It’s a place of relaxation and family fun with crocodile-safe swimming areas, playgrounds, restaurants, parklands and shopping areas.

A crocodile and jellyfish-free chlorine and saltwater pool, the lagoon operates on a 20-minute cycle that creates waves of varying sizes. It also includes a shallow area for little ones and sun loungers for big ones.

Best planned during the golden hour, book a cruise with options that include seafood dinners, ‘gaze and graze’ platters or simply your own camera, as you drink in the view as the sun sinks behind the waterline. This romantic experience lasts two to three hours and includes onboard commentary.

During the dry season (May to October), Mindil Beach, Casuarina Beach and Nightcliff Beach are patrolled on various days.

During the dry season (May to October), Mindil Beach, Casuarina Beach and Nightcliff Beach are patrolled on various days.

During the dry season (May to October), Mindil Beach, Casuarina Beach and Nightcliff Beach are patrolled on various days.

Run by the Darwin Film Society, the independent Deckchair Cinema is a local treat, showing alternative films in the open air on Darwin Harbour. Each night from 6pm, a different local caterer dishes up dinner, with Indonesian, Sri Lankan and Nepalese food just some of those on rotation.

Families can start off at the Visitor and Event Centre to learn more about plants that are native to the Northern Territory, like tropical orchids and bromeliads, frangipanis, teapot baobab tree. End an afternoon exploration with iced tea at Eva’s Café in the historic Wesleyan Church, or with a run around at the children’s playground.

One of Darwin’s most famous markets, the nighttime market runs on Thursday evenings in the dry season, with vendors dishing out a dizzying array of food. We’re talking locally shucked oysters, Indonesian satay sticks, tropical juices and ice cream, charcoal octopus, and spiced laksa. You can also pick up souvenirs, like opals and crocodile leather.

Take your pick of fresh, local fruits, vegetables and other produce, grab a bunch of sweet-smelling flowers from the tropics, peruse the specialist crafts, or just go straight for a smoothie to sip as you tap your feet to live music.

If climbing into the ‘Cage of Death’ is less a thrilling adventure, and more akin to your worst nightmare – the type where you wake up sweating – no dramas.There is also the big croc feeding show, the chance to feed baby crocs yourself, and a reptile house that little ones will love.

It ishome to the annual Telstra National Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Art Awards (NATSIAA). As well as ongoing collections – like Transformation: a fascinating representation of the evolutionary timeline of the natural world, Cyclone Tracey: an exhibition on how the devastating hurricane tore through town in 1974, and a collection of traditional boats and canoes – there are seasonal exhibitions, workshops and tours suitable for all ages.

A popular final stop on the Darwin History and Wartime Experience Tour (one of our favourite Darwin tours), the museum is home to the interactive Defence of Darwin Experience. Commemorating the 1942 bombing of Darwin by the Japanese forces in WW2, the display includes first-hand accounts of the event by witnesses. You can also explore the photographs, artefacts, weapons, propaganda and interviews from those deployed in the Boer War to today, as well as military vehicles and artillery pieces in the tropical gardens.

The Royal Flying Doctor Service Tourist Facility tells both this story, and the one of the founding of the service which took to the skies in the NT in 1939.‘Fly’ with an RFDS Pilot in virtual reality as a ‘patient’; watch a hologram of Reverend John Flynn, the Founder of the Flying Doctor Service, as he tells his story; and climb into a RFDS Pilatus PC 12 aircraft. Kids can also learn while playing an interactive game and with digital painting.

The Darwin Aviation Museum includes a B-25 Mitchell and an enormous B-52G bomber, as well as the wreckage of a Japanese Zero fighter, shot down during WW2, a replica Spitfire MVIII, a F-111C interdictor and tactical strike aircraft and much more. Other exhibits pay tribute to famous female aviators, as well as displaying the only known colour film of the bombing of Darwin during WW2.

Run as a prison from 1883 till 1979, the oppressive makeup of the gaol speaks to its past as a jail for both men and women, execution site and Army and Air Force base.

For less than $10, family members can explore, and read up at the tunnel’s displays that speak to the city’s rich WW2 history.