The school holidays are approaching and you need a plan. Try to come up with a range of things to keep your children occupied and entertained. Aim for a mix of activities - some for free and others that cost, some close to home, some that involve travel, some that are just for fun and others with an educational bent.

Here are some ideas to get you started. For the first ones, you won't have to travel too far. Wherever you live in our fine state, there will be a unique range of attractions and activities right on your doorstep.

Taking a trip out of your home town can boost your energies and boost the economy. The good thing is you don't even have to drive. CountryLink lists all sorts of vacation ideas and great travel deals for families on its website.

If you are in Sydney or travelling to Sydney, make use of the Family Fare deal when seeing Sydney by public transport. When at least one fare paying adult travels with their children or grandchildren, the first child travels for a child fare and the other children travel free.

On Family Funday Sunday, $2.50 per person will get you all day travel on CityRail, Sydney Buses, Sydney Ferries and participating private bus companies. It's available every Sunday, when a minimum of one adult and one child related by family travel together.

For activities and events that are close to home, your first port of call should be your local council. Workshops in art, skateboarding, pottery, acrobatics and craft are just some of the holiday activities that councils provide. These are usually very good value for money - some are even free! Your local council and community theatres may also produce shows just for the kids during the holidays, including Christmas pantomimes for the little ones.

Remember, your local council also operates the main library and its branches, as well as the public swimming pool, parks and sporting facilities. As a ratepayer you're paying for these services, so put them to good use. To contact your local council, visit the Department of Local Government listings.

The National Parks & Wildlife Service (NPWS) manages 750 protected areas in NSW, so there's bound to be one near you! An amazing 7 per cent of our state is a designated national park or reserve. All are ready and waiting to be explored and the cost to enter these areas is about $10 per car. They showcase our state's natural environment at its best and feature everything from eucalypt forests, rainforests and grasslands, to deserts, beaches and snowfields.

Each park has bushwalking options to suit every level, and some include disabled access. Picnic areas abound and many parks have information centres featuring wonderful displays for children. NPWS also offers a range of 'Discovery' walks, talks and tours throughout the year and a host of school holiday activities. Why not go on a night walk and spot some koalas? These events may attract a charge.

As well as national parks, we are also blessed with state forests, public parks, waterways, foreshores and open spaces in all manner of shapes and sizes. Your children can get active or arty in the great outdoors (with the supervision of experts) at one of the many holiday camps that the Department of Sport and Recreation runs in various locations around the state.

They can just go for the day or spend up to six nights away. Not only will they have a great adventure, they will also make a host of new friends. There are adventure camps (with canoeing, archery and more), surf camps, horse riding and fishing camps, creative camps, and for something really different, a circus skills camp. The overnight camps are well priced (between $200 and $300 depending on the type of camp you choose and the length of the stay) and include all meals, accommodation and activities.

There are so many weird and wonderful attractions across NSW that it is hard to choose just a few, but we're going to try! First up is Sydney Olympic Park - unique because it was built for the one and only 2000 Sydney Olympics and because it is big, beautiful and full of fun.

Geographically located right in the absolute middle of greater Sydney, the park is a one-stop-shop for holiday fun. There are nine different green spaces to explore in total and heaps of the attractions are free. Highlights include the Brickpit Ring Walk, which allows visitors to walk above the protected Green and Golden Bell frog's habitat, and Wentworth Common's adventure playground, which features a giant sandpit and a flying fox.

In Dubbo, Taronga Western Plains Zoo tops the list for its open range approach. It features a six-kilometre safari circuit you can drive your car or ride a bike around, with bikes available for hire from the zoo. It is home to more than 1000 African animals plus some from Asia, South America and Australia.

In Hay, the Australian Shearers' Hall of Fame is all that and more. The children can meet shearers, shed hands, sheep and sheep dogs! There are shearing displays throughout each day and in the evening, a sound and light show that tells the story of Australian shearers and their fight for better working conditions. It would be un-Australian to miss it!

Learn all about the amazing work of the Royal Flying Doctor Service in Broken Hill. There is no-one in any remote area of our country that the Service can't reach within two hours! The children can see how the Service - which treats around 160,000 people a year - works from close range, as a visit includes a tour of the radio room and the aeroplane hangars.

The unique Age of Fishes Museum in Canowindra came about after a chance discovery in 1955, when a local stumbled across the fossilised remains of over 3500 freshwater fish. The fossils date back an astounding 360 million years to the Devonian Period - that's long before the dinosaurs! The museum displays many of these fossils and also has live aquarium displays and re-creations of life in the Devonian Period.

The Nambucca Valley has not one but four unique museums - Mary Bolton's Pioneer Cottage & Museum in Macksville, the Bowraville Folk Museum, the Frank Partridge VC Military Museum (also in Bowraville) and the Nambucca Heads Headland Museum.

Nine kilometres off the coast of Narooma is Montague Island, which is full of wildlife and other natural wonders and the good news is Conservation Volunteers and the National Parks and Wildlife Service host overnight stays there.