FAQs
What’s the food like?
On our gourmet food tours you’ll be served mostly a degustation (tasting) menu with an emphasis on fresh local ingredients as well as the influence of many cultures, including Aboriginal cultures. Local delicacies can include kangaroo, buffalo, barramundi, crocodile, prawns, tropical fruits and vegetables, and more.
You’ll enjoy a wide variety of gourmet dishes. Below is a wide selection from several of the restaurants on our tours that’s indicative of some of the gourmet dishes you can expect on a typical tour. Selections may vary from tour to tour, but we’ll serve you more than 12 different dishes
Menu Samples
• Duck salad with banana flower, mint, and ginger sauce
• Char grilled beef in local wild betel leaf
• Kai lan with oyster sauce
• Eggplant with sweet and sour dressing
• Miso marinated crocodile
• Whole char-grilled gold band snapper with cashew sauce
• Charred bullhorn pepper
• Green papaya salad
• Line-caught smoked mackerel pate
• Cassava wedges with spicy balado seasoning and kewpie mayo
• Rum Jungle buffalo croquettes
• Skull Island prawns
• Black garlic pate made in house
• Charred Berry Spring snake beans with toasted walnut
• Line-caught loligo calamari
• Crocodile dumplings
• Kangaroo spring rolls
• Berber spiced kangaroo with tomato jam
• Caramelised banana, vanilla ice cream, wattle seed caramel, macadamia, and mint.
We cater for special diets
We cater for dietary preferences including vegetarian, pescatarian, gluten-free, shellfish-free, allergies, and others. When you make a booking there's a space where you can write in your dietary preference, then confirm this with your guide at the start of your tour. Kindly note we are unable to cater for diets that are onion-free, vegan, halal, or kosher.
What drinks are available?
All standard soft drinks, coffee and tea are included in most of our food tours. See tour for details. One welcome drink of wine, beer, or spirits is included on most food tours. If you’d like to purchase alcohol, you can do so at most of the restaurants on our tour.
What are the restaurants like?
Our tours are constantly changing, so there’s lots to try. We focus on the best locally-sourced food, no matter where it can be found. On a typical tour we will take you to a variety of places and they might be a fancy restaurant or a hole-in-the-wall take-away joint. We’re all about finding the tastiest food, no matter where. Most of the venues we visit are air conditioned. Eating areas are non-smoking areas. Smoking areas are usually available nearby. Washrooms are available at several locations. All tours are wheelchair-accessible.
What’s the walk like?
This is a relaxed walking tour on level and paved walkways, all wheelchair accessible. The average walking distance is under 1.5 kilometres, broken into short walks between restaurants. Our tours generally finish about a kilometre from where they started. If the weather is poor we’ll provide transport. Tours operate in a small walking area as indicated below.
Where do food tours start?
Most tours start at Ruby Vietnamese Restaurant, 48-50 Smith Street, beside Raintree Park, Darwin City. Some tours begin in the restaurant and some just meet out front. See your tour info for details.
What to wear and what to bring
Please dress smart casual. You may want to wear shorts and a short-sleeved collared shirt in Darwin’s tropical climate, but no singlets or thongs please. Comfortable covered walking shoes are recommended.
Download the app
Get the free ‘Darwin Street Art’ app for Apple or Android devices to see futuristic augmented reality during your walk. Note the app may not work on all devices. Your guide carries an iPad so you can view it on a bigger screen that definitely works. Find out more about Darwin's vibrant street art scene.
Children
Girls and boys of all ages are welcome to join tours. Those aged 6 to 16 years old inclusive pay the listed Child’s price. Those aged under 6 years old eat free of charge.
Guest numbers
Tours are generally limited to 12 guests per tour. We can operate two simultaneous tours for a total of 24 guests. Just let us know what you have in mind.
Ad hoc private tours for one or more guests
If you book at least 24 hours in advance, we can guide a private tour for breakfast, lunch, or dinner on any day. Ask us for pricing and availability.
What are the historic and cultural landmarks we'll see on a tour?
The historic and cultural landmarks we stop to see depend on the tour and the day of the week. Not all tours include all landmarks. Your tour may include one or more of these:
Darwin Street Art
Austin Lane and West Lane
An unexpected surprise when wandering Darwin's city streets is the murals that adorn the walls of our laneways. Since 2017, the Darwin Street Art Festival has brought vibrancy and colour to the city's walls, with international, national and local artists contributing to the large-scale art gallery. Many art pieces feature very cool augmented reality. We’ll have photo opportunities in Darwin's celebrated Austin Lane, home to giant street art paintings.
The Old Town Hall
11 Smith Street
On Christmas Eve 1974, after almost a century enduring tropical conditions and 64 air raids during World War II, Darwin's Town Hall literally started crumbling during Cyclone Tracy. The heritage building—erected 14 years after European settlers arrived in the region in 1869—was damaged beyond repair by the natural disaster, as was much of the city. We’ll have photo opportunities at this heritage-listed site, a testament to the destructive power of the cyclone that destroyed much of Darwin.
Darwin Waterfront
Kitchener Drive
This is a great place to find gourmet food and drink, not to mention that it’s set on a beautiful lagoon on Darwin Harbour. Our tour is constantly changing and we feature different establishments on different days of the week. Weather permitting, we’ll dine outside with a view of the harbour.
Parliament House
Some weekday lunch tours enter the building. This grand building, known locally as The Wedding Cake, opened in 1994. Photo opportunities abound and your guide will point out one or two significant but hidden features.
State Square, Darwin
Overland Telegraph Memorial
Liberty Square
The Overland Telegraph line linked up with a submarine telegraph cable between Darwin and Java in 1872. It connected with the extensive British telegraph network, providing Australia with its first solid communications link with the rest of the world. If you could understand Morse code, that is.
Survivor’s Lookout
Esplanade
This high walkway gives spectacular views of Darwin Harbour and the Arafura Sea. Its name came about after survivors of the first WWII air raid on Darwin, in 1942, gathered here to see the devastation below. There were over 40 ships in Darwin Harbour during the attack, and some of the pictures on display are of burning ships seen from this high point.
Special Tours & Private Tours
Please note that various activities may be dependent on the seasons and the weather as well as sunrise, sunset, and tide times.
Darwin City Highlights
Explore the best of the tropical capital of Australia.
Explore Darwin with us and discover our most interesting attractions—some known only to locals. Explore a coffeeshop on a wide, deserted beach. Enjoy a stop at a city reserve, where agile wallabies are frequently seen grazing near the mangroves. Visit a quirky hidden valley that was once a flying boat base. Stroll the halls of Australia’s newest Parliament House and gaze out on the Timor Sea. Learn about our significant WWII history and bombing, and see points of interest. Visit an authentic Aboriginal art gallery, then marvel at huge street art that jumps off the walls and comes to life with augmented reality. There’s so much to see and do, and we can’t wait for you to join us. We'll be happy to customize your tour on request.
Your Darwin tour itinerary:
• we'll pick you up at your hotel
• visit a coffeeshop on a remote city beach
• sightsee at a coastal reserve where you might spot a wallaby
• discover a hidden valley steeped in colonial and WWII history
• watch street art come to life with augmented reality
• appreciate Aboriginal art at an authentic gallery
• survey sweeping views from the front lawn of Parliament House
• sightsee WWII points of interest
• enjoy a relaxed drive along our waterfront, esplanade, and millionaire’s row
• we'll drop you off at your hotel
Wildlife & Ecosystems of the Northern Territory
From crocodiles, to mangroves to kangaroos.
If you’re interested in wildlife, ecology, and the sustainable practices vital to the Northern Territory, this is the tour for you. We’ll take a visit to a premier wildlife park so you can get up-close encounters with iconic Australian fauna. Safely participate in the feeding of massive saltwater crocodiles, witnessing them leap from the water. And see a range of other native species, from kangaroos to the rare and formidable cassowary. Enjoy a relaxed walk through a mangrove ecosystem. I’ll explain the key role these hardy forests play in the health of our harbour, acting as a nursery for fish and crustaceans. Wade in the waters to feed many species of wild fish, a unique and natural phenomena at high tide. And there’s lots of wildlife in the city. We’ll enjoy sightseeing through parklands, actively searching for wild animals like orange-footed scrub fowl and sulphur-crested cockatoos. Includes a delicious gourmet lunch with crocodile and buffalo, and all alcohol. We can customise your tour on request.
Your Darwin tour itinerary:
• we'll pick you up at your hotel
• visit a wildlife park for guaranteed sightings of kangaroos, dingoes and many others
• enjoy a cruise on a waterway, with a jumping crocodile feeding
• sightsee at a coastal reserve where wallabies are sighted
• learn the vital role of mangroves on a guided interpretive mangrove boardwalk stroll
• actively look for wild birds and animals in local nature reserves
• gourmet lunch with crocodile, buffalo, and other locally-sourced produce, alcohol included
• hand feed wild ocean fish at the shoreline at a unique coastal reserve (tides permitting)
• enjoy a relaxed drive around our waterfront and esplanade on the lookout for wildlife
• we'll drop you off at your hotel.
Private tour options can include:
• WWII history, sites and sights
• Jumping crocodiles
• Litchfield Park
• Aviation Museum
• Royal Flying Doctor
• Private tropical gardens
• Chinese history, temple, museum
• Parap, Mindil Beach & other markets
• Botanic Gardens
• Jet ski trips
• Architecture
• Beaches
• Aboriginal art
• Museum & Art Gallery
• Parliament House
• Bar tours
• Kids’ activities
• Birding
• Heli-fishing
• Gourmet dining
• Distilleries
• Heli-tours
• Pub crawls
• Wild fish feeding
• Camel rides
Other tour options:
• customised itineraries
• ladies-only tours
• office incentives
• themed tours
• dinner and cocktails.
Cancellations, Booking Amendments and Refunds
If you cancel or amend a booking 48 hours or more before the start of your tour you will receive a full refund. If you cancel or amend a booking fewer than 48 hours before the start of your tour you will be charged 50% of your total cost. If you book a tour but we cancel the tour due to insufficient bookings or for any other reason, you will receive a full refund and the option to book another tour at a discount.