SUMMARY
How to get there:
Drive or fly Where to stay:
Ayers Rock Resort (multiple accommodation options) What to do:
A range of walks around Uluru, Field of Light,
Uluru Cultural Centre, Ayers Rock Resort facilities Extras:
Segway Tour, Kata Tjuta, Kings Canyon Must have:
Hat, sunscreen, mix of clothing including warm clothes, fly net, refillable water bottle
For many Australians, Uluru is considered the ‘heart of Australia’. This is both because it lies geographically in the middle of our island nation and because it is an easily identifiable symbol that is representative of our country.
It is certainly iconic. The rock face of Uluru rises more than 300 metres above the surrounding red sands and scrubby bushes, and it has a circumference of over nine kilometres. It is actually part of a huge (mostly underground) series of rock formations, and the nearby Kata Tjuta is also part of the same series.
This area is known as the ‘Red Centre’ of Australia and it is a destination that many people have on their bucket lists, Australians and international visitors alike.
There ae our late start, fatigue from our late-night flight the night before and the fact that we headed out after milkshakes and pastries, we managed the walk in two hours and forty-five minutes, approximately 45 minutes ahead of the time estimated on the brochure. I reckon we could have done it in two-and-a-half hours if we hadn’t expended energy on motivating the kids at the start. t tn of Coober Pedy, which would definitely be a great place to stop for a day or two on the way there or back. Coober Pedy is known for its opal mines, and there is the unique opportunity to stay overnight in an underground hotel in this town. We now have this underground hotel experience on our travel list for the future because (as you’ll read below) we ended up flying instead. d.
Getting there
Uluru itself is near the town of Yulara, which is home to the Ayers Rock Resort. Uluru was known as ‘Ayers Rock’ for a time (both names are still used interchangeably), and this explains the name of the resort and the airport. Similarly, the nearby Kata Tjuta formation was known as ‘The Olgas’ for a time.
For travellers to Uluru, accommodation is found within Yulara and in the surrounding area, and this hub is approximately five hours’ drive from the nearest large commercial centre (Alice Springs, also in the Northern Territory). There is an airport near Yulara – Ayers Rock Airport, also known as Connellan Airport.
Despite Yulara’s remote location, it is certainly possible to drive there. Many of the more direct road routes from destinations around Australia require a 4WD vehicle due to the quality of the roads and the desert terrain of the region. There are long stretches of road with nowhere to get help, so having some mechanical knowledge is a good idea for travellers choosing this option, just to reduce the risk of ending up on the side of the road waiting hours for help to arrive.
For most drivers, the safest route to Yulara is via South Australia. The route via South Australia is the best option when towing a caravan, driving a campervan or driving a regular vehicle that is not a 4WD. We saw many caravans parked at the Ayers Rock Resort campground, which goes to show that this stop is a popular one. We saw groups of students, young families and older couples staying in vans and tents. Uluru is a drawcard with something to offer at all ages and stages.
For our trip, we initially considered taking either a campervan or our own vehicle and making a road trip to Yulara. Our girls are desperate to experience a campervan trip, and we thought this might have been a good opportunity. Our original road trip plan took us down through western New South Wales, across the border into South Australia, and then north from Port Augusta to Yulara in the Northern Territory. This is the only option for Queenslanders who don’t have 4WDs, despite the fact that Uluru is almost due west from the south-east corner of Queensland. It seems counterintuitive to plan a road trip heading south for a destination that is west!
There are many places on this QLD-NSW-SA-NT route that warrant a visit. The driving trip to Uluru is an excellent option if you have at least two weeks to make the round-trip trek. This would leave time to stop and enjoy each town, even if only for a morning or afternoon. Coastal South Australia would make a lovely stop before the drive north to Yulara. The road north goes through the town of Coober Pedy, which would definitely be a great place to stop for a day or two on the way there or back. Coober Pedy is known for its opal mines, and there is the unique opportunity to stay overnight in an underground hotel in this town. We now have this underground hotel experience on our travel list for the future because (as you’ll read below) we ended up flying instead.
The other option for travel to Uluru is going by air. Flights from Brisbane to Ayers Rock can be very expensive. When we first started looking, they were over $600 per person, per direction, which would have really stretched our travel budget.
As the borders began reopening and travel resumed, some excellent sales began to drop. Jetstar offered flights to Ayers Rock from $99 per person, one way. Now, these prices often sell out quickly, and when travelling with six people, it can be hard to get six seats on the cheapest flights. I have often clicked links in sale advertisements, only to get a message that there are ‘only 3 seats left at this price’. Paying full price for half the family quickly eats up the savings made by booking discounted seats for the other half.
The other common disappointment is finding that the best sales only offer flights in off-peak times, excluding school holidays. We have lots of commitments during school terms (including my own work), making it tricky for us to take time off to travel outside of school holidays. This means that many of the best bargains aren’t suitable for us.
Given our experience with these disappointments, we were therefore very excited to find that Jetstar’s flight sale included our travel destination AND our travel dates, with seven seats still available on the cheapest flight when we went to book. We snapped up six seats on a flight from Brisbane to Ayers Rock on a Tuesday morning on the school holidays at $99 per person, and six seats on a flight from Ayers Rock to Brisbane returning two days later at $119 per person. We felt that this short trip would be both cost-effective and efficient. It would cut out all the driving time and help my husband avoid too much time off work, while still allowing us to spend enough time in the Uluru region to see the major sights. As an added bonus, we would get to board an aeroplane for the first time in over two years! This, in itself, was excitement enough for our kids!
I’ll talk more about accommodation later in this post, but at this point, it’s important to note that accommodation options in Yulara are limited (particularly for larger families), so you need to check accommodation before you book flights. It’s definitely not the kind of destination where you can book flights and work out accommodation later.
Everything fell into place nicely for our preferred dates, so we put our trip into our countdown app and began looking forward to our upcoming adventure.
As the saying goes, if it seems too good to be true, it probably is. Unfortunately, this was true of our amazingly convenient flights. A few weeks after booking (and approximately six weeks before the trip), I woke up on a Saturday morning to an email from Jetstar advising that our flight from Brisbane to Uluru had been cancelled. In its place, they had moved us to a flight from Brisbane to Melbourne on the Tuesday evening, with a ten-hour layover in Melbourne before a flight to Ayers Rock on the Wednesday morning. Our flight back to Brisbane on the Thursday morning remained unchanged.
My heart sank when I realised that this change meant we would be in the Uluru region for just under 24 hours!
I’m explaining our predicament here because I think it’s important to show that things don’t always go to plan. I’ll describe the options we considered:
Looking for alternative flights – I scoured the lists of Jetstar flights for the days before and after our trip.
Checking alternative dates for accommodation – the Ayers Rock Resort website has a search facility showing availability in their different hotels and at the campground.
Getting a refund/travel credit – this was on offer because the cancellation was the airline’s and not ours. We could have postponed our trip to a later date.
Accepting the change and running with it.
First, we considered adding an extra day at the end of the trip and shifting our non-cancelled flight. This would have allowed us to keep the same trip length but just shift it back a day. Unfortunately, being so close to the school holidays, there was no accommodation left at the end of our trip. This meant we couldn’t extend it past the Thursday. We took this option off the table.
We then looked at leaving a day earlier and extending the trip by one day at the beginning. The accommodation we had booked for our two-night stay was sold out for the night prior to our booking, but there was another option available in a different part of Ayers Rock Resort. There were flights making the same Brisbane-Melbourne-Ayers Rock trip on the Sunday-Monday, so starting a day earlier looked like a good option. We knew it would cost us extra to get the third night at Ayers Rock Resort, but since the flights were a bargain, we weren’t too worried about accommodation costs.
Alas, one of the catches with bargain fares from Jetstar is the inability to make changes to bookings without paying for fare differences. After negotiating with a customer service representative via the Jetstar live chat service, it was determined that we could shift our flights to the Sunday, have the stopover in Melbourne and fly to Ayers Rock on the Monday, but this would cost us approximately triple what we had originally paid for the one-way flights to Ayers Rock. We would have had to add an extra night of accommodation at Ayers Rock Resort (which was going to be two rooms, since there were no options available for large families for the extra night), plus accommodation for the extra night in Melbourne during the stopover. These costs were on top of the more expensive airfares. Adding an extra day to the start of the trip would have been possible, but we were facing at least a doubling of the overall trip budget, and possibly more. It didn’t take us long to decide that this option was off the table as well. We couldn’t justify the newly-increased cost for the length of the trip.
We sat with the remaining options for 24 hours: Accept the flight change and make the most of the trip or cancel it and wait for better circumstances.
I’d be interested to know in the comments: Would you have proceeded with this trip?
If the last two years have taught us anything, it’s that nothing is guaranteed. In the end, we decided to make the most of the opportunity. We decided to accept the cancellation for what it was – a circumstance outside our control - and head to Uluru via Melbourne anyway. To make it work, we cancelled one night of accommodation in Yulara and made a booking at an airport hotel in Melbourne for the Tuesday night instead.
We also made a booking to hire a vehicle in Yulara so we could maximise every minute of our stay. We consoled ourselves with the fact that we visited the Grand Canyon for just over 24 hours and saw and learnt plenty in that time. We knew we could make this most of this whirlwind trip to the Red Centre as well.
In the end, we got to see Uluru by flying from Brisbane to Melbourne on the Tuesday night, staying overnight at an airport hotel in Melbourne, flying to Ayers Rock on Wednesday morning, staying overnight in Yulara on Wednesday night and flying back to Brisbane on Thursday.
Accommodation
A quick side note here about our accommodation at Melbourne Airport, which was the Holiday Inn. This hotel is at the airport, approximately 10 minutes’ walk from the domestic terminal. We landed around 12:30 am after a few hitches with our plane’s landing gear, and still felt quite safe to be walking the path to the Holiday Inn in fairly deserted conditions. The path is well signed. I don’t think I’d walk it on my own at night, but in pairs or in a group like ours, it would be fine. We booked two two-queen rooms which were adjacent to each other (though not interconnected, despite requesting this if possible). The beds were absolutely heavenly – there were pillows marked ‘firm’ and ‘soft’ so everyone could get a good night’s sleep! The staff members were extremely helpful and friendly. They offered to organise a shuttle to get us back to the airport (we declined, since the walk was short). There is a McDonald’s restaurant across the road as well – perfect for a quick family meal in a hurry. I wouldn’t stay at the airport for a long trip to Melbourne, but for a stopover or a night or two, the Holiday Inn Melbourne Airport would be great.
Now, on to accommodation at Uluru/Ayers Rock/Yulara…
Followers of this blog are family travellers. While the Yulara area is most certainly a family-friendly destination, the Ayers Rock Resort accommodation options are not great for families with more than two children. This is definitely a drawback of family travel to this region.
If you are a family of six like us, these are the options, in order of increasing expense:
Your own tent at the campground (which you can take as your checked luggage – I saw people doing this);
Your own caravan or campervan (if you are driving there);
A cabin at the campground with a double bed in one bedroom, two sets of bunks in the other and no bathroom facilities –shared campground facilities are available;
Emu Walk Apartments – 2-bedroom apartments (if you book directly with staff, because the booking system says these rooms accommodate a maximum of five);
2 x 2-queen rooms at Sails in the Desert or Desert Gardens Hotel.
There was no availability in the 2-bedroom Emu Walk Apartments when we wanted to stay, so we opted for one of the cabins at the campground. We don’t mind splitting our family across two rooms here and there, but we wanted to be together for this trip.
We aren’t too fussy when it comes to accommodation and we have spent many nights in cabins (we even had Big4 membership for 12 months and stayed in several of their parks during that time). However, the cabin we stayed in at the campground of Ayers Rock Resort was by far the smallest cabin we have ever experienced. This wasn’t a huge issue for us because we were there for such a short time and didn’t plan to spend much time in our accommodation, but it’s worth warning families who may be picturing the cabins as a place to rest in for large portions of the day.
Each cabin has two small bedrooms (not much wider than a double bed – walking space on either side only). One bedroom has two sets of double bunks and the other has a double bed and a cupboard. Between these two rooms is a dining space which just fits a small, four-seater, round table. A sink and cupboards run along the back wall of this dining space and the entry door opens via the front wall. The dining space contains a small fridge, a microwave and a small television. The cabins are air-conditioned, but the units are old and boxy, and very noisy. When we arrived, the double bed was made up, but the bunks had linen folded on them and we needed to make up the girls’ beds ourselves. There was a sheet, a blanket and one pillow for each bed. The white sheets had a slightly orange tinge to them (no doubt due to the colour of the water they were washed in – they seemed technically ‘clean’). The cabin smelt a bit off, as if the air conditioner was a bit musty. It wasn’t the most pleasant space to walk into, if I’m being totally honest.
All in all, while the cabin was ‘rustic’, it was also secure, private and gave us a place to sleep. There was only a small lawn area between us and the bathroom facilities, which was very convenient. The bathroom blocks were basic but very clean. The staff members were friendly here as well, particularly the cleaning staff.
The price of the cabin was high enough to get a relatively nice room in a hotel elsewhere, but these things are driven by supply and demand. At Ayers Rock Resort, the options are limited, and the price reflects this.
I hope I don’t sound too negative about the quality of the cabins. We knew what we had booked, and it turned out to be pretty much what was described. I just think it’s important to make it clear to you that the quality of the cabins isn’t high, so that anyone who feels inspired by our trip knows what to expect if they make the journey themselves.
The campground’s playground was under refurbishment when we were there, so we couldn’t enjoy that, and the pool hours differed from those advertised (though there was a sign up at the pool itself when we went to visit). The campground cabin was a convenient place to stay and it accommodated our family together. These were our main priorities.
Ayers Rock Resort
I think it’s important to give some context to help with planning a trip to Yulara. While there are a couple of accommodation options outside the Ayers Rock Resort, most facilities are found within the Resort and this is largely where tourists stay. The term ‘resort’ makes it sound like everything is close together and luxurious, but really, when it comes to Yulara, the term refers to a ‘village’ that is situated around a large ring road. Voyages Tourism operates the resort/village and this means that all the services are well-connected to one another. There is a shuttle bus that circles the ring road, transporting passengers between different hotels, shops, lookouts, a camel farm and the campground. All of these locations are within walking distance of one another, but the walk isn’t particularly scenic, nor is it quick. It takes approximately 15 minutes to walk from the campground to the shopping area, for example. This might be fine at certain times of day, but it wouldn’t be pleasant to cross the large open areas in the resort on foot in the middle of the day.
The resort also offers shuttles to and from the airport. Before our plans changed, we had intended to enjoy these complimentary shuttles rather than paying for our own transportation. In the end, we just used our own vehicle, which was very convenient and saved us a lot of time waiting for buses. It also gave us a lot more flexibility.
While the same company runs all the hotels and several of these are located alongside one another, guests are only able to use the facilities at their own hotel. This makes sense and certainly isn’t an issue, but it is something to keep in mind when choosing a hotel. There are, however, restaurants in some of the hotels which are open to bookings from all guests.
In addition to the hotel restaurants, there is a small ‘town square’ in Ayers Rock Resort and this area has a few eateries. For dinner, there is Gecko’s, an Australian-fusion restaurant which offers dine-in and takeaway options. There is also a noodle bar, Ayers Wok, which is open for takeaway only. For breakfast and lunch, another café opens in the town square. This is a training site for hospitality students, but we found the standard to be excellent. The same training program operates the only café at Ayers Rock Airport as well.
We can recommend all three of the dining options mentioned above. We tried both Gecko’s and Ayers Wok for dinner and our meals were delicious (and the portions generous). We went to the training café for breakfast and really enjoyed the interesting options on the menu – almond croissants and rose meringues, to name just a couple. The coffee was good, too.
As well as the dining establishments, the town centre has an information and ticketing office, several small souvenir shops, a post office, an ATM, a small supermarket (IGA), an art gallery and a community hub. The IGA is only open from 10:30 am to 6 pm, which is something to keep in mind if you arrive late and hope to buy breakfast ingredients or a late-night snack. Further around the ring road, past the emergency and medical services and the campground, is a service station. Guests with their own vehicles can also stop in here to get a drink or quick grab-and-go snacks or ice-creams. I don’t know whether the shuttle buses stop at the service station, but it is only a short walk from the campground bus stop.
While the resort area is quite big, the town centre of Yulara in Ayers Rock Resort is quite small, and it’s necessary to plan ahead if you don’t want to eat out for every meal.
It’s also worth noting that a couple of accommodation options within the resort (a hostel and another hotel) weren’t open when we stayed. We were told that one of these places offered great pies, but we weren’t able to test this advice for ourselves.
Activities
The obvious activity for any visitor to the Red Centre is sightseeing, and particularly sightseeing of Uluru itself. We had limited time, so every minute counted! We picked up our vehicle at the airport, checked in at the campground and then headed straight out to Uluru, starting with the Cultural Centre. This building is made from mud bricks and contains displays telling stories of the Anangu people and their history. We had lunch here and enjoyed milkshakes and pastries looking out at Uluru.
It is possible to drive around Uluru to see it from all angles. There are a number of sacred sites around the perimeter where guests are asked to refrain from taking photographs. There are also quite a number of walking tracks available, ranging from short paths up to lookouts right through to the full base walk. There are a number of segments of the base walk which are designated as short walks as well.
We were determined to walk the entire base of the rock. This is a walk that is recommended for the mornings, when it is cooler, and it is estimated to take three-and-a-half hours to cover the 10.5-kilometre-long track. Due to our time constraints, we decided to give it a go at about 3:30 pm on our arrival day. Our plan was to complete the base walk, see the sun set on Uluru, have dinner and go for a swim (the pool was scheduled to close at 8 pm).
There are two drink filling stations at carparks around the perimeter of Uluru. We parked and filled our water bottles before setting off. We started at a brisk pace, but it was still quite hot (32 degrees Celsius) and we soon found ourselves slowing down. There are some shady areas on the path and a slight breeze came up, which helped a lot.
At the start of the walk, I was motivated and some of the kids were dragging their feet. By the end, the kids had quite a spring in their step (a couple were even jogging at the end), while I was breaking into a cold sweat and struggling to keep up!
We stopped for water frequently and refilled our bottles at the second station, so we were being wise about hydration and (apart from my lack of fitness) we found the walk quite manageable.
If we were to do it again, we’d stop and buy some fly nets for our faces beforehand, because the flies were terrible, and required us to keep up a constant swatting motion or they’d be on our faces and clothes constantly. I even breathed in one – yuck!
Despite our late start, fatigue from our late-night flight the night before and the fact that we headed out after milkshakes and pastries, we managed the walk in two hours and forty-five minutes, approximately 45 minutes ahead of the time estimated on the brochure. I reckon we could have done it in two-and-a-half hours if we hadn’t expended energy on motivating the kids at the start.
If you have the flexibility to wait for tours, we saw an all-ages group undertaking a Segway tour and they kept up a great pace. This would be a great option for tired legs!
After completing the base walk, we were able to park at the sunset viewing area on our way back to the resort and we watched part of the sunset over the rock. We then went into the town square and had dinner.
We arrived back at the campground ready for a swim at around 7:15 pm, only to find that the pool closed at 7 pm that evening. To alleviate our disappointment, we went for a walk around the campground and enjoyed stargazing. The Milky Way Galaxy was clearly visible to the naked eye and was quite spectacular. By this time, the heat of the day had passed and it was a lovely temperature to take a walk.
In our few short hours of day one in the Red Centre, we managed to fit in a visit to the Cultural Centre, the full base walk, exploring the town centre and taking a stargazing walk. We fell into bed exhausted and pleased with our sightseeing efforts!
Day two started very early, with a 5:15 am assembly time for a tour to the Field of Light. We were collected from the Ayer’s Rock Campground bus stop for this tour and when we boarded the bus, only a small number of other people were on the tour, suggesting that we were probably the second stop on the bus driver’s rounds. We then stopped at Desert Gardens Hotel to collect the remaining tour guests, which completely filled our bus.
Once the bus was full, we headed off to the viewing area for the tour. This was a short drive, no longer than 15 minutes.
On arrival at the viewing area, we couldn’t see Uluru at all. It was completely dark. What we could see, however, was the spectacular Field of Light installation.
We had seen photos of the Field of Light, but nothing quite prepares you for the beauty of it in person. It spans the area of seven football fields, consisting of over 50 000 lights, and is the largest installation ever created by artist Bruce Munro. This exhibit was supposed to be temporary, but it has been so popular that it has been extended indefinitely.
The Field of Light was designed by the artist to reflect the desert area around Uluru. The lights look a bit like wildflowers from a distance. Up close, the tangle of cables adds something very unique. I read that another name for the Field is Tili Wiru Tjuta Nyakutjaku, which means ‘looking at lots of beautiful lights’, and I don’t think there could be a more appropriate name.
We appreciated the Field of Light in the darkness when we first arrived, and then headed down to walk through the lights. There are spaces between groups of lights which form ‘paths’ and visitors are welcome to choose their own directions and length of walk. We did a big loop right around the field before heading back up to the viewing location.
The viewing location is up on a dune, and from this vantage point, both Uluru and Kata Tjuta are visible as the sun rises. This was our only experience with Kata Tjuta (had we stayed longer, we would have driven out there). We sat and enjoyed the complimentary tea, coffee, Milo, hot chocolate and Arnotts biscuits as we watched the sun rise.
To catch the sunrise, the tour we joined departs from Ayers Rock Resort about 105 minutes before sunrise (so it is different every day). We received an email specifying when to meet the bus at our stop. The tour returns to the resort approximately 30 minutes after sunrise, in plenty of time for breakfast. This tour was reasonably priced at $75 per adult and $40 per child and was organised by AAT Kings.
We returned to our cabin to collect our vehicle after the tour, and then we headed to the town centre for breakfast at the training café. After this, we checked out of our accommodation and did a bit of souvenir shopping at the Ayers Rock Campground store before heading out to the airport.
We had collected our hire vehicle from the airport and we returned it to the airport when we returned for our flight home. There are several car hire companies based out of the airport. Be warned – the prices are high. Supply and demand! We were still very glad we had decided to get our own vehicle, because it allowed us to fit in twice as much as we would have been able to do if we had relied upon the shuttle buses.
If we were to visit again, we would try to get to Kata Tjuta and Kings Canyon. We might also try the Segway Tour, just for the fun of it.
Given the issues with our flights and the short time we were in Yulara, we felt very pleased about the number of experiences we were able to squeeze into our trip. It certainly was a whirlwind, but it was a lot of fun, highly memorable and full of quality family time. It’s amazing how getting away together for even just a few days can really fill the emotional tank.
We loved our time in the Red Centre and would definitely consider returning again someday!
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