Australia & The Ghan

Train and Hotel Accommodations

Majestic Roof Garden Hotel, Adelaide
The 4-Star Majestic Roof Garden Hotel is located in the center of Adelaide, providing easy access to many of the city's main attractions. The hotel boasts a lobby restaurant and bar overlooking the streets of Adelaide, which is open daily for breakfast and dinner. Leisure facilities include a fitness center offering views over the whole city. All hotel rooms come equipped with mini bar, air conditioning, complimentary Wi-Fi internet access, safe, television, iron and ironing board, and tea and coffee making facilities.

Peppers Waymouth Hotel, Adelaide
Sat in an impressive tower, overlooking the rest of attractive Adelaide, the 5-Star Peppers Waymouth Hotel provide luxury and charm in its tasteful rooms and elegant environs. Part of the Peppers hotel range, the Waymouth is perfectly placed for visitors to venture out into the lights of the city. Amenities include an indoor swimming pool with views offer the streets, a sauna and spa, a restaurant, internet lounge and a bar. Rooms include complimentary WiFi, a safe, a television and a hairdryer.

Crowne Plaza Lasseters, Alice Springs
The 4-Star Crowne Plaza Lasseters is elegant, stylish and modern, offering comfortable accommodation in one of Australia's favorite cities. With a superb range of facilities at your disposal, your peace of mind and time in Alice Springs are of the highest priority at this excellent hotel. Amenities include a fitness suite, an outdoor pool, a spa, various hotel restaurants and bars, and complimentary WiFi. Rooms include a television, a hairdryer and a wall safe.

DoubleTree by Hilton Hotel, Alice Springs
The 4-Star DoubleTree by Hilton Hotel is located in a suburban area approx. 2km from the center of Alice Springs. The hotel has two restaurants: one offers contemporary Australian cuisine, the other has a Thai and Indian-inspired menu. There is also a lobby bar that serves light meals during the day. The DoubleTree by Hilton Hotel has a gift shop as well as a health and fitness center with a sauna, fully equipped gym and an outdoor swimming pool. Rooms feature individually controlled air conditioning, a television, telephone, mini-bar, tea and coffee making facilities, safe and a hairdryer.

Desert Gardens Hotel, Ayers Rock Resort
The 4-Star Desert Gardens Hotel enjoys a central location in Ayers Rock Resort, close to all the resort's facilities as well as the lookouts, where you can enjoy watching the sunset on Uluru and the surrounding desert. The hotel is set amidst gardens of ghost gums and native flowering shrubs and features a restaurant serving Australian cuisine, a bar and an outdoor pool. All rooms are air conditioned and equipped with a telephone, television, radio, mini-bar, refrigerator, tea and coffee making facilities and a hairdryer. All rooms have either a private veranda or courtyard.

Sails in the Desert Hotel, Ayers Rock Resort
Situated close to Uluru is our hotel during our time here, the 5-Star Sails in the Desert Hotel. The hotel is named as such thanks to its billowing white 'sails' that shade the luxurious guest rooms and facilities. The amenities on offer at this hotel includes a swimming pool, a spa, offering a range of fantastic massage therapies (payable locally), a restaurant, and even an art gallery. The beautiful and air-conditioned hotel rooms are furnished in neutral tones, and come complete with indigenous artwork, a minibar, a television, an in-room safe, complimentary Wi-Fi and tea & coffee-making facilities.

Pullman Cairns International, Cairns
Found in the heart of Cairns City, the city of the Great Barrier Reef of Australia, the Pullman Cairns International Hotel is an excellent choice from which to explore more of Australia and this metropolitan city. The hotel features a superb range of amenities including a swimming pool, a Jacuzzi, a gymnasium and a sauna. There is also a bar and a restaurant. Each room has a hairdryer, a minibar and a television.

Crown Promenade, Melbourne
The 4-star Crown Promenade is situated in the heart of Melbourne's lively Southbank district. A range of restaurants, bars and cafés serve food and drinks in the attached Entertainment Complex, and the hotel also has its own restaurant and bar on site. 24-hour room service is available. Rooms at the Crown Promenade assure air conditioning with independent temperate control, a large flat-panel digital television, mini-bar, tea and coffee making facilities, hair dryer, safe and high-speed wireless internet access. Relaxing is easy at the hotel's Deck leisure center, which features a 25 meter indoor pool, a sauna, steam and massage rooms, a gym and an activities studio.

Amora Hotel Jamison, Sydney
The 5-Star Amora Hotel Jamison is located in the center of the city near just a short walk away from the Sydney Opera House, Harbor Bridge and many more of Sydney's great attractions. The hotel boasts two restaurants and two bars for you to choose from, offering a wide range of food for you to enjoy. Leisure facilities at the Amora Hotel Jamison include a heated swimming pool, fully equipped gym, sauna, steam room and the Amora spa (payable locally). The contemporary hotel rooms come equipped with air conditioning, mini bar, hairdryer, safe, toaster, telephone, iron and ironing board and television.

Katoomba Scenic Railroad
Once a 19th century novelty that pre-dated rollercoasters, the Katoomba Scenic Railroad is the world's steepest incline track. The railroad gradually lowers through the ancient rainforest surroundings.

Kuranda Scenic Railroad
The Kuranda Scenic Railroad has journeyed through the World Heritage Rainforest of tropical North Queensland for 125 years. Weaving through a series of switchbacks and tunnels above the Barron River Gorge to Kuranda, the KSR provides magnificent views of this outstanding national park.

NSW Trainlink XPT
The frequent NSW TrainLink XPT service operates in and between several Australian cities, including Brisbane, Sydney, Melbourne and Casino.

Similar in design to the UK's InterCity 125, the XPT follows the route of the Hume Highway through the state of Victoria, passing through Benalla and the cathedral city of Wangaratta before entering the state of New South Wales and the Riverina region. The broad, flat plains of the Riverina comprise some of the most agriculturally productive land in Australia due to the favourable climate and a plentiful water supply.

The XPT service continues through the cities of Albury and Wagga Wagga and then heads west to Cootamundra and the Southern Tablelands. Leaving Goulburn, the train enters the Southern Highlands of New South Wales, a mountainous wine-producing region that sits on the Great Dividing Range. Finally, after passing through the suburbs of Campbelltown and Strathfield in the Australian capital, the service pulls into Sydney's Central Railroad Station.

We reserve First Class carriages for daytime journeys on the NSW TrainLink XPT. First Class accommodation features extra legroom, a deluxe reclining seat, and a footrest. Most seats rotate to form a 'conversation group' of four. A buffet car selling a selection of hot and cold meals, snacks, alcoholic and non-alcoholic drinks are available on board the train.

Puffing Billy steam train
With its reputation as Australia's favourite steam train the century-old Puffing Billy is a treasure for rail enthusiasts. A low-cost narrow gauge line constructed in Victoria during the early 1900s, the classic steam engine opened up rural areas and has been championed by the Puffing Billy Preservation Society since the sixties. We journey on Billy from Belgrave through the Dandenong Ranges, crossing rustic timber bridges and passing scenic Emerald Lake Park and Wright State Forest on the way to the historic town of Gembrook.

The Ghan
Australia's Afghan Express, now affectionately referred to as The Ghan, offers Great Rail Journeys' guests an epic travel experience through this remarkable country.

Named in tribute to the Afghan camel drivers who helped to make Australia's arid and uncharted Red Center accessible at the end of the nineteenth century, The Ghan's maiden journey in August 1929 traveled the 1,559 kilometres from Adelaide, South Australia to Alice Springs.

Since that first journey it was always intended that The Ghan's journey would continue from Alice Springs to Darwin on the coast of Australia's Northern Territory, and this became a reality in 2004 following the opening of a 1,420-kilometre rail link between the two cities.

Today, the entire 2,979-kilometre trip from Adelaide to Darwin, or vice-versa, can be made in three days. Traveling in luxurious comfort aboard a train fully-equipped with modern amenities, our guests aboard The Ghan enjoy a journey that takes in some of Australia's most diverse and spectacular scenery.

The Overland Train
The recently refurbished Overland serves the route between Adelaide and Melbourne. During this daylight journey we travel in Red Premium Service, which offers passengers comfortable reclining seats and complimentary orange juice or water on boarding the train. Red Premium Service passengers have access to the licensed Red Service Café Carriage which serves a selection of snacks, meals and drinks. There is also an at-seat trolley service with snacks and drinks available for purchase, as well as a limited selection of a la carte dishes.

Passport & Visa Requirements
It is your responsibility to check and fulfill the passport, visa, health and immigration requirements applicable to your itinerary. We do not accept any responsibility if you cannot travel, or incur any other loss because you have not complied with any passport, visa, immigration requirements or health formalities. You agree to reimburse us in relation to any fines or other losses which we incur as a result of your failure to comply with any passport, visa, immigration requirements or health formalities.

Please visit CIBTvisas for additional information.