Getting To Uluru | Ayers Rock
By car
From the north, in Alice Springs take the Stuart Highway (87) South for about 200km to Erldunda Roadhouse. Turn right onto the Lasseter Highway and 245km further on you arrive at Ayers Rock Resort (officially called Yulara). It's a sealed tarmac road - a bit of a sloping surface in places, but you can easily drive along at 120km/hr. Far more cars on the road than you would imagine, and every driver waves hello to you (that's what you get in these far off places!) Plenty of places to stop and picnic and get water, although no toilets unless you stop at an official roadhouse (few and far between). There's lots of wildlife to see too: camels, cows, dingos and birds.
To the south the nearest town is Coober Pedy. Take the Stuart Highway north to Erldunda, 550km away.
From the west the Docker River Road ends near Kata Tjuta. As this road is considered part of the Gunbarrel Highway, you will find detailed information in that article.
By bus
Greyhound Australia runs from Alice Springs to the National Park. A one-way ticket costs about $84.
By tour
A number of tours operating out of Alice Springs visit Ayers Rock. Tours range from basic 1 day bus tours (beware, this means at least 1000km of driving in 1 day!) to the more adventurous 4WD backpacker tours up to 5 days long, see Ayers Rock Tours. In addition to Uluru, the extended tours typically visit Kata Tjata (The Olgas), Kings Canyon and the West MacDonnell Ranges. Tours are a great travel option in this region due to the long distances required to drive, and accommodation is also often restricted to camping and the tour companies happily provide all the gear required for this.
Uluru is also very rich in Aboriginal Culture and a good tour guide can often provide valuable information on this subject beyond that which can be picked up at the Cultural Centre, it's a good idea to ask before booking about the aboriginal cultural content of the tour.
By plane
Flights are available to Yulara. Many travellers also fly to Alice Springs and drive or take a tour from there.
By Bicycle
The sealed road from the Stuart Hwy makes for a pleasant & relatively easy cycle tour,undertaken each year by dozens of travellers.However, bicycle travellers need to be well prepared in terms of mechanical reliability, water & food, and will need to "bush camp" several nights at least.
Some information on this page has been derived from http://wikitravel.org/en/Uluru-Kata_Tjuta_National_Park, which is based on work by David, douglas@panix.com, Gary Crockett, Philipp Schäufele, Marc Heiden, James Franklin, Tim Sandell, kayjay, Michele Ann Jenkins, Evan Prodromou and Iain Georgeson, Wikitravel user(s) Tensaibuta, Hypatia, Episteme and PierreAbbat, Anonymous user(s) of Wikitravel and others.
