WE are planning a short (only 4 weeks!) trip to Alice Springs this year, during the month of June. Could possibly change plans to go in August, but don’t know if we can wait that long!
Would appreciate any advice re parks, places to MUST see etc. We will driving from Vic, might go via Broken Hill,then across to Port Augusta.
Towing 23′ van. As it will be cool at night, not too interested in free camping!
cheers all, Roger & Rosalie (Ballarat, Vic)

see uluru n olgas on your way up so theres no 800km round trips.

with alice WAIT till the ss abloy ross river races are on.check it out for date but beside everything alice has to offer it will be the greatest afternoon entertainment you’ll ever have.

All the usual attractions will still be there.but abloy is a must see..

Rod

It will be cold whether you are free camping or not.
School of the Air, Transport Museum, Ghan Museum, Telegraph Station, etc etc in Alice district are worth seeing. The East and West McDonnell Ranges are also great with numerous accessable gorges to visit.
Better still head for the Tourist Info Centre in Parson Street AS; it is a good one with lots of brochures.
Another alternative is to email them and ask for the basic info brochure on attractions in and around AS.
glanyard

We were at Alice Springs in mid June 2012. Found it almost essential to book in town and especially at Uluru and King’s Canyon. Many prospective campers were turned away each day. We paid for guided tours of Alice Springs and District and the West MacDonnell Ranges and found it very interesting and money well spent. Then we visited tourist centre and collected info so we could do our own trips. Some places we visited were:
Guided Tour of West MacDonnell Ranges including Stanley Chasm, Simpsons Gap, Glen Helen Homestead, Ellery Creek Big Hole, Ormiston Gorge etc – good day tour
Guided Tour of Alice Springs and District including Alice Springs Telegraph Station Historical Reserve
Uluru (Ayers Rock) 468kms from Alice Springs NO camping at either Uluru or the Olgas You need to stay at the campground at the resort and early booking I found was essential. You will probably share the campground with numerous busloads of students
Kata Juta (The Olgas) roughly 100km return trip from Uluru
Kings Canyon 330kms from Alice Springs via Ernest Giles Road – not sure of road condition
Kings Canyon – Uluru 326kms bitumen road
Royal Flying Doctor Base
Alice Springs Desert Park
Road Transport Hall of Fame get a bottle of their “diff wine” – the label is very interesting
Alice Springs Reptile Centre
Overlanders Steakhouse Restaurant – try camel, crocodile, buffalo and kangaroo – a very popular restaurant. We had a great night

Safe travels

For info on varavan parks check out this site.

http://acpr.myparklist.com/

The new format takes a bit of getting used to but is user friendly once you get the hang of it

Safe Travels

It’s called the Henley on Todd race! I would stay at the McDonnell Ranges caravan Park as there is less problems there with the locals (even though they frequent the pub just down the road) , most tourists check out the west McDonnell ranges and all the gorges but miss out of the East McDonnell Ranges and all that is to see out that way, we used to live in Alice (great place and wish we where still there) you will be able to see a lot in 4 weeks but you will not scratch the surface. Check out the NT tourist site and check on line what is around Alice make a doable list and enjoy yourselves.
If you do go when the Henley on Todd race is on around the same period of time is the bangtail muster, show, beanie festival etc.

We had very cold winds in August. Next time we arrived early July and it was coming up to their Show weekend and fireworks day. Caravan parks we crowded and hard to get into, and we could not get a place in our chosen CP (a little way out of town in a lovely and a quiet location). The overflow camping at the Showground was not available because of the show. The Beanie Festival had been on a week or two prior.

Depending on what you like, must visits are the Desert Park in Alice Springs, as well as natural features of the East and West MacDonnells. I have travelogues on all we did over five weeks.

FC,
last time i called it Henley on Todd i was corrected. on the day theyre were SS Abloy signs everywhere so i understood the correction. and yes its TODD not ROSS like i said,was getting mixed with the Ross Highway that tours EAST of Alice.

all the really good stuff has already been mentioned in THIS thread but like one poster said GO EAST also from Alice on the Ross Highway.theres EQUALLY as much to see / do as going west.Its a giant LOOP that brings you back out to the highway about 100Km north of Alice.EASILY a full day but most sleep out and make it a few days on the mereenie loop. you MUST have 4wd tho ,lots of white sand creek crossings,dried up river but the sand is a killer.

4 weeks you WONT see it all but you’ll get a great idea of what the red center is.

It’ll be COLD but everything is OPEN for tourists,they shut the deserts down during summer and off road tours also.

My personal Favourite OTHER than Henley on Todd.. "Arltunga Ruins" these were the original settlers BEFORE alice was discoverred.after the mines broke up some went home others went west exploring and settled alice springs..

Cheers Rod

Take your camera,it’ll run hot from day one.

SS Abloy are the sponsors of the Henley on Todd as it was getting too expensive for the local Lions Club to meet all the expenses but it does not matter as it is a great event either way it is named , I agree re Arltunga, make sure you (OP) get to the rangers station at Arltunga as they put on a great demonstrate with a working gold stamping mill

oh yea,the best afternoon ive ever had.only,TAKE foldup chairs,choose somewhere EARLY n stay as it gets crowded.grab a hat etc.plenty of hot n cold foods on sale onsite/clean toilets.