Australia - Sydney and Melbourne in April

DH , me and 2 kids ( 9 and 4) will be going to Sydney and Melbourne for 1 week in April. 3 days in each city and 1 day of travel between the 2 cities. Our first time and I am freaking out because we havent planned anything. Please throw in your suggestions- what we should do and where we should stay.

DH is still bugging me that we should try and fit in the Great Barrier Reef. I have been doing the research and telling him that 1) its not the right time of the year and 2 ) we dont have too much time..

Let me know if I am being an idiot here :)

thanks a bunch in Advance!

I don't think there is any way to see Sydney, Melbourne and the GBR in a week. You'll end up spending the entire time traveling. Cairnes (where you fly in for GBR) is a long way north.

I haven't been to Australia in more than 20 years - but I think we spent about three days in Sydney when I was there before going north to Queensland (we spent 10 days up there diving and exploring the Daintree and Cape Tribulation rainforest/jungle areas north of Cairnes and it was fabulous). In Sydney, we saw a performance at the opera house, climbed the harbour bridge (very cool but you cannot be scared of heights), took the ferry to Manly, did the shore walk at the northern beaches (Bronte, I think). We spent a day in nearby wine country (no kids).

I’m planning a trip too and from what I have read GBR is at least 2 days. You have to fly there from either Sydney or Melbourne then then the snorkel tours are a full day as it takes 1.5 hours to get to the GBR from shore then they do stops in 2-3 places. You would need to skip Sydney or Melbourne to fit it in.