January 16, 2023. Grand Australia and New Zealand
I'm on this tour and was reading through the final document and noticed that on days 4,5,and 6 the itinerary changed from staying at the Silky Oaks Lodge to Sheraton Grand Mirage. I was looking forward to this property in the rainforest and called Tauck to see if there was an error. The website still has Silky Oaks as the property in Port Douglas but for this tour it has changed to the Sheraton (confirmed by Tauck). Has anyone experienced this? I received a letter on July 28th that listed updates for the tour and this was not on the list. There are various evenings where dinner is not included and Tauck recommends making restaurant reservations especially in Sydney and Melbourne. Is this necessary? Last, I would like to have a rainforest tour in Cairns and it is no longer an option. Any recommendations? Thanks.
Comments
Restaurant reservations are necessary in Sydney and Melbourne only if you have particular restaurants in mind. When we were there, in both cities the hotel concierge had no trouble finding a place for us to eat at the last minute.
Thank you Wayside
I looked at my hard copy brochure for 2023 "Small Ship Cruising and Exotic Land Journeys" and it says that multiple tours (by date) in January and February will stay at the Sheraton Grand Mirage instead of Silky Oaks Lodge. Too bad! Silky Oaks was lovely.
Thanks MCD
This journey was rebooked multiple times due to Covid. I didn't pay enough attention to the subsequent changes. Now I see the hotel change was communicated on a financial summary that was sent to me prior to final payment. I am sure it will be a great trip, so many people have it as one of their top experiences. However, I must admit I was looking forward to the Silky Oaks Lodge!
I hope we don't get a change on the March 6 tour...That was the one place i was so excited to go to
My tour starts on 1/23 and I have had no communication about a change of hotel for this trip. I just emailed them for and update. I am a co POA for my fragile 93 year old mother and it is vital that I can let my family know. Thanks for posting this change chi traveler.
The January tour dates staying at the Sheraton are 14, 16, 21, 28. February dates are 4, 11, 18, and 25. This is from the brochure that MCD referenced above.
I looked at book and it said the tours of January and February were staying at the Sheraton..It is probably because they were renovating the property
@chitraveler---Several years ago we did a private tour in the Daintree with venturedeeper.com (info@venturedeeper.com) and 0414 743 264.
Thank you AshvEd. I will check that out.
Tauck replied to my inquiry and said that our tour starting on 1/23 in Melbourne will remain as the original plan so we will be at Silky Oaks Lodge
I'm Taking the February 23rd tour and we are also staying at Silky Oaks Lodge.
We were on the January 19 tour and stayed at the Silky Oaks Lodge. It's at an incredible place. Book a massage before the tour if you are interested. Please don't forget the insect repellant. It is also a place you can wash your clothes free or pay $50 Aus dollars for them to wash a bag of clothes for you (great deal).
Thank you for the comment about the laundry at Silky Oaks Lodge.
This is a fabulous trip. So happy to see that Silky Oaks Lodge is back on the itinerary. Just a few suggestions…. While in Sydney, the Hyde Park Barracks Museum is not to be missed. It brings the history of immigration of Australia to life , and it was a Sydney highlight. While at Silky Oaks, the people who did the balloon ride absolutely raved about it. We did not want to get up that early, so we did not participate, and we regretted it! While at Hartley’s crocodile farm, you will have an opportunity to take a photo holding a koala ( for a fee). Just expect the koala to go to the bathroom on you - part of the experience… Also - the gift shop there has GREAT prices on crocodile belts. ( I was so annoyed that I was busy getting the koala urine off me that I did not have sufficient time to buy a belt. ) On the day when you go to feed the kangaroos, do not use straw handbags- a kangaroo May think it is food and try to steal it. It happened to me while I was feeding the beastie! When I pulled it back , he kicked me! I know - it sounds ridiculous, but it is true. They are pretty small kangaroos, but I had a bruise nonetheless. It made for excellent cocktail hour conversation. 😂
Just returned from A& NZ tour. Take lots of mosquito repellant for the rain forest. Those little guys look at you like you're an all you can eat buffet.
Anyone else going on this small group trip on October 31, 2024?
We did Australia and New Zealand with Tauck in 2019. The tour included flights around Australia and then a cruise around New Zealand. See tour diagram.
I thought it was an excellent tour and especially enjoyed the cruise portion. It looks like Tauck does not offer that itinerary anymore.
Mike - The tour you did looks very extensive for New Zealand, but pretty light for Australia.
I took this tour in 2023, we spent more time in New Zealand than in Australia however there wasn't a cruise around NZ which was fine with me. NZ is beautiful.
We are hoping to go to NZ again to see more, we prefered it over Australia.
@Smiling Sam - I guess Tauck has to limit the length of a tour to some reasonable number of days. In the tour we took, it did focus more on New Zealand and I was okay with that. Maybe one day we'll go back and do more in Australia. I have a friend who now lives in Perth.
Here's a link to our blog of that trip - https://www.mikeandjudytravel.com/2019-1Australia-NewZealand-01.htm
[Incidentally, we flew Air New Zealand in business and they have these miserable herringbone seats.]
Australia is so large compared to New Zealand. It’s much easier to get a ‘in-depth’ visit of New Zealand vs Australia.
When we did them in 2003 we spent most of the month of November there. In Australia we visited Sydney and surrounding areas, Cairn, Great Barrier Reef, Kuranda, Darwin, Kakadu National Park, Alice Springs, Uluru, and Melbourne. We never made it to Perth.
Our coverage of New Zealand was similar to yours, but not quite as many stops.
New Zealand is like a single US State, whereas Australia is more like the entire US.
Mike - Loved your blog. Do you recall what body of water you did the jet boat ride on. It looks much more wide open water than where we did it. We did it on the Shotover River and you got close to the canyon walls as you sped along. It was great fun.
That jet boat ride was on Lake Wakatipu. The start and end was at Steamer Wharf in Queenstown. Thanks to the GPS coordinates that are included in an iPhone picture.