Where to Stay at Uluru

Stay in Yulara, at one of the Ayers Rock Resort hotels. Yulara is the township just outside Uluru-Kata Tjuta National Park, about 20 minutes’ drive from Uluru (Ayers Rock) and 45 minutes from Kata Tjuta, and the tours on this site collect from its hotels. Choose by budget and room type. The safest picks are the four stops the tour listings name: Sails in the Desert, Desert Gardens Hotel, the Outback Hotel and Lodge, and Ayers Rock Campground. Kings Canyon, about three hours away, only makes sense as an extra night on a longer loop. Alice Springs is 465 km away, so it works as a gateway, not a base.

Yulara has no taxis or public transport. A free resort shuttle links the hotels and the campground with Town Square, where the shops and restaurants are, but it does not go into the park. That is why the pickup list matters more than the room. Our page on tours from Ayers Rock Resort lists which tour collects from which stop.

The pickup hotels: Sails, Desert Gardens and the Outback Hotel

These are the hotels named, stop by stop, on the tour listings, including the Uluru day tour with sunset BBQ, the Field of Light sunrise and the Kings Canyon day trip. SEIT’s small-group tours go further and collect from all Ayers Rock Resort hotels. Stay here and a 5 am pickup means walking out of the lobby.

• Sails in the Desert is the upper tier, with an outdoor pool, a day spa and a tennis court, and original Aboriginal artworks through the public areas and rooms. Its listing puts a lookout in Yulara a 5-minute walk away.
• Desert Gardens Hotel is set in native gardens with an outdoor pool, and some rooms have views of Uluru. Ask for one of those when you book.
• Outback Hotel has rooms with air-conditioning and heating, an outdoor pool and an outback barbecue area, with a supermarket nearby for self-catering.

All three list free return transfers from Ayers Rock Airport. See all stays at Ayers Rock Resort.

Budget beds and apartments in Yulara

The rest of the resort uses the same free shuttle and sits the same 20 minutes from the rock. The difference is the pickup: only one of these three shares a named stop.

• Outback Lodge is the budget option, with dorm beds and budget rooms, an outdoor pool and two restaurants. It shares the Outback Hotel & Lodge pickup stop.
• Emu Walk Apartments has one-bedroom apartments with a full kitchen and a balcony or patio, which suits families who want to cook. It is not named as a pickup stop, and one helicopter listing excludes it from its transfers, so check with your operator.
• The Lost Camel Hotel has compact, boutique-style rooms designed without external windows, a pool and no restaurant of its own. It is not named as a stop either.

Ayers Rock Campground and Longitude 131

Ayers Rock Campground is in Yulara and is on every named pickup list, so camping costs you nothing in tour access. AAT Kings collects campground guests from the bus stop on the ring road, not at campground reception. The campground is not on Booking.com; book it with the resort. Nights in June and July can be near freezing, so bring warm layers.

Longitude 131 is the luxury tented camp that the national park lists alongside the resort. It is not one of the resort hotels and is not on Booking.com, so you book with the camp itself. The tour pickup lists here do not name it, so ask your operator how collection works.

Curtin Springs, about 100 km from Yulara, is the nearest roadhouse to the park and has camping. It suits a self-drive stop on the way in from Alice Springs, not a base for sunrise tours.

Kings Canyon, for a longer loop

Kings Canyon is about three hours from Yulara by sealed road. A night here suits a self-drive Red Centre loop, and it lets you start the Kings Canyon Rim Walk early: on days forecast to reach 36°C or more, walkers must begin before 9 am. If you are based in Yulara, the Kings Canyon full-day tour from Ayers Rock Resort goes out and back in a day, with breakfast at Kings Creek Station.

• Discovery Resorts - Kings Canyon has private rooms or backpacker beds, two pools and two restaurants, and is about 7 km from the national park entrance.
• Kings Creek Station is a station lodge on Luritja Road with a pool, a restaurant and rooms with kitchenettes.

See all stays at Kings Canyon. Our Kings Canyon tours page compares the day trip with the multi-day loops.

Map

Hotels around Yulara and Ayers Rock Resort:

The options side by side

If you arrive late or fly out early

Ayers Rock Airport is about 10 minutes from Yulara, and most resort hotels list free return transfers, so a late arrival is easy. Early departures are where tours trip people up. The operator of the sunrise and Kata Tjuta morning advises booking flights that leave after 1:00 pm (April to May and August to March) or after 1:30 pm (June and July) on the tour day. Some longer morning tours end around 1:00 pm and may miss the airport transfers. If you are arriving from Alice Springs by road, the AAT Kings coach transfer drops you at Ayers Rock Resort. See how to get to Uluru for flights and driving times.

Booking tips

Book the tour first, then the room. The sunrise and Kata Tjuta morning offers free cancellation on GetYourGuide, so you can fix the date and then pick a hotel on the pickup list. Buy the park pass online before the day: adults pay A$38 for 3 days and under-18s enter free. Book a hire car weeks ahead if you want one, because cars in Yulara are limited. Outback Lodge’s listing notes that the resort does not take cash except at the IGA supermarket and the service station, so carry a card. If you visit from June to July, choose a room that lists heating, because nights get cold.

Without a car, the Hop On Hop Off pass picks up at the resort hotels and campground and runs between sunrise and sunset; read Uluru without a car before you choose. Still deciding on tours? Start with the homepage comparison and our review of the sunrise and Kata Tjuta morning, which is from $130 per person, rated 4.6 from 605 reviews.

Check dates and availability.