Darwin - Alice Springs
Traveling between Darwin and Alice Springs is not the most exciting road trip who have ever embarked on, however, if you can't help it, here are some, hopefully, useful advise on how to make the trip somewhat bearable.
Darwin
Mitchel Street has bars and restaurants.
A great Youth Hostel is the Melaleuca on Michel Street.
The few good hotels are the Saville, the Quest, the Crown Plaza and the Darwin Airport Resort.
Stay away from the Holiday Inn. It is crap.
Litchfield Park
Not very special, however Florence Falls and the
Katherine
About 300 km. There is a Subway and Woolies supermarket.
If you want to stay overnight, the only decent place is the "All Seasons Hotel", just a few km past the Center.
Their restaurant actually serves excellent dinner.
If you feel like a quick swim, the Spring is just about 500m from Stuart Highway. Turn right just before Subway. Turn right again after a few hundred meters.
Mataranka
About a 100 km past Katherine. It is famousish for its hot spring.
The Homestead Resort at the thermal pools is the best place to stay overnight and have dinner. The rooms, however, are really nasty.
A better and less spoiled place is "Bitter Springs". Turn off left at the beginning of Mataranka.
The water is equally warm and but the setting is much nicer than at the resort.
Hiway Inn
One of the nicer Petrol Station Motel arrangements. The rooms are fairly good.
Elliot
Stop for a piss.
Barkly Homestead
In case you are striving off to Queensland, stop at Barkly for the Barkly Burger.
Tennant Creek
This place is nothing special. The Blue Stone Motel seems to be the most decent place in town.
There is, however, good food in town. The "Woks Up" Chinese Restaurant does very nice food.
Devil's Marbles
Worth a stop and a walk. Don't forget to take a photo of the legendary Devil's Bollocks.
Ti Tree
If you feel like stopping, don't stop at the service station. You will regret wasting your money there. Instead turn off to the right to the Red Sand Gallery. The place is also nothing special, but the coffee is nice.
Big Man Walk
60 km past Ti Tree. A much better choice than Ti Tree if you want to stop before Alice Springs.
Alice Springs
A good place in town is the Aurora Hotel.
Todd's Tavern has new rooms.
For food and drink, the place to be is the Bojangles. At a later hour, walk down the street to the Menanka Bar.
One of the best places in the NT. The
A short helicopter flight is also worth the 100 bucks.
If you are an international traveler you will find The Ayers
If you book through the Sydney office you should get a nice room for around 150. But even the camp grounds and the petrol stations are nice.
Strive off to Roper Bar
In theory you could go to take the Roper Bar highway at Mataranka and go to Roper Bar. Believe me, it is not worth the hassle. Roper Bar is a place consisting of a convenient Store and some disgusting Motel attached to it. If you were to continue further you would get to Ngkurr and Numbulwar. There is nothing to see in these communities, however the drive is at least a bit scenic.
Strive off to the Kimberlies
Actually much better than most of the stuff you find in the Northern Territory.
One of the first stops is Victoria Roadhouse. Stop here and avoid stopping at Timber Creek instead. The rooms at Victoria Roadhouse are crap, though.
About 200km further on the very scenic route and you will arrive in Kununurra. A fairly nice little town. About the size of Katherine but much, much nicer. A good place to stay is the Ivanhoe Village Campground.
If you want more scenery, drive all the way to Turkey Creek. After that it is pretty much mind numbing straight road to Broom.
Halls Creek is a shit hole but the next place called Fitzroy Crossing (and especially the Fitzroy River Lodge) is quite nice.
Labels: Alice Springs, Darwin, Stuart Highway
posted by wineblog @ 6:21 PM
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