This section is dedicated to take away all your "I wish someone had told me that before I went!" experiences. This way, you can spend less time settling in, and more time making new friends in your chosen hostel. We share our insider knowledge of tips, tricks and important things to look out for in Kakadu National Park.
Kakadu National Park lies in the top end of Australia's Northern Territory, east from the main city of Darwin. This is one of the best and amazing national parks of the country, and one of the most visited. The name of the park comes from Gagudju, a language that was used in the northern part of the area. Few other places on earth can claim uninterrupted occupation by man for something like fifty thousand years, and the proof will be there for you to see -- countless caves and rock shelters contain more than five thousand art sites.
If you want to enjoy everything in this national park, you should visit during the dry season -- May to September -- as during the rest of the year, some of the most amazing waterfall areas could be closed due to floods.
To come to Kakadu, you'll find a lot of tours starting either from Darwin or Katherine, where you'll find many offers with different levels of comfort, guidance, and number of people to suit your budget. It will also be easy for you to visit Kakadu National Park on your own with a four-wheel drive and some information that you can obtain from the Tourist Information Centre near Jabiru. Unfortunately, the tour operators have exclusive access to some of the best places in the Kakadu National Park that you will not be able to reach on your own. There are hundreds of walking treks in the park; most will take you from amazing rocky mountains full of art rock -- some of them dating far back as twenty-five thousand years ago -- to billabongs crowded with wildlife.
There are just a few hostels in Kakadu National Park, mainly located near Jabiru and Cooinda. The hostels are basic and usually offer a range of accommodation from private rooms, dorms, and tents on a campsite. The hostels in Kakadu National Park are usually a little bit more expensive than the average for being in such a remote place, but you will find them worth it because of the beauty of the national park.
Written by local enthusiast for Kakadu National Park hostels
