Australia Travel Review: Sydney, Port Douglas, Great Barrier Reef, Daintree Rainforest, Melbourne

We worked with a travel agent from the Australia tour company and it was a pleasure to plan the trip with her. She was accessible, had good ideas, was organized and professional, and helped us plan a trip that encompassed all of what we wanted to do and see. We upgraded our flights and flew Premier Economy, which was very comfortable, and worth doing if you can.  All of our transfers to and from hotels and airports and activities were well planned with reliable companies and went smoothly. Our travel agent booked us into lovely accommodations. All the places were very comfortable and terrifically located. Our favorite was the Quay West in Sydney; it had the most magnificent views.  

Now for the tours: Our tours were well organized; however, the companies we were booked on were not all of the same quality.  The Melbourne tours were great - our guide was knowledgeable and a pleasure to spend two days with.  Port Douglas wasn't as good.  Our half day rainforest tour was terrible.  We spent more time in the vehicle than anywhere else and learned nothing new. It was a total waste of our limited time. Our snorkeling/ helicopter tour of the Great Barrier Reef was just okay, and that was a huge disappointment, as we thought the snorkeling and seeing the reef would be the highlight of our trip.  In fairness to our travel agent, she had us set with another company for the snorkeling and then another one for the Daintree tour.  A couple of weeks before we left - the helicopter tour fell apart and we got placed on another one (clearly not a first choice tour) and then our Daintree tour had to be changed to accommodate the other tour change too, and for this we got placed on a lesser tour too.  I know she was scrambling to make things work out last minute. But for us, we planned the trip 4 months before we went (not 2 weeks before), paid top dollar (the snorkeling/ helicopter tour was thousands of $), and got placed on 2 crummy tours.  

For the snorkeling tour, the helicopter part was great, but the snorkeling wasn't. We had a lovely flight to a beach,  put on stinger suits (which the tour company provided), flippers and masks. The only problem was that one of the masks didn't have the piece that attached the snorkel to the mask, so you had to put the snorkel under the mask strap - which isn't comfortable.  The other problem was that when my son (he is 11 and not large) put his mask over his face, the strap broke.  Now he had no mask.  There were no extras in the provided bag or in the helicopter.  We shared masks and took turns snorkeling, but for the exhorbitant price of this excursion - that shouldn't have been the case.  So.... we went in the water (which was great cause it was very calm) and we saw some coral and a few tiny fish (but not many and certainly no really beautiful, colored ones) and then we saw a shark, which freaked me out, and since there was no snorkeling guide to ask if it was a dangerous one or not, it didn't make me feel very comfortable.  The tour people were pleasant and professional, but the snorkeling was very disappointing, especially since I was expecting this to be the highlight of the trip.  

Sydney was great.  The bridge climb and opera house tours were well worth doing and very enjoyable.  

The only other thing worth mentioning about working with this travel company is that they are consolidators and they won't divulge the individual prices of each hotel, tour etc. It makes things a bit more difficult, especially when you are planning an expensive trip and want to know how your money is being spent. I could get information such as this hotel will be $1,000 more than that one (and I was told the price of the helicopter/snorkeling tour - cause we compared it to a group boat/snorkeling tour), but not the price of each hotel, transfer, etc. - just an overall trip price.  You have to be okay working like that to work with them.  Overall, we enjoyed our trip very much - just disappointed with the Port Douglas tours.  

--------------------------------------------