Travel Review: Amazing Australia Vacation, Sydney, Ayers Rock, Great Barrier Reef, Melbourne, Gahn Train to Alice Springs,...

Wow, what a vacation!!!!! Lisa was absolutely amazing! I wanted to have small group tours, and had very specific requests for our trip to Australia. We did several revisions of the itinerary, but when it was done, all my husband and I had to do was show up! Since we visited Melbourne,Cairns, Ayers Rock, Sydney and took the Gahn train (which only runs twice a week), it took a lot of coordination to make the trip work in our time frame of 16 days. Every tour company was phenomenal, especially Australian Wild Escapes and our tour guide Reiner who took us on The Great Ocean Road tour in Melbourne! We had multiple pickups between the trips to and from airports (four incountry flights),hotels, and our tours. Every pickup was right on time, with no issues anywhere. We loved going to Phillip Island the watch the march of the fairy penguins! Also, Victoria Market and the Tram car dinner in Melbourne are a must do! The Gahn train is also a must do! We boarded the train in Adelaide and took it to Alice Springs, an overnight trip. We had lunch, dinner and breakfast the following morning on the train (food was excellent). Both my husband and I are now considering taking other train trips as a result of it. We had to spend the night in Alice Springs,where we departed the Gahn, due to no available flights after our arrival. We were unaware that Australia has over a million feral camels, yes camels, which they used to use to transport supplies in the late 1800's (prior to the completion of the train from Adelaide to Darwin). One of the tours offered in Alice Springs is a camel ride, through Pyndan Camel Tracks. Marcus, the owner, spends over two years in training his camels that are used for the rides. The camels were very friendly, and we had a great time! My husband is a diver and he got to dive the Great Barrier Reef while I snorkeled. Quicksilver was the best as we only had about 70 people on board, instead of the typical 300. If you go to Ayers Rock, do not miss the Sounds of Silence dinner! We had appetizers and champagne while watching the sunset, then dinner in the dessert. We heard the diggeridoo played and had an astronomer, who brought a telescope, talk about the stars and constellations. The hotels were perfectly located, so we could walk everywhere we wanted to go, in both Melbourne and Sydney. All of our flights were on Quantas, who did a great job of flying on time! We had so much fun, I truly hated to come home. How did you find out about Zicasso? Stumbled onto it while trying to find someone who really knew how to travel Australia!