Discover Uluru, Kings Canyon and Alice Springs on this 3-day tour starting at Ayers Rock and ending in Alice Springs. Explore Australia's great Central Desert - watch the sunrise over Uluru (Ayers Rock), visit the magnificent Olga Gorge and Kings Canyon, with their beautiful waterholes and dazzling views. Stop off at a huge cattle station and the remote, early telegraph town of Alice Springs.
This tour was excellent. Very well organised and great client service, the drivers/guides are really nice with a good knowledge of the outback. I highly recommend it.
Remarkable tour! I was especially impressed with the guides' knowledge of and respect for the natives' spiritual beliefs and sacred sites. Highly recommend this tour company and all of its employees. Outstanding.
It is important to understand that AATKings, a major tour operator in Australia, is the provider. AATKings has a wide variety of available tours, so this tour is a package of several of their options. In general, it was excellent. The tours at Uluru were informative and interesting and provided excellent access. The accomodations in Uluru at the Desert Gardens were more expensive and luxurious than we needed for one night, but was the only choice available when we signed up. The sunrise tour was excellent, and provided better photos than the sunset tour. We regret that we did not include a star gazing evening, as the night sky was amazing with better visibility of the stars and Milky Way than we have ever seen. The trip to King's Canyon was worthwhile. It is a lovely place, and the small town really just a bar and a bbq restaurant was fun. King's Canyon offers two hiking options on the time frame of this tour -- a lovely 2km walk along the creek bed in the canyon floor which we chose and a grueling in appearance 6km hike up a very steep hill to the canyon rim. The ride from there to Alice Springs was very long, with a pleasant rest stop at a cattle station/restaurant. It does provide a real feel for the outback and its long distances of desert scenery. Our driver/guide Pete was excellent in recounting the history and notable landmarks of the area as well as being our guide in the King's Canyon walk.
I do not see what Viator does in this operation -- all communications were simply forwarding emails from AAT. The tour included pickup from our Alice Springs motel to the airport, but Viator sent an email requesting flight info but never confirmed the time or place of pickup. We had to call the local service to confirm this as Viator never responded to my email request for confirmation.
This was a fantastic experience and I enjoyed everything I saw and also the professional guide who accompanied us at Kings Canyon as well as very knowledgeable bus drivers/guides.
I would have given five stars if it weren't for some annoying glitches. Firstly, this three day tour is in fact a collection of several individual tours organised by the same tour operator, which would be fine except that you don't even get an email or anything with precise departure times for the tours and as there's many of them it's hard to keep track of them. The only way to find it out is to call the tour operator not viator and ask for details. Asking a bus driver/guide from your first tour won't help because they're not aware of the this itinerary. What's worse, after arrival at the airport I was looking for the bus to the resort and after I said I'm on this three day tour they said they don't know this tour so there's no bus. Therefore, you have to be careful and only mention your first tour - the one of Uluru. Secondly, the Ulury tours were not synchronised with check in and check out times. The sunset viewing tour departed at the hotel check in time and as I had just arrived from the airport I wanted to get to my room to refresh myself and change, which proved to be very difficult and I only manged to get the keys half an hour before the official check in time. Sunrise viewing had even worse timing as it was returning to hotel at 10 a.m. which was also the check out time which would mean that you actually have to check out at 5 in the morning if you want to follow the rules. It took a lot of effort to convince the receptionist to let me stay one hour longer and even so at 10 a.m. a member of the staff was knocking at my door to complain that the room had not been made vacant yet.
On the other hand, in Kings Canyon it was much better and we were allowed to check out just before the bus departure time.
Really, really loved this tour. Uluru, Kata Tjuta and Kings Canyon are awe inspiring! Our guide was very knowledgeable and took time to answer all our questions. The accommodations were good, and everyone at all our hotels was very helpful. We came without an adapter for the electric outlets and each hotel supplied one to us for free. There finally was one we could buy in Alice Springs, only about 20, but well worth it. Our first hotel was having construction, and the pool area was closed. With temps about 104F it would have been nice to know in advance so we could choose one of the other hotels.
Also I want to warn travelers about the flies in the Outback!!! They are really annoying and swarm around your face and ears looking for moisture. They are annoying while you are walking, but if you stop while the guide points out a location of interest you become at standing target. Look in advance for one of the hats with netting on it. It is about 10 at the tourist sites, but I was told you can get them for less at their local stores.
Also be aware there is no internet in a large part of the Outback. Cell phones will not work, only land lines and I actually saw some pay phones there, something pretty rare in the US these days.
However these annoyances were not enough to spoil the trip. We enjoyed it immensely and recommend it. It is one of our all time favorite remembrances.
Excellent sites and views. Very good driver guides who were knowledgeable. Very poor organisation and customer delivery by A AT. Chaotic, frustrating and slow allocation of coaches, all last minute. We did not get an itinerary from A AT but had to get the hotel to contact them and send it. In confirming a couple of days before AAT could not initially find the booking and only after delay and being put on hold I was told the name of the hotel but no timings. Good tour but experience could have been better.
Uluru and kings canyon tours excellent.
Waiting around time for bus interchange and extra long stops at kings creek station no good.
Sails at Uluru overpriced. Kings canyon resort very good, restaurant excellent.
I would have given it more stars, but I am more of a person that likes small group adventure tours. This tour was more for someone that just wants to take it really easy and see the sites. Still it was worth doing and the tour guides were very nice and very informative. Loved Kings Canyon, the optional rim hike was awesome! Oh and I don't think 3 days was enough, I would have booked it for longer if I booked again.
Air conditioning on the bus was only partially working...very hot! You need to get some more modern buses.
At time of booking, you must include your flight details (flight number and arrival time).
On day 3, during the hotter months of the year where temperatures can reach and exceed 36° C or 97° F, the Watarrka National Park Rangers strongly advise that visitors do not take part in the Kings Canyon Rim Climb. Heat exhaustion, over these hotter months, is a very high possibility and a danger in such remote regions. To ensure the safety and enjoyment of our clients we offer a guided walk along the Kings Canyon creek-bed as an alternative. It is essential for all rim walkers during the hotter months to have 3-litres of water – iced water is available to top up bottles on board the coach.