Hotel review: Kings Canyon Resort, Northern Territory

The setting is the kind of fierce outback landscape in which you half expect to find dongas, and while the deluxe spa rooms look unremarkable from the outside, they provide ample bush luxury – nothing too fancy, but they're spacious, with a king-size bed, large couch, table, a couple of chairs and a large bathroom, all mercifully well airconditioned. The prime feature of the rooms is the spa bath, set into a recess with full-length windows looking out onto the red rocks just a few metres away. In the morning it's possible to sit in the bath, sunglasses on, in full sun, while in the evening the orange sandstone is beautifully lit by the low sun. The same view can be enjoyed dry on the small verandah beside the bath alcove.

THE FOOD

For a place five hours' drive from the nearest town, with just one truck delivery a week, Kings Canyon Resort dishes up food of the highest quality. At the top end is the a la carte restaurant Carmichael's, where traditional meats are mixed with a few bush ingredients to produce dishes such as crispy skin chicken breast with wild fig puree, and barramundi with macadamia nut crust.

Clustered beside the bar and petrol station, the Outback BBQ and Grill is a more casual offering inside what is effectively a large shed. Chefs barbecue your chosen cut of meat – lamb, chicken, beef sirloin, kangaroo, barramundi – with sides from the salad buffet bar.

STEPPING OUT

It may be the middle of nowhere, but Kings Canyon Resort has enough options to occupy several days. The canyon obviously beckons, particularly its spectacular six-kilometre rim walk, and helicopter flights depart from beside the resort – flights range from an eight-minute peek into the gorge to a lingering 30-minute look along the range. Karrke is a great immersive Indigenous cultural experience in the tiny nearby community of Wanmarra, 30 minutes' drive away. At day's end, stroll from your room to the resort's sunset viewing platform, beneath an enormous desert oak, for a beer or sparkling wine from the drinks cart as last light flares on Carmichael's Crag.

THE VERDICT

Let's be realistic. You're not going this far off the grid just because there's a lovely, spacious room with a to-die-for bath. What draws people here are the surrounds – Kings Canyon with its enormous cliffs and paradisiacal Garden of Eden. But if you want somewhere superbly comfortable and cool in which to sit out the heat of the day, with a bath-soak worthy of a loftier price bracket, the deluxe spa rooms at Kings Canyon Resort are spot on.

THE ESSENTIALS

Luritja Road, Watarrka National Park. Deluxe spa room rates from $399, including buffet breakfast. See kingscanyonresort.com.au

HIGHLIGHT

Soaking in the spa with a view after hiking the Kings Canyon rim walk.

LOWLIGHT

Alas, digital nomads, Wi-Fi is patchy at best.

Andrew Bain was a guest of Kings Canyon Resort and Tourism NT.