We used Acadia Tours for both the penguin and the great ocean road tours, great experience. We did the ocean road the day before the Tauck tour began, and the penguins the afternoon/evening after the Melbourne walking tour.
They’re private, so a bit more expensive, but if you have several people it’s definitely worth it. I think their van could hold about 10-12 passengers (we had 8).
Both were excellent and conducted with a driver guide in small (12 seat) mini buses if I remember correctly. That trip was done five years ago, but the operators appear to still be in business, so they must be doing something right. We did the tours on seperate consecutive days before the Tauck program started, The Ocean rd tour was a full day and left at 7:40 am. The penguin tour left the Hotel area (The Langham, Melbourne) around 2:30 pm but didnt get back till around midnight if I remember correctly
Comments
We used Acadia Tours for both the penguin and the great ocean road tours, great experience. We did the ocean road the day before the Tauck tour began, and the penguins the afternoon/evening after the Melbourne walking tour.
They’re private, so a bit more expensive, but if you have several people it’s definitely worth it. I think their van could hold about 10-12 passengers (we had 8).
https://www.acaciatours.com.au/
On our trip to A & NZ in 2019 we used
https://phillipislandtour.com.au/tours/evening-penguin-parade-tour/
for the Phillips Island and penguin tour and
https://greatoceanroadmelbournetours.com.au/tours/1-day-great-ocean-road-12-apostles-tour/
for the Great Ocean Road tour.
Both were excellent and conducted with a driver guide in small (12 seat) mini buses if I remember correctly. That trip was done five years ago, but the operators appear to still be in business, so they must be doing something right. We did the tours on seperate consecutive days before the Tauck program started, The Ocean rd tour was a full day and left at 7:40 am. The penguin tour left the Hotel area (The Langham, Melbourne) around 2:30 pm but didnt get back till around midnight if I remember correctly