It is important to understand that AATKings, a major tour operator in Australia, is the provider. AATKings has a wide variety of available tours, so this tour is a package of several of their options. In general, it was excellent. The tours at Uluru were informative and interesting and provided excellent access. The accomodations in Uluru at the Desert Gardens were more expensive and luxurious than we needed for one night, but was the only choice available when we signed up. The sunrise tour was excellent, and provided better photos than the sunset tour. We regret that we did not include a star gazing evening, as the night sky was amazing with better visibility of the stars and Milky Way than we have ever seen. The trip to King's Canyon was worthwhile. It is a lovely place, and the small town really just a bar and a bbq restaurant was fun. King's Canyon offers two hiking options on the time frame of this tour -- a lovely 2km walk along the creek bed in the canyon floor which we chose and a grueling in appearance 6km hike up a very steep hill to the canyon rim. The ride from there to Alice Springs was very long, with a pleasant rest stop at a cattle station/restaurant. It does provide a real feel for the outback and its long distances of desert scenery. Our driver/guide Pete was excellent in recounting the history and notable landmarks of the area as well as being our guide in the King's Canyon walk. _br/_ I do not see what Viator does in this operation -- all communications were simply forwarding emails from AAT. The tour included pickup from our Alice Springs motel to the airport, but Viator sent an email requesting flight info but never confirmed the time or place of pickup. We had to call the local service to confirm this as Viator never responded to my email request for confirmation.
Review by: Melanie R, April 2018
This tour was excellent. Very well organised and great client service, the drivers/guides are really nice with a good knowledge of the outback. I highly recommend it.
Review by: jeant, October 2017
Remarkable tour! I was especially impressed with the guides' knowledge of and respect for the natives' spiritual beliefs and sacred sites. Highly recommend this tour company and all of its employees. Outstanding.
Review by: lauriegreen49, May 2017
Really, really loved this tour. Uluru, Kata Tjuta and Kings Canyon are awe inspiring! Our guide was very knowledgeable and took time to answer all our questions. The accommodations were good, and everyone at all our hotels was very helpful. We came without an adapter for the electric outlets and each hotel supplied one to us for free. There finally was one we could buy in Alice Springs, only about 20, but well worth it. Our first hotel was having construction, and the pool area was closed. With temps about 104F it would have been nice to know in advance so we could choose one of the other hotels.
Review by: pioterus, May 2017
This was a fantastic experience and I enjoyed everything I saw and also the professional guide who accompanied us at Kings Canyon as well as very knowledgeable bus drivers/guides. _br/_ I would have given five stars if it weren't for some annoying glitches. Firstly, this three day tour is in fact a collection of several individual tours organised by the same tour operator, which would be fine except that you don't even get an email or anything with precise departure times for the tours and as there's many of them it's hard to keep track of them. The only way to find it out is to call the tour operator not viator and ask for details. Asking a bus driver/guide from your first tour won't help because they're not aware of the this itinerary. What's worse, after arrival at the airport I was looking for the bus to the resort and after I said I'm on this three day tour they said they don't know this tour so there's no bus. Therefore, you have to be careful and only mention your first tour - the one of Uluru. Secondly, the Ulury tours were not synchronised with check in and check out times. The sunset viewing tour departed at the hotel check in time and as I had just arrived from the airport I wanted to get to my room to refresh myself and change, which proved to be very difficult and I only manged to get the keys half an hour before the official check in time. Sunrise viewing had even worse timing as it was returning to hotel at 10 a.m. which was also the check out time which would mean that you actually have to check out at 5 in the morning if you want to follow the rules. It took a lot of effort to convince the receptionist to let me stay one hour longer and even so at 10 a.m. a member of the staff was knocking at my door to complain that the room had not been made vacant yet._br/_ On the other hand, in Kings Canyon it was much better and we were allowed to check out just before the bus departure time.
Review by: R C K, October 2016
Excellent sites and views. Very good driver guides who were knowledgeable. Very poor organisation and customer delivery by A AT. Chaotic, frustrating and slow allocation of coaches, all last minute. We did not get an itinerary from A AT but had to get the hotel to contact them and send it. In confirming a couple of days before AAT could not initially find the booking and only after delay and being put on hold I was told the name of the hotel but no timings. Good tour but experience could have been better.
Review by: Rodrigo L, August 2016
Totally worth it, amazing landmarks and even better staff, we really enjoyed our 3 days trip, i would recommend this for everyone
Review by: David M, June 2016
Uluru and kings canyon tours excellent._br/_ Waiting around time for bus interchange and extra long stops at kings creek station no good._br/_ Sails at Uluru overpriced. Kings canyon resort very good, restaurant excellent.
Review by: Justin, April 2016
I would have given it more stars, but I am more of a person that likes small group adventure tours. This tour was more for someone that just wants to take it really easy and see the sites. Still it was worth doing and the tour guides were very nice and very informative. Loved Kings Canyon, the optional rim hike was awesome! Oh and I don't think 3 days was enough, I would have booked it for longer if I booked again.
Review by: Foong C, February 2016
Air conditioning on the bus was only partially working...very hot! You need to get some more modern buses.
Review by: Brian H, January 2016
The tour was tremendous. We were warned that the temperature at this time of year would be unbearable but this was not our experience.
Review by: zorro, November 2015
This tour was great. Ayers Rock/Uluru was great, but as expected the area was very crowded and the flies were pretty bad, but we still had a great experience and we are very glad we visited Uluru. The most amazing part of the tour was Kings Canyon Resort which was beautiful, peaceful, and quite. We did a three hour and half hike 6.5 Kilometeres to the top of Kings Canyon and walked through the rim of the mountain which had spectacular views._br/_ This tour is expensive but worth every penny. I couldn't imagine visiting Australia without visiting the outback.
Review by: James B, November 2015
I already did in September.
Review by: JAMES W, July 2015
Everything was fantastic and we had a great time. The coach drivers were particularly helpful and knowledgeable. Couldn't find fault with anything
Review by: Eileen E, May 2015
We really enjoyed the trip but felt a bit rushed at some of the stops especially the sunset at Uluru. Also the breakfast foods at the sunrise at Uluru were very disappointing. If you have the time rent a car and do your own touring....
Review by: Carole M, April 2015
Very well organised trip. All guides and drivers excellent, friendly and informative.
Review by: Jonathan M, March 2015
The tour itself is great. The tour operator (one of the few in the area) was great. It seems Viator changed their description between booking time and tour time. It was also my mistake that I did not check the tour operator's website for more information after I received my confirmation.
Review by: Warren F, October 2014
The tour was well organized and we got to do enough hiking to get a feel for the Uluru and Kings Canyon area. The accommodations were satisfactory.
Review by: Miriam L, September 2014
The AATKings guide and driver Warren was fabulous. Thoroughly enjoyed the trip. Loved the Jumping Crocodiles tour day 1 and especially the Yellow Water Billabong on day 2. Katherine Gorge on day 3 was spectacular. The choice of hotels was great for the first night at Mercure Kakadu Crocodile Hotel but the stay on the second night at Ibis Styles Katherine was awful. I'm assuming AATKings only chose this place because of the Katherine Gorge sunrise tour the next morning. Pity there's no other choice. Damp towels on the bed thus a wet bed as well, no hairdryer (they only had a few to offer and they were all gone), bathroom sliding window fixed in an open position (with a big screw) with all the world to see you in the shower, mouldy grouting in the shower and the spare toilet paper roll unusable locked in a holder. Left that place very disappointed considering we had paid for Superior accommodation option. As accommodation is left at the discretion of the tour operators and they should seriously think again. We weren't the only ones on the tour to put up with exactly the same problems unfortunately. Warren was fantastic and very informative and as there involved a lot of driving and monotonous landscape between the attractions, that was essential.
Review by: Miss H M, August 2014
Our Flight was late in arriving so we missed part of our first tour to the Olga's but the sunset and sunrise experience at Uluru were absolutely phenomenal. King's Canyon was amazing although I didn't know if I could climb the 500 steps but once at the top I was so glad I had. The guides, drivers etc were all amazing and so knowledgeable and made it very interesting. Would do it again in a heartbeat.
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