Name: A Unique Tropical Getaway Vacation to Australia
Brand: Zicasso
Price: 407 USD
Availability: InStock
Rating: 4.9 (68 reviews)

Snorkels exploring the reef around Green Island, Australia

What to expect on this itinerary

Tropical jungle flows into the iridescent sea on this custom tailored tour through the far reaches of northeast Queensland and Bali. From hidden hot springs to the bright coral of the Great Barrier Reef, isolated white beaches to the cliff-top temples, the lush trees and fascinating streets abound with limitless possibility. Dancers use their movement to tell Hindu epics, and hot air balloons provide secluded panoramas of the sunrise. Handcrafted statues crown ancient temples and rice terraces soar above valley floors. Whether in the charms of Port Douglas or the caldera of Mount Batur, you will uncover the tropical delight of Australia and Bali.

Countries Visited

Australia

Places Visited

Port Douglas, Kuranda, Green Island

Suggested Duration

7 Days

Day 1

Port Douglas – Arrive in the Charming Beachside City of Port Douglas

Port Douglas maintains its ambiance as a quiet fishing village with friendly locals eager to smile at passersby. Palm trees fringe the white sand beaches, and seaside cafes offer refreshing aromas of freshly brewed coffee accompanied by views of the water. Daintree Rainforest edges the coastline and spreads across the Great Dividing Range to the west towards Cape York Peninsula to the north. As you overlook it all, your flight will land at Cairns Airport where your private transfer will greet you upon arrival.

The scenic road north offers pristine views of the landscape, highlighting the green forest canopy and shimmering sapphire water. You will settle into the comforts of your lavish hotel, which overlooks the serene coast. The remainder of the day is yours to enjoy the relaxed ambiance along the western end of Macrossan Street or stroll along the picturesque Reef Marina. White sand reaches as far as the eye can see along Four Mile Beach as the water glistens with shades of indigo and cobalt beneath the passing sailboats. You can dig your toes into the soft sand as the waters of the Coral Sea splash against your skin.

Accommodation

Transfer

Day 2 - 3

Port Douglas – Discover the Great Barrier Reef on a Full Day Tour

In the morning, you can hear cockatoos calling to one another amongst the rainforest trees. Their white plumage stands out from the jade canopy as the crested tern build nests in large colonies along coastline and snack on crustaceans burrowing in the sand. After an early breakfast, you will venture to the marina and board luxury catamaran bound for the Great Barrier Reef, a collection of coral systems encompassing nearly 133,000 square miles. The wind rushes over the catamaran and will carry sporadic sea mist with a semi-sweet aroma drifts upwards from the water. The boat will moor at a spot along the Outer Reef, and beneath the water, you will be able to see the silhouette of the subaquatic body.

The Coral Sea is warm and gentle with a bright azure color. You will move easily with the current to explore Thetford Reef, and the sunlight will pierce the surface of the water to offer visibility up to nearly 65 feet. The seafloor reaches a depth of nearly 100 feet as flat and staghorn coral rise along the reef mounds. Sea fans wave in the gentle current amongst the long stretches of table coral and a collection of clownfish may be hiding in the iridescent purple tendrils of an anemone with their orange and white stripes contrasting with the flowing branches as they peek out from their hiding spot.

Accommodation

Tour

Breakfast

Day 4

Port Douglas – Venture into the Rainforest on a Full Day Tour of Kuranda

In the morning, you can watch the sailboats leave from the marina to cast their sails into the sea breeze as they head out to the open water. The aroma of freshly brewed coffee drifts out of the seaside cafes and blends with the tropical scent of coconut. After breakfast, you will soar above the trees on a scenic gondola ride to the jungle town of Kuranda. The Skyrail travels more than four miles between the coastal plain and rainforest station, taking you to over 1,750 feet above sea level across 32 towers. The windows provide a 360-degree view of the lush forest and shimmering water, and in the distance, you can see the dramatic whitewater coursing over the granite cliffs at Barron Falls as the cascade plunges 60 feet into the waiting freshwater pool.

Upon reaching the village streets, you will find an abundance of art galleries and clothing boutiques, craft shops, and art stalls that offer handmade crafts connected to local historical culture. A delicious scent may drift out of the popular German sausage house with a unique blend of flavors that may draw you in. Flickers of blue and yellow hues fill the Butterfly Sanctuary and in the Koala Gardens, the eponymous bear clings to the trees and feeds on dangling eucalyptus. Kangaroos nibble on the underbrush and enjoy the quiet shade. You can feed a passing joey and allow their fuzzy, curious nose to nuzzle into your palm.

Accommodation

Tour

Breakfast

Day 5 - 6

Green Island – Enjoy a Unique Exploration of a Coral Sands at Green Island

Today you will return to the marina at Port Douglas and once again venture into the wonders of the Great Barrier Reef. Instead of reaching the Outer Reef, your catamaran will moor at a long jetty connected to a 6,000-year-old coral cay. Over time, the bleached coral has diluted the sand and rainforest trees overtake the heart the island that extends to more than half a square mile. The soft shores glow white beneath the tropical sun and just walking along the jetty showcases the reef bodies beneath the water.

The crystal clear sea accentuates the colors of the coral and contrast with the emerald canopy on the island. The sand will cling to your ankles as you stroll along the beach. The water will splash at your toes with inviting warmth as you look upon the coconut trees that grow along the edges of the sand as seagrass carpets the seafloor. Large sea turtles graze on the foliage beneath the water’s surface, using their fins to glide through the water as if flying. The striations on the shell connote the loggerhead turtle, which can grow to more than five feet long and are unable to retract their finds and head into their shell. Their slow movements on land juxtapose their elegance in the water.

Accommodation

Tour

Breakfast

Day 7

Green Island – Traverse Cape Tribulation for Pristine Rainforest and Depart Home

The sunrise will stretch with layers of pink and orange across the eastern horizon and then shimmer across the sea. The white sand absorbs the mixture of colors before the sky returns to light blue. Your guide will meet you in the hotel lobby after breakfast and lead you into the dense canopy of Daintree National Park for a unique cultural experience that will combine tradition with natural beauty. Your guide will lead you along the mangroves forest of the coast where the tree roots tangle across the edges of river tributaries and coastlines, desalinizing the saltwater.

The shallow waters along the forest floor barely reach above your foot. You will carry a long pole and listen to your guide tell stories about the history of the Kuku Yalanji tribe. The bubbles in the calm, shallow water help connote the location of mud crabs. Your guide will demonstrate how to use the pole to catch the regional delicacy, bringing up a crab from beneath the wet soil. At Mossman Gorge, the aroma of the sea dissipates beneath the herbaceous fragrance of bark and forest underbrush. Your guide will lead you in ritual spiritual cleansing associated with the traditional smoking ceremony, welcoming you to the lush lands of the gorge.

Afterwards, head to the airport for your international departure flight.

Accommodation

Tour

Breakfast

Trip Highlights

Relish a full day tour of the Great Barrier Reef to explore the picturesque world beneath the sea, including sea turtles and clown fish
Revel in spices with a private cooking lesson that will give you the secrets to Balinese cuisine
Indulge in the aerial views of northeast Queensland on a sunrise Hot Air Balloon ride and panoramic Skyrail ride
Relax on the white sand shores of Green Island, located between Australia’s east coast and the Outer Reef of the Great Barrier Reef

Detailed Description

The tropics provide a majestic destination filled with jungle life and crystal-clear water, marvelous culture and relaxed ambiance. Your 7-day tour will take you from shoreline to the rainforest canopy in Queensland, Australia. Your thrilling exploration will begin with your arrival at Cairns Airport as your private transfer will greet you before escorting you north to the charming streets of Port Douglas and your luxurious resort-style hotel that overlooks the edges of the Coral Sea. The remainder of the day is yours to settle into the style and elegance of the white sand beaches and rainforest-clad landscape. Wake the next morning to board a catamaran for a full day tour on the Great Barrier Reef to visit a selection of marvelous dive and snorkel sites for incredible visions of life found beneath the Coral Sea.

The next day, you will board a Skyrail gondola for a 360-degree view of the land and sea as you ride into the jungle expanse. Once in the town of Kuranda, you can visit the art galleries or the butterfly sanctuary, or you could also hang out with kangaroos and koalas at the Kuranda Koala Gardens. Return to the waters the next day for a visit to Green Island. The fabulous secluded shores overlook a series of protected reefs, and you can blend relaxing on white sand beaches with exploring the coral and the aquatic life that edges the sprouting rainforest before you return to Port Douglas. The following day, your guide will meet you at your hotel and lead you into the dense Daintree Rainforest to explore the mangrove trees, the floodplains, and the Aboriginal culture around Cape Tribulation. Experience a smoking ceremony and learn to hunt the crabs that hide in the mud.

Starting Price

$2,900 per person (excluding international flights)

Your Zicasso trip is fully customizable, and this sample itinerary is a starting place for your travel plans. Actual costs are dynamic, and your selection of accommodations and activities, your season of travel, and other such variables will bring this budget guideline up or down. Throughout your planning experience with your Zicasso specialist, your itinerary is designed around your budget. You can book your trip when you are satisfied with every detail. Planning your trip with a Zicasso travel specialist is a free service.

What's Included

Accommodations
In-country transportation
Some or all activities and tours
Expert trip planning
24x7 support during your trip

Your final trip cost will vary based on your selected accommodations, activities, meals, and other trip elements that you opt to include.

4.9

Verified Traveler Reviews

Based on 68 reviews

Australia Vacation Review: Adelaide, Melbourne, Sydney, Kakadu National Park, Barossa Valley, 3-Week Tour

After a cancelled flight by Qantas and a two-day delay, we made it to Australia. Overall, the vacation was very nice. Our only real complaint was our hotel in Darwin. The hotel had seen better days, and the temperature in the hotel was very cold. After Darwin, the hotels and B&B were very nice. I highly recommend the Ghan Expedition train ride from Darwin to Adelaide.

Australia Vacation Review: Sydney, Melbourne, Cairns, Port Douglas, Blue Mountains, Great Barrier Reef, Fitzroy, Whale Watching, Bridge Climb, Snorkeling, Wildlife, Local Cuisine, 15-Day Tour

This was our first trip to Australia. Zicasso’s travel agent took time to get to know our family and how we like to travel. She gathered our interests and preferences, and carefully curated an itinerary that showcased Sydney, Melbourne, and Cairns/Port Douglas, all within our budget.

This travel agent was very responsive before and during our trip, and monitored our activities to make sure we were happy. In fact, during our stay, one of our excursions (kayaking in Cairns) was canceled due to weather and she was right on top of it. She was able to book us immediately on another expedition (whale watching) of our choice. We appreciated her responsiveness.

Overall, our entire family was extremely happy with our travel agent's arrangements and had a memorable trip to Australia.

Australia Luxury Travel Review: Sydney, Ayers Rock, Port Douglas, Melbourne, Great Barrier Reef, 2 Weeks

"We had an excellent Australian travel journey planned by a Zicasso travel agent. We enjoyed every minute and found it difficult to return."

Australia Tour Review: Sydney, Phillip Island, Penguin Experience, Melbourne, Local Cuisine, History, Great Barrier Reef

I really thought the Zicasso travel partner was fabulous and so thorough and easy to use. I would rate it the best travel app. It had my itinerary down to the minute detail, info on how to contact various people if there were any questions, and was so easy to navigate. I would rate my trip to Australia my favorite so far. I recently went to Japan through a different travel agent and was able to compare the difference. Our travel team was so much better!

My husband and I went to Australia to drop off my daughter, who was doing an exchange study in Sydney. We started in Melbourne and had a full-day tour to Phillip Island, with a moonlit animal sanctuary and penguins. I would recommend the penguins. I saw thousands of penguins. What an experience! I did not like the sanctuary part. Tickets were sold out for the koala petting and there were not very many animals to see. I have heard there are other sanctuaries/zoos in other parts of Australia that are much better.

The Melbourne food tour was fantastic! Our tour guide did a wonderful job of explaining Melbourne's history with the food. We flew to Cairns, to Port Douglas, and had two excursions: a boat ride with snorkeling in the Great Reef Barrier and a Daintree safari. The full-day cruise with snorkeling was wonderful, with so much food! The Daintree tour was a bit long and could have been condensed into half the time. I probably would not recommend that tour.

Finally, we went to Sydney to drop off my daughter. We did the bridge walk, which was fantastic. Each person was so well protected and the safety checks were top-notch!

Our trip went without any problems and our drivers were well-coordinated and on schedule. I would use this company for future trips to Australia. I plan to visit New Zealand and would use them again.

Australia Travel Review: Kangaroo Island, Great Ocean Road, Great Barrier Reef, 3-Week Trip

Zicasso’s travel specialist was great to work with. She anticipated our needs and was quick to respond with information and to answer questions. She set up a great trip for us and we thoroughly enjoyed our visit to Australia. We had a couple of issues with the tours that were set up for us and they were quickly resolved, with great results.

On our visit to Kangaroo Island, the small-group tour subcontractor mishandled our connection on the island; their recovery was to send a personal guide to spend the day with us and also provide us with dinner! It ended up being one of our best tours. Many of our small groups were just my wife and myself, sometimes with one or two others.

We also had a very rainy and windy day the day we were supposed to go out to the Great Barrier Reef. It was a weekend and the travel specialist was on vacation. That said, the on-call person was amazing in rearranging one of our other small-group tours for that day and we were still able to go to the reef two days later.

All in all, I would highly recommend the travel specialist and her company. They were great up front and great during the trip.

New Zealand, Australia Trip Review: Sydney, Great Barrier Reef, Dart River, Phillip Island, Dinner Cruise, Rainforest, Wildlife, Snorkeling, Helicopter Ride, Boat Tour, 23 Nights

Thanks to the amazing, perfectly planned Australia and New Zealand vacation itinerary provided by Zicasso's travel agency, and specifically the travel agent and her wonderful colleagues, this was the perfect vacation. We were well taken care of and flights were planned within the countries, with someone always greeting us at the next stop to move us through to our next adventure.

We were always busy and saw the most wonderful things... a sunset dinner cruise on Sydney harbor, the march of the penguins at Phillip Island (she arranged for us to have a front-row seat!), snorkeling the Great Barrier Reef, and touring the rainforest with an Aboriginal guide was very interesting! She arranged for many tours and activities, like a jet boat ride up the Dart River, a helicopter ride onto a glacier, and a TranzAlpine train ride in New Zealand. We also had a first-time-ever encounter with a pod of orca while on a boat tour in New Zealand. The whole trip was an unforgettable experience!

We wished we had taken the travel agent's advice and stayed longer. There was so much to see. We packed a lot into our four short weeks thanks to them. We highly recommend using them to plan your Australia and New Zealand itinerary.

Zicasso in the News

A Unique Tropical Getaway Vacation to Australia

What to expect on this itinerary

Countries Visited

Places Visited

Suggested Duration

Customizable Itinerary

Port Douglas – Arrive in the Charming Beachside City of Port Douglas

Port Douglas – Discover the Great Barrier Reef on a Full Day Tour

Port Douglas – Venture into the Rainforest on a Full Day Tour of Kuranda

Green Island – Enjoy a Unique Exploration of a Coral Sands at Green Island

Green Island – Traverse Cape Tribulation for Pristine Rainforest and Depart Home

Trip Highlights

Detailed Description

Starting Price

What's Included

Verified Traveler Reviews

Customizable Itinerary

Best of the Great Barrier Reef Tour

Nature and Adventure Tour of Australia: Tasmania, Cradle Mountain, Sydney & Port Douglas

Natural Wonders of Australia Tour: Uluru to Great Barrier Reef

Adventures in Cairns Tour: Discovering Daintree & The Great Barrier Reef

Enchanting Australia Tour: From Great Barrier Reef to Historical Red Centre

Photography Tour of Australia & New Zealand’s South Island