Day-by-day programme of this 6-day itinerary across The Red Centre and the South: Uluru, Alice Springs and Kangaroo Island.
Day 1 â Arrival in Adelaide
Landing in Adelaide, the elegant and relaxed capital of South Australia: a human-scale city surrounded by parks and the country's best wine regions.
- âïļ Adelaide â Aeroporto di Adelaide (ADL)
- ð Adelaide Central Market â Adelaide is the 'city of churches', orderly and ringed by a belt of parks. You stroll among the colonial buildings of North Terrace with its museums, and fill up on flavours at the Adelaide Central Market, one of the largest covered markets in the southern hemisphere. All around, the renowned wine regions of the Barossa Valley and McLaren Vale. You dine and sleep in the city.
- ðĻ ibis Adelaide â Centro, Adelaide
Day 2 â Kangaroo Island
Ferry to Kangaroo Island, Australia's third-largest island: a natural sanctuary of kangaroos, koalas, sea lions and wind-sculpted rock formations.
- âïļ Adelaide â Kangaroo Island â Penneshaw, Kangaroo Island
- ð Flinders Chase National Park â In Flinders Chase National Park, at the western tip of the island, are the Remarkable Rocks - huge granite boulders sculpted by wind and waves into surreal shapes, balanced on a headland over the ocean - and Admirals Arch, a rock arch where colonies of sea lions and fur seals rest. On the island you encounter kangaroos, koalas in the eucalyptus, echidnas and penguins. A miniature Australian safari. You overnight on the island or return to Adelaide.
- ðĻ Aurora Ozone Hotel Kangaroo Island â Kingscote / American River, Kangaroo Island
Day 3 â Uluru, the red heart
Flight to the Red Centre: Uluru, the immense monolith sacred to Aboriginal people that rises alone in the desert and glows red at sunset. The spiritual symbol of Australia.
- âïļ Adelaide â Uluru â Aeroporto di Ayers Rock - Uluru (AYQ)
- ð Uluru â Uluru (Ayers Rock) is a sandstone monolith 348 metres high and over 3 km long, sacred to the Anangu people: it emerges alone from the plain like an island of rock. You walk around its base (climbing is forbidden out of respect), discovering caves with millennia-old rock paintings and waterholes. At sunset the rock blazes red, orange and purple: an unforgettable spectacle, perhaps with a glass in hand. You sleep at Yulara.
- ðĻ Outback Hotel & Lodge â Yulara (Ayers Rock Resort)
Day 4 â Kata Tjuta and sunrise over Uluru
Sunrise over Uluru and the spectacular domes of Kata Tjuta (the Olgas), among gorges and desert trails, before continuing to Alice Springs.
- ð Kata Tjuta â You wake at dawn to see Uluru light up with the first rays, then reach Kata Tjuta (the Olgas), 36 domes of red rock even taller than the monolith, equally sacred. You walk the Valley of the Winds among the gorges, where the silence of the desert is absolute. It is a primordial, powerful landscape, the spiritual heart of Aboriginal Australia. In the afternoon you set off for Alice Springs.
Day 5 â Alice Springs and the outback
Alice Springs, the isolated capital of the outback in the geographic heart of Australia, between Aboriginal culture, pioneer history and the landscapes of the MacDonnell Ranges.
- âïļ Uluru â Alice Springs â Aeroporto di Alice Springs (ASP)
- ð Alice Springs â In Alice Springs you visit the historic Telegraph Station that gave rise to the town, discover the Royal Flying Doctor Service (the flying doctors who cover the outback) and the School of the Air (the radio school), and admire the extraordinary Aboriginal art in the Todd Mall galleries. Just outside, the gorges and waterholes of the West MacDonnell Ranges (Simpsons Gap, Standley Chasm). A plunge into deep Australia. You sleep in Alice Springs.
- ðĻ Diplomat Hotel Alice Springs â Centro, Alice Springs
Day 6 â Departure from the Red Centre
Return flight from the outback to Europe, via the major cities. End of the journey into the wild heart of Australia.
- âïļ Alice Springs â Aeroporto di Milano Malpensa (MXP)
