Desert Gardens Hotel

We stayed in a Deluxe Rock View Room. The view was spectacular but there was nothing deluxe about the actual room. Whilst the room was spacious, the decor was dated and in need of refurbishment, The bed was uncomfortable and would benefit from a new mattress. Housekeeping standards were poor. The carpet was stained and the room looked like it needed a thorough, deep clean. There were fresh blood stains on the edge of the bed sheet, it appeared as though the bed had been made by someone with a bleeding finger. From the moment the reservation was made, I was subjected to regular, hard sell marketing efforts from the parent company, Voyages. Unfortunately, I succumbed and booked a Field of Light Uluru Dinner and a Sunrise Journeys Breakfast. Those “experiences” are worthy of dedicated reviews that I will post under the respective locations. Having ignored the marketing emails trying to pressure me into purchasing Hop On Hop Off Bus tickets that cost $170 per person for a 2 day ticket, I then received a phone call from Voyages. The claimed “flexibility” of these tickets was false because in addition to advance purchasing of the tickets, I was also informed that I needed to book seats on the specific buses that I wanted to travel on before I had even arrived at the Uluru. Further enquiries revealed that we were able to hire a car for a similar cost to the bus tickets for 2 adults. Voyages appears to monopolise most of the infrastructure at Uluru and once they had my reservation, they pursued me in an attempt to ensure that our money didn’t venture beyond their network.

Room was an ok size, looks like it has been partially refurbed fairly recently, was clean with comfortable bedding, but not the luxury you might expect for a 4.5 star hotel. Bathroom had a big walk-in shower and again partially refurbed and clean. Toilet is stained as other reviewers have mentioned - caused by the minerals in the water but it is rather off-putting! Bugs and moths can easily get in to the room so be careful when opening doors (not the hotels fault and they do supply insect spray). Servicing only happened every second day (4.5 stars?) but you could find a friendly room attendant to ask for re-supplies in-between.||A sprawling open-air layout with a nice quiet atmosphere but parts of the hotel's appearance do look rather dated. Reception area is a bit basic and very much like an airport with bags stored and big tour groups coming and going all day - but that's just part and parcel of the location. There is a (cold) pool which is also rather dated but good for a refreshing dip.||Restaurant area is nicer than the lobby and food and service was excellent in both restaurants, the Accor+ discount for lunch and dinner was very useful as it brought prices down to an acceptable level. Did not do breakfast as it's the most expensive breakfast buffet I've ever seen and Accor+ was not accepted (picked up some things from the IGA instead). One disappointing thing was that they would not do takeaway. Sometimes after a long day it would have been nice to take some hot snacks (chips etc) to our room but it was refused. However, if we sat down to eat and had leftovers then they would bag them!? So in theory we could have sat down, ordered, then asked to be bagged, so why not just allow takeaway to begin with!?||We had a great time and I do think this hotel is the best value of the bunch for the quality (all are very steep prices) but it fairly should be rated 3.5 or 4 star as 4.5 gives much higher expectations that can't be fully met.

Me and husband stayed here for 3 days. We had a wonderful stay here. Please keep in mind it’s the middle of now where, so the hotel or resort have done a fantastic job. The tours from the resort was good, well organised. The rooms were kept clean and organised. The town centre which is only 500mts away was handy. Overall wonderful experience. Had the breakfast buffet from Mangata which was pretty good. They had selection of Asian and Aussie food staples. Had lunch from Mangata which was good too. Had dinner from the restaurant beside Mangata, Arnguli, hands down one of the best food we have had. Did not except to have such amazing quality food and presentation in the middle of Yulara. We couldn’t meet the chef, but we did mention to the coordinator that day the food was just exceptional.

For a place in the middle of a desert, this hotel is actually comfortable to stay. The staff were very friendly, and the room was comfy and well equipped. Some cons: we found the air conditioner a bit weird; there was no lift so we had to carry our luggage to the stair. Breakfast was fine, not too bad…

We stayed for two nights in the Deluxe Rock view room. The view was very stunning: we could see Uluru from our windows, which was the only positive thing we could say about this room. It is spacious, but very outdated. The bathroom has seen better days, a renovation is overdue. We had a lot of dead moths and bugs lying around on the carpet, behind the curtains and basically in every corner of the room. As the first night begun there were moths and bugs coming out of every crack in the furniture: when you shut of the lights you could hear them flying around everywhere. I don’t know how many moths we killed that night, there were so many. And we don’t talk about little European moths, they were big Australian ones. On the next morning, I opened a drawer in the bathroom, guess what flies out of there: yes, another moth. We stayed in a lot of rural places in WA and NT, but nowhere did we see as many dead and living creatures flying and lying around in one room. During our stay the room was attended, but not vacuumed. Please, vacuum those carpets, clean those curtains, because it felt a lot like „Pet Sematary“ in there. We initially had booked a three night stay, but we left one night early as we did not want to be there any longer. The pool was great though.

We had a beautiful lunch here as a family during our stay at the Ayers Rock campground. Excellent menu and great service. Staff were very helpful and managed our requests for gluten free (coeliac) options. Food was generous and prices good compared with other options in the resort. It was also a lovely respite from the heat of the day!

The resort is very nice with a great selection of activities. Impressive considering the remote location. Not that you have many options apart from what Ayers rock resort offers, but they do give options at various levels. I would give five stars, however there are two issues here. One is that desert gardens claim 4.5 stars which I think is ambitious. The bathrooms are old and need an update and facilities are nice but not amazing. I think 4 stars is realistic. However, the price is completely crazy. 700 dollars a night. We spent 10,000 dollars for 4 nights with over 5,000 going towards accommodation, meals and one dinner activity they offered. The balance was flights, car hire, park fees and incidentals. That's really steep (just the resort spend component). But the resort was full, so I guess the market is there and they take advantage of that. For a bucket list visit, it's very nice, but I would struggle to justify spending that a second time.

Having read many of the other reviews prior to our trip, my expectations were for a pretty average experience. Not so! We chose this property as the only one in the resort complex that offers 'Uluru view' rooms. Because of the distance and vegetation in fact you only see the very top portion of the rock from the balcony. Nevertheless, the aspect is stunning as looking out over the desert gives the impression you are alone in the wilderness.|The resort advertises that it is 40% supported by First Nation employees, but in reality everyone we spoke with tended to be either from Fiji or young people from around the world on work visas. Without exception, each was excellent - helpful and friendly.|Nothing is cheap here, so get over it and enjoy your time. Best value, by far, are the helicopter trips by Professional Helicopters. Whirring over the rocks at sunset was magical.|We took a car rental from Hertz in Alice Springs, the only company we could find that offered a one-way trip, meaning we could leave from the very nearby airport, instead of the drive back to Alice. It also meant we could do our own sunset and sunrise trips.|Tip: the pool shown in the picture at the top is not the Desert Garden property. Their one is smaller, but adequate. If you want to grab a sunbed in the shade best to get there by 09:30 and clear out before kids arrive.

A hotel in the middle of now where!! This is one of the very few tourist class hotel nears Aras Rock, aka Uluru. Well maintained as during our stay temps were over 103 f. Air conditioning worked well, rooms was very clean and comfortable One ate in the hotel as there are few restaurants for many miles. Food was a bit pricy but good quality and service was good