Brilliant Trip - A very early start, and not looking forward to the long drive, but with the very knowledgeable,informative and often humorous talks from our driver,combined with stops for breakfast, coffee and comfort stops, it didn't seem so long before we where at Kata Tjuta. A wonderful experience and then on to Uluru. Enjoyed the walks around the rock and the commentary of our guide. After this it was on to the sunset lookout where the barbeque was set up and the champagne opened.What a wonderful meal, steak, sausages and a good variety of salads while we watched the sunset. A short drive to Ayers rock resort, facilities clean and the beds comfortable. Next morning it was up early and off to Kings canyon, the scenery was wonderful, did the walk along the creek, our guides knowledge of the native foods and flora was brilliant. lunch and then back to Alice Springs. A brilliant experience and one I would do again, would recommend this trip to anybody, steady pace and as long as you don't want to do the rim walk it doesn't require a great degree of fitness.

Uluru is Amazing! - I would leave this 6 stars if i could! This trip was absolutely brilliant! Picked up at the crack of dawn from Alice Springs we weren’t looking forward to the drive, however it was well broken up with a few stops for coffee/comfort including an emu farm, camel ride(only$9) and kangaroos, and at a view of Mt Connor where we could collect the red sand! We cooked meals on the camp site which was well provisioned and good fun. Facilities were excellent and clean. We had a small party of 8 which made the trip really personalised but did mean that food was over-provided and its a shame that leftovers had to go to waste. I really want to thank and recommend our guide Matt who couldnt have been any friendlier, more informative or enthusiastic - he really made the trip for us! The location and visit itself is spectacular, walking and driving round Uluru on the first day then Kata Tjuta on the second was well-timed to avoid the scorching midday heat for both days. Again Matt hit the right balance of interesting information and self guided walking. Sleeping over night we had a truly unusual high wind which prevented sleeping under the stars but tents were cool enough and comfortable. The pinnacle was the sunset drinks with the postcard view - sparkling wine and nibbles with the picture postcard vista of Uluru was perfect!

Don’t book with Emu Run! - I booked a two day 1 night ‘sleep under the stars’ tour to Uluru through Emu Run with a return to Alice Springs. Big mistake. First off, before the tour I received an email asking me to reconfirm my booking. When I did I received a reply telling me I was on the three day two night tour. When I emailed back that they had made a mistake the assured me everything was fine and that I was indeed booked for he two day overnight tour. When the day arrived the tour was executed by a different company called Adventure Tours. Basically they did everything right and then some. The fault lies entirely with Emu Run. The Adventure Tour I was put on by Emu Run was not a two day, one night tour. Everybody except me was there for two nights and three days and the Adventure Tours guys had not been informed by Emu Run that I was only there for one night. This lead to some confusion as to how I was supposed to leave after the first night and a lot of calling Emu Run to sort out how they were getting me back to Alice Springs the next day. The tour of Uluru was fine but the ‘sleeping under the stars’ part was useless as the Adventure Tours crew explained. They basically advised against getting in the swag as the campsite was very big and extremely light polluted so there wouldn’t be many stars to see. Their tour group would sleep in swags the second night when they were camping out at a remote site with clear skies and no lights. This was a bummer. I had expected a spectacular night sky similar to the one I saw when camping in Jordan. What I got was a campsite miles away from Uluru (the rock is not visible from the campsite) with loads of lights, dozens of other tour groups and no clear view of the Rock. Stargazing was therefor pretty rubbish (only way to see anything was to walk away from the campsite a bit). DO NOT expect to see stars when booking the ‘sleeping under the stars’ option through Emu Run. The campsite is simply unfit for that. There’s also basically no place to put the swag if you wanted to. The ‘tents’ are wooden buildings with beds so setting up a swag in the middle of that would be pointless. Also the sleeping bag wasn’t necessary (though paid for) as the ‘tents’ had sheets and pillows. There were also slightly more comfortable tents but you had to book them in advance and as this was an Adventure Tours tour Emu Run did not say anything about this option in advance. Ignorance is bliss I suppose. By the way. There are excellent stargazing tours offered in the nearby town which there would have been ample time to go on. But no such luck. Instead we had a lot of ‘free’ time as the entire first day had only two activities: a walk and watching the sunset. A lot of time was spent waiting, including a pick up from the local airport for a second half to our group. The second day, after a sunrise base walk and an optional aboriginal talk (which Emu Run does not tell you about either and the rest of the group had pre-booked through Adventure Tours, like the luxury tents) I was dropped off at a local hotel around 12. The transportation back to Alice was supposed to arrive at 6.15 pm and I was told to be waiting st 6 by the latest. There’s not much to do in Yulara, the small town outside of the Uluru park but I made the best of it passing my time. A free bus runs into the town centre and there are some activities. Why, however, Emu Run does not provide a thing to do between 12 and 6 is beyond me. But I knew this part in advance. What I did not know was that the bus wouldn’t show up at 6.15. As the Adventure Tour guys had told me they had to call Emu Run as they knew nothing about a pick up I got a little worried. I decided to call Emu Run and was spoken to by a very rude girl who said I should just wait. No apologies. No explanations. She simply said the bus would come between 6.30 and 6.45 and when I asked about the delay she hung up. 6.45 came. No bus. Again nobody called me to explain so I had to call again. No a second, friendlier, girl said the bus was delayed but would be there in 10 minutes. The bus arrived at 7 and made a toilet stop at 8. The driver triumphantly announced we were doing good for time. When I asked how that could be as they were about an hour late picking me up he said they were not late. The bus had been at Uluru watching the sunset and as the sun set at 8.30 they could not have been at the hotel any sooner. He said he had told Emu Run many times that the shouldn’t tell guests they’d be picked up around 6 but nothing was done. He also refused to apologise (even though the bus and his shirt said ‘Emu Run’) as he wasn’t late. I am still waiting for someone, anyone, to apologise. So. In brief. Emu Run is a badly organised company that takes your money but takes no responsibility beyond that. It has no regard at all for what was actually booked or agreed upon. Booking through Emu Run is going to be the worst mistake you make while in Australia. Don’t do it! Sidney Smeets