Start from 57 curated places around Canberra, AU, then choose the recommendations that fit your guests.
Restaurants & cafés
Aubergine
Ben Willis's degustation room in suburban Griffith — quietly Canberra's only consistent fine-diner, with a six- or eight-course tasting menu drawing on local cool-climate produce. Booked weeks out; the room seats 50 and turns once a night.
Pilot
Ross McQuinn and Dash Rumble's Ainslie shopfront restaurant — a small room and a long tasting menu working through native ingredients with European technique. The chef's-counter seats face the open kitchen and the chefs serve you directly.
Trails & outdoors
Mt Ainslie Summit Walk (Kokoda Track)
The 4km return climb from the War Memorial car park up Mt Ainslie's western face — 600 steps in the steep middle section, sealed paths and stone steps the rest, ending at the lookout with the parliamentary-triangle view. The local before-work hike.
Black Mountain Summit Trail
A 6km return loop from the Botanic Gardens up Black Mountain's northern face — bushland the whole way, climbing 250m to the summit lookouts beside Telstra Tower. Quieter than Mt Ainslie and shaded under eucalypts.
Things to do
National Museum of Australia
The country's social-history museum on Acton Peninsula — Howard Raggatt's deconstructivist 2001 building, free entry, and exhibitions running from Indigenous Australia to the Holden 48-215 first off the line. The museum that tells the story of how Australia got here.
National Library of Australia
The 1968 marble-columned library on the lake's south edge — Cook's Endeavour journal, the country's largest map collection, and free exhibitions on the ground floor. Bookworm catnip and a quietly grand reading room upstairs.
Landmarks & sights
Australian War Memorial
Australia's national war memorial and museum at the head of Anzac Parade, looking straight down the axis to Parliament House across Lake Burley Griffin. Free entry, three floors of military history, and the Last Post Ceremony in the Commemorative Courtyard at closing time every day of the year.
Parliament House
The grass-roofed seat of federal government on Capital Hill — Romaldo Giurgola's 1988 design buried into the hill so you can walk over the top of it. Free self-guided entry, daily tours, and the public can sit in on Question Time when the House is sitting.