After a disastrous stay at Sails in the Desert, thankfully, we were collected promptly and efficiently by Longitude 131, who soothed us by immediately serving us a glass of champagne on arrival and transferring us into our room with professionalism and charm as outstanding as the surroundings !

A first class resort in every way, magnificent location, luxury rooms, and fine dining at every meal - totally impressed with the all encompassing, service, tours, and friendly yet professional staff.

The all inclusive pricing exceptional value - could not fault anything during our 3 day stay !

We stayed here over Christmas and I have nothing but the highest praise for this property. It deserves all the accolades it receives. The rooms are well-appointed, the food is fabulous and the staff was incredible. To put this review in context, we arrived at Longitude after being awake nearly 60 hours thanks to a truly incompetent U.S. airline. Upon arrival in Illurua, it was evident that Longitude 131 is not like the other "resorts" in the area. Aerial pictures on the property's web site are very accurate; it is set far away from the hotel compound. We were lucky to have one of the front row "tents" and the view was phenomenal. Given this property is all inclusive, I didn't expect the food to blow me away. But, it did. I assumed there would be a simple continental breakfast instead there was an extensive menu and this was also true for lunch. Dinner was also fabulous. Due to jet lag, we were only able to go on the first day's tour and the sunset viewing. The tour guide was informative and the sunset viewing came complete with a champagne toast. When we returned from the viewing, there were Christmas presents on the bed. Very touching. But, the true test of a property and its staff is how they perform when faced with unexpected and adverse circumstances. On Christmas eve night, I became violently ill. The staff drove me to the medical center in town where I spent the rest of the night and Christmas morning. The manager of this property personally came to the medical center to check on my condition at 2 am Christmas morning! This, to me, was incredible. Once I was released and back at the resort, without asking the staff called and asked what I could eat and promptly sent these amazing trays of food to the room. I was so touched by the staff and manager at Longetitude. We have been lucky enough to travel over the world and this is a must see property. We will be back.

We stayed at Longitude over Christmas with our two teenage children and had the most amazing time. The quality of the accommodation, food and wine was excellent and the best that we had on our Australian holiday. It is expensive but in my view it is well worth it. It was a nice touch that we each received a Christmas gift. The tours were well organised and informative but if you only stay for 2 days there is not much time to relax and soak up the atmosphere. We stayed for 3 nights and were glad of the extra time. It was very hot when we were there but there were not many flies around. Apparently flies can be a real problem at Uluru at certain times of the year.

The idea of staying in a property which has an all inclusive offer is very appealling. Having stayed at other part of the Ayers Rock Resort I know that nothing comes cheap in the Rock and that it may also not be quite at the international standard for the price. So I am a bit forgiving on these things. The other issue the area (and this hotel is no exception) is transient staff. This means that a number of people come to enjoy working in the red centre and then move on.

Enough of that and let's focus on the hotel itself. First impressions count and we were let down at the airport when we could not find the driver. After a call to the hotel and a wait of 10 minutes we found each other. Things improved on arrival and we were warmly greeted, run through our program and given a glass of sparkling wine. It was disappointing that our room was not ready when we arrived as there was no mystery as to when our flight was due in. There was a 30 minute delay until we could check in to our luxury tent.

Before I get to the tent, let me quickly cover off on the activity schedule. All the tours on this are included and are pretty extensive and cover most of what you need to see in the area. That said, you could fully occupy your time on these and it leaves little time for relaxing. The tours are optional so you can skip them, which we did. The great thing is that if we wish to see something off the schedule the in-house guides can often accommodate you. This was a great way to see Kata Tjuta. Most of the tours also revolve around sunrise and sunset. The viewing area for the sunset at the hotel is one of the best there is and frankly I would skip the main tour with the 1,000 other people and stay in the quiet seclusion of the hotel. Even though they offer canapes and drinks, they had poured too much champagne and most of it was warm when we arrived.

As for the tent, it is essentially a hotel room on stilts with a tent like roof. Still pretty cool and fits with the surroundings. The furniture was modern enough and comfortable although the bed we had was two singles pushed together and were of slightly different heights which made it a little uncomfortable if you wanted to be close together (!!). The bathroom had nice Molton Brown toiletries and was of a good size. The view is what made it which was unobstructed views across to Uluru. The rooms are probably not quite as fancy as some Asian or European hotels but it is central Australia after all.

As all the meals were included we of course ate in the hotel in the Dune House which is like an Executive Lounge. Drinks (alcoholic and non-alcoholic) were available all day and were of a premium quality (as advertised - I was nervous about how could they would be). There is also a Premium Wine and CIgar List at a cost and has some great Australian wines on it. The food itself was quite delicious and well presented but I would not rave about it. Not quite five star standard. The other aspect we faced was that the timing between ordering and delivery was extremely slow even when there was no one else in the restaurant.

We had a number of issues at dinner (cold soup, incorrect main course, slow service) which were handled very well by the staff (Melissa in particular). They were very apologetic and provided us some great service recovery over the next couple of days. As most people only stay a couple of days the non-changing menu is fine. You can also order snacks during the day (toasted sandwich, cheese plate) without any trouble and the staff are very obliging.

The small pool area is pretty quiet but could really do with some more shade as you seem to bake wherever you stand! Water deliveries are made regularly but because the staffing levels are low, they are probably not as attentive at seeing if you want anything else poolside. There is no call button or phone to place an order - small gripe but when you compare it to resorts who have pool staff constantly on hand it is soemthing they should consider.

Overall it is one of those places you should stay at once. The intent is there in term sof what it could be but it misses the mark by about 5%. For the cost and the inclusions it should be flawless.