Aussie Adventure 2025
Australia
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Aug 18 - Aug 26, 2025
From the moment I started our travel arrangements on kimkim Siena was there to help guide and suggest different options for our itinerary to Australia. I made quite a few changes with our schedule, but Siena didn’t hesitate to make any of them, and I’m truly grateful for her patience and understanding. Our trip was absolutely stellar!! I can’t say enough good things about Siena and Greg at kimkim. They were both an absolute pleasure to work with.
One of the best things about our trips was the ease and convenience of our travel arrangements. Everything was done for our convenience and we didn’t have to worry about airport transfers, tickets to events, airline flights within the country, hotel accommodations, etc. This was one of the first trips where I didn’t have to plan out everything and that definitely made a huge difference in my level of enjoyment. All I had to do was tell the family what time we had to meet for our pick ups. Thank you Siena and Greg for the trip of a lifetime!
Hotel Reviews
Great, modern hotel in the middle of downtown. Walking distance to Sydney Opera House and other great locations.
Peaceful, zen-like atmosphere on a beautiful, scenic property. Lots of lounge areas and very aesthetically pleasing. Villas were big and comfortable. We had booked a two-bedroom villa but there was only a single bed in each room. The gal at the front desk very kindly offered to open the other bedroom with twin beds so we could all sleep comfortably. Definitely great customer service.
Great five-star hotel near everything in downtown Melbourne. We visited the Chuan Spa to get relaxing massages and were able to utilize all the amenities available.
Activity Reviews
A wonderful tour through the different areas of downtown Melbourne. Melinda was truly a pleasure to tour with. She was friendly, knowledgeable and you could tell she had a real affinity for the city. We wandered down alleys and lanes and saw all the diverse architecture of the city. We stopped to have drinks at one of the many coffee houses located in the city and had some terrific chocolate at Mork’s. This was a great tour for people interested in architecture and to see the many diverse areas of downtown Melbourne.
Tour guide: Helen Sydney Fish Market - great place to visit. Interesting to see the different types of fish and food available. The samples we had were delicious - deep fried squid, deep fried fish, salmon sashimi and raw oysters. Lotus - Chinese cuisine, the vegetable dumplings were really good. The other items we sampled were also good. Harry’s Meals on Wheels - meat pie was surprisingly tasty Black Star Bakery - the only disappointing stop. The cake was just okay and the people working there were not friendly Young Henry’s - cool, funky bar. We enjoyed the beer flights Helen was a fantastic guide. She was friendly, knowledgeable and a pleasure to be around. The places she took us were fun and it was nice to see the different areas of Sydney as she talked about the history of the area. Definitely a recommended tour for first timers in Sydney.
Calmsley Farm: We saw wallabies, kangaroos, mice, goats, sheep, wombat, camel, Shetland ponies, donkeys, koalas, rabbits, turkeys, a ferret, and snakes. We love animals so this was a fun stop for all of us. Blue Mountains: Unfortunately the weather made it impossible to see anything. The rain and the fog obscured the views and made it too dangerous for us to do the hike. It was very disappointing, but we understood it had nothing to do with the tour. Our guide, Paul, was really nice and had a lot of interesting information for the group. We heard later that this was the wettest winter in Sydney in 28 years!
Callie was an excellent tour guide. Very enthusiastic and interactive. She made it very enjoyable and she was very knowledgeable about all of the animals. We enjoyed feeding the kangaroos and cassowary and petting the koala during our photo session. The private tour was so much more informative than if we had gone on our own.
The boat was big and comfortable and we had a pretty smooth ride out to the reef and back. The snorkeling was terrific and the reef was a once in a lifetime trip for us.
Jungle cruise - It was not very exciting but the scenery was pretty. We saw about 5 or 6 bigger crocs, a baby croc and a Great Beak Heron. Mossman Gorge - This was very nice, and there was a lot to see. We took a tram up to the gorge, and the day was cool and beautiful so we were able to take a dip in the watering hole. We would have loved to stay longer to hike the trail.
