Wonderful Autumn Scenery 3 Vyv & Allen, QLD, Australia, Oct 2016
We did this Trafalgar tour starting 2 October and ending 10 October this year. It was a good time to go as we saw lots of beautiful colours ranging from bright yellow, orange and into reds and the weather was very good and mild. It is a very fast paced tour with mostly early starts and long days in the coach and late arrivals at our hotel. Not a lot read more of free time. Unfortunately our tour guide and coach driver had not done this tour before and I think we missed out on a lot of local knowledge and guidance (sometimes even where the public toilets were). The guide spent most of the trip on her phone googling answers to our questions or trying to find where the coach could park, or what road to take. Hence, we got lost and missed turns and had to backtrack often. One day we stopped at a town (Portland) which we apparently weren't supposed to visit but she tweaked the itinerary (meaning they took the wrong turn?). It was about 10.30 in the morning and we were told this was our lunch stop and we had a couple of hours free time. We all ended up buying take-away lunches and eating them back on the coach. She told us to go to the tourist info centre to find where the toilets were. I don't think this is good enough for a company like Trafalgar. We have travelled with them a few times and never experienced anything like this. Also the coach broke down inside Acadia National Park (one of the highlights) so we only saw half of the park. As I said, we did see some nice colours and the accommodations were mostly high standard. I would have rated it higher with a more experienced guide and driver. Booking with Global Journeys, as always was easy and hassle-free.