Weekend Getaways from Darwin: Kakadu, Litchfield and the Top End Wilderness

Darwin is one of Australia's best-positioned cities for extraordinary wilderness day trips and weekends, with two of Australia's most spectacular national parks within 2-3 hours and a spectacular wet-season landscape that transforms the region from May through October. Litchfield National Park, 100 km south via the Stuart Highway, is Darwin residents' favourite weekend escape and one of the Northern Territory's most accessible wilderness areas, with waterfalls including Florence Falls and Wangi Falls (a spectacular plunge waterfall into a permanent waterhole), termite mounds and bushwalking all within a manageable day trip distance. Kakadu National Park, 3 hours southeast via the Arnhem Highway, is one of the world's great wilderness parks, encompassing 20,000 square kilometres of floodplain, wetland, and escarpment country with Aboriginal rock art at Ubirr and Nourlangie dated among the world's oldest, and the Yellow Water Billabong cruise providing encounters with saltwater crocodiles, jacanas and countless waterbirds. Katherine, 4 hours south, is the gateway to the spectacular Katherine Gorge (Nitmiluk National Park) where the Katherine River cuts through 13 gorges in ancient sandstone.