Planning to go to NT in July. Where do we go? What should we see?

Look up the NT travel blog posted by a member called Mother hen, that should give you lots of ideas.

A lot depends on which way you want to go and what type of things you want to see. For instance if you go from the south to Alice Springs it will be desert type country. If you go thru QLD to Darwin it will be a bit of a mixture of dry and wet tropical.
For planning my suggestion would be to use Google Maps where you can put in destinations to see distances and times and move routes around.

Hi Linny,

There is a heap of info on this site. Have a look through the Places section (in the blue bar across the top of the page) for things to see and campsites. We are in Canberra (so would take a similar route to someone going from Sydney) and have quite a few blogs up about that part of the world. Your route to the NT would depend on what you want to see en route. Click on the "My Blog" button beside my photo at the bottom and have a look through from 2001 to 2011. The older blogs are still quite relevant for the "things to" part of your question.

As to how to go about planning, suggest you start by researching the things that you want to see, then plan a route between them. Start with a big paper map and make plenty of notes on it. Once that is done you can start working out rough travel times etc (a simple spreadsheet might be useful at this stage) - and after that you may have specific questions that you can come back to the forum to ask. Remember that planning is an important and enjoyable part of the whole experience. But the key I think is not to overplan ie get a good idea of where you want to go and the roads/tracks you might take - but leave plenty of wriggle room, for the unforseen things (both good and not so good) that inevitably crop up. There is nothing worse than being tied to an inflexible timetable when you have just come to a stunning spot and want to stop for a day or 3. Also, talk to other travellers as you go and you will get lots of tips about places to go, road conditions etc.

Take plots of photos, keep a diary and have a great time.

Hope that helps a bit.

Cheers,

Val.

Linny,

In short..... up north Kakadu (you really need a week). Litchfield NP is awesome as is Katherine Gorge, Edith Falls, Berry Springs near Darwin & Mataranka.

Down south the obvious one as Uluru. But spend a week @ Alice Springs & do the Macdonnell Ranges properly. Chambers Pillar, Gosse Bluff , Palm Valley & Rainbow Valley are all 4WD tracks but well worth the effort.

For me Kings Canyon is a stand out. I know it's important to respect the original owners wishes but gee it was great to be able to walk the entire canyon without worrying about straying off the track & offending the locals.

There is a lot of good info here indeed. There are also folk who make their living doing guide books that have a heap of detail and the benefit of user feedback, updates, maps etc. The Moon's guides spring to mind (no connection).