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What to Do in Alice Springs in A Day
A natural place to visit after exploring Uluru (Ayers Rock) and Kings Canyon is Alice Springs. This Outback town is located in the Northern Territory (or “Red Centre”) of Australia, around 330 kilometers to the east of Kings Canyon. It’ll take the better part of a day to arrive here if you’re taking a scenic bus tour ride from Kings Canyon.
In Alice Springs, Australia, animals are the stars at two of the town’s top attractions: Alice Springs Desert Park and the Alice Springs Reptile Centre.
Read on for additional details about how to prioritize your day of sightseeing in this part of Australia’s Red Centre.
Itinerary for Alice Springs
Alice Springs Desert Park
Your hotel in Alice Springs will probably be able to arrange a roundtrip shuttle for you to visit Alice Springs Desert Park that includes entry tickets to the park. The price will vary depending on your hotel, but to give you a better sense of it, you can expect the Alice Springs Desert Park cost of entry alone to be around $37 Australian through March 2023.
I’d recommend setting out to do this first thing in the morning after breakfast, at around 8 a.m., and plan to spend all morning there. The shuttle will probably take about 20 minutes to get you to the park. Upon arrival, pick up one of the helpful maps and the day’s schedule of activities. Note that the park opens at 7:30 a.m. and closes at 6:00 p.m. daily.
The park has 3 kilometers of walking trails that will take you through a variety of habitats, including desert rivers, woodlands, and sand country. They’ve even got a cleverly designed nocturnal house where they’ve turned day into night, so nighttime creatures are available for your viewing pleasure.
Make your way over to the impressive aviary and watering hole, enclosed by a mesh fence and packed with many species of bird. Especially noteworthy are the large black cockatoos, some odd black and white birds with very long pink legs, the parrots, and a wide variety of colorful finches.
Survival in the Desert at Awaye Plain
Be sure to arrive at the Awaye Plain meeting point in the southwestern portion of the park in time for a presentation on survival in the desert. The staff member may describe the witchetty grub, a giant worm found in trees. A key part of the “bush tucker” diet eaten by Aborigines, these grubs taste a bit like runny eggs when raw. When cooked, they have a nutty flavor. The eater is supposed to break off the head first so the grub’s juices don’t run all over the chin.
In traditional Aboriginal society, women gathered around 80 percent of the food, with a focus on fruits, nuts, herbs, and worms. Men generally did the hunting for bigger game. You may see some examples of boomerangs used for hunting. One of them was used in the north to scare flocks of birds into reeds where other men waited to capture them with nets. In the center, where water was scarce, indigenous tribes used boomerangs to kill emus and kangaroos.
After the presentation concludes, walk through fields of wildflowers and reconstructed desert habitats.
Nocturnal House
Spend some time in the fascinating Nocturnal House. Here the staff has reversed day and night, dimming the lights during the day so that these nocturnal animals are active when visitors are present. You’re likely to see some remarkable creatures you’ve never seen before.
You may see a thorny devil, a spiny lizard that feeds on ants and has a decoy second head for protection.
The kultarr is a small and interesting kangaroo-like predator with a very long tail and gigantic eyes. It was eating some grubs during my visit.
One section is filled with active golden bandicoots, which look like moles, zipping across the sand between shrubs. Also here are bilbies, which look like rabbits with long tails, and the tiny mala—a small wallaby. You’ll see an assortment of spiders and lizards, too.
Flying Bird Show
Don’t miss the excellent Flying Bird Show at the amphitheater in the eastern part of the park. The presenter may show a black and white magpie that dive bombs and sails just inches above the viewers’ heads. A barn owl will zip from end to end of the amphitheater.
The bush stone curlew is a very stately creature with long reed- like legs that walks alongside the presenter and mirror the person’s movements and stops. It may also walk among the viewers.
A few hawks and kites will follow, speeding through the sky and catching bits of food in midair. The show should last around 20 minutes total.
Kangaroo and Dingo Territories
Proceed to an area filled with red kangaroos. The presenter will share some interesting information about these. A kangaroo can leap an astonishing 12 meters in a single bound. Thanks to a phenomenon called embryonic diopause, a pregnant female kangaroo can delay giving birth if resources are scarce. A newborn kangaroo is tiny, easily fitting inside an egg cup.
Next visit the Dingo Territory and view their den. The desert dingo resembles an ordinary dog with golden fur. However, thanks to interbreeding with domestic dogs, they might be extinct in 50 years.
The shuttle can pick you up a little after noon and drop you back off at the hotel. If you’re in the town center, you can get lunch at a shopping center on the Todd Mall at Alice Springs.
Alice Springs Reptile Centre
After you’ve eaten, head toward the Alice Springs Reptile Center, which is conveniently located in the center of town. The center is filled with an enormous variety of snakes, lizards, turtles, and some very exotic reptiles. If you time your visit right, you’ll be there when the reptiles are most active (generally from late morning until mid-afternoon).
The price of an entry ticket for an adult to the Alice Springs Reptile Center should be around $20.
Listen to some interesting facts about reptiles from the on-site staff. Australia has 18 of the world’s 20 most venomous snakes, but these snakes have very small fangs. Thus, ordinary pants are generally enough to protect you. Furthermore, the venom doesn’t enter your bloodstream immediately, so by applying pressure to the bite wound you can buy yourself 15-30 hours of time, giving you the opportunity to find medical attention.
Only one or two people die in Australia from snake bites each year. Sri Lanka has the other two of the most venomous snakes, but 20,000 people die from snake bites there annually.
Australian snakes also can’t detect heat and have poor eyesight, so you can protect yourself by remaining still—kind of like the approach that worked for the people in Jurassic Park.
You may have the chance to pet a monitor lizard who will wander the halls freely. This lizard is also known as the Spencer’s Goanna, and feeds on snakes, as it has a natural resistance to their venom.
Other highlights may include the blue-tongued skink, which feeds on meat and vegetables, and the giant Perentie lizard. The latter is a fierce carnivore and you may see a photo of the awful wounds one of them inflicted on the late Steve Irwin’s arm.
The staff may also let you hold a few of the spiny lizards and a snake.
Dinner
After you’ve finished sightseeing, consider a traditional dinner at a place like Overlanders Steakhouse. There you can try some unique dishes, such as a platter of crocodile, kangaroo, emu, and camel sausages with mashed potatoes and peas.
If You Have More Time
With more than a single day in Alice Springs, your sightseeing horizons open up further. Consider visiting one or more of the following notable attractions in the area before setting out for your next destination.
- Anzac Hill
- Araluen Cultural Precinct
- Finke Gorge National Park
- Hot Air Balloon Ride
- Kangaroo Sanctuary
- Larapinta Trail
- Museum of Central Australia
- Olive Pink Botanic Garden
- School of the Air
- Telegraph Station Historical Reserve
- Uluru-Kata Tjuta National Park and Kings Canyon (if you didn’t see it before your arrival in Alice Springs)
Onward from Alice Springs
Once you’re ready to depart Alice Springs, if you have more time in the country, a visit to the hidden gem of Kangaroo Island makes for a worthwhile day trip. This can be done by taking a ferry from Adelaide, in southern Australia.