Stay the night: The Kimberley, WA

It’s uniquely beautiful and so remote you’ll want to pack in as much as you can while you’re there. The wild Kimberley region at the top of Western Australia is a place of red rock, crocs, sharks and those famous Horizontal Falls where tidal currents rush through narrow gorges at crazy volumes. Derby is the launch pad for the Ultimate Horizontal Falls Luxury Stay, and it’s 24 hours of adventure. Arrive by seaplane, sleep over on a luxury houseboat and spend the rest of your time catching choppers, riding powerboats, fishing, swimming in a unique marine viewing platform, and eating a whole lot of good food.

horizontalfallsadventures.com.au

Pink lakes and pubs: Esperance, WA

By plane seems to be the way to do outback pub crawls these days. Fly Esperance glides over some of Australia’s whitest beaches and famously turquoise waters around Cape Le Grand before dropping in at classic Aussie pubs – the Condigup Tavern and Gibson Soak Hotel. An optional (and frankly, unmissable) extension takes in the surreal Pink and Rainbow Lakes where over two-dozen multi-coloured lakes daub bubblegum colours of pink, peach, orange and purple across the land. It’s all natural, thanks to algae and high salinity levels.

flyesperance.com

Biggles it up: Torquay, VIC

Don your flying suit, leather jacket, helmet, and goggles and make like a heroic adventurer on a WWII Tiger Moth biplane. It’s just you and your Tiger Moth World pilot in the open tandem cockpit, listening to the wind in the wires and getting a good dose of fresh air as you fly over the beaches and cliffs of the spectacular Great Ocean Road. And if you’re feeling brave, they’ll put in a few loops and barrel rolls.

tigermothworld.com.au

Pink mountains, blue sea: East Coast, TAS

There’s no doubt Freycinet’s pink granite mountains and glowing white beaches are a treat to explore on foot, but from a helicopter you can really appreciate the full extent of this magnificent peninsula, all the way down to Schouten Island (keep an eye out for seals, dolphins and whales). The Tasmanian Air Tours flight takes in the five peaks of The Hazards and renowned Wineglass Bay, as well as views over surrounding Swansea and beyond to the forested Eastern Tiers.

tasmanianairtours.com.au

Mission possible: Sydney, NSW

Okay, it’s part sightseeing and part pretending you’re a badass. Climb aboard a Black Ops helicopter – the kind favoured by Special Forces and Hollywood action films – for a thrilling doors-off ride over Sydney. Think of it as the sports-car ride of the heli world. Not only do you get to see all the highlights of Sydney Harbour and surrounds, but you’ll be doing it at 240kmh and pulling some adrenaline-filled manoeuvres along the way. Everyone has a helmet-mounted GoPro to record the “mission”. Try not to swagger like Tom Cruise when you disembark.

blackopshelicopters.com

Balloon over salt pans: Burketown, QLD

The vast white salt pans in the Gulf of Carpentaria near Burketown make for a surreal landscape, and Yagurli Tours (the world’s first 100 per cent Indigenous-owned hot-air balloon service) provide Gangalidda and Garawa interpretation on the region’s flora and fauna. Albert River and the ocean is also on the route. It’s an intimate flight (maximum eight) and if you like a sleep-in, this is the only place in Australia where afternoon/evening flights are on the cards as well as sunrise. The season runs June to August.

yagurlitours.com.au

Waterfalls in luxury Litchfield National Park, NT

Fancy sightseeing like a rock star? Of course you do. How about a helicopter flight with oversized viewing windows framing the wild sandstone escarpments, canyons and waterfalls of Litchfield National Park, followed by a fancy lunch at an exclusive lodge, then a landing at the top of a private waterfall for a swim? Nautilus Aviation’s half-day Litchfield waterfalls and Finnis River Lodge flight operates year-round, but if you’re there April to September, you’ll get an airboat ride through the wetlands, too.

nautilusaviation.com.au

Heli SUP: Gippsland, VIC

Most people explore the Gippsland Lakes’ maze of waterways, marshes and lagoons running parallel to the Southern Ocean by boat, but at 420sq km, it’s a lot of ground to cover. Lakes Entrance Helicopters operate routes from 12 to 45 minutes over such highlights as the remote Ninety Mile Beach (actually 94 miles), Mitchell River Silt Jetties and Lakes Entrance, but if you want to take the experience next-level, try a Heli SUP. After a bird’s-eye view of the lakes, you’ll be dropped on the ocean side for a thrilling paddle back through the entrance.

lakesentrancehelicopters.com.au

Nature in bloom: Kati Thanda-Lake Eyre, SA

It’s not often that Kati Thanda-Lake Eyre fills (maybe a handful of times each century) so when it does it’s a big deal, and the floodwaters are coming. It’s when Australia’s largest inland lake turns from shimmering salt pan into a proper lake, brimming with greenery, wildflowers and a gazillion birds. Wrightsair flies straight to the lake from within South Australia year-round, but if you want to appreciate the journey that floodwaters take as they flow through outback Queensland to get there, join a two-day adventure from Brisbane with Travel West, narrated by passionate guide Graham Reid. Departures planned May to July.

travelwest.com.au

King for a day: King Island, TAS

Gather together seven of your friends for a day of exploration and divine food on King Island. In the middle of the wild Bass Strait, it’s renowned for making the most of its clean air and rich soils to create world-class cheese, fresh seafood and other produce. Sign up for a Taste of King Island flight with Air Adventure and you’ll enjoy a scenic flight over from Melbourne, five-course lunch at Wild Harvest Restaurant and a guided tour of the island’s sights.

airadventure.com.au

To the ends of the Earth: Antarctica

The term “once in a lifetime”can be overused but it totally applies here. Scenic flights over Antarctica are not new, but last year Chimu Adventures ran the first scenic flight to circle over the actual South Pole. It’s a 16-hour return trip from Melbourne with a good 10 hours spent over the ice as you trace the routes of early explorers Scott and Amundsen to the South Pole station. Vast and rippling snow-caked mountains, massive glaciers, ice sheet mosaics – it’s like another planet.

chimuadventures.com

See also: 

71 most beautiful places in Australia

Incredible photos of Australia from above

Australia's most stunning flight detour