My wife and I are taking our honeymoon to Oz in September (you might have seen my other posts) and we’re stymied at planning Ayers Rock. It’s a must-see on our trip, but the Ayers Rock Resort seems to want to charge us $300 a night for a basic room. (Since it’s our honeymoon, we’re opposed in principle to hostel-style sleeping arrangements.)
We are interested in using their campgrounds, though, but that leaves us needing to lug a tent and sleeping bag all over the continent, just for 2 of our 21 nights. Not that appealing, either.
So what are your thoughts? Is there a camp rental place at Ayers Rock? Are there super-secret cheap package deals I’m not aware of?
How much time did you want to spend there? As an alternative, you could stay in Alice Springs and just make a day trip in to Uluru. In total it’s not exactly cheap, but it could save you the hassle of dealing with camping gear, and you’ll probably share the day with some fun people.
That’s a possibility, but you also need to keep in mind that Uluru is not as close to Alice Springs as many tourists believe. The drive from Alice Springs to Uluru is about 400km, making a day trip there and back more than 800km. It makes for a very long day and all of the people whom I know who have opted for the day trip have wished after the event that they had stayed overnight at the Rock.
Personally I’d pay the $300 for the night at Uluru. That doesn’t sound particularly expensive to me going by hotel room rates I’ve been charged all over the world.
It’s about 4-5 hours drive to the rock, the only way you’d get out there on a day trip is to fly from Alice, and that’s at least $140/person each way. Not to mention the flights run on a limited schedule, so I don’t know that they do them on a “day trip” basis - at least without chartering a plane.
$100 Aus will buy you a decent three man tent. Buy one in Alice Springs, use it for a couple of nights, throw it away. You’ve saved significant money. Buy a couple of cheap sleeping bags and do the same thing, it’ll still be cheaper. Or you can just spend the money on a good room.
> Are there super-secret cheap package deals I’m not aware of?
Are you using a travel agency? Go to a travel agency and see if they have a booklet of Australian tours. They might have one that allows you to pick places to stay over your three-week tour while still offering you a reduced price on the cost of accomodation and travel.
$300 Australian is $240 U.S. That’s probably twice as much as it should be, but I suspect that they’ve decided that since you have no choice (Ayers Rock being literally near nothing else), they can charge all the market can bear. If one or two nights at $240 will bankrupt you, how can you afford the plane fare to Australia?
Which hotel are you looking at? The Ayers Rock Resort has several. The Outback Pioneer is quoting $202 Aus twin share per night for a standard room or $103 for a budget room with facilities.
Why not rent a combi for a couple of days - take a leisurely drive to Uluru from Alice Springs on day 1, watch sunset over the rock, sleep in the combi, get up early, watch sunrise, spend half a day with the rock, then drive back. They’re pretty cheap to rent, and you won’t need anything too fancy for only one night.
I wouldn’t worry by September you will be fine. The government intends to move Ayer’s Rock, the Great Barrier Reef, Kakadu and the Great Sandy Desert to Hyde Park in the center of Sydney for the convenience of tourists.
I see that the Outback Pioneer has been mentioned…I stayed there in '05, and it was perfectly acceptable. The resort’s various facilities are situated along a loop road within a short distance of one another. I believe that when you stay there, you are allowed to use any of the pools, etc. Two tips: 1)If you want to catch the sunset from the “dedicated” parking area, get there early. 2)Invest in some kind of mosquito net hat device to keep the flies away from your face.
Sadly the $202 is per person, i.e. $404 per night. Yeesh.
One other detail I should have mentioned is that, as of now, we’re flying straight in to Uluru from Cairns, bypassing Alice Springs entirely. That having been said, renting a combi ain’t a bad idea, if it’s sleepable.
And you’re right, buying $200 worth of camping gear and then paying $30/night for two nights would still put us cheaper than the hotel room. Seems like a waster, but you do what you can.
To someone’s comment, of course we COULD afford to stay in a room, but the goal is saving money here. Trying to get in and out of Oz for <$10,000 (US) total.
Good suggestion, looks like they have a minimum of 5 nights. I suppose I can just talk to Hertz and ask them what vehicle would be appropriate for sleeping in. Heck, even a minivan would do, with the back seat out.
We were also hoping to head out and see Kata Tjuta (sp?) so renting a car would help there as well.
While you are there, be sure to do the “Sounds of Silence” dinner. You can buy the tickets at the hotel desks. I don’t know what the price is now, but it is a good meal and the star show is really beautiful.
happywaffle, I saw a pretty reasonable deal on breakfast TV this morning: check it out, and if it suits, book it ASAP - these deals have huge exposure, so would probably sell out quickly.
Hope this helps! I had a great time at Uluru in 2005.