It’s important to be clear what this is. Aurora Kakadu is not a hotel – it is a motel with a large number of blocks of serviced rooms. Staff were all very pleasant, friendly and helpful, but everything else seemed a bit hit and miss or full of inconsistencies. For example: the gardens are beautiful, but the buildings look rather tired and jaded; in the rooms, beds were made daily, but dirty coffee mugs were never changed; a good breakfast is in the pleasant restaurant, but evening meal (when we were there) was only available in the rather basic café-bar – and no coffee was available afterwards!
All this is a huge pity because you do come gloriously close to nature! Wallabies on the breakfast lawn, cockatoos a plenty flying in the grounds and herons (or maybe cranes) nesting in the trees. You may also find harmless geckos or frogs sharing your room. If you’re happy with that, and are prepared to put up with those silly little, and unnecessary, shortcomings in service, then you’ll love it – but if you want carpets on the floor and waitress service, then this may not be for you. (Having said that, there is precious little else available in the Kakadu Park. We did not stay at the Crocodile Inn in Jabiru, but found the town itself to be rather soulless and unwelcoming, so Aurora may be the best of a rather poor batch.)
Note no mobile phone signal here, and no wifi anywhere on site.
- Aurora Kakadu National Park
