Home > Compare Tour Operators > AAT Kings vs APT
AAT Kings vs APT
Compare the travel styles, pricing, destinations and popularity of AAT Kings and APT.The Low Down
AAT Kings have partnered with Global Journeys since our inception, and as a result we have an in-depth understanding of all their trips, through both Australia and New Zealand. Our team have journeyed with them on 9 tours through New Zealand, Tasmania, South Australia, Northern Territory and Queensland. That close relationship also means we can deliver fantastic savings throughout the year. AAT King's core multi-day coach tours cater mainly for those over 55+, whilst their short breaks in the Northern Territory tend to attract a more diverse range of ages. All coaches are first class, and AAT Kings pride themselves on their tour guides - many of which have been with them for decades!
Initially providing coach touring around Australia and NZ to the local market, APT have grown exponentially over the last decade to now offer trips around the world, and are well known for their European river cruises. Over the last few years APT have introduced small ship expeditions that cruise the waters through Asia, Europe, Canada and off the coast of Kimberley. Catering primarily for the retired market, their trips aren't cheap, but in APT's case - you get what you pay for. Look out for their great Fly Free offers, and Earlybird Savings. The team here at Global Journeys have travelled multiple times by coach, cruise & river with APT, and we definitely recommend them as a quality, consistent, reliable Operator, and our past client reviews back that up.
Stats
No. of Trips
89
No. of Departures
2,720
Avg. Trip Length
9 Days
Avg. Price Per Day
$424
Accommodation
3.5 - 4.5 Star
Budget
Premium & Affordable
Trip Styles Coach ToursShort BreaksCity Breaks
No. of Trips
479
No. of Departures
3,645
Avg. Trip Length
15 Days
Avg. Price Per Day
$700
Accommodation
4.5 - 5 Stars
Budget
Premium
In Their Own Words We asked the travel companies themselves why you should travel with them
Choosing AAT Kings for your Australia or New Zealand holiday guarantees you’ll benefit from the insider secrets, off-the-beaten-path destinations and authentic interactions with local characters that only 100 years of experience can provide. With over a hundred years’ experience in sharing Australia with our guests, AAT Kings holds exclusive access to some truly unique locations, secret trails and roads less travelled that add so much value to the overall travel experience.
At AAT Kings, our on-road staff are best in class. Our Travel Directors, Driver Guides and Drivers are hand-picked for their passion, experience, and enthusiasm for the spectacular countries we live in. There is truly no one better to share with you the best destinations across Australia and New Zealand. We have been perfecting our itineraries and products for over 100 years, so the benefits gained from travelling with us are unrivalled. With over 150 expertly crafted holiday itineraries to choose from, we offer something for everyone.
APT is an Australian family-owned company whose essence began in Melbourne in the 1920s. More than 90 years on, APT offers life-enriching trips to every continent, and through the company’s vast industry experience, innovative investments, meticulous planning and unquestionable passion it has earned a place among the world’s most well-regarded travel companies.
From boutique river cruising to small-group 4WD adventures; traditional coach touring with a decadent twist to private air cruising; epic rail journeys to small-ship expeditions; classic ocean cruising to safaris of discovery by both land and air – there’s little APT is unwilling to consider in pursuit of creating the finest holiday experience for its valued guests.
Timeless luxury, exclusive experiences, life enriching moments and true personalisation. APT offers all-inclusive holidays so everything is taken care of. We invite you to join us; you won’t be disappointed.
Recent Reviews
We thoroughly enjoyed our tour of the Kimberleys with AAT Kings and feel extremely lucky to have made it as all future tours for 2021 have been cancelled. Our guide Delma, and driver Cam were excellent. Because of border closures we only had 19 fellow passengers, all of whom were very easy to get along with. We would like to thank Georgie, from Global ...read more Journeys for her help in planning this trip. We will certainly be looking at booking any future trips with her.
Fantastic Taste of the Australian Outback - Has inspired me to see more of Australia! 0 Michelle, NSW, Australia, Jun 2021
I thoroughly enjoyed this tour as I love outback country. All travel is on sealed roads. Be prepared for a few long travel days, as there are some big distances to cover, but we had good stops at least every couple of hours on those long days. There are a number of very early mornings, and if you’re doing the tour in winter, make sure you have your ...read more winter woolies, as it was very cold, particularly to watch the sunrise at Uluru!! Accommodation was excellent all the way. The rooms at Wilpena Pound Resort were more basic than the others, but they were comfortable and clean, and in a beautiful bush setting. Meals were fabulous, with plenty to choose from the set tour menu for each course, even for me being GF. Breakfasts in SA were by preorder due to COVID19 restrictions on buffets, but there were great buffet breakfasts in NT. As can be expected due to the isolation, costs for food/drinks/snacks/coffees at the outback roadhouses/shops are fairly high. If you need special dietary snacks/biscuits, I would suggest buying these at the supermarkets along the way, as not many of the roadhouses have these available. Strangely we saw only a handful of kangaroos the whole trip, but we did see a herd of about 20 camels as we drove out to Uluru, which was a treat. Huge flocks of wild budgies and cockatiels were seen all the time rising from the trees or off the road. The 3 hour walk at Wilpena Pound was lovely, and you can do as much as you like. It’s only at the end that you can choose to climb up an uneven rock path to get to the lookout over the pound before you head back down along the same flat track. I did the 11km Uluru base walk and thoroughly enjoyed it. The walk is completely flat on a dirt/sand track. Most of it isn’t right at the base, but this gives you better views from a distance. You are given 3.5 hours to do the walk, and once you start walking, you’re committed, as the bus won’t pick you up from anywhere other than where they drop you off! A few of our group did the 3 hour King’s Canyon Rim Walk which they said was great, with views down into the canyon, however it starts off with 500 steep and uneven rock steps, so you need to be able to handle the steps and definitely not be afraid of heights if you want to take on that loop walk! The rest of us did the lovely canyon floor walk which took us just over an hour. We marveled at the amazing red canyon walls, beautiful white gums in the dry riverbed, and beautiful birds. Our tour director Dave Overton was fantastic - very friendly, helpful and funny, and he gave just the right amount of interesting commentary, without overloading us. Tom our driver was also excellent and friendly, and a very safe and careful driver. The bus had very comfortable leather seats, plenty of leg room, big windows for sightseeing, and a toilet on board if needed. Although they do have free Wi-Fi on board, it’s quite spasmodic, and on some days you can go hours without any internet or phone reception. It wasn’t until the start of the tour that I found that AAT Kings always run 3 different tours concurrently, so you may find that on the bus there will be guests doing the full Adelaide to Darwin tour, some are only doing the Adelaide to Alice Springs tour, and other guests will join you at Uluru for the Uluru to Darwin tour, so don’t be surprised if there are guests coming and going on the bus! Thanks to Georgie Walpole and the team for their assistance in keeping me appraised of things with my booking, and also with the ease that they transferred another booking to 2022 for me. This is the second time I’ve used Global Journeys, and I will continue to do so in the future.
I rated this trip as a 10/10 adventure based on the scenery, the experiences in terms of the Bungles, Emma Gorge and Zebedee Gorge, the 4 boat trips and the overall wilderness, which were all enhanced by AAT's Nellie and Mark.
A great way to see the diversity of Western Australia from the red dust in the Pilbara to the pristine blue waters of the Indian Ocean. While some early starts and long days are a necessity the coach was very comfortable, cleaned daily and sanitised regularly. Be prepared for cold nights and some windy days at this time of the year. If you want to see ...read more wildflowers I would suggest taking this trip in late August/September. Global Journeys took the hassle out of organising this trip. Everything went smoothly and a thanks to Georgie for her help.
First time to join ATT King tour to Uluru which is different than normal group tour. The tour has different groups join in. They cancelled the Kata Tjuta Sunset in the first day is good, because the second day Sunset tour is the same thing! BBQ dinner was super! 4 days break is good enough. Spent a lot of time travel from Alice Spring to Uluru.
First time touring with AAT Kings but we'd travelled previously with associated companies Trafalgar and Insight Vacations. The top end scenery was great and we saw and did what we expected: swimming in waterfalls, Katherine Gorge cruise, Kakadu cruise, saw fresh and saltwater crocodiles, lots of birdlife and Aboriginal art on sandstone cliffs. The colours ...read more in this area are so vibrant! Accommodation was good, everything worked but don't expect anything flash. Included food was ok. The Tour Director told us at the tour meeting at the start that there were limited food options available due to lack of hospitality staff, we had to buy sandwiches for lunch every day as that was all that was available. There was only 1 optional and we didn't do that. A full bus of Aussies - all states except Tassie represented and all travellers were on time. Excellent Tour Director - Liz, she shared her extensive knowledge of flora and fauna as well as the local history. Thoroughly enjoyable tour.
We would book with Global Journeys again and this is our 3rd very happy trip with APT. Caledonian Sky was fabulous. Staff, food, music, rooms all first class. However, we wouldn't do a cruise again on this particular ship because of the zodiacs. They are difficult to sit on for any length of time and quite often you get very wet which is to be expected ...read more I suppose. On another APT cruise they used Explorers and we found them so much better. Overall tho, we really had a fabulous holiday.
From Cradle Mountain to Port Arthur and Hobart APT's Tasmania Complete was a trip of highlights, fun and laughter. Our Tour Director and Driver were exceptional and really made this trip wonderful. From singing on the bus to the dad jokes, we could not have asked for more. We have made new friends and created a list of 'must go back and see again' places. ...read more The memories will last a long time. In a difficult environment when we had no idea we would be going or not due to COVID lock downs and restrictions, right up to the time of leaving, Georgie from Global Journeys worked hard to make sure we were kept informed of what was happening and that we received all paperwork and information in time when we suddenly needed to leave a week earlier than anticipated. This being the second trip we have booked through Georgie, the exceptional service we receive means we will continue to do so.
What a tour, there are many highlights from our two weeks in the Kimberly. The scenery and site was amazing the accommodation and food were impressive, especially considering we're in the middle of nowhere. The APT staff went above and beyond to make us comfortable and enhance our pleasure on the trip. This is the best way to see the rugged Kimberly ...read more and would thoroughly recommend the APT tour.
Very enjoyable trip. The itinerary is excellent with signature visits to Bungle Bungle and Mitchell Falls. Accommodation and meals are both very good. Our tour leader is generally good, but can allow more time for activities in particular at Mitchell Falls and the gorges.
Our APT 4WD guided tour from Broome to Perth was sensational. Our tour guides were fantastic as nothing was too much trouble and they made sure we were comfortable, well fed and well informed. They treated our friendly group like a family. The resorts at Cable Beach Broome, Echo Beach, Exmouth and Monkey Mia were stunning. All our accommodation and ...read more meals exceeded our expectations. Every day greeted us with new experiences and amazing places- swimming and walking through the gorges at Karijini NP, watching sea eagles feed as we boarded our Yardie Creek boat tour, snorkelling from a glass bottom boat at Coral Bay Ningaloo Reef, walking around stromatolites at Hamelin Pool and on coquina at Shell Beach, drinking champagne on a sunset cruise at Monkey Mia, viewing the panoramic landscape from the AirWalk at Kalbarri NP, just to name a few places. Our tour ended in Perth and staying at the Ritz Carlton, we felt like millionaires with everlasting memories of an amazing tour.
A great trip, what a way to see the vast expanse of outback Queensland. Longreach and Winton exceeded expectation whilst Mt Isa was a little disappointing and could be bi-passed. Thursday Island did not disappoint and the trip to the very top of Australia provided great memories. The trek is not easy but you are rewarded with a great feeling of satisfaction. ...read more It is as far north as you can go! The local guide kept us interested with many anecdotes of life in the far north. The Oaks Resort at Port Douglas and Reef Hotel on Hamilton Island were first class. Accommodation in outback towns whilst OK, some tolerance is required. It has been a tough couple of years for them. The Alliance Airline SAAB 70 was terrific and the "Hosties" Meagan and Bronwyn provided exception service as did the APT Tour directors Richard and Rod. The APT App was down for a considerable time before the trip and we must commend the assistance of Jemma of Global Journeys who managed to keep us informed despite the outage. Overall a great way to attack our Bucket List.
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