Central Australia

With a group size guaranteed to not exceed 26 people – this is truly a small group tour the likes of which we’ve built our reputation on.

Your 8-day itinerary will blend our accredited medical and pharma education seamlessly with a specially created itinerary hosted by our carefully selected guides.

Starting in Alice Springs, enjoy a ‘Welcome to Country‘ performance and the opportunity to network with your fellow participants before settling into the first of your conference sessions.

While in Alice Springs, you’ll also have the opportunity to visit the Royal Flying Doctor Service headquarters on a specially arranged tour.

Here you’ll learn about the history and the activities of the RFDS’s pilots, engineers, doctors, and nurses, and the experiences of the patients that are carried and cared for each day.

Leaving Alice Springs behind, you’ll travel first to Standley Chasm. Located in a private flora and fauna reserve, surrounded by the West MacDonnell National Park, you enjoy a guided walk through the 3 metre wide but 80 metre deep gorge where the traditional owners, the Arrernte people will explain the significance of the region and provide an insight into their spiritual connection to this ancient land.

From there, you’ll journey to Ormiston Gorge… a great place for a cool dip and to see an interesting variety of native fauna and flora including a number of relict plant species from Central Australia’s tropical past.

Kings Canyon is the next stop on your itinerary – but not before we leave the sealed roads behind and hit the Mereenie Loop. It’s an alternate and much more scenic way of getting to our destination and one of the advantages of using the purpose-built 5-star Mercedes Benz 4WD coaches in this part of the world. There won’t be a river, creek, or track that we can’t access.

Inside the air-conditioned vehicle, each guest will be allocated their own reclining seat… with business-class style legroom, while the USB charging points at each seat and satellite communication will mean you’re never out of contact with loved ones at home.

During your two-night stay at Kings Canyon, you have plenty of opportunities to enjoy either the guided 6km Rim Walk or the shorter 2.6km Canyon Floor guided walk. Whichever you choose, you’re guaranteed to be blown away by the beauty of the area.

Uluru is the final stop on your Central Australia itinerary with 3 nights at the luxury 5-star Sails in the Desert Resort.

We’ve got an event to remember planned for your first evening – kicking off with the magical ‘Sounds of Silence’ dinner. It begins overlooking Uluru as the sunset, includes a premium bush tucker menu, and ends with some stargazing while sitting comfortably by the campfire.

Also on the itinerary while based at Sail in the Desert is a trip out to Kata Tjuta (the Olgas) where you will have the chance to admire the stunning rock formations on another of the specially arranged guided walks. You’ll then return to Uluru to meet one of the traditional owners of the land and learn about the local Anangu culture.

The last full day of your Central Australia itinerary includes the final 2 conference sessions and some free time before visiting artist Bruce Munro’s global phenomenon ‘Field of Light’ which features 50,000 slender stems crowned with radiant frosted spheres, spread across an area the size of 7 football fields.

Departing the resort before sunset, you and the other Amaco participants will head to an exclusive dune top location affording majestic views of Uluru. Enjoy drinks and canapes as ‘Field of Light’ gently illuminates, and the 50,000 glass spheres come to life. After your host provides some insights into this remarkable installation, you welcome to head off to explore the stunning display via the dedicated pathways. Return to the resort for your Farewell Dinner.

In these COVID times, we understand the concerns of our participants and have carefully selected operators who we know will be able to maintain the high standard we expect of them.

Uncompromising cleaning and hygiene practices are already a feature of every Amaco tour and this hasn’t changed. If anything, we’re more fastidious now and ensure that additional cleaning, sanitising, and hygiene practices have been implemented in all areas with particular emphasis on high touch points and hard surfaces.

All the transportation and accommodation we will be using have been carefully selected and are fully equipped with all that you will need. Hand sanitising stations will be available in all public areas and personal hygiene kits will also be provided where appropriate.

We certainly hope that you can join us as we travel through Central Australia from 31 March to 7 April 2021.

Remember… this tour is limited to 26 people. Places will be allocated in the order that completed registration forms and deposits are received. 

Given everything that has happened in the travel industry of late – you’re correct to be vigilant about where you spend your travel dollar.

Amaco is not only a member of AFTA, the Australian Federation of Travel Agents but we are also ATAS Travel Accredited. This means we have met strict industry financial, operational, and management standards and criteria. Only the best industry agents achieve this accreditation meaning that you can travel with us knowing that you’re in safe and capable hands.

With almost 25 years’ experience in planning and running conferences, we understand that participants often want to add additional travel destinations and adventures either before or after the conference and travel packages we provide.

We encourage all participants to make the most of the time away. This might mean departing earlier than the rest of the group and visiting other destinations before meeting up with the main group at the conference or staying on at the conclusion and doing some additional travel.

Either way – our consultants are perfectly positioned to assist you with making these arrangements and will do all the hard work for you – seamlessly combining your personalised itinerary with the group program.

Amaco is an Accredited Education Provider for the Royal Australian College of General Practitioners (RACGP) and the Australian College of Rural & Remote Medicine.

Each conference we run includes an education syllabus that assists GP’s, pharmacists and health professionals to improve the quality of care they provide to patients and customers while at the same time providing them the opportunity to travel to and experience new and exciting destinations.

Our conference will allow delegates the opportunity to earn CPD points based on the content and time in session. As has been the case with past conferences, we will work closely with participants affiliated with other associations to ensure that they receive maximum recognition for attending the conference.

The content of the education sessions will be relevant to GPs, Medical Specialists, Pharmacists, Dentists, Nurses and other health providers. We encourage all attendees to register for the conference sessions.

The Education Committee for our Central Australia Conference will be selected in the first quarter of 2021 with final conference topics to be chosen based on the feedback from our previous conference attendees and with input from the RACGP, ACRRM, and Medical Journals. Suitable speakers will be approached based on the topics selected.

Subject to final accreditation, the Central Australia Conference will include an Accredited Education Activity (formerly Category 1 Activity) affording delegates the opportunity to earn up to 40 points.

ACRRM members can also expect the education program to be accredited and to earn CPD points. RACGP and ACRRM accreditation will be applied for under the triennium 2020 to 2022.

As has been the case in the past, Amaco will work with pharmacy bodies and those affiliated with other associations to ensure that they receive maximum recognition for attending the conference.

We welcome applications from potential presenters and encourage anyone interested to contact us to obtain further information.