Good question. While traveling, I generally don't like spending all of my time in cities. Usually like seeing a combination of urban and countryside.
I'd seriously consider flying between Melbourne and Sydney. It's not even a one hour flight, and you can pick up cheap tickets through Virgin or Tiger. And then you can use the cities as a hub to do road trips out of.
Ha. Yeah, you know, I've spent a considerable amount of time in Adelaide and before I ever went there I was aware of how little most people think of it. So I was very pleasantly surprised. First of all, if you like wine then you have a wonderland of vinyards to explore. The huge wineries that everyone's heard of are great to visit, the smaller ones are even better. The central market may be my favorite market in Australia. There are others that are larger, obviously, but I love Adelaide's. I love the park that rings the CBD or whatever they call the central area. There are several perfectly nice beaches, too. I always like to visit Glenelg. In short, there is a lot to like about Adelaide and I can assure you that you will not feel suffocated by tourists.
Not really. It is basically a massive highway through scrub... The ocean road is a more interesting drive, but takes a bit longer.. South Coast of NSW is amazingly beautiful and it is worth taking your time (ie spend the night somewhere and stop in a bunch of towns). If you are renting a car and drvdriving, stay for more than a week. Do 4-5 days in Sydney, down to Melb for 3-4 days, then spend a few days over in Tassie.
I've been to both several times and I'm going to Melbourne this summer. Sydney is like San Francisco and Melbourne is like Philadelphia or Chicago. It depends on what you like. I'm going to Melbourne to visit my friends and take a road trip on the great ocean road.
'Modern Australian' cuisine is seafood oriented, all about fresh produce, plenty of dairy options and lots of red meat options. Tends to be on the pricier side. Apart from that, the cheaper types of restaurant in Australia are heavily influenced by South East Asia. Thai and Vietnamese restaurants are everywhere. Pub fare is steak (normally pretty well cooked), pasta, pies. Plenty of pizza joints around.
if just one city to visit in australia for a holiday, definitely sydney, you get to see the symbolic "australia", like opera house, darling harbor....to live definitely melbourne, laid back, nice beaches and bars....
