Uluru camel tour

This site compares 18 bookings at the rock, all of them live listings on one platform, and it earns a commission when you book one. That is the whole business model, and it sets the limit of what we can honestly write.

There is no camel listing in the selection. Camel rides beside the rock exist — they are a well-known part of the desert around the park — but they are sold as a separate product by a camel operator, not through the bookings we compare. We have no fare to quote, no departure time, no duration and no rating, because there is no listing here to read them off.

So we are not going to invent them. Making up a price for an Uluru camel tour would be easy and it would be worthless: you would arrive at the rock with a number in your head that nobody honours. Everything else on this site is read off a listing, and we are not making an exception for the one page where the listing does not exist.

What we can do is tell you what to book instead. Nobody wants a camel for its own sake. People want the pace, the hour, the dunes, and a morning that does not require a half-day walk. Four of our bookings do those jobs well, and the rest of this page is about which is which.

1. The pace. A camel is slow, and slow is the point: you are outdoors, above the scrub, not being driven past it. The closest thing to that in our selection is $133 — a small group, three hours, a picnic breakfast, a short walk into Mutitjulu Waterhole and up to the rock art, and the rest of the circuit by road. It is rated 4.7 across 279 reviews, which is the highest score among the short morning bookings here.

2. The hour. Camel rides are sold at the ends of the day because that is when the desert is worth being in. Our bookings do the same. At first light you have $131 and $175 on foot, $182 on wheels and $133 in a small group. At the other end of the day, $69 runs ninety minutes from Ayers Rock Resort to the viewing area with sparkling wine and nibbles written into the fare, and $175 gives you five hours with Mutitjulu Waterhole and the Mala walk before the light goes.

3. Not walking far. This is the honest reason most people go looking for an Uluru camel tour, and it is a good one. The base circuit is 10.5 kilometres and the two walking bookings take five and a half to six hours to cover it. If that is not your morning, $133 walks only the short stretch to the waterhole and the rock art, $69 asks almost nothing of you at all and is listed as wheelchair accessible, and $175 is also listed as wheelchair accessible with a short walk into the waterhole.

For the unhurried morning, book $133. Three hours, small group, picnic breakfast, the waterhole and the rock art on foot, the rest of the base by road, 4.7 across 279 reviews. It is the pick of this page.

For the least effort of anything here, book $69. Ninety minutes, wheelchair accessible, sparkling wine and nibbles in the fare, and the lowest fare on the site at 4.2 across 262 reviews.

For a long afternoon at a gentle pace, book $175. Five hours, 4.8 across 217 reviews, small group, wheelchair accessible, the waterhole and the Mala walk.

For the desert itself rather than the rock, book $81. Two hours before dawn among Bruce Munro’s lights in open country within sight of the rock, 4.6 across 675 reviews.

And if you want a camel, book it at the rock. We have no listing for it, so we have no fare, no hours and no operator to give you — ask at Ayers Rock Resort when you arrive, and treat any number you read online, here or anywhere else, as unverified until the operator states it. An Uluru camel riding tour is somebody else’s product, and saying so is cheaper for you than a made-up price.