Adelaide - Alice Springs - Darwin

Bacchus

Hi there,

My girlfriend and I are coming to the end of our stay in Melbourne soon. We're trying to plan a few trips around Oz before we go. Our last leg is going to be from Adelaide all the way up to Darwin and we're trying to figure out the best way to do it. Any advise is welcome.

The current plan is to rent a campervan and drive all the way but it's quite expensive and a lot of companies seem to only rent for a minimum of 2/3 weeks (we estimate the trip will be 10 days or so for us).

10 day rental of a Hi-Top with Britz including full insurance cover is $1440. That's not bad really when you consider that's transport and accommodation covered for 10 days.

WickedCampers can do 14 days for $1496 (can't do less than 14 days). That's including all insurance options aswell. Obviously better per day value but prob would end up dropping it in a day or 2 early anyway. Would anyone recommend either Britz or WickedCampers over each other?

There are other costs though. Petrol! Food. Camp sites. What's the story with where you can park to sleep for the night. I don't want to be paying for a camp site every night. Also, I don't want to be parked somewhere and wind up with fines or run into a "Wolf Creek" type situation

So can anyone estimate a budget for a 10 day drive from Adelaide to Darwin? Anyone have any experience doing this? Is this plan ridiculous and am I missing an obviously better/cheaper way to do this trip?

Thanks,
Andrew

Tigerandahalf

I presume you are going to drive along the west coast. If so 10 days is way too short if you want to enjoy your time. I'd stretch it out to 3 weeks if possible. It's a hell of a long journey and you don't want to have to be driving 5 or 6 hours every day. As for the camper, I rented a Britz HiTop before and it was very good, van less than 2 years old and nice and clean in it. Wicked vans are crap but if you're stuck....The west coast is difficult as it's more remote than the east and you will encounter extra fees for travelling to more isolated places. Camp sites are useful as you will have your shower, toilets, barbecue and other amenities. About $25 to $30 per night. Big4 are handy and have standard facilties across most campsites. You will get 10% reduction off them if you rent off of Britz or other big dealers as well Id say. Campers are not cheap but are a great way to get around.

Tigerandahalf

just seen you are going up through Alice Springs. There is meant to be very little along the way..just boring driving..groundhog day in terms of what you will see. Petrol prices also get v expensive along the way. Most people fly in and out of there I think.

wicklowwonder

Try The Ghan maybe? Never actually did it but sounds like an awesome adventure!! Get it from Adelaide to Alice Springs, stop there a few nights, wait on next train and on to Darwin.

http://www.gsr.com.au/our-trains/the-ghan/the-journey.php

With a YHA or backpacker card you can also make great savings!

Darwin is a great city and well worth a visit. Both Kakadu and the Jumping Crocs are well worth a visit.

http://www.jumpingcrocodile.com.au/index.html

I went on both operators and the above one has less crowds which makes it easier to ask questions and staff are much friendlier. they run buses out from Darwin city.

ENJOY:D

drunkmonkey

I wouldn't be bothered driving through nothing for days on end to see alice springs, I'd take the great ocean road over to perth and head up the west cost, it's one of the nicest parts of australia, don't miss the area's around monkey mia and coral bay..

Bacchus

Thanks for the replies.

@ Tigerandahalf : I appreciate what you say there but I want to experience that barren nothingness. How expensive are the fuel prices btw? I read that once you get as far as Alice Springs they go back down a bit. I'd nearly consider flying to Alice Springs and do the drive from there to Darwin (plus detour to Ularu). That's still an option.

@ wicklowwonder : Unless I'm very mistaken, The Ghan is very expensive. $360 for a seat on a 24hour train journey. Thanks for the tips on Darwin

@ drunkmonkey : Did the Great Ocean Road already. Fantastic trip. Though we didn't go as far as Perth. That does sound like a great drive too. Can't do both though and we're fairly set on the Stuart highway.

kierank01

Bacchus wrote: »

Thanks for the replies.

Unless I'm very mistaken, The Ghan is very expensive. $360 for a seat on a 24hour train journey. Thanks for the tips on Darwin

You can (could a couple of years ago) get a pass for $650, that gives unlimited travel on all the trains (Sydney to Perth, Adelade to Melbourne, and Adelade to Darwin).

It would only be worth it if youy are going to be using it a lot.

WindSock

I did this http://www.headingbush.com/10-day-expedition.html

Seems to have gone up in price a bit since I did it though. Well worth it. then another 3 Day tour from Alice to Darwin. Cost around $1400 all in at the time. Not bad for 13 days touring, including most meals.

whyulittle

As said get a YHA card and it pretty much halves the Ghan prices.

I had planned on heading from Cairns to Darwin, and then getting the Ghan down to Adelaide, stopping in Alice Springs to do Uluru. Ended up skipping Darwin as it was enduring a hurricane when I wanted to travel, and then my train from Alice Springs was cancelled as the line was washed away further north!

Bacchus

We have a YHA card alright. I must check the Ghan prices using that. Cheers.

maupat

Hi Bacchus,

I took the Ghan down from Alice Springs to Adelaide in 2006 - got an overnight train and, as has been recommended previously in this thread, I stayed in YHA hostels along the way. The Ghan is definitely worth the money and if you decide to break up the journey, say in Alice Springs, overnight train trips are probably cheaper. Bring a sleeping bag - the seats recline and it's not all that uncomfortable.

It was one of the highlights of my sojourn in Oz. You will see the variety in scenery in Oz on this train journey - you'll be leaving lush green dairylands in South Australia and moving onto dryer, arid conditions in the red centre. I can't recommend it enough. Go for/on the Ghan

useeme

Just back from a couple of weeks in Oz.

Travelled by train from Melbourne (overlander) to Adelaide. Well worth it, very relaxing. Flew to Alice Springs, traveled out to Uluru and camped overnight. Back to Alice Springs for a couple of nights, then took the Ghan to Darwin.

I would highly recommend the train but there is nothing in Alice Springs, I would advise spending as little time as possible there. The train is expensive compared to other means of transport but it cuts down on accommodation costs. Darwin is good spot but the heat can be unbearable.

Bacchus

It's close between deciding to go on the Ghan to Alice Springs and drive from there or drive all the way. The price for the campervan has gone down $100 too since I last checked which is nice.

One question though. Does anyone have any idea of the petrol prices in the outback along the Stuart Highway? I can't find that info anywhere. I know it's going to be more expensive so I'm estimating (myself) at around $1.50 per litre but sure what do I know really.

FreeAnd..

the more rural you get the pricier it gets - we paid over $2 in places but that was over a year ago - not sure of the rural prices now

Bacchus

Wow! That's high. By rural, do you mean you were on dirt roads, i.e. proper outback, or just really deep inland along a major highway?

Oh, just found this site. Could be useful for others too

http://www.aip.com.au/

The way I see it, Adelaide and Port Augusta will be down around $1.30, so fill up there as much as possible. Coober Pedy is around $1.40 which isn't bad either. It's just between there and Alice Springs that we may have to fork out a lot. Alice Springs is back around $1.40 again and I don't think it goes that high again in NT.

Tigerandahalf

Maybe fill up a few drums and take them in the vehicle

FreeAnd..

Tigerandahalf wrote: »

Maybe fill up a few drums and take them in the vehicle

Just to let you know - if you carry any within the vehicle it will void your insurance - strapped to the top etc is fine but within is not..i'm not 100% sure of this but something to be aware of..

As for rural yeah I mean proper outback, to note though prices when we drove from Perth to Brisbane via Darwin and the Center were never lower than $1.70 until we got to Queensland..at the time prices were around $1.50/$1.60 in the city so that should be a gauge..when we got to Queensland they dropped to $1.30 and kept dropping to near a dollar...

Then when we drove from Brisbane back up the coast and down to SA prices went back up...was just unlucky timing for us so can never reliably tell - get a GPS, they are invaluable for finding petrol stations as the first one when you hit a small town will always be more expensive (if there are more than one - if not you'll have to pay whatever...)

mandrake04

FreeAnd.. wrote: »

Just to let you know - if you carry any within the vehicle it will void your insurance - strapped to the top etc is fine but within is not..i'm not 100% sure of this but something to be aware of..

and you can only carry fuel in the proper Jerry cans, you wouldn't want to carry them inside anyway the smell would give you a bad headache.

Bacchus

Hey, thought I'd follow this up for anyone else doing a similar trip.

First off, the Britz camper was great. It had everything we needed and more. Couldn't recommend them more. The fridge was a Godsend, did all our shopping for 10 days in Adelaide for $80.

Over the 10 days and 4,000+ km we spent just over $700 on petrol. Adelaide and Port Agusta were the standard $1.29 p/l. Gradually as we headed north it went up, peaking at the junction between Yulara and Stuart Highway @ $1.79. Likewise, as we got closer to Darwin, it started to go down, with a few exceptions on the way. Alice Springs was quite cheap too.

The trip itself. Amazing. SA is mostly wide open plains which was unbelievable. It does get a bit boring from time to time but it's well worth it all for the sunsets and sunrises. I never knew the sky so be so many colours at once.

Uluru doesn't disapoint either. The campsite is pricey but worth it to make the sunrise/sunset. BTW, we went to the "sunset viewing point" for the sunrise. For a start, there were I think 2 other small groups of people there compared to the bus loads of tour groups you could see making their way to the other side. The sunrise with the silhouette of Uluru is incredible. Obviously, I can't compare this to the "sunrise viewing point" view but I find it hard to believe it could top that.

NT is has more towns built up along the way (mostly due to WWII) and has a bit more of interest than SA. Much more diverse landscape too. The MacDonald ranges are great. I'd also really recommend stopping in Daly Waters for a night. Great pub/campsite.

After that, you're fairly far north and there are loads of national parks to explore. The National park near Katherine was a highlight, not for the walks or scenery but for the wildlife. We had a Wallaby bounce right up to us as we were eating our dinner, pause for a minute looking at us before bouncing off on his way again.