Luxury Australia Travel Agent Review: Sydney, Port Douglas, Zoo Trip, Sydney Opera House, 10-Day Tour

Review by traveler

Patrick M.

10.10.2022

General Info

Traveler Review

Which Country (Countries) did you visit on this trip?

Australia

Your overall comments on the trip and the travel company:

Overall good... Timely communication, good recommendations, and reasonable costs. I would have preferred more apparent "first party" knowledge about some of the activities and vendors, as we learned during the trip that the expectations the tour company set were incorrect, but otherwise, things were good.

What were the most enjoyable or memorable parts of your trip?

Enjoyed our time in Sydney greatly, and the time out on the reef was amazing.

If you could take your trip again, what would you do differently?

- The tour of Sydney on day 1 was too long, too much time in the car, and the specific tour guide we got was mediocre at best.
- The Sydney opera house tour was not VIP or special, just the normal one... This was a bit of false marketing, we might not have done it if we had known.
- The blue mountain day was too fast, too much to pack into one day. Needs to be stretched out more to enjoy that area. The Zoo was way too fast at the end of the day, we got very little value from that.
- Would have had our tour guide help with dinner recommendations, we made the mistake of trying to do that ourselves.
- The hotel in Port Douglas was terrible, profound regret on that. Would have looked for better advice from the travel agent, who I think should have moved us elsewhere (if they had known the state of the hotel).
- There was no Uber or easy taxi in Port Douglas, which was not how the expectations were set up... Again, on the ground intelligence would have helped here (appears to us there wasn't any from the tour company)

Travel Company Comments:

Hi Patrick

Thank you very much for taking the time to complete a review of your trip and our services. I appreciate your feedback – both positive & negative, as it all helps to improve our services and recommendations going forward.

I am so pleased you enjoyed your time in Sydney so much and were able to experience how amazing the Great Barrier Reef is!

We always aim to exceed traveller expectations whilst meeting “wish list” and budget requirements but sometimes they counteract unfortunately. To be honest, I am a little surprised by your comments regarding the hotel in Port Douglas as they completed a AUD $40 million full refurbishment of all rooms and public spaces in 2016. We will be visiting Port Douglas again in November to meet with suppliers & operators and complete a number of hotel inspections first hand following Covid, which will allow us to further update our recommendations if required.

In regard to your Sydney and Blue Mountains tours, I have been using this tour operator for many years with consistently good feedback, but I will most certainly share your feedback with them and discussing ways to improve. Private tours such as these are fully flexible and can be adjusted to suit individual requirements. The zoo visit can be removed to allow more time in the mountains and then return to Sydney by ferry along the Parramatta River & Sydney Harbour waterways. We always recommend clients chat with their private driver/guide regarding their preferences.

Lastly, I am unsure of your issues with taxis or Ubers in Port Douglas as both are available and hotels can always offer assistance but I can only assume the ongoing /employment staffing issues following Covid, as well as the school holidays must have had a significant impact. My sincere apologies.

Thank you again for your booking and valuable feedback – it is much appreciated.

Best wishes and kindest regards

Penny