Northern Territory Travel Forum

Hi,

Dear forum members, I and my wife are planning a trip to Australia in the end of the June – beginning of the July 2008. Some of the areas we would like to visit are Darwin and Northern Territory parks (Litchfield, Territory Wildlife, waterfalls, Kakadu National Park and more).
Would you please give me a few advices?
1. Are there places were I would better take guided tours? Why? What we can not see/visit if we do not take guided tour? Any problems or risks if we travel by ourselves?
2. Do we need 4WD car in that season to visit above places or part of them?

Thanks,
Alex

Goodmorning Aussie morning to you Alex,
How long do you have in Darwin? This makes a bit of a difference to what can be recommended. If you have a week or so I would recommend self drive. If you only have a few days, tours are the way to go as Kukadu National Park is HUGE and if you don't know where you are going it can be overwhelming, plus you miss out on many things that can be experienced.
There won't be a problem travelling by yourselves if that is the way you go.
In Darwin city there is a jump on, jump off bus that goes to all the main areas, this is a great way to see all that is to see in the city area.
The wharf area is one place where it is great to head of a night for a meal.
They also have an outdoor cinema in this area, this is fun to go to.
Sitting outside watching a movie is fun.
The spring areas are also great to visit. Howard Springs is one close to town, you will need a car to get there.
Also there is the Jumping Croc tour from town or you can drive yourself to this.
The markets are great to visit, these are held of a night on the beach area. Fantastic sunset of a night. Many gather here to take photos.
You really don't need a 4x4 at this time of year.
Have a look at our VT Darwin member (1+1)'s pages. Zig has some great photos etc.
I am sure he will drop in here and give you some great advise:)

That time of year is considered the high season or the dry in the Northern Territory and will be full of tourists. The roads are very good both to Litchfield and Kakadu they are also well sign posted. I guess the question is how long do you want to spend in Kakadu?? On arrival at the park you are given a very good guide book with all roads, highlights, petrol stops, accomodations hotels and camping just about all you need to know. You can actually download this I am pretty sure it is on the NT Government website I have printed it myself before arriving. There are plenty of trips of one or several days duration the good thing is they have knowledgable guides. I think some parts of Kakadu you will need a 4wd but I suggest you check out some of the NT websites for better info. You dont need to be on a guided tour to do the river trip which is beautiful. Litchfield is also well sign posted obviously nowhere near as large as Kakadu but has beautfiul swimming areas.

Hi Alex,

to be honest, in Kakadu (which is absolutely worthwhile - don`t miss it) - I`d prefer a small tour operator instead of self-driving. Usually we never go with groups, but the terrain was mostly 4WD, only few tar roads, sometimes shallow river crossings, and map or no, we would have probably never found most of the "special" places our knowledgeable guide lead us to. In my opinion without a guide, Kakadu is less "accessible" than most of the other National Parks in Australia. But this just my personal opinion.

We went with Gondwana Tours for three days on a Camping/Hiking trip, our guide was excellent, the group rather small and the itinerary covered most of the places we wanted to see, the price fair. Some hiking is involved, and a optional crocodile boat trip is usually included.

In case you are looking for a B&B in Darwin, "Red Lilly" was excellent. Very hospitable and friendly.

Best regards

Michael

We did this two years ago, self-drive with a campervan through Kakadu and Litchfield in mid-July. I thought that was the perfect way to go--when we did a guided tour later on to Uluru/Olgas, I kind of hated it and wished that we had done self-drive there too. We did not use a 4WD and did not have any problems with the roads.

The national park maps and brochures are excellent, and you can download them in advance. This is very helpful for choosing which areas to see--the parks are very large and it takes quite a while to drive to various spots, so you need to have some sort of a plan in place.

The only part of this trip that was even mildly tricky was making sure we had campsites where we wanted to stay. Neither park allows for pre-booking of campsites, and it is first come first served, so we made sure to drive to the campsites first thing each day, set up, and then do our sightseeing. There was only one instance where we didn't get a site in the camping area we wanted, but it wasn't a big deal.