I recently went to Uluru & Kata Tjuta, otherwise known as Ayers Rock and the Olgas, with my family.

I went there for our annual Travel with Kidz conference and thought I may not go there again (being a “bucket list” destination so to speak), so on the last day my husband and kids flew up to join me for 3 nights.  There’s a variety of accommodation at the Ayers Rock Resort, from camping right through to ultimate luxury.  We stayed in the Sails in the Desert resort as Travel with Kidz have an exclusive offer where they give a 2nd interconnecting room for the children for free so this was a good deal.  Throughout the resort children 12 and under also dine free at buffet restaurants or from the kids menu so they are really looking after the family market which is great.  Once at the resort they have complimentary shuttle running all the time taking you to the different styles of accommodation and restaurants, we even used this to go to the camel farm and take the kids for a 5 minute ride and photo op ($5) before deciding to do a camel tour which was their highlight.
In fact, truth be told, for a 5 and 7 year old, the rock and Olgas doesn’t appear to impress them as much as it did us.  What we loved is we chose to see the Rock at Sunset and the Olgas at Sunrise with a company that has a small 4WD, this was with SEIT Outback Australia.  What this meant was instead of experiencing these wonderful places with 3,000 other people from busloads of tourists, we were taken to lesser known spots a little bit further out.  So for the rock we were the only ones there sipping champagne and having gourmet nibbles.  For the Olgas there were about 20 other people who had come independently, no buses.  So I can highly recommend doing this.   Before my family came I did another little known tour (this was a full day) to Cave Hill (about 2 hours drive away) which included aboriginal hosts and a real immersion of their culture.  Probably a little drawn out for little ones but great for anyone I think 12years and over.
The absolute highlight was doing a dot painting workshop with the Anangu.  There was only the six of us, I went with the kids (Mick wasn’t interested) and we spent time with one of the Anangu artists who shared her stories and style. We then had the opportunity to create our own canvas which we painted using brushes and sticks.  We had a ball and it turns out my young Luke is quite the artist – tip here.  Don’t wear your good clothes, the paint doesn’t wash out!
Now in August Virgin Blue are going to start flying there and already Qantas prices have dropped so watch for the sales once Virgin’s flights are announced.  September school holidays would be a perfect time to go with the family.

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