Melbourne Tours in November 2027

The four cities were great. was a wonderful leader. She explained the logistics well and made sure everyone was taken care of. The dual flight from Ayer's Rock to Cairns was a hassle but explained why we could not fly direct. The hotels all had some small issues but were good. All had a nice breakfast. I enjoyed all the sites. Some bus rides were longer than expected so it would be nice to know ending times for excursions. Also, the optional excursions were a little high priced. Some people commented they would have liked a list of everyone's names in the group. I appreciated having as much time as we did in Sydney.

I picked this itinerary because it had the things and places I wanted to check off my bucket list - visiting Uluru/Ayers Rock, snorkelling on the Great Barrier Reef in Cairns, visiting the Sydney Opera House and climbing the Sydney Harbour Bridge (optional) in Australia! Optional means it is an activity you have to pay extra to participate in. It included 3 days in Melbourne where we had a Welcome Dinner the first day. 2nd day - city walkabout tour of Melbourne, the Conservatory, Shrine of Remembrance, Koala Conservation Reserve where we saw koalas and wallabies (optional) and Phillip Island to see fairy penguins come out of the sea at dusk (optional). 3rd day - drive along the Great Ocean Road (optional). Uluru/Ayers Rock - Got to learn about aboriginal art (free) and have a BBQ in the desert and tasted kangaroo meat (optional). New Zealand is really beautiful - one cannot capture its beauty accurately on video! In Auckland, we got to attend the All-Blacks Experience. Visited Hobbiton and Rotorua where we had a Maori traditional show, saw geysers and a meal cooked using the traditional method (hangi- sorry not sure how to spell it using the Maori alphabet) (bucket list). Also visited The National Kiwi Hatchery in Rotorua. We visited Milford Sound and went on a cruise. It was raining that day, so we saw lots of waterfalls! Missed out on flying over the fjords (optional) cos of the weather. Queenstown - went on a cruise on a steamboat (optional), missed out on Jetboat (optional) cos of the weather but went on the gondola instead and did some luging (optional). Visited Arrowtown, Tony Quinn motorway, Lake Tekapo (blue turquoise water and Church of the Good Shephard) and star gazing at Lake Tekapo. Had our Be Our Guest invitation to a sheep farm where we were hosted by and (lovely couple). Our last excursion was to a winery in Waipara where you can taste the best sauvignon Blanc wine New Zealand can offer. It was an amazing trip but I can't lie, it was also tiring - one has to pace onself! This was my third trip with Trafalgar so I knew the pace. Our 2 Tour Directors were great! We had *************** in Australia and ************** in New Zealand.

It is a well thought out itinerary. However it is only given to us a week or so before we travel I mean the detailed one. You have already paid and purchased your air ticket so there is no going back. What was concerning were the very early morning flights and time we had to be at reception to hop on the bus. We booked this tour due to our age and mobility issues, the rushing and running around was a bit too much for us, even though we do understand that we covered a lot of places and the drives are quite long. I must however say that the Travel directors we got and for Australia and New Zealand were excellent and very well versed in their explanations of everything we asked for and that made a huge difference to our overall experience. We were only disappointed with one optional tour to the Blue Mountains as it was very full, all we did was hop on to one sky train and hop on the next one and back again, due to the long lines of people and felt that was not worth our while and was a wasted day. We did complain to hoping for a refund but nothing happened. The only other issue was the one day we had to take 2 flights to reach Cairns and that too was given to us so last minute and you honestly do not have a choice but go along as we are all in a large group. So another day was completely wasted in travel, packing and flying. Maybe next time a little better thought looking at the age of the group should be considered. Overall amazing experience and we would surely recommend Trafalgar to our friends for future visits. Hopefully my comment helps in considering the age of the group and make it more friendly or have a detailed itinerary in advance before final payment needs to be made. Thank you Sunita and

Do not offer or book the Scenic World tour as part of the Blue Mountain experience. It is awful. the optional experience of a coach ride to the Blue Mountains including a stop in the Sydney Zoo and Scenic World. The Sydney Zoo was a good stop, but the Scenic World was a rushed waste of time, with no opportunities to enjoy or learn about what we were seeing. The operators seemed to be college students and offered only the very briefest commentary without explaining the history of the area and the mining operations that the railroad and cable cars were built to support. We were herded, with hundreds of others and crammed into standing lines waiting for over 30+ minutes. Then we were herded through the aisles of a packed tourist shop and crammed into a cable car, where we had to stand shoulder to shoulder for the cable car over the deep valley. It was difficult to even see out the windows because the cable car was so full. Then we were herded into more lines waiting to go in the second cable car down into the valley. More standing tightly packed while waiting for another 30+ min. and when we got to the bottom, all we had time for was to stand in line and wait 30+ minutes to go back up. No tour, no walk, no time at the bottom at all.