Uluru question

Heya mates,

I will be travelling to Oz in January 2010 for 3-4 weeks and travelling the East Coast, starting in Brisbane and heading down to Melbourne for the Australian Open. I wanted to take a 1-3 day trip out to Uluru. Question is this... how? Money is not a problem so is flying, train, driving the best way to go? Not sure what the airfield at Yulara is like. Am I looking to take a puddle jumper or do jets fly in and out of the place? Also, names of airlines that fly in and out so that I can search them online. Thanks for your help.

Liquidfigment

[ Edit: Edited on 22-Jul-2009, at 15:03 by Liquid ]

Qantas flies direct to Ayers Rock airport from Sydney and a couple of other airports which aren't on your route (I think Virgin Blue had plans to get started on that route, too, but they don't yet fly it at present, so Qantas still has an effective monopoly - still, their prices for this flight used to be not too over the top). Regular planes (Boeing 737-800s according to wikipedia) with it being a regular airport - just one which only sees very few flights a day, so is rather limited in amenities.
Yulara is a boring resort town, with accommodation for all budgets ranging from really overpriced cabins with bunk beds to a really overpriced 'luxury' hotel.
I'd recommend renting a car at the airport (probably should book that in advance) so you can drive between Yulara and Uluru/Kata Tjuta as the fancy takes you. Fly in on day 1, walk around and see sunset at either Uluru or Kata Tjuta. See the other one on day 2 (personally I found Kata Tjuta to be the more interesting one for exploring). Fly back on day 3 after having done sunrise.
Drink lots and lots and lots of water, especially if you're not used to dry heat and won't feel yourself dehydrating. Buy a silly hat to at least keep the over annoying flies away from your face. And enjoy the amazing scenery!

[ Edit: Edited on 22-Jul-2009, at 15:35 by Sander ]

Hi there

You can get to Uluru on Qantas. They fly from Cairns, Melbourne and Sydney. I'd consider flying into Alice Springs and taking the drive down to Uluru via Kings Canyon. You don't want to miss this. You can drive from Ayers Rock out to the Canyon if you prefer but its more of an adventure if you do the drive from Alice. You can do the lot in 3 days.

I think flying in would be better than driving. You'll be over it if you are planning a road trip all the way down the east coast.

Flights aren't cheap as Qantas are the only ones that fly to Uluru. You may want to check Virgin Blue to see if they fly into Alice Springs but I don't think they do. Consider flying into Alice and out of Uluru. You'll incur a one way charge for the hire car but it will be cheaper than driving the car back in terms of time and petrol.

Hope that helps

Johanna

Thank you very much for the info. This will definitely help me as I finalize the details of my trip.

Sorry for the late reply but this might be helpful to someone else.

When i went we got the train to Alice Springs then drove to Uluru. This was a nice way of doing it - nice relaxing overnighter on the train, a few days in Alice then the journey by road to Uluru wasn't too bad. We then flew out with Quantas from Uluru to Cairns. If I did it again and I was short on time I would probably fly in and out of Uluru but I'd be sad not to see Alice again.

Definitely not a late reply, as far as I am concerned. I was wondering if there was a train route over that way and what sorta trip it was (sleeper or such), and you answered that for me. Thanks.

[ Edit: Edited on 01-Aug-2009, at 04:44 by Liquid ]