ALICE SPRINGS
Area: Northern Territory
Country: Australia


Location:
Right in the heart of Australia, in the Northern Territory. The closest major city is Darwin, 925 miles N. The international airport is 9 miles S, connected to town by shuttle buses and taxis.

Telephone code from UK:
61 8

Website:
http://www.alicesprings.nt.gov.au

Position:
Straggling along both banks of the wide Todd River, bone-dry in the dry season, Alice Springs is a fairly small town, trickling out into scrubland and hemmed in by the MacDonnell Range to the S. This dry area is known as Australia's "red centre".

Description:
An architecturally nondescript (not to say ugly) small town radiating out from a pedestrianised shopping mall, Alice nonetheless feels very much like the real Australia. There is an 18-hole golf course across the river from the town centre. The best views are from Anzac Hill.

Suitability:
Couples primarily. There's not much to entertain younger children here, although older ones might like the opportunities to ride camels and the general feel of being surrounded by the outback.

Accommodation:
A string of well-equipped 4- and 5-star hotels lurk on the far side of the Todd River from the centre. Otherwise, much of the accommodation is in motels which exude a faint air of desperation amid the heat and dust.

Shopping:
Hardly the shopping centre of Australia. However, if you're after Aboriginal art and artefacts, it offers one of the widest ranges and some of the sharpest prices.

Entertainments:
Daytime: old Telegraph Station; Frontier Camel Farm; the Royal Flying Doctor base; the School of the Air; Panorama Guth, a 360-degree painting of Alice Springs. Nightlife: Lasseters Casino has its own outdoor amphitheatre and nightly entertainment. A lot of heavy drinking goes on here.

Eating:
Alice is not filled with great dining opportunities, although several restaurants feature kangaroo, crocodile and similar delicacies. More interesting are the bush dinners (offering the chance to sample such Aussie delights as damper) or dinners aboard the Old Ghan Train. Otherwise, there are restaurants serving steaks, Chinese meals, pasta, pizza and fish, as well as one offering both Swiss and Indian food under the same roof.

Public-transport:
Excellent shuttle bus service to the airport, but otherwise very limited. Those staying in outlying hotels would do well to hire a car. Alice Wanderer Town Tour links up even outlying attractions but is not particularly cheap.

Local-excursions:
Camel rides along Todd River bed. Half- and one-day tours to MacDonnell Range highlights: Simpson's Gap, Standley Chasm, Ormiston Gorge, Glen Helen Gorge, etc; tours to Palm Valley, taking in Cycad Gorge and Hermannsburg Settlement; hot-air balloon rides over desert, rounded off with bush breakfast; tours to Katherine Gorge, King's Canyon and Ayers Rock, all some distance away.