Flying into Ayers Rock for 3 days/2nights in August. Would like to see A.R and Olgas, take camel ride. Do you recommend hiring a car? Are the tours out of Voyages resort good, or are others available?

We rented a car for our 2 day stay and diddn't do any of the guided tours. The only down side is that you don't get the full 'spiel' from the tour guides. What you gain is a lot of freedom to drive where you want and stop wherever you want to take pictures. In a place so amazing as Uluru, there tend to be photo opportunites round at almost every bend in the road so we were very glad we weren't being bussed from A to B. It's also more exciting approaching the two sites in your own vehicle rather than being on a coach, as it feels like you are discovering it yourself!

In summary, if you want a sense of adventure and freedom to take pictures everywhere, rent a car. If you want the full tour guide experience, don't.

I definitely recommend getting a car. We have been to Uluru twice--the first time we did not have a car and had to rely on tours. The tours to Uluru and the Olgas were both expensive and confining in space and time. On our second trip, we made sure to get a rental car and it was wonderful! We could take all the time we wanted and travel whenever we wanted. However, be sure to book a car well in advance of your trip as they have a limited number of cars and they will not be available on a walk-up basis.

I too am hoping to hire a car in July and travel from Ayers rock to Alice. What is the best rental company to go wit? I have heard that there is a big excess , can you take out extra insurance to cover this? Is it better to hire from the Uk or should I ring and book direct?

Definitely ride a camel - clients of mine did it and loved it. You can rent a car through Hertz before you leave home and get a reasonable price. Be sure to consider the Sounds of Silence dinner at sunset, too.

Best Regards,
Julia

having heard this morning that petrol just out of alice springs was a ridiculous $2.20litre, you might want to take that into consideration in the tour vs car hire question. normally I'd say car, but there are a lot of tours that operate out of the alice and with that price for petrol ... OUCH!

Depends also on how many in your party. More than 2 and a car makes more economic sense.

But certainly consider the price of petrol - that's becoming a a major factor in cost. The price here is 3-4 times (or maybe more) the cost in the US. There's no subsidy on petrol in this country.

margo, I don't think there's a subsidy in the US either - the difference is accounted for by the US tax rate, which is by far the lowest in the developed world. Even so, Australia is the 3rd lightest taxer among OECD member countries, so we get off lightly compared to the Europeans. IMO the Australian rate should be higher and the money used to subsidise alternatives such as LPG/CNG conversions, not to mention better public transport. This is not a temporary situation - by some calculations we've already passed the "peak oil" point, beyond which new reserves become increasingly expensive to tap. And then there's the increasing demand form China and India.

When I last visited the US in 1996 gas prices there were about half ours. Judging by a long-running thread on the US forum the gap is closing. It's above the US$3/gal mark (the last poster paid $3.22 in San Diego).

At 1 US gal = 3.785 litres, $3/gal is about US$0.79/litre. That's AU$1.04 per litre, or a third more than in the US.

$2.20/litre is certainly "ouch!" territory, though.

What about driving from the Alice to the Red Centre do tour around (staying over night) and driving back? Is that crazy given the price of gas or is it more reasonable for 2 people to take join a few tours? thanks!