New to the forum, thanks in advance for any help.

My wife and I are planning a 9-10 day trip from the US to Australia. We want to spend some time in Sydney, the Great Barrier Reef, Melbourne, and during some of those stops see some Koalas and Kangaroos somewhere along the way.

There was a package offered by a company called GoWay that seems to have very bad reviews. We are ideally looking for a small to medium sized travel group that would handle all the logistics after arriving in Australia. If that's not a good option, a company that provides a package for hotels, airfare within Australia, hotel transfers, and some of the major activities, would be our next choice. Lastly, we could just book and schedule all of that ourselves but before I go that route I wanted to see if anyone had any good ideas on the first two options.

Thanks again in advance.

Firstly Australia is a BIG country so 10 days on the ground isn't enough to do three places, particularly since you will lose a day of your visit every time you fly from one state to another. Since March is still wet season in the Barrier Reef areas - wet and humid, so I'd suggest you split your time between Sydney and Melbourne. That would give you time to see both cities and do some day tours out of the city - for example, the Blue Mountains from Sydney and the Great Ocean Road area near Melbourne. Melbourne Zoo has a good native animals area and is a few minutes by tram from the CBD, or you could take a day tour to the Yarra Valley (wine area) which would also include a visit to Healesville Sanctuary which specialises in native animals and birds.
Personally I wouldn't bother with a travel agent's package - you'll get good advice here and it's easy to put together your own itinerary.

I agree with marg on doing it on your own rather than booking a package. Where are you coming from? Do you have 9-10 days on the ground or does it include travel to and from your point of origin? Do you like cities or are you more of an outdoors person? If you like cities, what is it you enjoy? If it were me, I would split 10 nights between Sydney and Adelaide / Kangaroo Island, given your interest in Australian wildlife. You could arrive in Sydney, enjoy a few days in the city as well as the Blue Mountains, then fly to Kangaroo Island for 2-3 nights, and finish up in a wine region near Adelaide if you are into that.

Thanks to you both for the responses. The #1 thing my wife wants to see is the Great Barrier Reef so it sounds like March is a bad month for that. So I guess the decision is maybe go in September or October instead, or just go and skip the Reef in March.

The primary interests are the Reef, experiencing Sydney, experiencing wildlife, experiencing Melbourne, and if there is time, spending some time in the outback.

To accomplish everything on your list, I would recommend a minimum of 14 nights in Australia not including travel although more is better. And this assumes you fly between places.

As for wildlife, you will hopefully see marine life at the Reef. For land animals, you will most likely be seeing them at zoos or wildlife parks. I’ve seen a couple of kangaroos in the Blue Mountains as well as at Uluru. You will likely see koalas in the wild if you have time to venture down to Cape Otway (on the way to the Twelve Apostles) from Melbourne.

March is still possible at the Reef; it's just not the ideal time. It's the wet season, you can't swim off the beach because of stingers (although OK on the Reef) and there's the risk of cyclones. Many people still go at that time, but you do need to have some flex in your planning.

September would be better.

I see no problem with going to the Great Barrier Reef in March. There are many tour companies that can take you out to the reef. They understand the weather and will not take you out if the conditions are bad. Swimming will be limited because of the stingers which is the down side of this time of the year.
Logistically you will need to be in Cairns, Melbourne and Sydney. There is a lot of distance between each.
Where do you live..?. it would be best if you could fly into one of the cities and out from another... for example fly into Melbourne and then fly out of Sydney. Both these cities have the best international flights. Cairns would be limited.
In Melbourne you could do a day trip to Healesville Sanctuary to see the Koala's and kangaroo's. or you could do Melbourne Zoo. If you stay in Melbourne CBD there will be tour companies that can take you on a day trip to Healesville Sanctuar

Hi, I’m working with a travel agent based in Australia (at no cost to me). I gave the agent my itinerary and she cleaned it up and put it in the best order. I didn’t want to have to book all the inter country flights and transfers myself. We are traveling on our own, now with a group or tour. She said we should be ok the second or third week for the Reef. You can also cover a lot of ground if you are energetic travelers it’ll be like an appetizer trip, a little of everything. That’s how we travel, Then we make note of where we want to go back and spend more time on a future trip. We are splitting 10 days between Sydney, Kangaroo a Island, the Reef and the Red Center. I realize there’s so much more, but when time and money is limited, I feel like these are a good choice of highlights. Hope this helps you with your planning.

Yikes! Four destinations over 10 days that each requires a half day or more to reach. I hope your flights, especially connections, are smooth. Even so, you will see more airplane cabins and airports than the actual places you intend to visit. If it’s not too late, I would suggest you consider visiting two places and enjoying a couple small slices of Australia.

Have you looked at travel times between each destination? I'd definitely cut out at least one destination, and that would be Alice Springs/Uluru. The temperatures there will be high thirties and too hot to do much.

Is the only reason the temperature or was this your least favorite place?

The Red Centre/Uluru/Kings Canyon/Alice Springs is absolutely spectacular, well worth seeing, and one of my favourite places, but going there in high temperatures with bush flies buzzing around you isn't a great idea. We've been there many times, always in the cooler weather when you can walk and enjoy the environment. The Australian winter months are the best for this part of the world.

We went to Australia in October and had wonderful weather everywhere including Port Douglas and the Great Barrier Reef. Oir itineraey was Melboirne and surrounding wine country, Sydney and Port Doighlas and GBR. Melbourne was in bloom with spring flowers.

Double yikes! You'll need every ounce of that energy. Do let us know how it goes.

Yikes, indeed. 4 locations in 10 days, with at least half a day flying between each. That pretty much gives you 2 nights, or one day, in each location.

You, you'll see a lot, of planes and airports. Try and get window seats on your fights, just to see something.

And do report back!

Actually it’s 11 nights. 3 Port Douglas, 2 Uluru, 1 Adelaide, 2 kangaroo Island and 3 in Sydney in that order. It seems like enough time to cover the highlights, I understand we won’t see everything and do everything in each of these areas, but enough to get some education, see some sights and have a few great experiences. Some of the flights are short. The longest will be from Uluru to Adelaide. Flying late in the day will give us extra time in each location hopefully. Then we’re going on to New Zealand for 11 nights.

uluru is ok at the very end of March. - we had no flies and the weather was lovely . You'll only have 1 and 1/2 days there anyway .
I am staggered that a Travel agent wouldn't comment on your itinerary -.then again the client is always right and obviously determined so why would she/he.

Youre spending ding the same amount of time in each of 2 countries -.one of which is 29 times bigger than the other - out of whack ??

Before everything is locked in, it would be a good idea to write down timings for each day including time to get from hotel to airport, actual flight time, time to get to the hotel at the other end. You also need to arrive about an hour earlier for domestic flights before departure, to check in. Even once the plane lands, if it's on time (and if it's late in the day they are usually not on time as any flight delays have compounded) then you have to wait to get off the plane, wait for luggage, find your transport etc. The whole thing always takes longer than you expect. Perhaps after working out the day by day timings you will see that having so many destinations, all a long way apart, in a short time is not such a good idea. It is your trip though so if you stick to your plan, hope it all works out and you enjoy seeing some of Australia.

Kay

Thank you all for your thoughts. I find it interesting that not one, but two different travel agents put together similar iteneraries when I gave them my time constraints and wish to see some of the highlights. They are both from different countries and ages ( just to cover the bases). I made no demands, just opened it up to their discretion. We are experienced travels having been to more than 30 countries, so I can appreciate the need to work out travel times from door to door. I have no illusions that travel is easy and timing is exact. I will review your concerns with the agent. Thanks again

Travel agents have put together a trip that is possible. But is it desirable? They are not the ones on the trip so don't care if it's rushed. I've booked a huge number of personal trips and put a LOT more care into our own travel, than a travel agent ever would. They don't have the time, or often the interest (or knowledge). We'd love to hear about your trip afterwards - the good and maybe not so good!

Kay