Australia & New Zealand Travel Guide

Zicasso’s trip planner did an excellent job. Communication and the quality of the experiences were everything we'd expected and more, especially in New Zealand. The accommodations were first rate; the highlight was the lodge in Queenstown. The guides and drivers were professional and knowledgeable, especially those in Queenstown and Auckland. We loved the dedicated website for reference, as well as the detailed booklet and maps for both countries. 

For future itineraries, I would add another day in Queenstown and a full day in Christchurch. If days were limited, I would recommend one less day in Auckland and/or skipping the drive/train from Franz Josef. 

The only complication was the day we spent 10 hours going to and coming from Milford Sound.  I recommend doing Milford Sound by plane/helicopter from Queenstown, which would also permit seeing the glaciers/southern alps from the air. The only things we missed were the zoo in Auckland and the Blue Mountain day tour in Sydney. Next trip!

It was great working with Zicasso's travel specialist, and the traveling was great, getting around to all the places. Below are the events that were cancelled on us due to the weather:

Tranz Alpine train ride - Scenic Plus to Greymouth, staying in the Rainforest Retreat, Franz Josef Twin Glacier, Kayak, and walk tour, Milford Sound/Fjordland. That's not the travel specialist's fault, but I would never go to New Zealand in October, ever again. All the roads were closed, and we ended up taking a taxi cab from Christchurch to Queenstown, and that was a rough trip due to the high winds. We should have started in Australia instead of starting in Aukland, New Zealand. That's from my experience.

I really thought the Zicasso travel partner was fabulous and so thorough and easy to use. I would rate it the best travel app. It had my itinerary down to the minute detail, info on how to contact various people if there were any questions, and was so easy to navigate.  I would rate my trip to Australia my favorite so far. I recently went to Japan through a different travel agent and was able to compare the difference. Our travel team was so much better! 

My husband and I went to Australia to drop off my daughter, who was doing an exchange study in Sydney. We started in Melbourne and had a full-day tour to Phillip Island, with a moonlit animal sanctuary and penguins. I would recommend the penguins. I saw thousands of penguins. What an experience! I did not like the sanctuary part. Tickets were sold out for the koala petting and there were not very many animals to see. I have heard there are other sanctuaries/zoos in other parts of Australia that are much better.  

The Melbourne food tour was fantastic! Our tour guide did a wonderful job of explaining Melbourne's history with the food. We flew to Cairns, to Port Douglas, and had two excursions: a boat ride with snorkeling in the Great Reef Barrier and a Daintree safari.  The full-day cruise with snorkeling was wonderful, with so much food! The Daintree tour was a bit long and could have been condensed into half the time. I probably would not recommend that tour. 

Finally, we went to Sydney to drop off my daughter. We did the bridge walk, which was fantastic. Each person was so well protected and the safety checks were top-notch! 

Our trip went without any problems and our drivers were well-coordinated and on schedule. I would use this company for future trips to Australia. I plan to visit New Zealand and would use them again.

Our trip to Australia was incredible! Zicasso's tour operator put together a very thoughtful, well-paced itinerary. Our transportation always met us on time and with a good attitude. We enjoyed the diversity of experiences curated for our stay.

They took our bucket-list items and created an itinerary that allowed us to see almost every one! We were grateful to have a tour of the Historic Rocks in Sydney, a boat cruise harbor tour, watch "Carmen" at the Sydney Opera House, take a sunset camelback ride in the desert to see Ayers Rock, snorkel the Great Barrier Reef, and get a private tour of a wildlife habitat (this was so special because we got to interact with some of the animals and learn from their keepers directly).

The only occasion on which I wish we'd had more time to spend was at Kuranda Village! There was so much to do and see, but we had an Army Duck tour and Aboriginal experience booked, which I really enjoyed because we got to ride through the jungle and enjoy performances from the Pamagirri community. Taking the Skyrail up and the train down was also a sight to see.

We enjoyed the intimate nature of tours, allowing us to ask questions about history, architecture, and daily life, and engage with our tour guides in a meaningful way. Highly prefer this style of private/small tours to the bigger bus tours. Our accommodations were impressive--from the luxurious hotel on George Street in Sydney to the desert resort in Uluru to the lodge on Captain Cook Highway in Port Douglas! We got to experience a range of climates. There was never a dull moment.

Even though the itinerary seemed jam-packed, we had just the right amount of time to rest and reset between activities and travel. Having such a detailed and professionally done itinerary gave us real peace of mind. The coordination of hospitality was also impeccable. Our hotels always communicated seamlessly with our pre-arranged transportation and tours. The trip was fun and totally stress-free! We were constantly delighted and charmed by this country and its people.

Zicasso’s travel agent did an excellent job planning this trip. We loved New Zealand.

If we were to do it over, we would probably reduce the hours on buses and vans by perhaps flying, for example, from Christchurch to Queenstown.

We loved our Māori cultural evening and the Redwoods evening light show in Rotorua.

We wondered why we were collected at 8am and driven to the airport in Rotorua, where we ended up spending over six hours at the airport, leaving little time to spend in Christchurch that day. It did not make any sense to us.

We loved Queenstown and the accommodation at our hotel in Queenstown. Queenstown was the highlight of our trip. Unfortunately, and beyond anyone's control, our kayaking trip was cut short due to windy weather and we were unable to do the glacier heli-hike in Franz Josef, also due to weather conditions, leaving us with a lot of time in a much less desirable town and our worst accommodation for nearly two days.

The rail adventure was superb.

Zicasso once again provided us with an amazing team to handle every detail of our "bucket-list" trip.

This adventure had a lot of moving parts and our travel agent performed like a Swiss watchmaker! Eight flights, with pick-ups and drop-offs that were on time, every time, even our 3am departure to the airport in Cairns.

We had scuba-diving excursions on both coasts of Australia, a helicopter tour and landing on the Franz Josef Glacier in New Zealand, trips into the rainforest at both destinations, incredible boutique hotels, and interesting tours that made our itinerary a lifetime memory. 

If there was a six-star rating, our travel agent should get it. Highly recommended. Pre-trip communication was excellent as the trip was a year in the planning. We had not one issue during the 21-day trip. I can't stress that enough; not one issue. It was an absolutely amazing trip. Thank you, Zicasso team!