Grand Australia/New Zealand OR Spotlight on Australia PLUS New Zealand North and South Island back?
We would like to visit both Australia and New Zealand. Undecided, however, whether to do the Grand Australia&New Zealand tour or take the Spotlight on Australia AND the New Zealand North&South Island back to back. Seems like the 2 back to back tours might be more immersive. Would appreciate thoughts and recommendations from those of you who have been there. Thanks!
0
Comments
The Australia itineraries are pretty much the same on both Grand Australia & NZ and Spotlight on Australia tours. It's on the NZ portion that there are differences. It really would boil down to how much time you want to spend in NZ. I've done the Grand Itinerary and hope to go back to see more of NZ on the North & South Island tour. Personally, I preferred NZ.
Thanks! Exactly why I was thinking about more time in NZ!
This is what we did. In 2012 we went on the Spotlight on Australia tour. We could not take the longer Australia and NZ tour because my husband was still working. We took the Australia tour in their winter so that we did not experience what can be very hot weather if you go in the Australia summer, it also meant there were no flies at Uluru. We stayed on a couple of days in Sydney. Tour not changed much except I remember the flight to Uluru was not direct… we flew to Alice Springs first and it was really interesting.
A couple of years later, we took the Spotlight on NZ tour that Tauck no longer do. We went in the NZ summer and had great weather. We arrived in Wellington early and really enjoyed Wellington…. Which is not included on the N and S tour. We stayed extra in Auckland where the tour finished.
On both these older tours, some of the hotels were pretty basic which I see is not the case now.
This new North and South tour, even the TD says it’s a much more adventurous tour and goes deeper into the culture etc. Like I said, the only thing we wished we had been able to go to Wellington again.
In conclusion, I would take Spotlight and then North and South Island. But I would be very careful choosing the time of year to get the optimum weather for both countries
Happy to help...have a great trip!