Frommer's Australia from $50 a Day 13th Edition - To Parent Directory

etween Alice and the Rock (via Kings Canyon if you like), or vice versa, which
will allow you to avoid backtracking.
Among the reputable companies are AAT Kings (& 1800/334 009 in Australia,
or 03/9274 7422 for the Melbourne central reservations office; www.aatkings.
com), which specializes in coach tours but also has 4WD camping itineraries; Alice
Springs Holidays (& 08/8953 1411; www.alicespringsholidays.com.au), which
does upscale soft-adventure tours for groups; Sahara Outback Tours (& 08/8953
0881; www.saharatours.com.au), which conducts camping safaris in small groups
for all ages; and Discovery Ecotours (& 1800/803 174 in Australia, or 08/8956
2563; www.ecotours.com.au), which specializes in ecotours for groups. Coach
operator Greyhound Pioneer (& 13 20 30 in Australia; www.greyhound.com.au)
provides good-value, large bus tours. One of these is a 3-day tour from Alice Springs
to Uluru, Kings Canyon, and the Olgas costing A$279 (US$181). A 2-day tour
including Uluru and the Olgas costs A$250 (US$162).
Tailormade Tours (& 08/8952 1731) and VIP Travel Australia (& 1800/
806 412 in Australia, or 08/8956 2388; www.vipaustralia.com.au) customize luxury
tours in limos, minicoaches, and four-wheel-drives, and offer treats like desert
barbecues and champagne tailgate dinners overlooking the Rock or the Olgas.
You can book Sahara Outback Tours and Tailormade Tours via Alice Springs
Tour Professionals (& 08/8953 0666; www.alicetourprofessionals.com.au), a
one-stop shop that represents a number of Alice Springs–based tour and sightseeing
companies.
Aboriginal Desert Discovery Tours (& 08/8952 3408; www.aboriginalart.
com.au), owned by Alice Springs Aboriginal people, teams up its Aboriginal
guides with Alice-based tour companies to offer tours with an Aboriginal slant.
2 Alice Springs
ALICE SPRINGS 371
462km (286 miles) NE of Ayers Rock; 1,491km (924 miles) S of Darwin; 1,544km (957 miles) N of Adelaide;
2,954km (1,831 miles) NW of Sydney
“The Alice,” as Australians fondly dub it, is the unofficial capital of Outback Australia.
In the early 1870s, a handful of telegraph-station workers struggled nearly
1,600km (992 miles) north from Adelaide through the desert to settle by a small
spring in what must have seemed like the end of the earth. Alice Springs, as the
place was called, was just a few huts around a repeater station on the ambitious
telegraph line that was to link Adelaide with Darwin and the rest of the world.
Today Alice is a city of 27,000 people, with supermarkets, banks, and the odd
nightclub. It’s a friendly, rambling, unsophisticated kind of place. No matter what
direction you come from, you will soar for hours over a vast, flat landscape to get
here. That’s why folks are so surprised when they reach Alice Springs and see low
but dramatic mountain ranges, rippling red in the sunshine. Many people excitedly
mistake them for Uluru, but that baby is about 500km (310 miles) down the
road. The hills that jut their craggy faces close by are the MacDonnell Ranges.
Many tourists visit Alice only to get to Uluru, but Alice has charms all its
own, albeit mostly of a small-town kind. The red folds of the MacDonnell
Ranges hide lovely gorges with shady picnic grounds. A planned 250km (155-
mile) hiking trail is partly ready for your boots now. There is an old gold-rush
town to poke around in, quirky little museums, wildlife parks, a couple of cattle
stations (ranches) that welcome visitors, a couple of nice day trips out of
town, and one of the world’s top-10 desert golf courses. You could easily fill 2
or 3 days in the area.