Guide to Northern Territory paraglide holidays

Darwin, in Australia’s Northern Territory, is a great place to paraglide if you enjoy big views and wide open spaces. Which, of course, every paraglider does. The Northern Territory has a sparse population of just 233,000, meaning there is very little human interruption to those views once you’re up in the air…

A Darwin paragliding trip, then, gives you an aerial peak at some of Australia’s most remote land. Darwin itself lies on the coast, looking out over the Timor Sea. The city is a relaxed, tropical place with a strong multicultural vibe. It is a friendly, cosmopolitan place to be based. The dry season lasts from May to October, so that’s the time to go to Darwin for paragliding.

The area around Darwin offers some stunning coastal paragliding. Get up into the air and fly over its palm trees and red-tinged beaches. Just off the coast is Melville Island, a rainforest-covered island home to just a few hundred people – enjoy those unspoilt views when you fly over!

If you’d rather stay inland, you don’t have to go far out of the city to find land that is untouched by humans as far as you can see. The territory is fairly flat, but there are some rocky, often flat-topped mountains that rise out of the desert. Pine Gap, near Alice Springs, is used by paragliders. To find other sites in this isolated land, you’ll need to check with local operators.

A Darwin paragliding trip is not the first thing on most travellers’ minds when they head to Australia. Travelling and flying in this wild, empty region can be challenging. But this is the real Outback, and its vastness is definitely best appreciated from the air.