At the end of August 2017, I went on a trip to Uluru with my sister. Uluru is located in the heart of Australia in the North Territority. In today’s post I want to talk about my trip to Uluru from an economics perspective.
Getting to Uluru
Uluru is not the easiest place in the world to get even if you are living in Australia. I live in Brisbane, I took a flight to Sydney then a flight directly to Uluru. Flying to Uluru directly is quite expensive as there are very few flights that go to Uluru each day (equilibrium price determined through demand and supply). Uluru is also considered one of the natural Seven Wonders of the World; hence, generates demand to travel to Uluru. The low supply of flights and the relatively high demand to visit a natural wonder of the world higher produces the higher equilibrium price for flights (simple demand and supply).
An alternative way to reach Uluru would be to fly from Brisbane to Adelaide and then fly from Adelaide to Alice Springs followed by about a 5 hour coach ride to Uluru. The flight to Alice Springs costs a bit less than the flight to Uluru but the additional cost of the coach trip would have meant the cost of the journey would been similar to flying directly to Uluru. Flying directly to Uluru also saved the time required for the coach rides. If we consider time to have a value. The real cost of flying to Uluru via Sydney is lower than flying to Alice Springs via Adelaide followed by the coach ride.
The resort
We stayed at the Desert Gardens Hotel in Uluru. This was one of about five places that you could choose to stay at. There were two other hotels, a backpacker’s lodge, and a camp ground. The resort area is basically the entire settlement located at Uluru. Some people make day trips from Alice Springs to Uluru but the journey is about five hours there and another five hours back, which leaves very little time to enjoy Uluru itself.
The resort appeared to be mostly or even possibly entirely powered by solar energy. This is very practical considering Uluru gets bright sunshine almost the entire year. Alternative energy sources would be expensive and difficult to access.
The food options available at the resorts were not ideal for my sister and I, as we are both vegans. Our hotel restaurant served chips and sweet potato wedges. There was also a noodle restaurant but that only served one noodle option that was vegetarian. There was a little provision store where we bought some noodles and bread. My sister brought some ingredients with her to make a cooking video. She made protein balls. These protein balls helped us get through the five days we were there. There was a breakfast buffet which was included in the price of the room. Breakfast was quite good as we could have beans, mushroom, toast and fruit which also helped keep us going for the day.
What to do and how to do it?
The two main attractions in my opinion are Uluru (the big rock itself) and Kata Tjuta (another amazing rock formation). So how is the best way to explore these two amazing locations? There are guided tours of both sites. There are day tours, dawn tours, and sunset tours. The rocks look different at different times of the day.
There is also an option to take a hop-on hop-off bus trip to Uluru and Kata Tjuta. We choose the hop-on hop-off bus trip for two reasons. The hop-on hop-off bus trip allowed us much greater flexibility in terms of where we went and how long we could stay at each section of the rock. The guided tours did not do the entire base of Uluru and lasted only a couple of hours. Using the hop-on hop-off buses we could spend the entire day at the rock. The guided tours did not visit the Valley of the Winds. The Valley of the Winds is a must see and must experience at Kata Tjuta. The views are spectacular and the trek and climb are invigorating.
The second reason why we selected the hop-on hop-off bus trip was money. Most of the tours were very expensive. The hop-on hop-off bus trip was less than half the price. Being an economist, I saw price as being very relevant to the decision making process. The hop-on hop-off bus trip offered flexibility, freedom and a good price. This seemed like the best option for me and I would recommend that to others as well (maximising utility per dollar spent). The additional information provided by the tour guides can be found in books that can be brought home as souvenirs.
Day at Uluru
This is not a travel blog so I will not go into too much detail describing my time at the big rock itself but I can tell you it is something amazing and certainly worth doing especially if you live in Australia. It is about a 10km walk all the round the base. The rock looks quite different from different angles. Both shape and colours vary. There is an option to climb the rock in one particular place but we chose not to for three reasons.
- It is disrespectful to the indigenous people of that area.
- Climbing Uluru causes long term damage to the rock.
- Climbing can be dangerous. There are no safety harnesses and the nearest medical facility is a long way away.
Day at Kata Tjuta
Kata Tjuta in my opinion was more spectacular than Uluru itself. The Valley of the Winds Walk is something special. I have a video that I will upload to YouTube and Dtube showing some of the amazing views from this walk.
I strongly recommend if you do this walk to be well prepared. You need to be reasonable fit as some of the walk involves some quite step climbing. You also need to be dressed appropriately. Have good shoes. Wear clothes you can move around easily in. Remember to bring plenty of water, at least two large bottles of water per a person. There are two stations where you can top up your water but this water is nasty, it is warm and tastes highly chlorinated. Also remember to wear plenty of sunblock (SPF 50) and cover up if you can.
Activities around the resort
There are also activities at the resort itself. There are camel rides. We had a look at the camel ride station but we did not ride any of them. There were short walks and treks around the resort area at different times of the day. The resort also had several lookout points to view Uluru and Kata Tjuta. We observed Uluru at sunset from one of the lookout points to observe the change in colour of the rock as the sun went down.
On our final day at Uluru we went to a reptile show. There were very few people at this show. I guess it was not considered an important attraction by many but we enjoyed nonetheless. As there were so few people, we were able to spend more time with the reptiles. I held a snake and a lizard.
Overall
The food options may have been limited. The tours of Uluru and Kata Tjuta were expensive and Uluru is generally very hard to get to. All of these could easily put people off. I’m thinking it probably did, as there were very few people there. We were there in late August, which is an almost ideal time to go.
Despite all of the above, I thoroughly enjoyed my holiday at Uluru. We worked around the limited food options. The day trips were not that expensive as we used the hop-on hop-off buses. Uluru and Kata Tjuta are unlike any other places in the world. Both locations were amazing, beautiful and somehow deeply powerful. It is very hard to assign a value to such a life time experience. So regardless of how much it might cost to visit, if you live in Australia and you want to experience something you will remember for the rest of your life, visit Uluru and Kata Tjuta.
Thank you for reading my post. I hope you enjoyed my account of my experience at Uluru and Kata Tjuta. I also hoped you enjoyed my inclusion of economics in regards to pricing, utility, and valuing time. I tried to keep it reasonably subtle. At the same time, I wanted to further demonstrate how economics comes into play even when we are on holiday.
Here is the link to my YouTube video of my trip to Uluru and Kata Tjuta
I will upload additional videos of Uluru and Kata Tjuta. These will be scenic videos of the landscape and experience.
