So...any thoughts on this matter are very much appreciated. Thanks!

I'd be inclined towards Melbourne rather than Perth. I live in Melbourne and enjoy visiting Perth (off there in a couple of weeks in fact), but trying to be objective, I think MEL and surrounds has more going for it for the visitor than Perth does.

MEL has fine dining, cheap dining, good fashion shopping (Chapel St), Vic Market, sporting precincts (if you're into that), waterside activities, and day-trip wise, several wine regions (Yarra Valley, Macedon Ranges, Mornington Peninsula etc.), goldfields towns (Ballarat, Bendigo etc.), penguins at Phillip Island. And other things.

PER has wine regions (Swan Valley close by, Margaret River overnight required), some great beaches, some hills, Fremantle is ok, and if you're prepared to go further afield, I'm told Monkey Mia is great with the dolphins, and Esperance is a very pretty place. But they would be overnighters minimum.

And you could slip over to Tasmania quite easily from MEL if you wanted.

Like tuapekaster, I'm biased but I would certainly take Melbourne over Perth.

On the other hand, if time and money permit (and it's not cheap), taking the Indian Pacific (http://www.gsr.com.au/our-trains/indian-pacific/the-journey.php) one way (and fly the other way) would be a great way to do it - something we want to do and will get around to (I hope) eventually. Air tickets SYD-MEL or MEL-HBA are reasonably cheap so if they don't fit the award tickets (and assuming you can open jaw on the award ticket, i.e., outbound fly to PER and then home from SYD or MEL) you could just do them (MEL or HBA) as separate paid tickets. The downside, of course, is that you can only do so much in 15 days.

I spent a week in Perth and the surrounding area some 2 or so years ago and really enjoyed it. Headed down to the Margaret River region and daytripped as far south as Walpole and the beaches on the south coast. The region is great for forest scenery (including a good canopy walk) and great coastal views and beaches without that many people around. Also all the wines if you're into that. Driving distances can be substantial and it's hard to forget returning late one night across some distance and trying to dodge the kangaroos. Small towns have a certain charm but close down early. Perth itself is pleasant but didn't have a lot that I thought was world-class about it; am sure Melbourne or Sydney would run circles around it for urban attractions.

A good commercial for Western Australia might be looking at some of the photographs of Christian Fletcher at www.christianfletcher.com.au

I am going to put in a vote for WA as well. I think parts of WA are one of the most beautiful places in Australia. Margaret River and Rottnest Island are real stunners. Margaret River is a wine region, with beautiful scenery near the cost. The Quay West Bunker Bay is a good place to stay. Rottnest can be reached from Perth, although you can stay over there if you are prepared to slum it. Walking or cycling around Rottnest and taking in the scenery is a real treat.

I live in Melbourne, and although I wouldn't want to live anywhere else, as a tourist I would not choose to spend a lot of time there. Its very pleasant if you enjoy cafes, restaurants, etc. There are of course some interesting museums, gallereries if you are in to that. Victoria has some lovely scenerey, especially down the Great Ocean Road, but except for the GOR I would not necessarily holiday in Victoria just to see the scenery.

So my vote is for Perth...and the weather is better!!