agent diary
Australia AAT Kings
Lilly Mills from Freedom Destinations reports from a fam trip to Sydney, Uluru and Cairns s
We started with three nights in Sydney at the Hyatt Regency. On the second day, we had a Hunter Valley wine tour and went on one of the AAT Kings coaches to visit three wineries.
1-2 3
We went to Bondi Beach and had a backstage tour of the Sydney Opera House. A great tip is that if anyone’s practising there, you’re allowed to listen for a bit. In the afternoon we had time to explore Sydney on our own.
s 4-5
Next came two nights in Uluru. We did the Sacred Sights & Sunset tour, saw the cultural centre and then saw Uluru itself – I didn’t realise how big it was, it was massive! Then we went up close and saw the rock paintings and had lots of photo opportunities. The next day was a 3am start to go out to Kings Canyon, which was a really good and active tour.
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We took the Field of Light Sunrise tour, where there’s a great display of different light bulbs around the rim of Uluru. You see the lights changing as the sun rises. There’s lots of good shopping as well in Yulara, which I didn’t realise. I could have easily stayed longer at Uluru.
18 March 2020 s 7-8
We flew to Cairns for three nights. We had a Great Barrier Reef trip, and were able to go diving – I’d never dived before. We saw a baby shark, and someone else saw turtles. There are lots of opportunities for people who didn’t want to go in the water – one of the group even went in a submarine!
s 9-10
The next day, we had a Daintree Dreaming tour in the Daintree Rainforest. We really got down to nature with that tour and went spearfishing. Then we went to Mossman Gorge and had a guided rainforest walk where we saw some big spiders and dangerous plants. We did the Kuranda Rail & Skyrail before our flight. I’m so glad we did that because I didn’t realise how scenic it was. I definitely recommend it now.
Verdict
When I went to Australia the first time, I did the east coast, which was mostly cities and beaches. The best thing I took away from this trip was Uluru. I didn’t realise that you need to do the Sacred Sites & Sunset tour to get up close to the rock.
BOOK IT: AAT Kings’ 13-day Australian Highlights guided tour starts from £3,090 per person, including accommodation, some meals, transport and internal flights. International flights are extra.
aatkings.com
travelweekly.co.uk/atas
PICTURES: TOURISM AUSTRALIA/ADRIAN BROWN, NICHOLAS KAVO; JOANNA GUEST
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