The Top Places To Spend The Easter Holidays In 2025

Maximise the Easter long weekend with an unforgettable Aussie escape.

Easter in 2025 falls on 20 April, right before Anzac Day, making it the perfect time to maximise your annual leave and head on a well-deserved getaway. From vibrant city events to serene road trips, these are the best places to spend your Easter break across Australia.

1. Margaret River, Western Australia

Contos Beach at Easter — Margaret River is a destination to clear your mind. (Image: Tourism Western Australia)

If fine wine and gourmet food are on your Easter wish list, Margaret River in Western Australia is the place to be. Also one of Australia’s prettiest autumn towns, Margaret River is renowned for its world-class wineries, a plethora of craft breweries and farm-to-table dining, but also boasts stunning beaches and ancient caves.

The annual Gracetown Bay Swim , held each year on Easter Saturday, is a must for your Easter stay. Suitable for swimmers of all abilities, you can swim to win or go at your own pace. The one-kilometre course begins and ends at Gracetown’s main beach, just a 15-20 min drive from Margaret River.

2. Sydney, NSW

Crowds enjoying the carnival rides at the Sydney Royal Easter Show, Sydney Showground at Sydney Olympic Park. — You can’t miss the Sydney Royal Easter Show. (Image: Destination NSW)

One of Sydney’s biggest annual events, the Sydney Royal Easter Show (11–22 April 2025) is a must for families. Held at Sydney Olympic Park, it showcases agricultural displays, thrilling carnival rides, live entertainment and its famous show bags. After the excitement, indulge in Sydney’s vibrant food scene and explore the best things to do in Sydney, including scenic coastal walks, immersive cultural experiences and historic sites.

3. The Grampians, Victoria

Grampians National Park on Easter — The Grampians are breathtaking. (Image: Visit Victoria)

If you prefer a nature-filled Easter, the Grampians National Park in Victoria offers stunning scenery, breathtaking waterfalls and incredible wildlife. For a truly immersive experience, consider taking a road trip from Melbourne. This scenic journey showcases the region’s diverse landscapes and offers opportunities for wildlife spotting, local dining and cultural experiences along the way.

4. Noosa, Queensland

Noosa Beach activities on Easter — Noosa is less crowded at Easter. (Image: Tourism Events Queensland)

For a relaxing Easter by the water, Noosa is unbeatable. With its calm, north-facing beaches, Noosa National Park and a buzzing dining scene, it’s ideal for families and couples alike. The nearby Glass House Mountains offer stunning hikes, while Australia Zoo is a great day out for wildlife lovers.

5. Kangaroo Island, South Australia

Kangaroo Island Park on Easter — Spot koalas on Kangaroo Island. (Image: Julie Fletcher)

South Australia’s Kangaroo Island is a hidden gem perfect for an Easter escape. Not only are there more things to do than you could possibly fit into one trip, including the countless dreamy beaches, the delectable wineries and the awe-inspiring hikes, but it’s also one of the best places in Australia to see wild animals like koalas, kangaroos, sea lions and seals. Add on a to-die-for food and beverage scene and some diverse accommodation options, and you’ve got yourself a winning Easter holiday.

6. Uluṟu, Northern Territory

Uluru Field of Light on Easter — Immerse your senses in Bruce Munro’s stunning Field of Light. (Image: Tourism NT/Ray Reyes)

Easter is an excellent time to visit Uluṟu, with cooler temperatures making outdoor exploration more comfortable. Take a guided tour around the base of Uluṟu, experience the breathtaking Field of Light installation and explore Kata Tjuṯa. The cultural significance of this region makes it a deeply enriching Easter destination.

7. Cradle Mountain, Tasmania

hiking Cradle Mountain, Tasmania on Easter — The stunning hike trails of Cradle Mountain are worth the uphill effort. (Image: Jess Bonde)

For a cosy, nature-filled Easter, Cradle Mountain in Tasmania offers crisp air, stunning hikes and the chance to see wombats in the wild. Stay in a dreamy lodge, explore the wonderful things to do, refuel at the area’s best restaurants and enjoy Tasmania’s pristine wilderness.

8. Canberra, ACT

Visiting Australian Memorial War on Easter — Pay homage to the nation’s fallen heroes at the Australian War Memorial. (Image: Visit Canberra)

Canberra is our small but mighty capital, and Easter is the perfect time to visit. April in Canberra will be a bit chilly so make sure you rug up and get ready to explore. There’s a bunch of stuff to do that’ll suit whatever it is you’re looking for in Canberra. Explore Canberra’s museums and galleries to get out of the cold, cosy up at one of the iconic brunch spots or spend the afternoon wetting the whistle at a cute bar.

9. Ningaloo Reef, WA

swimming with whale sharks on Easter — Swim with whale sharks in Ningaloo. (Image: Tourism Western Australia)

For an Easter adventure like no other, head to Ningaloo Reef and swim with whale sharks. April is the peak season for spotting these gentle giants, and the clear turquoise waters make for incredible snorkelling and diving. Tack on a stay at the unbelievable Sal Salis for one of Australia’s most spectacular experiences.

10. The Hunter Valley, NSW

Harkham Restaurant on Easter — The Hunter Valley is a relaxed Easter destination. (Image: Nikki To)

For a more relaxed Easter escape in NSW, head to the Hunter Valley. Just a short drive from Sydney, this renowned wine region is perfect for couples and families alike. Enjoy wine tastings at world-class vineyards, indulge in gourmet food experiences or take a hot air balloon ride over the stunning countryside. The Hunter Valley Gardens also hosts a fantastic Easter celebration, complete with egg hunts, farm animals and kids’ activities.

11. The Great Ocean Road, Vic

Twelve Apostles road trip on Easter — Nothing beats a trip to the incredible Twelve Apostles. (Image: Visit Victoria)

For an iconic road trip experience, drive along The Great Ocean Road this Easter. Marvel at the Twelve Apostles, explore the charming coastal towns of Lorne and Apollo Bay and take in the dramatic cliffs and stunning ocean views. The Great Ocean Road offers fantastic walking trails, waterfalls and treetop adventures, making it a great stop for families and nature lovers alike.

12. Barossa Valley, SA

Barossa Valley vinery on Easter — Barossa Valley is home to some of the oldest vines in Australia. (Image: Torbreck Vintners)

For wine lovers, there’s no better place to spend Easter than the Barossa Valley. Just an hour from Adelaide, this iconic wine region is famous for its shiraz, gourmet food and historic vineyards. Enjoy wine tastings at legendary wineries, dine at award-winning restaurants, stay in luxury accommodation and explore charming villages, Easter markets and food festivals, to make this a perfect long weekend getaway.

13. The Gold Coast, Qld

Cali Beach getaway on Easter — Enjoy sun-soaked days on the Gold Coast. (Image: Tourism and Events Queensland)

With golden beaches, thrilling theme parks, and plenty of family-friendly activities, the Gold Coast is a top pick for Easter. Enjoy sun-soaked days at Surfers Paradise, Burleigh Heads or Currumbin Beach. For adventure seekers, the Gold Coast’s theme parks offer rides and attractions for all ages. Easter also coincides with ideal weather for whale watching along the coast.

14. Newcastle, NSW

Young people enjoying a swim at Bogey Hole ocean pools in Newcastle at sunrise. — Visit this underrated coastal city for Easter. (Image: Destination NSW)

Swap the hustle and bustle for a beachy break in Newcastle this Easter. Just under three hours from Sydney by train, this underrated coastal city is the ideal blend of sun, surf, culture and seriously good food. Check-in at Little National Hotel Newcastle , a sleek, design-led stay tucked into the city’s vibrant harbourfront. The rooms are compact yet luxurious, complete with minimalist design touches that exude calm.

Planning your Easter 2025 trip

With Easter being a peak travel time, it’s best to book accommodation and activities in advance. Many destinations offer unique seasonal experiences, making this one of the best times of year to explore Australia’s diverse landscapes.

Abandoned mills and forgotten paper plants are finding second lives – and helping redefine a city long underestimated.

Just 15 years ago, Federal Mills was a very different place. Once among the most significant industrial sites in Victoria, the historic woollen mill was one of a dozen that operated in Geelong at the industry’s peak in the mid-20th century, helping the city earn its title as ‘wool centre of the world’. But by the 1960s global competition and the rise of synthetic fabrics led to the slow decline of the industry, and Federal Mills finally shuttered its doors in 2001. Within a few years, the abandoned North Geelong grounds had become makeshift pastoral land, with cows and goats grazing among the overgrown grass between the empty red-brick warehouses. It was a forgotten pocket of the city, all but two klicks from the bustle of the CBD.

Geelong cellar door wine bar — Geelong has shed its industrial identity to become an innovative urban hub with reimagined heritage spaces. (Image: Ash Hughes)

Federal Mills: from forgotten factory to creative precinct

Today, the century-old complex stands reborn. The distinctive sawtooth-roof buildings have been sensitively restored. An old silo is splashed with a bright floral mural, landscapers have transformed the grounds, and the precinct is once again alive with activity. More than 1000 people work across 50-plus businesses here. It’s so busy, in fact, that on a sunny Thursday morning in the thick of winter, it’s hard to find a car park. The high ceilings, open-plan design, and large multi-paned windows – revolutionary features for factories of their time – have again become a drawcard.

Paddock Bakery andPatisserie — Paddock Bakery and Patisserie is housed within the historic wool factory. (Image: Gallant Lee)

At Paddock , one of the precinct’s newer tenants, weaving looms and dye vats have been replaced by a wood-fired brick oven and heavy-duty mixers. Open since April 2024, the bakery looks right at home here; the building’s industrial shell is softened by ivy climbing its steel frames, and sunlight streams through the tall windows. Outside, among the white cedar trees, families at picnic benches linger over dippy eggs and bagels, while white-collar workers pass in and out, single-origin coffee and crème brûlée doughnuts in hand.

Geelong: Australia’s only UNESCO City of Design

Paddock Bakery can be found at Federal Mills. (Image: Gallant Lee)

“A lot of people are now seeing the merit of investing in Geelong,” says Paul Traynor, the head of Hamilton Hospitality Group, which redeveloped Federal Mills. A city once shunned as Sleepy Hollow, and spurned for its industrial, working-class roots and ‘rust belt’ image, Geelong has long since reclaimed its ‘Pivot City’ title, having reinvented itself as an affordable, lifestyle-driven satellite city, and a post-COVID migration hotspot.

And the numbers stand testament to the change. In March 2025, and for the first time in its history, Greater Geelong became Australia’s most popular regional town for internal migration, overtaking Queensland’s Sunshine Coast. Current forecasts suggest Geelong will continue to outpace many other Australian cities and towns, with jobs growing at double the rate of the population.

Tourism is booming, too. The 2023-24 financial year was Geelong and The Bellarine region’s busiest on record, with 6.4 million visitors making it one of the fastest-growing destinations in the country. It’s not hard to see why: beyond the city’s prime positioning at the doorstep of the Great Ocean Road, Geelong’s tenacity and cultural ambition stands out.

As Australia’s only UNESCO City of Design, Geelong is swiftly shaking off its industrial past to become a model for urban renewal, innovation, sustainability and creative communities. The signs are everywhere, from the revitalisation of the city’s waterfront, and the landmark design of the Geelong Library and Heritage Centre and Geelong Arts Centre, to the growing network of local designers, architects and artists, and the burgeoning roster of festivals and events. That’s not even mentioning the adaptive reuse of storied old industrial buildings – from Federal Mills, to Little Creatures’ brewery ‘village’ housed within a 1920s textile mill – or the city’s flourishing food and wine scene.

The rise of a food and wine destination

Restaurant 1915 is housed within a restored former boiler house. (Image: Harry Pope/Two Palms)

Traynor credits now-closed local restaurant Igni, which opened in 2016, as the turning point for Geelong’s hospo industry. “[Aaron Turner, Igni’s chef-patron] was probably the first guy, with all due respect, to raise the bar food-wise for Geelong,” he says. “People now treat it really seriously, and there’s clearly a market for it.” While Igni is gone, Turner now helms a string of other notable Geelong venues, including The Hot Chicken Project and Tacos y Liquor, all within the buzzy, street art-speckled laneways of the CBD’s Little Malop Street Precinct. Many others have also popped up in Igni’s wake, including Federal Mills’ own restaurant, 1915 . Housed within the cavernous boiler house, 1915’s interior is dramatic: soaring, vaulted ceilings with timber beams, exposed brick, a huge arched window. The share plates echo the space’s bold character, playing with contrast and texture, with dishes such as a compressed watermelon tataki, the sweet, juicy squares tempered by salty strands of fried leeks, and charred, smoky snow peas dusted with saganaki on a nutty bed of romesco.

The Woolstore , one of The Hamilton Group’s most recent hospo projects, opened in February. It occupies a century-old riverside warehouse and exudes a more sultry, fine dining ambience. Much like Federal Mills, the blueprint was to preserve the original brickwork, tallowwood flooring and nods to the building’s former life. That same careful consideration extends to the well-versed, affable waitstaff as well as the kitchen. Head chef Eli Grubb is turning out an eclectic mix of ambitious and indulgent mod Oz dishes that deliver: strikingly tender skewers of chicken tsukune, infused with hints of smoke from the parrilla grill, and glazed with a moreish, sweet gochujang ‘jam’; nduja arancini fragrant with hints of aniseed and the earthy lick of sunny saffron aioli; and golden squares of potato pavé, adorned with tiny turrets of crème fraîche, crisp-fried saltbush leaves, and Avruga caviar, to name but a few stand-out dishes.

Woolstore menu — Woolstore’s menu is designed for sharing.

Breathing new life into historic spaces

On the city’s fringe, hidden down a winding side road with little fanfare, lies a long-dormant site that’s being gently revived. Built from locally quarried bluestone and brick, and dating back to the 1870s, the complex of original tin-roofed mill buildings is lush with greenery and backs onto the Barwon River and Buckley Falls; the audible rush of water provides a soothing soundtrack. Fyansford Paper Mill is one of few complexes of its time to survive intact. It feels steeped in history and spellbindingly rustic.

“We were looking for an old industrial place that had some charm and romance to it,” explains Sam Vogel, the owner, director and winemaker at Provenance Wines which moved here in 2018. When he first viewed the building with his former co-owner, it was in such a state of disrepair that the tradie tenant occupying the space had built a shed within it to escape the leaking roof and freezing winter temperatures. “To say it was run down would be an understatement,” he notes. “There was ivy growing through the place; the windows were all smashed. It was a classic Grand Designs project.”

Provenance Wines moved to Fyansford Paper Mill in 2018. (Image: Cameron Murray Photography)

The team has since invested more than a million dollars into their new home. Where paper processing machinery once sat, wine barrels are now stacked. Vaulted cathedral ceilings are strung with festoon lights, and hidden in plain sight lies a shadowy mural by local street artist de rigueur Rone – one of only three permanent works by the artist.

While the award-winning, cool-climate pinot noir, riesling and chardonnay naturally remain a key draw at Provenance, the winery’s restaurant is a destination in itself. Impressed already by whipsmart service, I devour one of the most cleverly curated and faultlessly executed degustations I’ve had in some time. It’s all prepared in a kitchen that is proudly zero-waste, and committed to providing seasonal, ethical and locally sourced meat and produce under head chef Nate McIver. Think free-range venison served rare with a syrupy red wine jus and a half-moon of neon-orange kosho, shokupan with a deeply savoury duck fat jus (a modern Japanese take on bread and drippings), and a golden potato cake adorned with a colourful confetti of dehydrated nasturtiums and tomato powder, and planted atop a sea urchin emulsion.

handcrafted pieces — Bell’s handcrafted functional pieces on display.

The complex is home to a coterie of independent businesses, including a gallery, a jeweller, and its latest tenant, ceramicist Elizabeth Bell, drawn here by the building’s “soul”. “There’s so much potential for these buildings to have new life breathed into them,” says Bell, whose studio is housed within the old pump room. “Even people in Geelong don’t know we’re here,” she says. “It’s definitely a destination, but I like that. It has a really calming atmosphere.”

A Melbourne transplant, Bell now feels at home in Geelong, which offers something Melbourne didn’t. “If this business was in Melbourne I don’t think it would’ve been as successful,” she notes. “It’s very collaborative in Geelong, and I don’t think you get that as much in Melbourne; you’re a bit more in it for yourself. Here it’s about community over competition.”

The best Easter holiday destinations in Australia for 2025