My 2008 Australia Vacation

I’ve been thinking about the issues surrounding the monopoly at Ayers Rock Resort, and how I’d do Uluru (photos) differently next time. Because the person I called at Ayers Rock Resort was great about changing my stay without penalty with one day’s notice due to my sinus infection, I really did not have much flexibility on how I would have changed things from my original two-night reservation.

But you’ll have flexibility - so here’s my plan:

1. Try not to go in the summer or winter. 102 degrees is hot, even in the desert. In the winter, it can get down to freezing, and sunrise is late enough that you cannot do a morning tour and catch a flight to most places. I don’t know this for sure, but I would think that April would be a great month to visit.
2. Fly to Ayers Rock from Melbourne, not the other way around. Right now, the nonstop flight leaves on Mondays and Fridays, so Monday is perfect because it lets you spend the weekend in Melbourne. If you go the other way, the flight is too early in the day to do anything before leaving.
3. Stay only one night. This is a big reason why I would rule out going in winter, because a sunrise tour is not going to work logistically. Plus it will be cold. If you get to the resort by 1pm, that still leaves you plenty of time to do the base walk in the afternoon.
4. Fly out of Ayers Rock to Sydney or Cairns, depending on your itinerary. This is important because you want to stay as late as possible so that you can do a morning tour such as the Desert Experience Tour, and depending on the season, you might not get back until 11:30am. If you want to go to Alice Springs, two of the major tour bus companies run buses from Ayers Rock to Alice Springs in the afternoons - the flight northbound is at around 10am.
5. Rent a car. If there are two of you, you are looking at A$70 for the round-trip shuttle bus that only operates once per hour. Renting a car gives you far more flexibility for touring, but the rental car companies do put a 100km/day limit on the cars so you don’t go off and drive up to Alice Springs or something. The drive is dead simple, just one two-lane highway and a little access road for the resort. The Aurion I rented in Hobart is A$75 from Hertz, after taxes but before insurance and a few liters of gas.
6. Spring for one of the mid-range hotels. I stayed in the el cheapo Outback Pioneer Lodge because I was there for two nights, and A$300 * 2 was a bit much. I don’t think I’d stay at the Sails in the Desert, but the Desert Gardens looked rather reasonable by comparison.

This approach gives you about 20 hours on site, which is more than enough. I think the Desert Awakenings Tour was worth the A$132 because you receive a lot of backstory about the area. If you’re on a budget, you can fashion an acceptable picnic dinner from the grocery or get fast food from the Pioneer to help offset the better hotel.

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