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Keep in mind that when it's summer in the Northern Hemisphere, it's winter Down Under. So the peak travel season in Australia's most popular parts is the Southern Hemisphere winter (June-Aug). Happily, airfares to Australia offered by U.S. airlines are usually lowest from mid-April to late August — the best time to visit the Red Centre, the Top End, and the Great Barrier Reef.
In much of the country — Queensland from around Townsville and northward, all of the Top End and the Red Centre, and most of Western Australia — the most pleasant time to travel is April through September, when daytime temperatures are 66 to 88 degrees Fahrenheit and it rarely rains. June, July, and August are the busiest months in these parts; you'll need to book accommodations and tours well in advance, and you'll pay higher rates then, too.
Australia's summer is a nice time to visit the southern states — New South Wales, Victoria, South Australia, Western Australia from Perth to the south, and Tasmania. Even in winter, temperatures rarely dip below freezing, and snow falls only in parts of Tasmania, in the ski fields of Victoria, and in the Snowy Mountains of southern New South Wales.
The best months to visit Australia are September and October, when it's often still warm enough to enjoy the southern states, it's cool enough to tour Uluru (Ayers Rock), the wildflowers are in full bloom in Western Australia, and the humidity and rains have not come to Cairns and the Top End (although it will be very hot by October).
In summer (Oct-Mar), you can expect it to be hot, humid, and wet (or all three) if you're touring the Red Centre, the Top End, and Western Australia except Perth and the southwest. The Top End, the Kimberley, and North Queensland, including Cairns, are intensely hot and humid in the Wet season from November or December through March or April. In the Top End and Kimberley, the Wet season is preceded by a sticky build-up period in October and November. Some attractions close, floodwaters render others off-limits, and hotels drop their rates, often dramatically. So if you decide to travel in these areas at this time — and lots of people do — be prepared to take the heat, possible floods, and, in tropical coastal areas, the slight chance of cyclones.
Australia's summer holidays run from about mid-December to the end of January, when schools close and families head off on their vacations. Book well ahead if you're traveling then. The school year in Australia is usually broken into four semesters, with two-week holidays around Easter, the last week of June and the first week of July, and the last week of September and the first week of October.
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