When it comes to travel-planning, the familiar has the upper hand. Going to Italy for the first time? Rome, Tuscany and Venice are the presumed candidates. Spain? You’ll begin with Madrid and Barcelona.

For Australia, it’ll be Sydney, Melbourne and/or the Great Barrier Reef. But that leaves out a lot. The country and its islands span 46 degrees of latitude, crossing tropical, subtropical, arid and temperate zones.

This summer — Australia’s winter — I traversed each of those zones in (more or less) a straight line, from peaceful Darwin Harbor on the north coast to the turbulent waters of the Southern Ocean. And I happily discovered that one can make that journey, across often challenging, wild terrain, in (more or less) luxury. 

Bamurru Plains

Let’s get that “more or less” out of the way. About three hours east of Darwin by car, or 25 minutes by chartered plane, is Bamurru Plains, a safari-style outpost on the edge of a 115-square-mile flood plain. Intrepid Travel recently took over the 12-bungalow property on the land to add to its new Stay Intrepid division, and it’s a comfortable match with the company’s sustainability-focused positioning.

Having reserved my stay before Intrepid took over, however, I came to find that the previous management had been pushing against reality when it leaned into “luxury” as a common descriptor. Intrepid seems to be steering it back on track, describing it on the current property’s website as “rustic chic” with “down to earth” service.

All that said, accommodations and amenities are solidly four-star, with five-star experiences. Two excursions a day are included, and outings on the flood plain in air boats are exciting, with an excellent chance to see saltwater crocodiles, the largest reptiles on Earth (the area has the highest concentration of saltwater crocodiles in the world).

As for land critters, wallabies abound — you’ll see scores just on your walk to and from the dining lodge. On an excursion in a safari vehicle, I saw a dingo as well as the wild descendants of domesticated horses and oxen that had been set free decades ago.

And lots and lots (and lots) of water buffaloes. The submerged grasslands are the perfect habitat for the animals, and the entire flood plain’s primary use is as an enormous water buffalo station. (The owners recently sold thousands of live buffaloes to the Sultan of Brunei.)

The feeling when sighting a giant croc is akin to spotting a lion in Africa, but it’s the birdlife and the unique ecosystem of the flood plain itself that soon show themselves to be the stars. Among the 200-plus winged species in the area, it was no surprise that, around that much water, I would see storks, geese, ducks, herons and spoonbills. But we also spotted eagles, hawks, falcons and kites. And kingfishers, cockatoos, cuckoos and larks. And bee-eaters and jacanas. 

Room with a view

The walls of my “eco-bungalow” were, floor-to-ceiling, a fine mesh. They kept the bugs out, and the scrimlike walls added a cinematic quality to the scenery outside. The room was otherwise fairly straightforward, with a comfortable bed, ensuite bathroom (with a corrugated metal privacy wall halfway up) and a ceiling fan. Cost: Begins at $1,800 a night.

There are also three air-conditioned bungalows (beginning at $1,945), the Kingfisher Suite (three times as large as the eco-bungalow, starting at $2,160) as well as the Jabiru Retreat, with two bedrooms, an in-room bar and a plunge pool (from $3,611).

WiFi is available only in the lodge, which has comfortable indoor and outdoor seating areas and a small pool behind. It’s also where guests eat together at a long table — the chef is ambitious and inventive. Food and drink are all-inclusive, with a help-yourself bar of Australian and familiar brand spirits, wine and beer. Snacks are always available.

The property is only open February to October, and by the end of September, the water is mostly dried up and only land safaris are offered.

By coincidence, Richmond Sear, Intrepid’s general manager of accommodation, Australia, was also at Bamurru Plains during my stay. He told me that the appeal of the property for Intrepid was that it was off-the-beaten track and featured something that was one of a kind. “This isn’t a flop-and-drop accommodation that could be anywhere. We want to avoid the things that everyone’s doing and provide experiences that are really unique and rich.”

He said Intrepid plans to invest more. “We’re drawn to it because of what it is already, and we want to amplify that” by increasing the number of experiences and “building procurement from First Nations and local suppliers. We want to champion the communities where we operate.”

Darwin: The final frontier?

We all have our lists of favorites — favorite airline, favorite country, favorite beach. In Darwin, I found a “favorite” in a category I thought was exempt from favorite lists: airport hotels.

In my experience, airport hotels are uninteresting and overpriced, with unengaged service and uninspired food. A regrettable necessity at best; you’re there because you have to be, and management knows it.

But Darwin, population 150,000, has a campus of three Accor brands (Ibis, Novotel and Mercure) on airport property with nice rooms, beautiful pools, interesting architecture and pretty good food. As a bonus, it’s adjacent to a nature trail. I was told that it is a fixture in the Darwin community and a destination for a family weekend getaway for residents of the Top End, as this part of Australia’s Northern Territory is known.

As for the rest of Darwin, I had pictured it to have the quirky characteristics of a frontier town; the nearest city you’ve heard of, Adelaide, is more than 1,600 miles away. I was disappointed when I visited Darwin: It’s a relatively modern city, updated over time following bombing raids during World War II and subsequent cyclones.

While there, I had a drink with Staci Mellman, chief marketing officer for Australia’s Northern Territory. (If her name sounds familiar, it’s because she had once been CMO for Brand USA.)

“We have a sense of what Australians and the rest of the world think about us and know about us. Unsurprisingly, they don’t know a lot,” she said.

“From my perspective, that’s a problem that marketing can solve,” she continued. “We’re on a journey to figure out what is the right position for the Northern Territory that’s true and authentic to what we have to offer.”

I mentioned my surprise that Darwin seemed a rather normal, traditional town.

“It’s really about the community and getting to know it,” she responded. “If you spent a couple days here, you could get below the skin.”

Fair enough. But I was leaving the next morning. I had a train to catch.

All aboard the Ghan

You may have never heard of the Ghan, but this train holds a very special place in the hearts of Australians. Any resident whom I told that I would be boarding it either said they’d been on it or aspired to be.

The train is named for the Afghan laborers who built the rail line. Comprising two locomotives and 34 cars — including four staff carriages, three kitchens and five lounges — the train is almost a half-mile long. It carries a maximum of 240 guests and operates April to October.

I traveled in the Australis Suite, a product launched earlier this year. It’s three times the size of Platinum class, the previous largest compartment. It has a bedroom, a double-vanity ensuite bathroom, a stocked bar and sitting area.

And an espresso machine. A minifridge. Wine, selected to my preferences.

Did I mention the butler? The special gift, custom-made by a blacksmith? That guests in the suite are served an eight-course dinner, beginning with caviar and vintage Champagne, on the evening that the train departs?

There may be variations in some of the amenities, but the suites are also offered on the Indian Pacific line, which runs the width of Australia from Sydney to Perth, and the Great Southern, which connects Adelaide to Brisbane. All these trains are operated by Journey Beyond.

The cost for four days/three nights on the Ghan in the Australia suite: $13,125 to $14,650. (The least expensive class on the train, Gold Solo, can be booked for $2,850 in some circumstances.) The trains tend to be fully booked a year in advance, though cancellations may open a room from time to time.

Sam Ackerman, the butler assigned to my suite, was extraordinarily knowledgeable about, it seemed, everything. He’s a sommelier. He’s worked at high-end properties. He told me where to sit to get the best views on excursions. I wasn’t his only guest, but he was attentive to what I might need, always in a friendly rather than stiff or formal way.

When I met his boss, train manager Zafer Tasei, I first thought he said his first name was “Zephyr,” a legendary U.S. train. He clarified, then boasted that his staff onboard is “the Navy Seals of hospitality.”

If so, I have no doubt Sam held the rank of captain.

Sam split his time between me and a couple that had booked the Aurora Suite in the same carriage I was in. Also new in 2026, it offers the same amenities as Australis but is one-third smaller in size. 

Off the rails

Each day, the train stopped so that passengers could join a preselected excursion (some premium day trips incur an additional cost). On the first day, we stopped in Katherine for tours of the Nitmiluk Gorge. We boarded boats and cruised through a canyon whose walls reached 230 feet. Where it flattened out, we saw several large freshwater crocodiles snoozing on the shores.

The next day, we pulled into Alice Springs, and I joined my neighbors in the Aurora Suite for a private transfer to the airport for a flight to Uluru, formerly known as Ayers Rock.

Like everyone else, I’ve seen photos of the monolithic formation, but I was unprepared for the variety of textures on its surface and at its base. Every 10 yards, it seemed to be a different rock; its folds, cavities, striations, cracks and variations in color and gradients consistently provided new perspectives as we circumnavigated it.

Alice Springs is also one of the stops where (by prearrangement) a passenger can get off for eight days to further explore the region and then rejoin the train on the Ghan’s next southbound journey.

That evening, all the passengers were bused to Alice Springs Telegraph Station, the Outback’s answer to Colonial Williamsburg, where various outbuildings reflected an aspect of early life in the region. A gourmet meal was served under the stars, along with entertainment and dancing.

The final stop was in Coober Pedy. I boarded a motorcoach to Breakaways Reserve and Conservation Park, featuring an undulating, multihued landscape.

The town of Coober Pedy is capital of Australia’s opal industry. It’s an odd place in many respects: It’s so hot in the summer that most people live underground or in cave homes; also in the summer, it’s notorious for annoying insects. Opal mines in the area are dug by entrepreneurial individuals, rather than corporations, and the landscape is defined by 1.5 million (and counting) large piles of dirt next to abandoned vertical mineshafts.

Those who are attracted to live in and mine Coober Pedy, a place that can only be described as “godforsaken,” are an unusual breed. One suspects that if you weren’t an eccentric character when you arrived, you’d soon become one. Everyone who spoke to our group had amazing, perhaps tall, tales to tell. While there, we ate at an underground restaurant, walked by hotels featuring underground rooms and, in a museum, saw model underground living quarters.

The northbound Ghan has a slightly different schedule than the one I was on. Instead of Coober Pedy, it offers a day exploring Flinders Plain and features a sunrise breakfast in Marla.

I don’t know what I missed in Flinders Plain and Marla, but I’m very glad I was on the route that stopped at Coober Pedy. It’s one of a kind. 

Roos and koalas

My last stop was Kangaroo Island, in the Southern Ocean southwest of Adelaide. I stayed at the Southern Ocean Lodge, recently rebuilt after being completely leveled by the 2020 wildfires.

Simply put, Southern Ocean Lodge blew me away. It has the most perfect match between design and environment of any property I have ever seen. It’s a near-seamless fusion of landscape and structure. Its rooms unwind in a long string across a rise over the pounding surf of Hanson Bay.

The Great Room — lobby, bar, restaurant and lounge — is designed in colors that can also be seen though its wall of windows (which have terrific views of the bay). As regards the restaurant, should a Michelin inspector ever make it to Kangaroo Island, it would likely get a star. Maybe two.

The property is all-inclusive, with pour-your-own top-shelf spirits and something I’ve never seen before: a pick-your-own-bottle wine cellar featuring between 160 to 220 South Australian wines. You just wander in and grab a varietal of your own choosing. Premium bottles are kept under lock and key, but the selection of complimentary wines is impressive.

Two or three excursions per day are included in the price. One that I joined went to Seal Bay Conservation Park, home to a colony of Australian sea lions resting on a sandy, grassy slope or heading out to fish across a wide beach.

Another outing ventured into Flinders Chase National Park, where long-nosed fur seals rested, played and fought on rocks above a foamy, crashing surf. A misty, windy, cold and desolate corner of the island, it’s easy to believe that there is no landmass to be found between the shoreline and Antarctica.

The same excursion stopped at the Remarkable Rocks, a group of large boulders eroded, it seemed, with great care and intention by Antoni Gaudi.

I had seen sooty kangaroos from the island’s roads (there are 65,000 in residence on the island) but got a clearer view of several in Hanson Bay Sanctuary. Also in the sanctuary, we saw koalas in eucalyptus trees. (A sighting is no longer a sure thing. Their numbers had been reduced by 95% after the fires. The remaining population has since doubled in size.) 

The phoenix of hospitality

Southern Ocean Lodge had long been part of the Baillie Lodges collection. KSL Capital Partners became the majority shareholder in 2018, and they subsequently added it to the Beckons brand of hotels.

The rebuilt Southern Ocean Lodge opened in December 2023, almost four years after the fire. The new version has some variations in the main building: the spa was expanded, a fitness center added, an infinity pool was built outside the Great Room and a dining nook was attached to the wine cellar.

But the most consequential change was the addition of the Baillie Pavilion, a four-bedroom residence on a hilltop away from the main structure.

When the property was redesigned, the rooms were slightly repositioned for better ocean views. I was in one of 20 Flinders Suites, each with a horizontal layout to best take advantage of views through the floor-to-ceiling windows. At one end of these open-plan rooms is a lounge with a fireplace. 

Other room categories include two Remarkable Suites, which have a two-bedroom layout with a plunge pool, and an Osprey Suite, which has one bedroom and a plunge pool. Nightly rates, subject to holiday surcharges, are about $2,437 for Flinders Suites, $3,872 for Remarkable Suites and $4,733 for the Osprey. 

For all four of the bedrooms in the Baillie Pavilion, the cost is about $10,469 — or it can be split: about $5,222 for the two-bedroom west pavilion and $4,948 for the two-bedroom east pavilion. 

Yanks in Oz

Every October through Easter, Americans taking advantage of reversed seasons occupy 80% to 90% of the rooms at Southern Ocean Lodge.

Aussies fill most compartments of the Ghan, with Europeans forming the second largest contingent, but Journey Beyond would love to see the number of Americans increase.

As would Bamurru Plains.

Australia’s International Visitor Survey for the year ending in March produced some data that shows why interest in luring Americans is high: U.S. tourists spend an average of $373 a night, more than double the total of other international visitors.

The Top End — Darwin, Bamurru Plains and Katherine — draws only 4% of Americans visiting Australia. The Red Center, including Uluru and Coober Pedy, account for 9% (with Uluru being the prime driver) and Kangaroo Island draws only 1% of inbound Americans. There is clearly room for growth.

It’s understandable that these regions and the suppliers who serve as hosts there may have a “the-more-the-merrier” attitude toward U.S. visitors. There’s opportunity for inbound Americans, as well: Low-density tourism in our current age of overtourism is an enormous plus, and it’s especially rare to see such an incredible variety and unique offerings as exists from Darwin to the Southern Ocean, without crowds.

Will its low profile last? The players now involved —Intrepid, Journey Beyond, KSL — are no slouches when it comes to marketing to Americans. If I were a travel advisor with clients that this region might appeal to, I wouldn’t wait too long to book.