Uluru Sunrise Tours

For most first-time visitors the best Uluru sunrise tour is SEIT’s Uluru Highlights Small Group Morning Tour. It takes up to 15 guests to watch the sun rise over Uluru, serves an outback picnic breakfast with freshly brewed coffee and tea, walks to Mutitjulu Waterhole and drives around the base, all in about three hours. It costs from $132 per person and rates 4.7 from 279 reviews. If you want a longer walk, the Field of Light, a Segway or Kata Tjuta at dawn, the other sunrise tours below fit better.

The sunrise tours, side by side

Every tour here picks you up from your Ayers Rock Resort hotel before dawn. What changes is what you do once the sun is up.

The SEIT highlights tour is the shortest of the sunrise tours with breakfast and the gentlest on the legs. Its Viator listing calls it suitable for all fitness levels and wheelchair accessible. Read our review of the highlights sunrise for the detail.

Sunrise with a walk

The AAT Kings Guided Walking Tour at Sunrise with Light Breakfast (from $130, 4.6 from 321 reviews) adds real walking. After breakfast at sunrise, the coach drives to Kuniya Piti and your guide leads you along the Mala and Lungkata sections of the base track, past rock art and Kantju Gorge. It covers a good part of the base but not the full loop, ends around 1:00 pm, needs a moderate level of fitness and two litres of water, and is not wheelchair accessible. Read our review of the sunrise walk.

To walk the whole 10.6 km base, book SEIT’s Guided Trek of Uluru’s Base instead (from $174, 4.8 from 273 reviews). It starts at sunrise with a picnic breakfast carried in a pack. The same tour has 461 reviews on Viator. Our Uluru base walk tours page compares the guided options.

Field of Light, Segway and camel at dawn

The Field of Light Sunrise Tour (from $80, 4.6 from 678 reviews) is the cheapest guided sunrise on this site. You walk among Bruce Munro’s field of more than 50,000 lights in the dark, then walk up to a dune-top viewing area for tea, coffee or hot chocolate as the sun comes up behind Uluru. It does not include breakfast. The Field of Light tours page covers the sunset and dinner versions too.

The Uluru Base Segway Tour at Sunrise (from $181, 4.9 from 446 reviews) circles the full base on a Segway after training and includes a guided walk into Mutitjulu Waterhole. Riders must be at least 12, the listing caps weight at 118 kg, and the operator discourages riders over 65. See the Uluru Segway tours page. Uluru Camel Tours also runs sunrise rides of about two and a half hours; book those with the operator.

Kata Tjuta at sunrise

Two tours point you west at dawn. The Uluru Sunrise and Kata Tjuta Day Trip watches sunrise at Uluru, then drives to Kata Tjuta for a walk into Walpa Gorge; the Uluru and Kata Tjuta day tours page covers it. SEIT’s Kata Tjuta Small Group Sunrise Tour watches the domes themselves light up, with a group of no more than 11, and is covered on our Kata Tjuta tours page.

Where you watch the sunrise

Talinguru Nyakunytjaku is the park’s main sunrise viewing area for Uluru, about 35 minutes from Yulara. It has shelters, viewing platforms, walking tracks, toilets and water, and its walks are wheelchair accessible. Tour coaches use it, and it is the area named on the AAT Kings sunrise and Kata Tjuta tour.

The other choice is the Uluru car sunset viewing area, about 15 to 20 minutes from Yulara. It is for cars only, so you need your own vehicle, and it has no water or toilets. The park says it is usually almost empty at sunrise, which suits self-drivers who want a quieter view. For Kata Tjuta, the dune viewing area is the sunrise spot, and it can get crowded.

What time is sunrise at Uluru?

Sunrise at Uluru moves by more than an hour and a half across the year. These approximate times are for Yulara, in local time (ACST, no daylight saving), and can be a few minutes out.

The AAT Kings sunrise walk leaves about an hour before sunrise, which means a pickup before 5:00 am in November and December. In June and July the sun rises around 7:30 am, but average lows sit near 4 to 6°C, so bring a warm layer and gloves.

Sunrise or sunset?

If you can do only one, choose sunrise. In the hot months the park asks walkers to finish by 11:00 am, and a sunrise tour puts the walks in the cool part of the day. Sunset suits travelers who want a glass of wine and no early alarm; our Uluru sunset tours guide covers those.

What to know before you book

• Pickup: included from all Ayers Rock Resort hotels on the SEIT highlights tour. Pickup moves with the sunrise, so confirm the time the day before.
• Duration: about three hours for the highlights tour; walks and Kata Tjuta tours run five hours or more.
• Walking: the highlights tour includes only the short Kuniya walk to Mutitjulu Waterhole (1 km return), and its Viator listing says it suits all fitness levels.
• Park pass: not included. Adults need the A$38 3-day pass or the A$50 annual pass, and under-18s are free. Buy it online or at the entry station; see the park pass guide.
• Meals: outback picnic breakfast with coffee and tea.
• Cancellation: free up to 24 hours before on this GetYourGuide listing. The Viator version of the same tour does not offer free cancellation.
• Best for: first-time visitors, families, and anyone who wants sunrise and Uluru’s stories without a long walk.

Some sites around the base of Uluru are sacred to Anangu and must not be photographed. Signs mark them, and your guide will tell you when to put the camera away.

Ready for an early start? Check availability for the small-group sunrise.