Why? Because the friendliest, most hospitable, most spirited people in the world live there, or that’s how it seems to travelers who participate in our personality testing. Besides, it’s an English-speaking country with traditions and customs that are different enough to intrigue, yet similar enough to make Americans feel at home. It provides great satisfaction to almost all who visit.

Australia deserves its reputation as a wild and rugged place with a population to match. It’s a huge and largely desolate country that demanded tough people to tame even a small part of it — and much of it remains untamed! This makes Australia and its inhabitants exciting, very much as with the Old West in the U.S., and accounts for its appeal to active, adventurous travelers. Given it takes awhile to get there, most travelers take their time when touring Australia and are rewarded with some amazing scenery and wildlife along the way.

If you are a venturer (and venturers love everything about Australia), you’ll want to investigate the Outback, the opal mines, Uluru/Ayers Rock, maybe Tasmania.

Venturers seek the unique experience, the offbeat situation, the undiscovered place and the physically challenging. Where better to pursue these things than in Australia, which is essentially Earth’s last frontier? One venturer’s trip is indicative: Like others, he saw kangaroos and koalas, deserts and rain forests, sheep farmers, Aboriginal peoples and sophisticated hotels. But, he also climbed mountains and snorkeled at the Great Barrier Reef.

Centrics will want to fit in as many stops as possible to get a good feel of what this very varied continent has to offer. They may not go trekking through the bush, but they find plenty of things to do and see. Legacies of the past reside in sacred Aboriginal places like Uluru/Ayers Rock in the Northern Territory; Alice Springs, where Neville Shute set his famous novel “A Town Like Alice;” lovely Holy Trinity Church in Sydney, commandeered by the military in colonial times, and sheep stations in the interior on which much of Australia’s economy rests. Centrics are good sightseers, but they also want to sail in the harbor, scuba dive in coral reefs, eat wonderful food in Melbourne’s multicultural restaurants and gape at platypuses, wallabies, cassowaries and Tasmanian devils.

Authentics can live the good life in Sydney or Melbourne, augmented with day trips out of town to see sights and remarkable animals. While they mention the cities more often than others do, they also want to see the sights of the country. Fortunately, Australia has a good tourist infrastructure that launches the more timid travelers on many kinds of excursions for local color and excitement.

Go diving on the Great Barrier Reef.

Dive in among whale sharks on the Coral Coast in Western Australia. The world’s largest fish, they are filter feeders with 27,000 minute teeth. In other words, we are not prey.

Do the Bridge Climb, meaning climb the Sydney Harbour Bridge.

Overnight in Sydney’s Taronga Zoo for an after-hours zoo tour, behind-the-scenes look at food preparation (for the animals) and a chance to meet hand-raised animals here.

Swim with the dolphins. There are several places for this, including Baird Bay and on the west coast at Rockingham.You don’t even have to go to a seashore for a daring encounter with underwater creatures of some magnitude. The Melbourne Aquarium offers a Diving With Sharks experience, a guided tour that brings travelers face to face with grey nurse sharks, seven gill sharks, giant stingrays plus lots of exotic fish.

Explore the Outback by signing on for a camel safari.

Join a cattle drive.

Book an indigenous experience, perhaps in Western Australia or the Northern Territory where there are many choices. Work with an Aboriginal-owned business, visit Aboriginal communities, view ancient rock art and modern iterations, attend a festival.

Overnight in a jail, meaning Old Castlemaine Gaol now converted into a bed-and-breakfast establishment; in the former keeper’s house at Cape Otway Lightstation, or in a cave, meaning the Desert Cave Hotel in Coober Pedy, which includes as a sightseeing choice a 12-hour Outback mail run.

Hop on a Reef Watch charter flight from Cairns to spend a couple of days at any of a variety of island resorts on the Great Barrier Reef.

For a taste of the Outback, Reef Watch operates a 45-minute charter flight from Cairns to Voyages Wrotham Park Lodge, a 1.6 million-acre cattle station with luxury accommodation, fishing and 35,000 cattle to muster.

For a food adventure, stay at the Prairie Hotel in Parachilna (population: 7) in the Flinders Ranges, known for its way with Flinders feral foods (emu, camel, kangaroo or wallaby).

Swim with sea lions in Baird Bay, an option available every day of the year (except when the human participants find the water too cold). The sea lions are playful pups and will even swim into the arms of their human playmates to get their chins scratched.

Go to the Australian Reptile Park to watch animal tenders milk snakes and poisonous spiders for the venom used to create serums to treat people who have been bitten by these critters. You can spend time, too, with much friendlier creatures, hand-raised kangaroos and koalas.

Take a hot-air balloon ride over a number of cities: Brisbane, Cairns, Melbourne, Perth, Sydney or over the countryside, such as over the Hunter Valley wine region.

Take a two-day self-drive wine tour in the Barossa wine region or in Hunter Valley. Or in the latter, join a Grapemobile Bicycle or Walking Tour.

Take a coastal cruise or a river cruise. There are several to choose from, and the type of boat varies widely.

Go to an opera in Sydney, in what surely is the world’s most recognizable opera house.

Have dinner in the Colonial Tramcar Restaurant, which is Melbourne’s oldest tram, dating from 1927, and now refurbished in Pullman style to become the world’s first mobile tramcar restaurant.

Take a ghost tour on the Rocks, the original settlement area in Sydney.

Learn about some of the characters who underlie Australian history by joining a tour to the Melbourne General Cemetery operated by Melbourne Cemetery Tours.

Treat yourself to spa treatments at Li’Tya Spa Dreaming in St. Kilda, a seaside Melbourne suburb. Li’Tya is noted for its use of native Australian plants, clays and salts plus Aboriginal traditions. Another beautiful choice within a few blocks is the Aurora Spa Retreat inside the Prince Hotel.

Watch Little Penguins (world’s smallest, about a foot tall) come in from the ocean, as they do in groups every evening at dusk, year-round. Check out options on Kangaroo Island, or on Phillip Island.

Have a drink at Minus 5, an ice bar on Sydney’s harbor, where the seating, bar, lots of sculptures and even the glasses are made of ice.

Visit and be awed by Uluru (aka Ayers Rock). Sacred to Aboriginals, it is the largest single rock on Earth. The monolith rises 1,142 feet above the desert floor; it is 1.92 miles long, 1.18 miles across and 5.83 miles around its base. (It is risky, but the very venturous can climb to the summit.)

For more information, consult Tourism Australia at www.australia.com
Find Premier Aussie Specialists, travel agents who specialize in Australia, at www.australia.com

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