The Road Less Travelled: Why Australia's Inland Towns Are Calling

There is something about a road that leads away from the coast. The traffic thins, the horizon opens, and places that rarely make the front page of a travel guide begin to reveal themselves. A bakery on the main street. An old building with a story. A stretch of country that asks you to pull over, simply because the light is beautiful.

For a long time, Australian holidays have been sold through the same familiar images: ocean views, white sand, blue water. I love those places too. But lately, I have found myself drawn to the quiet in between. To inland towns, ordinary conversations, and journeys that feel less like a checklist and more like an invitation.

A different kind of escape

Expedia Group and Stayz have identified “Heartland Holidays” as a travel trend for 2027. Their Australian research says nearly 57% of travellers have taken a non-coastal holiday in the past year. Local culture, food and art, discovering somewhere less familiar, and affordability are among the reasons people are looking inland.

I don’t think that means we’ve fallen out of love with the sea. Perhaps we’re simply remembering how much more there is to discover.

Finding a little more in Cowra

On a recent journey through central New South Wales, I spent time in Cowra. It is the sort of place that rewards curiosity. There are small cafés and familiar country-town rhythms, the changing colours of the surrounding landscape, and the remarkable Japanese Garden and Cultural Centre.

Cowra also holds an important story about war, reconciliation and peace. Its relationship with Japan gives the gardens a meaning that reaches far beyond their beauty. Walking there, it feels like a place built around the possibility of understanding one another.

I passed through the art gallery, wandered the town, and watched the road open out beyond it. None of it needed to be hurried. That was part of the pleasure.

The places between destinations

Travel has a habit of making us believe that the most memorable part of a journey must be spectacular. But sometimes it is the unexpected detour, the shopkeeper who takes a moment to talk, or a landscape you had never thought to search for.

There is a kind of freedom in visiting somewhere without a long list of things to accomplish. You can let the place tell you what matters. You might find a local exhibition, an unfamiliar ritual, or simply an hour of silence beneath a tree.

And perhaps that is the deeper promise of an inland journey. Not that it takes us somewhere untouched, but that it asks us to arrive with fewer expectations.

Take the road less travelled

The next time you’re planning an escape, consider the town you usually drive straight through. Stay for breakfast. Visit the gallery. Ask someone what they love about living there. Allow a little space in the itinerary for the things no search result could have promised.

Paradise is not always waiting at the end of a long flight or beside a turquoise sea. Sometimes it begins the moment we turn down an unfamiliar road and give ourselves permission to notice what’s there.

A wanderer’s path toward absolution, moving gently through the world to find paradise.

Further reading: Expedia Group’s Unpack ’27 and Visit Cowra.