Sails in the Desert

Recent Reviews: 5029

• User:DianeD624

  Trip type: Friends getaway

  Disappointing

  03 Oct 2026

  We have enjoyed our stay at Sails in the Desert and there is certainly a lot to like. The rooms are very comfortable, spacious and well maintained, and we found the staff and service throughout the resort to be very good.However, there is one issue that really needs addressing, particularly given the prices guests are paying and the fact that Sails in the Desert is positioned as the resort’s premier five-star hotel.When it rains, the pool restaurant closes, which immediately removes one of the casual dining options. Walpa Lobby Bar then stops serving food at 5pm. This leaves guests with very limited choices for dinner — either room service or paying around $107 per person for the buffet at Ilkari Restaurant.What makes this particularly frustrating is that bad weather is exactly when guests are least likely to want to leave the resort and go out in the rain looking for somewhere to eat. Yet we saw many guests doing exactly that because there simply wasn’t an affordable casual dinner option available at the hotel.For a hotel of this standard and price, this really isn’t good enough. Not everyone wants a large and expensive buffet dinner, particularly after a full day of touring. A simple evening menu at Walpa — salads, burgers, pizza or other light meals — would solve the problem.Sails in the Desert has lovely rooms, very good staff and much to recommend it. We enjoyed many aspects of our stay, but the lack of sensible evening dining options really lets the hotel down.For Yulara’s premier hotel, guests should not have to choose between a $107 buffet, room service, or heading out into the rain to find dinner. Management really needs to rethink this.

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• User:Nagaratnam S

  Trip type: Friends getaway

  An Oasis in Uluru

  30 Sept 2026

  Sails in the desert is the only 5* hotel among the few hotels in the Ayers Rock Resort, managed by Accor. The resort is nicely setup, with about 10 different restaurants, free shuttle bus, IGA supermarket etc.We had all meals at the two restaurants in the hotel Ilkari (buffet breakfast $56 and dinner $106 per head) and Wa?pa lobby bar (à la carte lunch). Except for breakfast, they offer good discount for Accor Plus. If you book the dinner the previous night, they discount the breakfast. Both restaurants are spotlessly clean and the food is of excellent quality. The buffet dinner price may appear high, but the spread is good. Everyday, we had fish, calamari and prawns, along with different meat dishes including crocodile and kangaroo. We had a hire car which was handy to visit the sites for sunrise and sunset. Hire cars give only 100 km per day free. Kata Tjuta is an hour drive and takes a few km. Ayers Rock is only 20 minutes drive. Nevertheless, this is the most economical option to visit the different sites. Uluru visit is good for the bucket list. It is well worth the visit, and Sails in the desert made it very pleasant. The staff at the hotel were very courteous. The toilet bowl had ugly black stains which look terrible. This is caused by the minerals in the water. See photo.

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• User:Kathryn H

  Trip type: Family

  Beautiful spot and special experience

  28 Sept 2026

  Sails in the Dessert was a lovely place to stay. Our room was large, clean and well maintained. The new bathrooms are really nice. The amenities provided included tea and coffee and bathroom items were all really good. They provide milk in the fridge and lots of coffee, tea etc. The resort facilities, including restaurants were lovely although there could be a bit more variety on the menus and a few healthier options particularly for poolside such as fruit platters etc. Our room was on the 3rd floor looking out over the dessert which was really quite and peaceful. The only things which detracted from our stay was that our room was not serviced. We checked in on Monday, left on Friday and our room was only serviced once on the Thursday. I am not sure why this was the case, we had do not disturb up a few times, but not until really late in the afternoon, like 4pm. The other thing was the pool, the pool is NOT HEATED. And it is not just that it is not heated, it IS FREEZING. So cold that it is virtually unuseable. Given the amount of solar panels on the roof of the resort, not having the pool heated even just a little bit seems crazy. After hot hiking jumping into the pool would have been divine, but the temperature meant you were in and out because you were just too cold.

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• User:abby p

  Trip type: Family

  10/10 hotel

  23 Sept 2026

  Lovely hotel , really good size rooms and great pool area. Perfect place to stay whilst in Uluru !! Ayers Rock Resort Manager, Marketing at Sails In The Desert, responded to this review Dear Abby,Thank you for your wonderful feedback. Kind regards,Ayers Rock Resort Team

• User:KayLawrence

  Trip type: Couples

  Not 5 star

  13 Sept 2026

  Don't go expecting a 5 star resort as this is 3 star at best. Accomodation looks like prison blocks, rooms are adequate but the worst part of this resort is the food. The breakfast buffet was almost inedible, I know its remote but nothing is fresh and the quality is really poor. Pastries are stale (clearly not made on site) Not what you expect from a 5 star resort. We didn't eat her at night as breakfast was so appalling we didn't want to risk it Ayers Rock Resort Manager, Marketing at Sails In The Desert, responded to this review Dear Kay,Thank you for sharing your feedback. We’re sorry to hear your stay did not meet expectations, and we appreciate you taking the time to share your experience. Your comments are valued and will be shared with our operational team.Kind regards,Ayers Rock Resort Team

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