Australian Wine Tours

I'm not sure it matters how much time you spend in Australia, it won't be enough. Certainly our 14 days weren't.  We decided to try to 'do it all'. Sydney with the Blue Mountain, Kangaroo Island, Melbourne with the Great Ocean Road and Phillip Island, Ayers Rock (Uluru), Cairns (Port Douglas) with the Great Barrier Reef and the Daintree Rainforest. This meant 5 separate flights in-country with 5 travel days in addition to our arrival and departure. After gently warning us that this was a lot, our travel agency did everything they could to make our trip as memorable as they possibly could. This involved multiple email exchanges, discussions of possible tour sites, several changes of itinerary and all done with good humor and efficiency. Their hotel recommendations were uniformly excellent - or as good as the area allowed. The tours they arranged were equally excellent. While not providing dining recommendations they did suggest contacting hotel concierges, well before our departure, which allowed us to make several restaurant reservations at the begining of the trip, making our lives much easier. They arranged transport to and from airports which was uniformly good other than one episode of being forgotten. The taxi cost was subsequently covered.  They had a harder time getting the transport company to spell our name correctly. Fortunately they were only one letter off so easily recognizable. We were provided thorough lists of contacts with phone numbers which did occasionally come in handy. Our travel agency made all of our in country flight reservations. We were suprised at our first flight that seats had not been chosen. While we understood the reasoning, some prefer an aisle versus a window it was an unnecessary worry.  We were pleased that this was rectified for the remainig flights after we contacted them. Overall, we felt that our agency did an excellent job for us. If we were to return to Australia or New Zealand we would certainly contact this company again.

Our agent did a terrific job of suggesting places to go and things to see. With her planning, we were able to forget about the logistic hassles and were met at each airport by our limo (usually a Mercedes and one Rolls Royce!)..

Our accommodations were top notch (except for Kangaroo Island where there weren't as many choices). I especially liked reclining on our bed in Sydney and looking out at the harbor traffic under the bridge. Also, the apartment in Port Douglas was timed just right so we could have a free afternoon to relax and do laundry. And the service at our Hobart hotel was outstanding.

The small tour groups - from just us in the Daintree & Melbourne to just four and a guide in Kangaroo Island - were terrific. Larger groups weren't bad, though our van driver in Sydney kept stalling the vehicle.

Fantastic planning of a 30 day holiday in Australia (Sydney, Ayers Rocks, Alice Springs, Port Douglis, Adelaide, Melbourne and Kangaroo Island) and North Island New Zealand (Auckland, Oratura, & Wellington).

Entire trip planned with daily tours and hotel bookings (mostly 2 bedroom apartment-style hotels with kitchen and washer/dryer included).  All transfers and 99% of tours happened as planned.

We had a wonderful holiday in Australia.  My requirements were a) Uluru b) Dive in Great Barrier Reef (GBR) c) See koalas in the wild and d) the Daintree Forest.

Our travel agent helped us with finding the fantastic accommodation for us in Daintree and GBR and arranging all the land transport.  It was unfortunate that we went to Australia in June when Southern Ocean Lodge in Kangaroo Island (KI) was closed for renovations but I found alternative accommodation in KI and our agent  organised and wonderful local tour for us and also helped us find great food for dinner.  The touring company Exceptional KI that she introduced was extremely professional too and the guide went beyond the call of duty to help us find a drone that went missing and even couriered it to us at our last stop in Lizard Island. (Choosing a resort in GBR was tough as there are so many good ones to choose from but I really do feel Lizard is the best! )

Very grateful to our travel agent for accommodating too our very many last minute changes when my sister and her family decided to join us for part of the trip.  And I added in an extra stop to see my cousin in Adelaide.  I was a bit apprehensive about so many last minute changes but she took it all in her stride and executed it flawlessly.   Also loved the beautiful book they did for us of the places we visited.

Thank you to our agent and her company for the wonderful holiday.