Wotif Canberra was better than Darwin?

We lived in Darwin for 3 years. We loved it, but once you have done all there is to do it gets to be a bit boring, especially when all your family and friends are down south. The cost to go any place south of there is enormous. Instead of complaining about the weather, we embraced it. We sat on the balcony with a glass of wine and watch the most spectacular thunder storms, the whole house shook. Then the rain would come, so loud that you can’t hear yourself think. I miss Darwin enormously. I miss the friendly people, the tourists, the markets, the food (especially the Barra at the wharf). A lot of unexpected things happen in Darwin, eg snakes in the house, the Adelaide river flooded and we were stopped on the road by police because crocodiles were lying on the bridge sunning themselves! A goanna made itself at home in the fan on the balcony, and he was a good weather forecaster. We knew a storm was coming because he crawled into the fan to hide. Darwin and vicinity are amazing, I think everybody should visit at least once, regardless of the weather.

el said :

bd84 said :

If you really want to visit a city where there is nothing to do and has crap weather, visit Brisbane.

You’re kidding, surely? Unless you hate the ‘crap’ all-year-round warm, usually sunny weather and the wealth of both national and international music/sporting/theatre/cultural/entertainment events?

I hate the former, not so the latter: Brisbane is completely uninhabitable for half of the year when it’s just too hot and humid (although I have found Toowoomba is a great place for some relief in the wet season).

Half of these arguments are stupid. Both Brisbane and Darwin are great places to visit, as long as you don’t go in the horrible half of the year. Not sure why people think rain is a bad thing; my family went to Dubbo for Christmas and enjoyed four days swimming in the rain, visiting the zoo in the rain, and just enjoying being wet for a change! When the sun finally came out we went through Wellington Caves because it was too bloody hot outside!

The quality of holiday destinations has less to do with their climates and more to do with what you do when you’re there. At least, it does for positive people. For ignorant nincompoops who do nothing but lie on beaches, it doesn’t really matter. They’ll go and get stuck inside in the rain, probably go to a bloody shopping centre identical to the ones they left behind at home, thinking there’s nothing else to do or that it can’t be done in the rain, and then still come home to Canberra and whine about the weather…

Harvyk hit the nail on the head. Darwin is lagging because it’s less readily accessible, not because there’s anything wrong with the place. But, there are things that people will still want to go to Darwin for at some point, in the same way that we all have this strange desire to visit London despite its awful weather and remoteness, or to visit Tibet despite its weather and remoteness! Darwin may not attract as many, but one of these days I’ll need to visit Kakadu to fulfill one of those inexplicable desires and I’ll probably stop in Darwin while I’m in the vicinity…

bd84 said :

If you really want to visit a city where there is nothing to do and has crap weather, visit Brisbane.

You’re kidding, surely? Unless you hate the ‘crap’ all-year-round warm, usually sunny weather and the wealth of both national and international music/sporting/theatre/cultural/entertainment events?

If you really want to visit a city where there is nothing to do and has crap weather, visit Brisbane.

GnT said :

Eby said :

While we might not be a particularly exciting tourist destination … Canberra is a work-hub, if not a tourist-hub.

harvyk1 said :

whilst we may not be a tourist hub,

Not a tourist destination? Sorry, I guess you forgot about the National Museum, Questacon, War Memorial, Parliament House, OPH, National Gallery, National Library, Portrait Gallery, etc etc. Plenty of tourists come to Canberra.

Sure. But they don’t come back.

Don’t get me wrong, I love Canberra. But if I were living in Melbourne I wouldn’t be saying ‘On our next holiday, let’s go to Canberra – I’d LOVE to see the National Library!’

Eby said :

While we might not be a particularly exciting tourist destination … Canberra is a work-hub, if not a tourist-hub.

harvyk1 said :

whilst we may not be a tourist hub,

Not a tourist destination? Sorry, I guess you forgot about the National Museum, Questacon, War Memorial, Parliament House, OPH, National Gallery, National Library, Portrait Gallery, etc etc. Plenty of tourists come to Canberra.

caf said :

The NT News is Australia’s least credible newspaper – the only thing that pushes croc or shark attacks off the front page is UFO sightings.

worse than the illawarra mercury?? wow, that takes some beating…
😉

Gotta love the hype around a completly biased and subjective poll prepared by a private company listing the top locations where ‘clients’ have booked through them! What does it prove? So, wot if people book online and they happen to book more for Canberra than Darwin? Obviously Darwinites care, obviously not much to do up there other than to whinge about being a lowly 12th lol. But the point is that the number of bookings do not really reflect a rank of tourist destination as pointed out by Eby, but merely the number of people who needed hotel accommodation, and that is just according to one out of about a dozen sites, not to mention travel agents, and people booking with hotels directly. In any case, Darwin is smaller and have less hotels than Canberra.

Ha, they should be more worried about Launceston beating them than Canberra. Although I’ll pay the listing of “Look at a map of Tassie” as thing to do in Launceston.

Commented on NTnews article with …

THINGS TO DO IN CANBERRA
1. Take a trip to Mt Kosiosco ( it less that 300 kms away from Canberra unlike Kakadu)
2. Visit Molonglo Gorge and have a picnic and a swim
3. Meet a Cheetah at the National Zoo and Aquarium
4. Take in a sunset at Mt Corree
5. Take the ferry on Lake Burley Griffin for a Sunday session