Escorted Australian Highlights Tour [IMSE]
13 Days: Escorted Australian Highlights Tour [IMSE]
Starting at
$7,470

Highlights

  • All inclusive
  • Luxury coach travel
  • 3 – 4 star accommodations
  • Hotel porterage (we’ll handle your luggage for you!)
  • Experienced and professional Travel Director

Inclusions

  • Accommodation – Melbourne – Crowne Plaza Hotel Melbourne (3 Nights), Ayers Rock – Desert Gardens Hotel (2), Cairns – Hilton Hotel Cairns (3), Sydney – Intercontinental Hotel Sydney (4)
  • Meals – 12 Full buffet breakfasts, 1 Lunch, 1 ‘Be My Guest’ lunch, 2 Dinners with Wine, 1 Highlight Dinner, 1 Farewell Dinner
  • US Domestic Flights – (Not included, but can be added to your quote)
  • International Flights – Los Angeles to Melbourne, Sydney to Los Angeles
  • Internal Flights – Melbourne to Ayers Rock, Ayers Rock to Cairns, Cairns to Sydney
  • Day Tours – Melbourne: Laneways & Arcades City Walking tour; Uluru: Uluru Sunset Viewing, Sunrise Viewing, Kata Tjuta Tour, Kata Tjuta Sunset Viewing, Uluru Field of Light Morning Tour, Western Desert Art Experience; Cairns: Great Barrier Reef Cruise; Sydney: Harbor Highlight Dinner Cruise, Sydney Opera House Tour, Bondi Beach Experience
  • Transfers – Airport to Hotel and Hotel to Airport
  • All Taxes and Fuel Levies (Except where noted)

Tour Itinerary

Day 1: Welcome to Melbourne

On arrival you will be transferred to your hotel. This evening join your Travel Director and fellow travelers for a Welcome Reception and dinner. It’s a great opportunity to get to know everyone in a unique setting!

Hotel Crowne Plaza Hotel Melbourne (3 nights)

Dinner with wine included

Day 2: Melbourne

Explore Melbourne on a city sights tour then discover its eclectic little laneways, arcades, café society and street art on a private walking tour. The rest of your day is free. You may like to take an optional experience to Phillip Island to see the famous penguin parade or maybe you’d prefer to relax or even experience some of Melbourne’s well-known food and culture.

Breakfast included

Day 3: Melbourne

Today is free for you to explore the delights of Melbourne. You may like to take a full day optional experience to the Great Ocean Road to discover the stunning coastline and the Twelve Apostles. Or maybe treat yourself to a theater production or indulge in some world class fare at one of the city’s famous eateries.

Breakfast included

Day 4: Melbourne – Uluru

Today you fly from Melbourne to Uluru. Spiritual, sacred and spectacular, the world’s largest rock monolith will give you goosebumps. In Australia’s Red Centre, Uluru has been home to the Anangu people for millennia. Their connection is palpable, as you’ll discover when you arrive at Uluru-Kata Tjuta National Park, at sunset watching the shifting colors transform the desert with every last ray (sparkling wine essential).

Hotel Desert Gardens Hotel Ayers Rock Resort (2 nights)

Breakfast included

Day 5: Uluru and Kata Tjuta

If there’s one thing worth getting out of bed early for, it’s sunrise over Uluru. Incredibly, the Rock’s base caves are home to First Nations art that dates back tens of thousands of years. What an honor to glimpse it. The ochres and silvery greens of the NT outback follow you to Kata Tjuta, where Walpa Gorge humbles with its soaring cliffs. Wander through the tallest domes before yet another sparkling sunset (and sparkling wine).

Breakfast included

Day 6: Uluru & Kata Tjuta

Rise early to experience the ethereal Field of Light art installation. Wander through the paths surrounding 50,000 hand-crafted frosted glass spheres of light. As the sun rises, join your fellow travelers on top of a sand dune to watch the desert awakening over Uluru. Meet an Indigenous artist today for a fun introduction to Western Desert Art. Your Anangu artist will provide you with cultural insights, explaining the meanings of local totems and assisting you to complete your own painting to take home as a memento of your experience. In the afternoon, board your flight to Cairns. A tropical city in Far North Queensland, Cairns is considered the gateway to Australia’s Great Barrier Reef.

Hotel Hilton Hotel Cairns (3 nights)

Breakfast included

Day 7: Cairns

Today is free for you to do as you choose! Maybe visit Tjapukai Aboriginal Cultural Park for an insightful look at indigenous culture or journey to Hartley’s Crocodile Adventures for an opportunity to encounter native Australian animals. You may choose to travel to Kuranda on the historic scenic railway or just sit back and enjoy a delicious lunch at a local restaurant.

Breakfast included

Day 8: Cairns – Great Barrier Reef

Get ready for an experience of a lifetime – board a high-speed catamaran and cruise out to the Great Barrier Reef. You can snorkel and view this natural living wonder up close (equipment provided) or stay dry and explore the stunning reef from the comfort of a semi-submersible craft, just one meter underwater. Enjoy a tropical buffet lunch before you return to Cairns. This evening enjoy a delicious dinner overlooking the Cairns waterfront.

Breakfast, Lunch & Dinner with Wine included

Day 9: Cairns – Sydney

Touch down in Australia’s largest city, with a harbor you could gaze at all day long. And all night. Freshen up and do just that when you join your Travel Director and travel mates on a Highlight Dinner cruise around Sydney Harbour against the backdrop of the Harbour Bridge and Opera House.

Breakfast & Highlight Dinner included

Hotel Intercontinental Hotel Sydney (4 nights)

Day 10: Cairns – Sydney

Bring your stamina: today is one of innumerable highlights. Go behind the scenes at the Sydney Opera House, discovering its architectural and performance secrets. If these sails could talk. One icon to another: The world’s most famous beach beckons this morning, with your chance to pad along the sand at Bondi with Sydney’s beautiful people. From Worked up an appetite? A local Surf Life Saver will take you into the members-only Bondi Surf Bathers’ Life Saving Club. Learn about this historic club and gain an understanding of the important work that is done here saving lives on this famous beach. Next, a Be My Guest lunch with views overlooking the Pacific Ocean.

Breakfast & Be My Guest Lunch included

Day 11: Sydney

Today is free for you to do as you choose. Why not take a day trip to the spectacular Blue Mountains for fresh mountain air and stunning scenery. You’ll see the famous Three Sisters rock formation and visit a Wildlife Zoo to see some of Australia’s cuddly native animals. This evening spend some time getting to know this spectacular city with your hotel located at Circular Quay.

Breakfast included

Day 12: Sydney

Now you’ve found your bearings in Sydney, why not linger around the harbor – perhaps it’s time to glimpse it from above on a Sydney BridgeClimb? This bird’s-eye view certainly puts things in perspective. Back at ground level, you’re in the heart of the Rocks, the city’s original colonial settlement and a place of cobbled alleys and private galleries. This evening, celebrate your holiday at a Farewell Dinner at Portside Restaurant at the Sydney Opera House. Talk about ending on a high. Tonight you say farewell to Sydney from under the sails the Sydney Opera House while you dine with your travel companions at Portside Restaurant.

Breakfast & Farewell Dinner included

Day 13: Farewell Sydney

Say farewell to your fellow travelers when your vacation comes to an end this morning after breakfast.

Breakfast included

All prices are USD$/person (including all Taxes). Subject to availability and seasonality. Other Conditions Apply (see Terms and Conditions).

Single supplements apply. Triple share is available.