Emu Walk Apartments, Ayer's Rock Resort - Australia Part 2

Here's the second in my long-overdue series of reviews of where we stayed in Oz. To put this into context, in the red centre of Australia is a massive rock known as Uluru by the aboriginal people (and still called Ayer's Rock by many of us), as everybody knows.

What fewer people know (and I didn't) is that near Uluru (relatively speaking) is a group of strangely-shaped rocks called Kata Tjuta (or the Olgas).

These are in the middle of a national park, which is basically hours away from any town. However, there is an airport and there is a small 'town' nearby called Yulara, which basically consists of Ayer's Rock Resort. The resort is made up of several accommodation options plus restaurants, supermarket, etc. Unless you undertake an unbearably long day-trip from Alice Springs, staying here is basically your only option - hence the astronomically high prices, unfortunately. We stayed in the Emu Walk Apartments, which were a good option for travelling with children - we always prefer staying in apartments, as it gives us somewhere to sit (other than the bathroom!) once the children are in bed. I understand they're currently in the process of refurbishing the apartments, so my video may soon be out of date, but hopefully it'll give you an idea of what they're like. Anyway, cut-and-paste Trip Advisor review coming up:

We stayed here last August, so I can't remember as much as I'd like to, but I'll do my best! We had a one-bedroom apartment, which was fine for our family of four. We found where to check-in with no problems (perhaps because we'd been reading the reviews here!) and found our apartment okay. It was on the second floor and consisted of an open-plan kitchen, dining area and lounge (with sofa bed), a double bedroom and a bathroom leading off the bathroom. The kitchen wasn't massively well-equipped, but we weren't planning on doing much cooking! It did have washing-up equipment, tea and coffee sachets, milk, etc. The dining table and chairs seated us easily and the lounge area was comfy. There was a TV, although it didn't get much use! The apartment was fairly spacious (to a Brit, at least!) and didn't feel crowded. The only downside was the bathroom being off the bedroom meant that the children had to come through our room to use the toilet. Staff on reception were very friendly, the supermarket was well-stocked and we had a nice takeaway from the amusingly-named Ayer's Wok. The only less-than-pleasant experience was dinner in Gecko's, where we found staff unfriendly and were basically ignored - maybe we were just unlucky. We would recommend hiring a car from the airport and making your own way to Uluru and Kata Tjuta (the Olgas). Although you can get a free transfer to the resort, the hire car enables you to get there ahead of everyone else and avoid the crush. You can also pay for a permit for Uluru National Park, which allows you to drive to and around all the sights, with various parking, walking and viewing opportunities. There is a free ranger tour around Uluru every morning to give you some first-hand information, and the park was very easy to navigate. We preferred seeing what we wanted at our own pace (particularly with children), and it was an awful lot cheaper than the official tours. Parking at the resort was always easy to find - although not necessarily that close to the apartment. The price for the apartments, of course, is pretty extortionate, as the resort has a monopoly on accommodation. However, I would say these apartments are the best price relatively speaking, and they are a good option if you are travelling with children. I just wish we'd stayed more than two nights and been able to see a bit more of the resort!

If you'd like a little tour of our apartment, you can watch the YouTube video below. You can also visit my YouTube channel (Holiday Obsessive) for more holiday videos (with more to come soon).