Liz Neal

Staff so helpful and accommodating. Views amazing. We were upgraded to a higher floor where the views were even more spectacular.

Loved the one bedroom suite with washer/dryer. Having a simple and leisurely breakfast in our room was very enjoyable. Appreciated the complimentary cable car tickets and the walk through the botanical garden.

Great location. Helpful staff. Beautiful views.

The Outback Hotel & Lodge in Uluru was rated as one of the lower options in the area, which didn't quite meet our expectations of a moderate accommodation. It was somewhat below what we imagined for this trip, considering the limited choices in Uluru.

Hotel Ibis World Square in Sydney had a great location, but unfortunately, it was situated right over a night club, which made it incredibly noisy until the early hours. This was not quite suitable for us as it affected our ability to rest. It was a bit disappointing given our expectations.

Snorkeling on the Great Barrier Reef was undoubtedly the highlight of our trip. We went out on a catamaran, and the experience was absolutely superb. The underwater sights were breathtaking, and it was an unforgettable adventure. Five stars for this phenomenal experience!

We booked our own stay at A by Adina right in the center of the CBD because it was one of the few hotels that offered two bedroom suites and we had stayed in another Adina in Berlin and loved it. Liz wasn't able to book it so we booked it directly. We were very pleased with the room and it had everything we needed and expected. The washer/dryer was particularly helpful since we had rain on our second day in Sydney and needed to dry everything out upon return to the room. The bedrooms aren't terribly spacious but that's fine since there's a living room with a couch and table/chairs to let you spread out and catch up on reading and whatnot. We'd stay here again as the location was perfect for reaching all of the primary tourist spots with short walks. It was clean and comfortable.

We somehow got upgraded to the penthouse suite which was certainly unexpected and gave us an amazing balcony with skyline views across the river that can't be matched. As you might expect, it was a cavernous "room" with three bedrooms, a living room, kitchen and dining room. There may have been other rooms that were in there that we didn't find because it was so large :-) The staff was friendly and welcoming and the room was clean. However, even the penthouse suite was a bit tired (couches were a bit worn, carpet looked a bit dirty, and the soap dish in the shower and other fixtures were a little wobbly) and during certain times of the day, there were food smells in the hallway. There was nothing wrong with our stay and given its convenient location, we'd probably stay here again but it wasn't anything particularly remarkable.

We had a very spacious 2 bedroom apartment. It's right on the main drag but it's set back from the street (not that there's much road noise anyway) with a large courtyard flanked by two swimming pools. It's not your traditional hotel so you don't get daily cleaning service but that's fine. We had a kitchen so it let us buy some groceries at the local grocery store (a legit full sized grocery store is only a couple blocks away) and keep everyone fed and happy throughout our stay (4 nights). They provide beach towels that you can take to the beach or on your snorkeling trip so that's a nice minor extra. It's a short walk to the dock where the boats depart and all of the shopping and restaurants are within walking distance. The only area for improvement is that the room was rather dimly lit.

This was the highlight of the trip. The accommodations are luxurious and you do literally look out over the ocean like the pictures show from your room. The staff (Jane, Yasmine, Tomas, Paul and the others) are all such welcoming and positive people and made us not want to leave. Part of the Sea Dragon experience is the full day nature tour. I will say it's a lot of driving (the island takes about 90 minutes to get from east to west) but it's broken up nicely with a stop at a popular koala hangout spot (we saw about 10 in the trees), a brief stop to stretch your legs at a surfing beach, a stop at a natural arch where the seals come to rest, a lunch in a nice covered picnic area, and a stop at the sea lion sanctuary where we were just a few feet from sea lions. Some of the shorter activities are on-site (honey tasting and gin tasting) and the lighthouse is just a 20 minute walk away. The sheep shearing is a 20 minute drive. We didn't do the wine tasting trip or any of the other options due to lack of time but you could easily fill 3 days worth of time while still having some quiet time to just sit and look out at the water from your patio.

Our two days at Sea Dragon were awesome. I covered the nature tour (day 1) and the smaller activities (day 2) in the review of the accommodations so I won't repeat it here.

This is indeed a very unique experience. When darkness falls, dozens of little penguin come out of the ocean and march up the dunes to their boroughs. However, it's a long day to get here for what amounts to about 45-60 minutes of watching small groups of 5, 10 or 15 penguin exiting the ocean. We heard about how great this was from other tourists we saw on the trip and might have expected too much. I expected a swarm of hundreds to come pouring out all at once but it was just dribs and drabs. Also, it's absolutely a tourist attraction. There are probably 2000 people sitting on bleachers waiting for the penguins to emerge so it's not private or particularly special -- so that kind of detracts from the experience. Lastly, it's a solid 2 hours from downtown Melbourne so you're spending a lot of time in the car and getting back to your hotel late. Bert was our driver/guide and he was a great conversationalist so it made the time pass in the car pretty quickly. We unfortunately had rain pretty much throughout the day so we skipped a couple of the lookout points along the way since it was too cloudy to see much. We did get lucky and the rain cleared just at dark so we didn't have to sit wet puddles while waiting for the penguin.

We very much enjoyed this full day tour despite the fact that it varied from damp to sprinkles to showers to full on downpour throughout the day. Our tour guide (David) was very good and adjusted the commentary appropriately so the kids could participate. The day consisted of an hour drive from Port Douglas to the Daintree River where we stopped along the way to see a massive colony of fox bats hanging from the trees. The boat ride on the Daintree River started with an absolute downpour but it tapered off halfway through so that we could see a few mother crocodiles and some of their baby crocodiles along the shore. We then continued on into the rainforest and stopped at a boardwalk trail where we David talked about the different types of plants and trees. Dinner was at a lodging/restaurant venue within the park and was very good (kangaroo steak for some of us .. I can't remember what others ordered). We then did the nighttime tour along a different boardwalk where we saw spiders and other insects galore that were huge and not terribly visible during the day.

The reef sail was via Sailaway and they are a professional outfit. The boat is huge and clean and very well equipped. There were 50 passengers on our trip and it didn't feel crowded. The crew aboard and in the office are all very pleasant and polite and welcoming. The boat is loaded with food so if you're the type that can eat while out on open water, you'll have plenty to snack on and eat during lunch. I'm not that adventurous so I could only eat with my eyes. It's a 2 hour sail from port to the first snorkel site so you'll spend some of that time just watching the horizon, some time learning about the biology of the reef from the marine biologist crew member, and some time getting fit for your stinger suit (full body suit to protect against jellyfish), flippers and snorkel/mask. Once you get to the dive site, you have about an hour in the water. We saw amazing coral and a sea turtle and a million fish. No sign of Nemo though. Definitely an experience you need to do once in your life. There was a medical emergency with one of the other passengers during the first snorkel (he ultimately appeared to be fine by the time we reached port) so we had to head back to port directly and didn't do the second dive. Sailaway handled the situation well and gave us a full refund (after first trying to rebook us on a new trip -- but it wouldn't have worked out due to our other activity schedule) so they should be commended for doing the right thing.

What a ludicrous concept! Climbing a bridge with cars and trains whizzing under you. Never would that be permitted in the US! We had rain for the first part of our climb (they climb the bridge unless it's crazy wind or lightning) but then it stopped about halfway up, cleared and made for some great pictures with the tops of the buildings in eerie clouds. The actual time on the bridge is about 2.5 hours with the first 30 minutes being safety briefing and changing into the full set of gear (full jump suit, harness, audio rig, etc.). You do a mini practice climb indoors so you understand how the cable that you're going to be tethered to works on ladders and whatnot. The photo package was actually priced fairly -- all pictures that they take of you and your group are sold to you in digital format for $35 USD (50 AUD) per adult. So if you're a family of 4 (2 adults and 2 kids), it's $70 USD. That's fair enough considering how high some other attractions price their photos.

Great overview of the city -- easy biking on mostly flat terrain. A few short stretches on roads but for the most part, you're on pedestrian/bicycle lanes. We had a rainy day so we ended up pretty wet but it was still interesting and the guide was very good to stop and explain what we were peddling past. There is one minor uphill stretch toward the end that some folks had trouble with but if you use a bike ever, you'll be fine. And toward the end, you'll need to walk your bike through the botanical garden (about a 10 or 15 minute walk) since you can't ride bikes in the gardens. The 2.5 hour trip is about the right amount of time to be on a bike.

Excellent experience. They get you suited up, give a briefing on how the time in the water is going to go, and out into the water you head. The waves on the day we were there were about 2-3 feet so we were able to mostly wade out to the starting point and still touch the bottom. They offer lessons to all levels of ability so even if you have surfed before (we had not), they can tailor the experience so you get something out of it. Super bedside manner by the instructor (Tom). I had no interest in ever surfing but it was great and both kids had a blast.

This is as expected. A lot of history (some interesting, some not so) and you get to enter each of the main performance halls. You can take pictures outside and in the hallways/corridors but not within the performance halls themselves (which is a little peculiar since these spaces see thousands of concert/theatre goers each year). It's only an hour long which is about right. The group size is about 30-40 people and you wear a headset so you can hear the guide regardless of how far behind you are. You probably should do this.

This is the one activity that we might recommend against. It's a long day from pickup to dropoff. The day consists of 4 main parts: * Skyrail (cable car) over the rainforest canopy from sea level up into the hills -- lasts about an hour with two stops along the way to change cars and take a short nature walk between getting off and getting back on. The views are clear and 360 degree and you see the waterfall both from the cable car ride and at the second stop (boardwalk). * Walking around Kuranda Village at the top (tourist shops, mostly, and some food/ice cream options). In Kuranda Village is the butterfly sanctuary which is small but very nice (maybe 20-30 minutes total). * Transfer to Rainforestation Nature Park for a 3 hour visit. This was the part that we definitely wouldn't repeat. It was crowded and touristy and somewhat contrived. As you'll see we did a bunch of other activities on this trip where we saw kangaroo, koala, crocodile and wallabies in the wild so the confined spaces here weren't our cup of tea. The aboriginal presentation was with an audience of like 300 people and the duck tour was on a caravan with 3 other duck boats all packed full so you felt like you were in Epcot Center on an attraction rather than out in nature. * Return to Cairns via the Kuranda Scenic Railroad - the reason this was a let-down is that the only views are on the gorge side of the train so if you don't have a window seat on that side of the train, it's largely just a hot and slow 90 minute train ride without much to see.