Group Tours in Australia: The Backpacker's Guide

If you are travelling solo — and a huge number of backpackers in Australia are — group tours are one of the best decisions you can make. They solve the two biggest challenges of solo travel in one go: the logistics and the loneliness.

Instead of working out how to get to a remote 4WD track or which boat to sail the Whitsundays on, someone else handles it. And instead of eating dinner alone, you are suddenly part of a group of like-minded travellers from all over the world. Friendships formed on a three-day K'gari tour have a habit of turning into travel-buddies-for-the-next-month.

Good group tours are close to all-inclusive, which makes budgeting easy. Typically you can expect transport, accommodation (camping, hostels, or lodges depending on the tour), most meals, park fees, and activities all bundled into one price with no nasty surprises.

That bundling is also where a lot of the value is — buying the same activities, transport, and beds separately usually costs more, and takes hours of planning. Always check exactly what is and is not included before you book, especially meals and optional add-ons.

Some Australian adventures are simply better in a group:

K'gari (Fraser Island) 4WD tours — sandy, social, and a total blast with a group. The tag-along tours where you drive in convoy are a rite of passage.

Whitsundays sailing — a couple of days on a boat with the same crew of travellers is the definition of instant friendships.

Uluru & Red Centre camping — swags under the stars, campfire dinners, and a shared sense of awe at the scale of the outback.

West Coast overland trips — long distances and remote country make the West Coast far easier (and more fun) as a guided group trip.

You do not have to choose one or the other — most smart itineraries mix both. Independent travel (buses, hostels, the odd campervan leg) gives you freedom and flexibility on the well-trodden East Coast, while group tours are worth their weight for the harder-to-reach adventures like the reef islands, K'gari, and the outback.

A classic combo is to travel the East Coast independently and book group tours for the specific big-ticket experiences along the way.

A few things to weigh up: group size (smaller groups tend to feel more personal), the style of accommodation (camping versus dorms versus private), the age range and vibe (some tours skew party, others more relaxed), and of course what is actually included.

This is where we come in. We compare group tours across all the major operators, so instead of trawling a dozen websites you can tell us what you are after and we will match you to the right trip — at the best price we can find. No mark-up games, just honest advice from people who have done these tours themselves.