We are a family of four(children 13&16), on our first trip to Australia.We want to keep to the warmer parts and considered diving in GBR and spending 4-5 days in Cairns. We wanted to go to Darwin &then on to kakadu,but were told that the weather would not be appropriate especially for nature walks& bird watching.Should we instead go to Alice springs. I read about the desert Park,aviation museum etc at Alice,apart from visiting Ayers rock. We need to fly down to the gold coast for the theme parks and also spend 4 days with relatives in sydney before flying back home. Any suggestions please!

Hi there - I don't claim to be a Top End expert, but as far as I know May is the start of the "dry" and so would be a great time to visit Kakadu. It would be green and there would be plenty of birds - but no rain!! There is plenty of info on the web about the seasons in the NT

It would also not be a bad month to go to Uluru - though of the two I would chose Kakadu every time (just a personal opinion).

I think I'd be inclined to concentrate more on what is possible by way of getting from A to B. And whether you care how much it will cost you.

Plenty of flights down the east coast Cairns - Gold Coast - Sydney, but are you sure you can fly from Darwin to Gold Coast? Are you sure you can fly Alice to Gold Coast?

I was really surprised to find when browsing virginblue for my own trip that you can do Darwin to GC but it goes via Melbourne (making 7 hours travelling time!!). Probably better to route yourselves via Brisbane, or that might be better options with other carriers.

Happy planning. You don't say what your entry point in Australia is.

Many thanks for your advice. I have to get the places that we must absolutely visit finalized..If I narrow it down to Cairns, Darwin,Gold coast (via Brisbane ) and lastly Sydney, I was thinking that we could enter the country at Brisbane, take a bus to the gold coast, spend a few days , travel back to Brisbane and travel to Darwin/Cairns from there. I have a feeling internal flights are going to eat into our budget seriously. I was informed that there would be "many billabongs around in kakadu and birds would have dispersed in May"in an earlier travel advisory forum.

If you are traveling from the States to Australia, look at the Qantas Aussie Airpass. It offers flights from LA to Sydney, Brisbane and Melbourne and 3 internal flights for one price. It may be cost-effective for you.

We are traavelling from India. I am looking into similar options that Quantas offers our sector. Could any one with expertise about NT,advice us as to whether May is a good time. The website describes it as the beginning of dry season, possibly a bit misty!

Must do's. Take a tour boat and see the crocodiles but take a Double decker boat those CROCS can fly!