Australia for 2 weeks.
I think that the up front scheduling of the trip was
good. Very knowledgeable and willing to work with you. My only concern
for that was the only once a day e-mail, I thought it was because they were in
Australia but they are in Canada so I would have liked another communication
route. Asking a question and then not
hearing answer until later in the day or the next day did not help me or my
planning. It would have been nice to be able to use a messenger for the set up.
Nicole was great though and did answer all the questions.
Trip itself Was great. I did think though at first I thought it was Goway that
was doing the tours and not just scheduling them with other tour
companies. I did not have time to do it
all so it worked out. I was expecting a
little more communication in Country at least a reach out at the first hotel to
see if everything was OK and we needed
anything or had questions. I did call
their in country number once and the question was handled professionally and
quickly.
Hotels: Sydney -
Travel Lodge Hotel Sydney Great hotel.
Small rooms. Don't eat at the
Hotel head a block down to the Song Cafe.
In the middle of everything great
place.
Ayers Rock/Uluru -
Outback Pioneer Hotel Not the best hotel but what was one night. Though I was a little disappointed that our
morning tour was going to get back at 10 AM check out time and they would not
let us extend checkout time (10AM) for a half hour. Not many places to eat at
the hotel but there was some in the complex if you had time.
Kings Canyon - Kings Canyon Resort Very Nice Hotel loved the big back windows a
little to hot to sit out and watch the world go by. There was only 1 restaurant open and it was a
little expensive. They did let us do late check out so we got to take a shower
after our hike.
Alice Springs - Aurora Alice Springs Not the Best Hotel but for just 1 night is
was fine. Just check the hours of the
restaurant as there are a few posters and times and we relied on one and it was
wrong and had to go again to find breakfast.
Good thing it was in downtown and if the restaurants were open hey were
close.
Cairns - Cairns Plaza Hotel
This was the best hotel so far.
Right on the Cairns Boardwalk.
Close to the center of all the action, places to eat, walk and shop. Had
Breakfast included and it was a good cold breakfast.
Melbourne - Travelodge Southbank had a little hic up as the
couch made bed was broken when we got in but they moved us right away so all
good. Another great location for this
city. It was again within walking distance
to the old downtown and the riverfront.
So many great places to explore
Individual tours.
We did Sydney on our own as our daughter was just finishing
up a semester at University of New South Wales.
The Hotel was in the heart of the city and you could walk to almost
everything which we really did. Goway
sent us coupons but they were the same coupons you could get in the Visit
Sydney flyers at the airport so not the we have these great deals for you but
we used them and got more. If you are in
Sydney Visit the Zoo, a tour of the opera house was nice but try and do a
show. Don't miss China Town. Head to a beach for a day.
Ayers Rock / Uluru The flight from Sydney to Ayers Rock was
nice. Got into the Hotel and they did
check us in early got in about 1:00.
Only 1 place to eat but it had good pizza.
That night we did Uluru Sacred Sites and Sunset. It was nice tour though it was hot but that
was not the tours problem. Having worked
in Death Valley for a few years we called people who visited there during the
summer nuts and I am sure they called us nuts for visiting there during the
summer. If it was not 42 degrees Celsius I am sure it would have been
nice. The tour was great and enjoyed the
ride and walk and then watching the sun go down though the colors were not what
I expected but more the weather than the tour.
Next Morning was an early morning for Uluru Sunrise and Kata
Tjuta hike. Left at 4:30 AM, yup you
read that right if you are not a morning person by pass this tour. We did have to check out of the hotel and put
our luggage in storage so it was even earlier for us. I like the sunrise, not as many people as
sunset maybe they were not early risers.
It was nice and cool in the morning and had to have a long sleeve shirt
for a few hours until we got out at Kata Tjuta and hiked, then hot again. It was about a 5 - 6 hour tour total. Worth it.
Went back to the hotel to wait for a couple hours to take a
bus to Kings Canyon. Bus was a two bus
trip to Kings Canyon. Little buses but
they did stop, one time each bus, no internet so sleep or bring something to
read as we did not see any wildlife in the heat.
Kings Canyon. Stayed
at the Kings Canyon Resort. Nice place
but not much open and no internet.
There were 7 of us
staying and we all were going to take the early tour up the Kings Canyon Climb
but at 44 Degrees C we all decided that it would be better to take the tour and
hike the Creek Bed the following
morning.
I would suggest before Goway book you going to Kings Canyon
that
they advise you that there is not much open or to do and
that in the summer you may just want to drive through or just by pass the
entire area.
The next day we did go to Watarrka National Park and did do
the the Kings Canyon Creek/Stream hike.
We saw the Hike to the Rim that we were suppose to be on and we all were
so glad we did not go on it. Just to get
to the rim you had to climb 500 stairs in the side of the canyon. I know I was
not in any shape to make that trek even if it was not that hot out. Even the
trek on the canyon floor was hot but doable.
We got back to the Hotel had a shower and then took the bus to Alice
Springs with a stop to have lunch at a local station that had some good camel
burgers. We always have to try the local
fare.
Trip to Alice Springs.
This I would change I will
discuss all the changes that could be in this section of the tour at the end of
Alice Springs. Just let's say they
should have brought us back to Ayers Rock/Uluru. 7 hours on a bus which was a cramped bus was
a little to much. We got into Alice
Spring to late to see anything and barely had time to find a meal. Hotel was not the best but it did for the
night. We left the next morning for the
airport so really didn't see anything other than the 2 restaurants we found.
We flew out of Alice Springs and had to change planes in
Ayers Rock so why did we go to Alice Springs?
AAT tours were the tour company for this portion of the
tours and they were really good and very knowledgeable would suggest them any
time.
Knowing what I know now what I would have done for Ayers
Rock. Uluru, Kings Canyon and Alice Springs.
They did say that this was one of the hottest times for
Ayers Rock since they started recording temps. So I know that can't be changed
but it still was summer and would be hot no matter what.
Not in any priority.
1. I would have spent
all 3 nights in Ayers Rock/Uluru would get to visit the resort and take a day
to see everything there. Would have
stretched out the sunset and sunrise tours so we had a longer night. There were some other tours that would have
been nice to do.
2. I would have spent
1 night in Ayers Rock and by passed Kings Canyon. The drive into Kings Canyon was nice but not
that great. I would have then spent 2
nights in Alice Springs so you can see the town and maybe do a tour of the
area.
3. I would have done what we did in Ayers Rock, then went to
Kings Canyon and then instead of going to Alice Springs went back to Ayers
Rock/Uluru as the plane goes there anyway.
Why spend the 7 hours going to Alice Springs to do nothing when you
could have done the 4.5 hours back to Ayers Rock and maybe spend some time
getting to know it there.
Cairns
Got into cairns and had time to walk around the boardwalk. Cairns Plaza where we stayed was great and
very conveniently located to everything
Found a ton of restaurants to eat at and places to shop and just a great
place to walk and enjoy.
WE did go on the Quicksilver Cruises Out Barrier Reef
Cruise. IT was great other than they had
a ton of people and when we were snorkeling it was crowded with what it seemed
like as folks who may not have known how to swim. We did have a great
time. If you wan tot take photos I would
not use their cameras as most of them turned out fuzzy and I saw folks that had
their own cameras with a lot better photos, next time I will buy an underwater
camera. The lunch was OK nothing to write home about but it did what
it was suppose to, feed us. If you go do
snorkel and take the semi submersible that was great. Out daughter did 2 dives and there were only
3 folks that had dived before so they got really a private dive tour, she said
it was well worth the extra money.
We finally saw Kangaroos in the wild as we were heading back
to Cairns. I tried to take photos of a field that had at least 200 roos in it
but the bus could not stop and I will have to remember the site. Did finally get that checked off the bucket
list.
Had another nice evening on the boardwalk downtown, we were tired
and another semi early morning.
Next day we headed on the Kuranda Classic Tour with Train
Skyrail Rainforest Cableway and Rainforestation. Mainly we took a train to the rainforest went
around and had lunch, toured an aboriginal tourist trap I would go again and we
learned a lot. The lunch was OK not the greatest but the demonstrations were
fun and we got to feed more Kangaroos. We then took the Skyrail down to end our
tour at the end of the day. I loved the
entire day it was fun and educational.
Make sure you do this if you can.
Made it back for another walk down the restaurants being
Christmas Eve some of the places were closing early but we found another nice
place to eat and then took another walk.
Went to Christmas Mass the next morning before we left for
Melbourne.
Melbourne The hotel was in a great central place to be able
to walk to and explore the downtown, river front and all over. The first night was Christmas so not many
places open when we got there but did find one in a food court, should have
looked a little harder, oh well one bad one not bad.
Note: Make sure you read your Itinerary we have been used to
having the tour company pick us up at our hotel, thankfully our daughter read
ours and said we had to go to the tour place.
So after supper we went and found out where that was.
First tour the next day was the City Tour Grayline
Tours. I would have preferred a full walking
tour. The bus was OK but the
Architecture is great and they don’t slow down and you can’t see anything up
from the bus so photos are out. They did
make a few stops where we got off but
would have by passed this tour entirely. Loved the walking tour when we got off
of the laneways and arcades. So many
great places and we got to spend some time.
Would have liked t do the whole things like that. WE drove around and I think we drove by a few
places 4 or 5 times.
Second tour of the day was the Penguin Parade tour. DO NOT MISS THIS ONE. Of all of the tours
this one was it. We saw more wildlife in
the wild here than anywhere else. We did
stop at a animal farm but even that was not as good as waiting for the Penguins. This was another Grayline tour and the tour
guide was great. He gave us a bit of advice that was the best advice we got –
other than don’t hike up Kings Canyon Rim – it was do not go down to the beach
to see the Penguins come out just stay on the board walk where it splits and
stay there. We did we saw some Wallabies that came as close as a few feet from
us, we saw some geese they walked by and we even saw an Echidna walk right
under us and up the hill. The Penguins
did come and the folks that then rush to get a spot all said that it was not
the greatest at the beach, They just
popped up and left could not really see them.
So we scored as we got to see them, their little ones and all the rest
of the wildlife. Also take the walk at
the visitor center to see the boxes filled with babies and those that stayed
back to take care of the babies. It was
a long day as we did not get back until after 1 AM.
Next day we had off and so enjoyed it. Slept a little later went out to walk around
the downtown. Found a tea room for tea
and scones. Try all the great pastries
you can. It felt like I was in the Greatest British Bake off.
Walked around China town and a few other neighborhoods. Got to take a nap and then walked some more
to have a good dinner.
The next day was the Great Ocean Road Adventure Tour another
Grayline tour. Again this was not a very
impressive tour. If I felt comfortable
enough we should have rented a car and went ourselves. Driving was driving and stops were short and
at crowded areas. I would have like to
spend more time on the beach areas doing and seeing things. Not much from the bus. Would have been a good
2 day trip slow down spend sometime at the small towns, maybe a night on a
beach town with a BBQ or dinner on the beach.
We did have lunch which was fast but would have rather had a sandwich to
go at a beach area had about 20 minutes after we ate to look around the town
and not even to the beach. Another late
day left at 730 AM got back at 6 PM.
Found a place to eat as we got back and then packed up.
Time to leave Australia in the morning.
Tour Companies.
AAT Really good guides great and the tours very good.
Quicksilver OK not
much you can do with a bus and boat they were fine.
Grayline. The penguin
one was great with a good tour guide the
other 2 the guides were OK but the tour
it self was not what I would have done again and would not really recommend
this company for them. I don’t know if
there is another company that does the Great Ocean Road any differently but I
would look into it.
Over all Goway got 4 stars they did a lot of work of course
if I had time I could have probably done the same thing. I would say that they
do need to improve on method of communication, I was in an area that Telephones
were not always an option but a once a day answer e-mail didn’t cut it. I would also have them at least touch base
with the folks in country at least once
for 2 weeks maybe a little more.
I would use them again. I would
use AAT may look into some other company than Grayline. AAT was in Melbourne and may want to try them
also.
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