Home > Compare Tour Operators > AAT Kings vs Travelmarvel
AAT Kings vs Travelmarvel
Compare the travel styles, pricing, destinations and popularity of AAT Kings and Travelmarvel.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!
The lesser known, but equally popular Travelmarvel, is the sister brand of APT. Positioned as a premium Operator, but a level down from APT with regards to pricing, inclusions and the age of it's river ships. Travelmarvel & APT share the same past passenger Rewards Scheme, and many of our clients like prefer to spend a little less, knowing they are still backed by one of Australasia's premier touring companies. With it's roots in coach touring through Australia and New Zealand, Travelmarvel now offer river cruises in Europe & Asia, tours and cruises in Canada and trips around South & Central America. As Platinum Partners of APT & Travelmarvel, our consulting team have an in-depth knowledge and have personally experienced travelling with Travelmarvel and would relish the opportunity to help organise your next holiday.
Stats
No. of Trips
89
No. of Departures
4,082
Avg. Trip Length
9 Days
Avg. Price Per Day
$418
Accommodation
3.5 - 4.5 Star
Budget
Premium & Affordable
Trip Styles Coach ToursShort BreaksCity Breaks
No. of Trips
212
No. of Departures
1,864
Avg. Trip Length
15 Days
Avg. Price Per Day
$423
Accommodation
4 Stars
Budget
Premium & Affordable
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.
Holiday memories are not just shaped by the incredible places you visit, but also by the wonderful people you meet along the way. At Travelmarvel, we know that great service is about going above and beyond, and that’s why our staff are regarded as a holiday highlight in their own right.
Travelmarvel holidays offer the perfect combination of all the highlights of the destination with outstanding quality and value for money - you won’t go wrong choosing Travelmavel for your next holiday adventure.
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.
Had a wonderful time on our holiday. May weather in Tasmaina was a little cold in the mornings but we had lovely days with only one day of rain - but that was on a day of full travelling, so was ok. All accommodation and food was very good, only one older room which required a little updating but was nice and clean. Had a great bus driver Catch (Gary), ...read more never felt unsafe with his driving and we had many challenging roads very friendly to all passengers and helpful. Our tour director Daniel was also very good and he mixed well with fellow passengers and did have some lame jokes lol. Got to see some extra beautiful places not on tour which where on the way. Could have spent more time at Port Arthur. Bridestowe lavender estate was a little disappointing as wrong time of year for seeing the fields of lavender. Russell falls is a must see so wonderful. Extra tour at own cost to Bruny Island is well worth the cost $235 great whole day meals included. Franklin Gordon river cruise another great day very relaxing pace up the river some of the most beautiful scenery and great food onboard. Seeing the little penguins was worth the extra cost of $40 very cute. Beaconsfield mine was very interesting tour. Only disappointment were the bus seats which where not really suited for long touring, not much room for two people so was very uncomfortable for ten days on bus. Would highly recommend TravelMarvel and they have been very helpful in trying times with Covid always keeping us informed. Driver was at airport to pick us up on time. Had a lovely group of fellow travelers would recommend Tasmania as a great destination to go.
We’re glad that we joined this tour. The tour director and driver were very nice and funny. The quality of hotels and included meals were excellent. We were fortunate with the weather except in Cradle Mountain. It was cold whole time but bearable. Our highlight of the tour was Port Arthur, Gordon river cruise, Russell falls and also some small towns ...read more where we stopped for a break were nice. In ten days trip we covered most of Tasmania. The fellow travelers were also lovely. We enjoyed very much. Finally thank you so much, Global Journeys, for organizing this wonderful trip.
This TravelMarvel tour was booked through Global Journeys, Noosa Heads; and was a trip that had been deferred due to COVID. The Kimberley itself is beautiful. Not much to see by coach and quite a lot of hours gazing out the window at termite mounds, red dirt and boab trees, but guide Wally and driver John made the trip a lot of fun with their knowledge ...read more of the geological history and people of the Kimberley, and with their constant anecdotes. The boat trips on the gorges and narration by local guides was fascinating. There are optional extras such as helicopter tours. The accommodation was better than expected, having regard to the remoteness of the towns and the COVID issues. All the included meals were very good. There were plenty of bathroom stops and even though some of the facilities were rudimentary, they were all clean. It was a fun trip. The ship part of the tour was excellent. We were aboard the Coral Adventurer which is part of the Coral Expeditions Fleet. Just under 100 passengers and about 35 crew. The passengers all got on well and the crew were fabulous. The ship is modern and 1st class. Beautiful staterooms, clean and modern facilities throughout with a very good dining area. There is plenty of food and the menu is set. So much of it is seafood and there is always 2 choices for each course. My small criticism of the food is that there was not much variety for those who don't eat seafood, and sometimes the meals were not as hot as they could have been. The servers and kitchen staff (as with the rest of the crew) were all very friendly and worked so hard to please. Every day on the ship was another adventure as we were put in the 2 tenders and taken to islands, waterfalls and other features. Each boat had an expert guide on board and their knowledge of the indigenous peoples, fauna, and flora was amazing. These 2 guides would also give lectures at night. We had the run of the ship and were permitted to enter the engine room and bridge (escorted). We wandered past the bridge one night and we were called in and sat in the captain's and chief mate's seats and shown how to sail the ship. Unfortunately, we had to disembark when our cruise ended. We originally booked the tour for travel in August 2020 but due to COVID we could not travel until May 2021. Global Journeys, Noosa Heads were very good. Their communication and attention to detail from when we first booked in 2019 to when we finished our tour was first class and we would have no hesitation in recommending them. We would not book another TravelMarvel tour. I found their communication was poor (even allowing for COVID), and they had never advised our coach guide (their employee) that we would have to have a COVID test three days prior to boarding the ship. He was surprised when we told him and he had to ring TravelMarvel for instructions. Even then we nearly missed out on our cruise because they stuffed that up as well. It was only by the grace of our guide and Sullivan Nicolaides in Darwin that we finally made it. All in all, a great tour.
Most enjoyable outback, outdoor experience. As an inexperienced tour traveller I found the single supplement punitive. The base cost, on the other hand, was quite good value. Travelling shortly after COVID restrictions were lifted meant accommodation services were lacking or accident prone - as might be expected. Vehicle supplied was of poor quality ...read more - especially considering the long distances involved and the quality of other tourist transport on the same roads. Good time of year to travel. Small group of similar demographic worked very well.
Tour group was excellent and well managed by Travelmarvel. What could have been frustrating was organised well with the way bus seat rotation was implemented - everyone was happy. We travelled over 4000km and had a good taste of the country and culture with excellent information, much of it humorous, from the tour leader. We would have enjoyed more ...read more photo opportunities but the roads just did not allow a large bus to park safely at times. For the length of the tour time spent in places was appropriate. Tour provided a great overview of NZ.
The whole trip was a very enjoyable experience - there is no better way to explore Cambodia and Vietnam than by river boat! Global Journeys made the whole booking process simple and stress free - all information was readily available and any questions I had were answered promptly and professionally by Hannah. I will definitely book future trips through ...read more Global Journeys. Travelmarvel exceeded my expectations. The pre and post accommodation was of a high standard and the cruise itself outstanding. The cabins on La Marguerite were larger than expected and the included excursions extensive. The highlight of the trip was the amazing tour director, guides and crew - all locals with their own stories to tell. We had many opportunities to visit local communities and explore places outside the normal tourist sites. The tour group (79 people, mainly from Australia and Britain) was divided into three smaller groups for each excursion which made disembarking and embarking the river boat a very organised process. We look forward to future trips with Travelmarvel.
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