What’s the first thing that comes to mind when you think of Australia? If a koala or kangaroo popped into your mind, you’re not alone. When planning a family vacation to Australia, the to-do list isn’t finished until it highlights Australia’s wild side.

Fact is, there are so many critters that call Tropical North Queensland home, you could spend your entire Australia holiday meeting and learning about them all.

2013 is upon us and it’s time to plan family trips for new year! To support this effort, Anne Taylor Hartzell — aka Hip Travel Mama — and I put together a list of our top 10 family trips for those New Year’s resolutions.

In short, dare to experience new destinations with your kids, not just return to tried-and-tested favorites!

I don’t subscribe to the “wait until they’re old enough to appreciate it” travel philosophy. Sure the kids won’t remember everything, but it’s not just about them. My memory’s still pretty good. That said, I understand picking and choosing destinations.

A family holiday in Australia’s been on my bucket list for a long time, and I’ll admit I’ve been waiting until my girls were old enough to scuba dive. Learn from my mistake. I could and should have taken a trip to the Great Barrier Reef with kids years ago.

Some of you may remember, at the start of the New Year, Ciao Bambino put together our 2012 bucket list. It’s an impressive list that highlights phenomenal destinations to travel with kids like Dubai and Greece. This summer I was lucky enough to visit one of the destinations on my list – Australia! But I won’t check it off the list, because I’m going back and taking the whole family with me. I just got back from Queensland and the list of things to do with kids is amazing …

In an age of kids’ clubs and summer camps it’s become the norm to have your children charmed away by nannies, nurtured in a corner of a resort well out of ear-shot. Small wonder playground parents wince when I let slip my plan to spend two weeks on a driving tour around Southern Australia. They linger on doubts about lengthy flights, searing temperatures and creepy crawlies a-go-go.

Of course Australia is huge and deciding where to head can be a complicated affair. Compelled to at least scratch …

Sydney is a truly enjoyable place to visit. From the sweeping views of the famous harbor with the iconic Opera House on show to the many great restaurants, a long list of fun family activities and—my favorite—varied and excellent beaches.

Bondi Beach: Our morning at Bondi Beach was the high point of the trip for my boys. Bondi can get very busy on the weekends, so we planned to have our surfing lessons with …

Two long-haul flights, two short-haul flights, and one beautiful ferry ride finally got us to Heron Island on Australia’s Great Barrier Reef. The first thing I noticed was the unmistakeable smell of birds—thousands and thousands of them—within seconds my ears caught up to my nose and I was hit by the din of what I later learned was a staggering 70,000 birds!

Heron Island is a sanctuary for the Black Noddy (not the Heron as you might think).

We didn’t have great weather when we visited Sydney, Australia in June, but we managed to avoid rain for the few hours we spent at Bondi Beach. We took the Coastal Walk …

New Zealand was the best part of our recent trip down under … Photo Friday is the perfect way to share some of my favorite photos.

Even though our visit to Sydney was without kids, we did not want to miss the world famous Taronga Zoo. Despite the rainy weather, we had a blast…