Australia, New Zealand & the South Pacific - Top ten things to see/do in Australia

My husband and I will be spending one month in Australia (October). Since we have a good amount of time, what places do you recommend we should include? We like beautiful scenery, great food, great hotels. Thanks!

Budget? 5* hotels run USD 200 per night, even now with the depressed prices. You can get 4* for half that. Are you planning on spending USD 10,000 for the month, plus airfare, or something less than that? It substantially affects the trip.

The area's that have beautiful scenery tend NOT to have great food & great hotels close by.

Suggest you do more research

http://www.fodors.com/community/australia-the-pacific/30-days-in-australiajunejuly-09-what-to-do.cfm

The primary focus is to see and experience the country. We are happy to give up great hotels and food to see special areas of the country or have a unique experience. For example, last year in New Zealand, one of the highlights of our trip was swimming dolphins, something we'd done elsewhere in the world but the experience in NZ was extraordinary as we encountered hundreds of them in their natural habitat.
So what I'm looking for are what are the highlights or the things that have truly stood out?

Budget? 5* hotels run USD 200 per night, even now with the depressed prices. You can get 4* for half that. Are you planning on spending USD 10,000 for the month, plus airfare, or something less than that? It substantially affects the trip.

5* or boutique hotels but as Mwenenzi states, not all areas of the country worth seeing will have a great hotel. we are happy to forego a 5* hotel to see a special area of the country.

For October and with desire for great/special scenery and natural experiences and price is not an obstacle, then ...
Must do list:
- Uluru for minimum 3 days, but preferably a week. However prices are triple here compared to the rest of Australia! Stay at Sails in the Desert and definitely do the Sounds of Silence dinner. Great experience and even worth the (high) cost (but not for the food). See http://www.ayersrockresort.com.au/accommodation/

- Hayman for a week (or some other part of the Whitsundays, but Hayman is probably what you'd consider the most luxurious; my own choice would be Heron Island, which is the least luxurious except for 1 or 2 of the villas, but those would cost USD 10,000 for a week).

- Perth for 3 days; actually most of it is in Margaret River (couple of hours drive south of Perth).

-Adelaide for 2 days (winery tour + Kangaroo Island)

-Melbourne for 3 days; here you can get luxury hotel accomodation cheaply, as well as the finest food and shopping in Australia

-Sydney for 3 days; just because it has all the iconic tourist destinations, with the Opera House, Bridge and Harbour.

4 Weeks gone already, and haven't seen even half the country yet. If you wanted dolphins, Australia has an even better wild dolphin experience than NZ (but hard to get to, it is in Monkey Mia which is 600 miles north of Perth. http://www.westernaustralia.com/en/Things_to_See_and_Do/Sun_Surf_and_Sea_Life/Pages/Dolphin_Interaction.aspx

The primary focus is to see and experience the country. We are happy to give up great hotels and food to see special areas of the country or have a unique experience. For example, last year in New Zealand, one of the highlights of our trip was swimming dolphins, something we'd done elsewhere in the world but the experience in NZ was extraordinary as we encountered hundreds of them in their natural habitat.
So what I'm looking for are what are the highlights or the things that have truly stood out?

I agree with number_6 regarding the Sounds of Silence Dinner. It is a unique and memorable experience.

In Alice Springs, Take a Camel to Dinner at the Frontier Camel Farm http://cameltours.ananguwaai.com.au/. A 1-hour camel ride along the "banks" of the Todd River is followed by a wonderful 3-course dinner with drinks. If you book directly with them, you'll save $$$ and they will still pick you up and drop you off at your hotel.

We were in OZland in mid April for our 25th anniversary celebration. Unfortunately since we both still work we only had a week there and a week in Tahiti for a cruise. I wish we'd have had a month or more to spend just in AU. After loosing a day traveling we only had 3 1/2 days in Sydney and 1 1/2 in Melbourne. We tried to stuff a lot in and loved every minute. Sydney was beautiful, but the visit to Melbourne was much better than I had expected and we even had part of a day spent driving to the GOR and going down that a couple hours, albeit having to return and missing so much beauty. EVERYONE we met was great, the country is well maintained, from city streets to front yards in small towns. People are not just polite, but genuinely courteous.

So I can't give you a full top 10, but others have a good start. I'd add the GOR and if you have ever been to wine countries, skip Hunter Valley - pretty but having been to several in the States I'd have rather not wasted the day's drive there.