Outback Pioneer Hotel

This review covers both the Outback Lodge and the Outback Hotel. We had booked the lodge, a private room with en suite, for $300/night. We knew it was a lodge, we knew it would be basic. There's clearly a limited accommodation choice. We got to our room after driving from Alice and found it was filthy. We went back to reception, and they gave us another room so back we went. If we thought the first one was bad, the second one was even worse! It included a bed which, with the sheet pulled back, showed lots of dead bugs and sands between the bed sheet and sheet to sleep under (as if someone else had slept in there and the bedding hadn't been changed). We went back to reception again... they were apologetic and didn't understand how it could have happened. We explained we knew we were in the outback but this seemed quite extreme/something didn't seem right. They then found us a room in the Outback Hotel; it had a clean bed, dirty bathroom, but we took it as by this point we were exhausted (showered in flip flops/sliders!). For dinner, we headed to the bar at the main part of the resort only to find the published bar food times were incorrect - we were lucky and got there with five minutes to spare so could order! Uluru is a stunning location and seeing the sun set, and taking an early morning walk as the sun rose, was wonderful but the monopoly on accommodation made for a challenge. There's a significant difference between basic, and filthy and unhygienic. We chose not to use the pools or communal cooking facilities after the amount of time we'd spent trying to sort accommodation (and wondering what state they may have been in!). If we return, we'll try different accommodation at the resort.

It has more of a motel feel, rather than a full scale hotel.Rooms are effectively separated ground level units with parking area allocated to ea lot. The room was nice and spacious, clean, nicely decorated. As it's an isolated purpuse built resort, there's lots of amenities on site like bars, restaurants, small shops. Free water refill available too. Breakfast area and selection were a disappointment though. The communal eating area was worn down and not very clean. Ery limited selection of healthy foods and very bad coffee from a huge jug.

We stayed at this hotel for four nights. The rooms are very beautiful, large, and the best part is the huge panoramic window with a small bench right in front of it, so that you can also let the day wind down in the evening in the shade outside the room. Our room had a view of an old tree where the parakeets were always "letting off steam." It was wonderful. Every evening there was a program that we could follow from our room, since we were not far away. We were not in the pool, after all it is Australian winter and everything we saw told us: It is cold! :-) The shower is walk-in and the bathroom is also very large. We recommend this hotel.