Australian Outback Tours

How do you find the right Aussie Outback Tour?


Good question. Australian Outback Tours are available in all shapes and colours.

You can cross the Australian Outback on horse back, camel back, on a push bike (really), motorbike or in a four wheel drive, you can even sail our remote coastlines (yes, the Outback has a coastline).

Or you can experience the Outback in air-conditioned comfort...

The range of choices is impressive. Your Australia Outback tour may take a few days or many weeks, and it can be as adventurous or as luxurious as you like.

There is also a huge amount of destinations to choose from... Most of the Australian continent is considered to be Outback, so no single Outback tour will cover it all.

The Most Common Outback Tours

Most people who search for Australian Outback tours are looking for a tour that takes them to what's called "the Red Centre" of Australia, the area around Alice Springs and Uluru. It's the most marketed and the most touristy area within Outback Australia.

Australia Outback tours

There is a huge array of brochures for one, two and three day tours available, and every tour operator promises that his tour really is the best.

In reality, within the same price class, the tours offer all much the same. Apart from that you get what you pay for.

On top of the wish list of many young Australia travellers is to go camping in the Australian Outback. So it comes as no surprise that the most common tours are the budget camping tours.

Outback tour bus

Photo by ConnectionsTravel

Outback camping tours usually involve a small four wheel drive bus (if you are lucky the air conditioner works), one to two dozen twenty somethings with backpacks, and a young guide, who either knows a lot about the Australian Outback, or otherwise pretends to do so.

(It's not hard to get a job as a tour guide, and the training is not all that involved. The job requires the right personality and improvisation skills more than in depth knowledge.)

Much of the enjoyment of any tour depends on the other people in your group and on the tour guide. Most tour guides change jobs frequently. The fact that the Australan Outback tour your friend did last year had a great guide does not not mean you will.

Having sad that, usually everybody gets on really well and people have a blast.

Australian Outback camping tour

Photo by Whistler

Accommodation is in tents, or sometimes not even that, just swags. Meals may be cooked over the camp fire.

Everybody pitches in to help set up and pack up the camp, collect firewood and prepare meals.

Evenings are spent sitting around the camp fire, and you may even sleep around it under a million stars.

If you see no way to do any independent travelling in this country, be it by hiring a vehicle, or sharing with others, then joining such an Outback camping tour is pretty much a must. You can not visit the Australian Outback and not spend a night at the fire under the stars...

Which Australian Outback Tour Is The Best?

The one million dollar question. How much time and money do you have and what is it that you most want to get out of your Australian Outback trip?

Most people want to tick of as many sights as possible. And no matter how much all the Australian Outback tour operators try to differentiate themselves in their brochures, at the end of the day most tours really are very similar. Especially the one to three day tours around Ayers Rock, or up north around Kakadu/Litchfield/Katherine Gorge.

The best way to get a feel for how much any Australian Outback tour operators care about their customers is to get in touch with them, and see how they handle inquiries.

I always like to email or talk on the phone to people before I spend money with them, and see what my gut feeling tells me. I also like looking at their websites. It's amazing how much of a feel you can get for the people who are behind the whole operation.

I prefer smaller family owned businesses, for both tours and accommodation, to the big Australia wide corporations.

Of course the big boys can streamline their operations much better and that way keep costs down, which makes it cheaper for you. But you are less important to them as a client. In a way you become a number, part of their statistics, and I don't like that feeling.

The smaller businesses take more pride in what their area has to offer. Their employees stick around for longer and know more. The whole experience just goes a lot deeper than the standard tick-of-the-main-attractions tour.

Look For Something Different

If you look for the real thing, not the touristy Australian Outback, then look for an Outback safari tour away from the big sights. Rather than booking a flight into Alice Springs and the usual round trip taking in the usual attractions, look for a trip that takes you from A to B along the back roads. Some of those tours spend a week, or two or even three out in the bush.

Don't look for the tour that packs in the most stuff, in the least amount of time, for the least money. Believe me, you underestimate the distances and overestimate the quality of the roads. You will spend so much more time in that bus than you expected.

Any big desert crossing is a great Australian Outback adventure tour. But of course it means you have to bring more time and money.

Go and search for tours on horse back or camel back if you want something different and really want to get away from the masses. Try to get a seat on the mail plane. That's always a great one.

And if the main reason that you wanted to join a tour was that you felt it's to dangerous to go by yourself, then study this site a bit more and reconsider. At the end of the day no tour can beat what independent travel has to offer...

There are some great self driving packages out there, that supply you with all the information and maps you need, and your itinerary is already worked out for you. It takes a lot of guess work and headaches out of the planning.

Also consider a tagalong tour. You drive your own or a rental vehicle, but you follow someone who knows what they are doing, and you won't be alone if things take a wrong turn. It makes the drive a lot more interesting than being a mere passenger in a bus, and you gain valuable experience. For the next trip you will be ok on your own...

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