This is a good place for summer vacation

Just where "civilized" Australia ends and the outback begins is the source of some debate. Some say the outback starts right where the big cities end. The eucalypt-filled forests of the Blue Mountains, which lie just a few kilometres from Sydney's outer suburbs, will suffice for these folk. Others say you must delve much further into the heart of the continent, to the types of places where a drive over to the next town means a three-hour car ride.

One thing is for sure, whether you drive, fly or come by train, the visit to Central Australia will provide you with a much better sense of the diversity -- and enormity -- of the country.

On a recent visit to Alice Springs, my mom and I opted for the least painful mode of transportation. While I'd already been working and travelling in Australia for 10 months, mom had less than four weeks to cram as much of the Land Down Under into her itinerary as she could. We'd discussed taking a passenger train from Adelaide, on the southern shore of the continent, to Alice Springs. But the 1,500 km journey was going to take longer than 24 hours, and we had to first get ourselves from the island of Tasmania, just off the southeastern tip of mainland Oz, to Adelaide. We just didn't have that kind of time. Alice Springs hotels are waiting for you to stay in vacation days in Alice spring. This is a good place for summer vacation.

Our plane from Melbourne delivers us to the Alice Springs airport with old-fashioned flair. We disembark by way of a staircase and walk right onto the tarmac toward the terminal. Within seconds the intense heat and dryness of the desert makes itself known to us. It's early January -- the hottest month of the year in Alice Springs -- and the temperature hovers somewhere near 42 C. I swear I can literally feel the moisture from my skin being sucked out by the elements.