With direct flights from Brisbane to Darwin with Virgin Australia, while the east coast is still shivering you can switch to summer in under four hours. Touch down and check in at Hilton Garden Inn Darwin, the city’s newest hotel. Squint and you could be at The Calile in Brisbane with its curved facade, juliet balconies and breezeblocks. It’s a reimagining of what used to be a Hilton Doubletree – and was famously the only tower left standing on the waterfront after Cyclone Tracy ripped through in ‘74 – a year after the hotel was built. While its interiors are now very much of the now, old school prices can still be found around the pool with a $15 cocktail menu.

After a stroll along the waterfront as the sky transitions through sorbet shades, dive straight into the city’s steamy food scene with dinner at Ella by Minoli, tucked away in West Lane. On a Wednesday night, the restaurant is thumping and nowhere more so than the private ‘green room’ where our group dines. Ella is MasterChef Australia contestant Minoli de Silva’s modern homage to her homeland, named after the small town found high in the hills of Sri Lanka, and the menu is a celebration of punchy flavour-rich bites with everything made in house. Vegan or not, the cauliflower with pickled green chilli aioli is a must while the godhamba roti is large enough to feed a small family.

As tranquil as the view from bed on the 8th floor of the Hilton Garden Inn is – as yachts slide serenely across the blue harbour above lush parklands, and the ferry heading to Tiwi Islands powers past – croc-free swimming spots await. Rob from Ethical Adventures knows Darwin’s closest national park in Larrakia Country better than most, having run his day trip to Litchfield National Park for the past 10 years. “You would need two weeks to explore it all,” he says as we drive through open woodland studded with spear grass, sand palms and cathedral-like termite mounds. “Today we’ll sample the best bits.” The early start pays off when we’re swimming above sooty grunter and archerfish with goggles on and getting a ‘thousands palm massage’ under the waterfall in the clear waters of Berry Springs. The springs consist of two large pools and in our almost two-hour visit, we only see one other – a swimming-cap-clad local doing laps, not sipping coffee and eating still-warm mango muffins like us. At Wangi Falls, a short hike up over the top of the twin falls serves as a warm-up to a refreshing swim across the waterhole. There’s a natural rocky ‘bath’ a short scramble up the rocks near the smaller of the falls and I find a peaceful moment sitting immersed in its cool waters looking up at the craggy sandstone walls. After a mindful lunch at Tabletop swamp – which Rob delivers to us after sending us off with a stool to each find a private ‘sit spot’ – watching the egrets and rosellas interact with this important water source, we stop by Florence Falls and return to Darwin via a peek at the curious magnetic termite mounds that are only found here. Standing up to four metres high, the thin mounds all face the same direction and resemble tombstones lined up on a wide flat plain.

Being at the confluence of cultures from its closest neighbours – from Indonesia to Singapore and Malaysia – Darwin is home to some of Australia’s best food markets, with some dedicated stallholders manning the pans at the Mindil Beach Sunset Markets since 1987. The atmosphere builds as the sun wanes with up to 10-15,000 people converging like a hungry conga line when it’s busy. Circus performers rev up the crowd as travellers kick back on the grass behind the long line of food stalls to sip BYO beers and fruit smoothies, and tuck into cardboard plates of peking duck and pickled octopus, steaming bowls of laksa and crocodile burgers. While dessert options are plentiful, nothing beats the free show that hits the beach at sunset. Thousands find their own patch of sand to witness the spectacle and applause is guaranteed.

Enjoy breakfast that directly supports local Indigenous communities at Aboriginal Bush Traders, a not-for-profit cafe, art gallery and boutique in the CBD. A breakfast tasting plate offers a delicious line-up of a bacon and egg pie, granola and a bliss ball infused with bush foods which are farmed or collected on Country. “[Bush foods are] a $40 million industry, and only two percent is driven by First Nations,” says manager, Samoane, who shows us through the gallery after our breakfast. As well as providing employment and support for staff in the cafe and the artists who exhibit in the gallery, a big part of what Aboriginal Bush Traders do is calling out any supplier or artist who isn’t legitimate. It adds a layer of comfort purchasing from here – whether it be an original artwork, a coffee mug, jewellery or skin care – knowing the money flows back to where it belongs. “That’s what everything in here is about, walking out with some of that 60,000 year old history,” Samoane says.

With its compact city heart, Darwin is a great city for wandering on foot and even better when almost all of its streets have been emblazoned with artworks. The large-scale pieces are by 23 local and internationally renowned artists, commissioned during the seven years of the Darwin Street Art Festivals. It started in the The ‘old Woolies building’ in Austin Lane, a hip strip now filled with bars and edgy boutiques, where festival co-founder David Collins used to graffiti as a child. “I never thought we would change how people move through the city,” he says. Now, as well as providing QR codes that reveal information about the artist, the artworks come to life through augmented reality within the Darwin Street Art Festival app. Hold it up to pieces like Luna Tune’s House of Darwin mural on Austin Lane and you’ll see the elements dance around, or to the tribute to the late Vincent Lingiari by Jesse Bell, which plays Paul Kelly’s “From Little Things, Big Things Grow”. It’s hard to pick a favourite but for me, it’s between the portrait of Gurrumul – “Dr G” as David calls him – painted with permission from his family in the year after his passing by Andrew Bourke and Jesse Bell, and the towering homage to Tiwi Island sistagirl/yimpininni, ‘Shaniqua’, by Kaff-eine in West Lane.

Slip into the suburbs to check out an award-winning distillery using Indigenous superfoods in its tinctures and serving smoked negronis in a low-key shed to a soundtrack that runs Foo Fighters to the Rolling Stones. Willing’s Distillery quietly opened in 2020 and the cellar door is a top spot to work your way through the cocktail menu with a cheese board, some Bogan biltong, or something from one of the food trucks that pop up here.

Darwin’s best waterfront dining is a hotly contested topic with venues that range from the sailing club to chef’s hatted-Char and the alfresco institution Pee Wee’s on the Point, which has been serving Darwin locals for more than 20 years. When it comes to the setting, this is special occassion stuff, set out on a waterfront nature reserve with the soft lapping of the water at your feet. The atmosphere – looking back across to the CBD with the balmy kiss of dusk on your shoulders – come with a price tag to match the hefty serves, with mains averaging $60. Keen for a night cap? Dismissing the misconception that Darwin is all BCF fishing shirts and explicit NT bumper stickers, Stone House is a cool city wine bar in an old opium den on Cavenagh Street that has been collecting awards for its thoughtful wine selection since opening in 2016.

You may be sweating already but don’t let that stop you joining the queue of locals lining up for a serve of Mary’s famous laksa at the Parap Markets, set in a leafy village square, eight-minutes’ drive from the CBD. The Territory icon has been dishing up steaming bowls of the stuff – available in 16 varieties – for more than 20 years. There are shopping stalls here too, should you be in the market for a stuffed cane toad fridge magnet or something more benign like a pair of earrings, but it’s really all about the food. Great mounds of dragonfruit and avocados and papaya. The smell of charcoal burning as Sari Rasa’s sate is turned and eager patrons lick their lips in wait. Vivid mounds of shaved ice, French-style crepes and crunchy banh mi. It’s a smart stop to keep that holiday feeling flowing as you head to the airport and even better if you manage to find the stall with the mango sticky rice to BYO on your flight home – just make sure you polish it off before you land or be prepared to lose the mango in the quarantine bins. Virgin Australia offers direct flights to Darwin from several major cities in Australia, operating daily services from Brisbane to Darwin and Melbourne to Darwin with additional services added during peak periods. Virgin Australia also operates 5 flights per week from Perth to Darwin and seasonally operates up to 3 flights per week from Adelaide to Darwin between April and September.