Adelaide to Darwin road trip tips: Distance, time & best stops
Stuart Highway road trip: North from Alice Springs
Alice Springs is the biggest and, frankly, only town in the Red Centre. It is the hub for central Australia, and there are plenty of things to do in Alice Springs. Top attractions include the Araluen Cultural Precinct, Alice Springs Desert Park, Flying Doctors base and Kangaroo Sanctuary.
Best Alice Springs accommodation choices
These are the best Alice Springs accommodation picks:
- For a solid, relatively affordable motel: Elkira Court Motel.
- For villas, gardens and a lagoon-style pool: Desert Palms.
- For backpackers: Alice’s Secret Travellers Inn.
- For a kid-friendly holiday park: Discovery Parks Alice Springs.
- For business-friendly serviced apartments: Quest Alice Springs.
Seven essential Alice Springs activities to add to your trip.
- See imposing red rock cliffs and stunning swimming holes – on a West MacDonnell Ranges day trip.
- Glide across the changing morning colours of the outback – on a hot air balloon ride.
- See how education works across the outback – at the School of the Air.
- Take in the epic outback scenery – on a scenic flight.
- See the outback wildlife come to life – on a Desert Park nocturnal tour.
- Try camel rides through the red dirt landscape – and learn the weird history of Aussie camels.
- See stunning, often unvisited outback sites – on a Palm Valley 4wd tour.
From Alice Springs to Darwin, the drive is a lonely one, punctuated by Stuart Highway roadhouses and subtly changing scenery that gets more tropical as you go north.
You’ll probably need to stop somewhere on the way from Alice Springs to Katherine Gorge. Alien-obsessed Wycliffe Well near the Devils Marbles and the Daly Waters pub have far more character than the somewhat bleak Tennant Creek.
Before reaching Katherine, you can explore the Mataranka Thermal Pool next to the Mataranka Homestead, Elsey National Park and Mataranka Falls
Click through for the next section: The Top End.