A Unique Tropical Getaway Vacation to Australia

Overall this was a successful trip that proved to be equal parts relaxing, fun, and memorable. This was my first time traveling to both New Zealand and Australia and good impressions were left by both places. I can already imagine going back.

Before diving into the on-the-ground experience, I'll first say a few words about the travel company. Overall I'd give their role a B letter grade, owing not as much to what they got wrong as to what they failed to do. My impression of the company is that they are more of a logistics firm in the business of stapling together prefabricated tours, and so the planning process and actual trip ended up feeling less "custom" than some of my other journeys. An example is when I asked for advice on places to eat and received not follow questions asking for likes and dislikes or any other conversation starters but instead links to two pre-made company handouts with blurbs about a handful of restaurants in each major city of the countries I was visiting. Another example were small errors on my itinerary like the short description of an activity not matching up with the longer form description below, a clear sign the language was already there and just cut and pasted. Ultimately, none of this was a big deal nor did it negatively impact my experience. I only raise the issue because I genuinely feel there wasn't any value added to having this company assist me. Everything they did I could have easily done myself, and have done on past trips. In my view, the whole point of looping in travel agents is to get expert advice and guidance and a tailor-made experience that's not possible to get on your own.

As for the actual adventure:

Hotels: The general trend was rising quality as the trip went on. The hotel in Auckland was a basic 3-star experience, and a little weird as I didn't realize until check in it is a mixed use building that doubles as a residential apartment building. It was a comfortable stay, but didn't impress. Also, upon arrival we hit a snafu with our bedroom accommodation; we were given a king instead of two twins as requested. The next hotel was an improvement, a 3.5-star experience owing much to its location on the beautiful lake front and tasty breakfast as to the actual room. The staff there were super friendly as well. Rydges World Square was a solid 4-star hotel, excellent location, beautiful room, and there I had (oddly enough) the best steak I ate while in Australia. The resort we stayed at was also a solid 4-star, maybe 4.5. The room was huge, complete with an enormous bathtub with water jets, we had a beautiful and spacious balcony overlooking the pool, and a nice comfy couch and dining table right next to a kitchen. 

Tours: I remember our time in Auckland being mostly disappointing. The city tour on day one was nice, but largely deprived us of any great photo opportunities as the large bus was unable to stop in the most photogenic places. I thought a simpler hop on/hop off tour or a bus with an open roof might have been better. The day trip to Waitomo was overall good (extremely surprised at the quality of the boxed lunch we recieved, very good), at least the tour of the caves. The rest of the day was a let down. I thought the stop at the Agrodome was a waste of time, time that might have been better used at Te Puia. There we seemed to be rushed in and out. Our time in Queenstown was much better. The helicopter tour and Milford Sound cruise were awesome, kudos to our agent for recommending that, I was initially reluctant but happy I ended up including it. The safaris tour was less impressive, not a waste of a day because I did get to see some more beatiful sites but ultimately it was geared towards fans of LOTR, which I am not. In Sydney, the Opera House tour was what you'd expect, nothing amazing but I'm still happy I did it. The harbour cruise was nice as well. In Port Douglas, the day trip out to the Low Isles for reef snorkeling was overall very nice. We sailed on a beautiful catamaran, were guided by a friendly and knowledgable crew, and had a tasty lunch. I did end up wondering though whether it would have been more worthwhile if we had visited a location in the Outer Reef where I hear the corals are more colorful and teeming with life. I won't complain too much though, we did end up seeing a reef shark and a turtle, so all in all not bad. I will criticize the tour company for not making any GoPros available to rent, I would have loved to have filmed what I saw down there. Our last activity in Kuranda was a mixed bag. Tjapukai sounded like it would be an amazing experience, but honestly I thought that was a complete waste of time, time I wished I had later on when I couldn't visit the butterfly sanctuary or heritage markets in the village. After a 15-minute documentary video made back in the 1970s and 15-minute cultural performance, the aboriginal guides led us to three stations (medical/weapons show and tell, boomerang throwing, and spear throwing) for quick talks and demos and then shuttled us to a pretty bad lunch. The Sky Rail trip over the forest was also kind of lame, but I suppose was the fastest way into the village. In the interest of time we rode it straight to the end and didn't bother getting out at Red Peak or Barron Falls (which you could see perfectly well from inside the cablecar anyway). The best part of the day was the 1.5 hours I did get to visit the Koala Gardens and Bird World. The Scenic Railway experience was nice, I'm happy we upgraded to the Gold Class as the regular cars looked really uncomfortable. The views weren't very impressive though so it ended up me just enjoying a train ride and drinking a bunch of Australian sparkling wine. 

Pace: I think I shocked my travel agent with the aggressive timeline I pushed for. In the end I got it mostly right. The time we spent in Sydney and Port Douglas was perfect, we had enough time in both places to do everything we wanted to. The same is true for Queenstown. With Auckland its hard to judge given we were there over Christmas. I think rather than the day trip to Rotorua we did, which felt rushed, we maybe should have overnighted down there on Christmas Eve, given that Christmas Day ended up a total wash since everything in Auckland was closed. At least that way we could have spent more time in Te Puia learning about Maori culture and enjoyed the hot springs in the area.

We're a bit late in writing this review but only because we were so relaxed after our incredible honeymoon!

Rick was an incredible travel agent from beginning to end. He was very honest with us through the process and guided us to a better location than what we had originally envisioned.  We had set out wanting to go to New Zealand and Fiji initially, but after talking to Rick he helped us realize that Northern Australia and Fiji would be a far better trip due to their more similar climates during mid July.

We would definitely like to work with Rick for our next trip to the South Pacific!  He was extremely responsive and flexible with communication and payment options during the planning process.  He also really listened to our desire to have a balance between a both active and relaxing trip, and provided an itinerary that walked that line very well.  He knew all of the places personally, which helped to convey each hotel and activity to us more than anything else.

Our trip itself was a once-in-a-lifetime experience! We spent one week exploring the Port Douglas and Cairns regions in Australia, visiting a rainforest, snorkeling in the Great Barrier Reef, and visiting the Atherton tablelands. Then we headed off to Qamea, Fiji, to a small all-inclusive and very private resort on one of the Fijian islands.

As we brainstormed Australia trip, our goal was to scuba dive on great barrier reef.  The tour planner did a great job of pointing out the pluses and minuses of live aboard 4 day option, highlighting jelly fish issue at Hamilton Island during December, long boat rides from Port Douglas, and ultimately guiding us to consider Fiji as a beautiful scuba option that was easy to access from land.  He recommended VOMO island which turned out fantastic....easy to access from Nadi Intl airport, felt completely remote, excellent food and variety, beautiful accommodations, scuba diving 10 min off shore, hiking, snorkeling and fitness club to enjoy as well and literally no one on the beach in either direction.  I would never have found this place without the tour planner and it was perfect for our entire family.  I'd make the choice to go to VOMO island over Hawaii....definitely worth the extra flight time.   The tour planner also chose the ranger penguin tour rather than the standard tour at Phillips Island near Melbourne which was a definite plus and gave us small viewing area of 30 people compared to the 4000 in the general viewing area.  Apartments in Melbourne also had all the amenities we were looking for and in good location

Pre-wedding Honeymoon: Hamilton Island. Silky Oaks Lodge. Daintree Rainforest. Port Douglas. Cairns. Kuranda. Uluru and Kata Tjuta. Blue Mountains. Sydney.Our pre-wedding honeymoon was absolutely amazing! It was very enjoyable and flawless. Zicasso's travel plan for us was perfect. Our agent's knowledge of the country and her suggestions made in the planning of this trip made the transition to each place easy. She was so helpful and accommodating. One of the days during our trip, it was suppose to rain and we had an outdoor tour schedule that day. Less than 24 hours before a scheduled tour, at our request, she switched our tour with one of our free days. As a result, we were able to enjoy our tour, rain free. She was absolutely amazing, I feel as if she were with us throughout the entire trip.

The arrangement of my trip to Australia was done in 2 weeks time easily through the phone and by email. I told the travel agent, the places I wanted to see and he gave me a 2.5 week itinerary that hit all the spots. I went to Sydney, Port Douglas (GBR), Ayers Rock, Adelaide and Kangaroo Island. 

Sydney - location of hotel chosen was perfect. It was within 10 min walks to both the Sydney harbour bridge and opera house.

Port Douglas was chosen over Cairns which turned out to be a good choice as the GBR, Daintree and Mossman Gorge were closer to Port Douglas.

A cruise was booked for my GBR experience to Low Isles. I would NOT recommend this one to adults or solo travelers as it was full of children (99% of ship was children and their family) and wasn't too exciting. I specified that I wanted a tour without a lot of kids but I got this instead. I think skipping Low Isles and going further away to other parts of the reef would have been more memorable.

Ayers rock - There could have been better arrangement here as the travel agent booked my flight early in the morning so I got to Ayers rock at 10am. However, the hotel he booked let people in their rooms at 3pm. There really wasn't much to do around the hotel for 5 hours. It was hot, uncomfortable and I much rather enjoy Port Douglas a bit longer and taken a later flight instead. I asked the hotel staff whether they could get a room ready sooner as I was sick with a cold. The hotel staff still did not have my room ready at 3pm - the promised time for a room. With some juggling, they had to give me another room instead. 

The arrangement of activities during Ayers rock was not the best. I had a dinner booked the first night at 6pm. Then the next day, he booked me a 12km walk around Uluru with a 7km hike around kata rock in the afternoon. Bad idea! It was 40C so I don't think both walks should have been on the same day at all. He did not tell me that he booked a 12km walk. He just said he booked a sunrise Uluru tour. Had I known the walk was that long in that heat, I would have gotten it changed earlier so that I didn't lose money switching to another tour.

Adelaide was great. I did my own tours without the help of the company but it was a good city choice. Hotel was in a good location.

Kangaroo Island was also a good experience. If you want to see animals or be in a quiet place away from bigger cities, go there.

Overall, I would go back to Australia. I saw so many things but I also know I missed a lot of the country too (Brisbane, Melbourne, gold coast etc). Just another reason to go back. It was nice of the company to help book my tours so quickly but some improvements especially in Ayers Rock would have made the trip a bit better. I would use this company again but would ask the agent to lay out every little detail about each location/hotel/tour so that I could decide whether a change is warranted.