I am looking for and escorted tour, for 12 days or so to Austrailia. My partner and I are in our upper 40's. Any recommendations? Is Tauck tours too expensive for what you get, or are we too young for them? Thanks

Frankly I don't like ANY tours. Australia is far too big a country to take tours in. Far better to fly to the places you are interested in seeing and take local tours there. However you don't say what you are interested in so I will leave it to you.

I figured it would be easier to take a tour

Tours do suit lots of people, brandonmd,but the majority of posters here prefer to travel independently. Or, as suggested above, fly to various destinations and take local tours. I'm assuming you mean a coach tour? With only 12 days, the size of each State would limit you to seeing very little of diversity offered by the various areas in Australia.

If you can advise what parts of Australia you're interested in, others may be able to give you some guidance. An indiction of your interests & budget would also assist.

If you are set on a tour package, you may want to look at Grand Circle Tours at www.gct.com
They cater to a more mature traveler.

I agree with others in that Australia is very easy to do independently.

Definately travel to Australia independently. It is very easy to do, and you won't have any language barriers. I avoid tours, do you really want to be hearded on and off a bus with 40+ people, rushed at the tourist sites and need to keep to somebody else's [in this case your tour company] schedule.

Yes, I agre with germanblonde. Do fly to your first destination and then you can decide whether you want to hire a car or go on a tour, everywhere there are plenty of options to choose from. If you do not like going about by yourself, take join a small group tour 5-15 people, there are even individual tours wiht a personal ranger! If you only have 12 days keep your focus on one region and have a good look at it! No point of rushing from one place to the other, do not understimate Australia's distances... huge!!
If you are going in December-February then Melbourne, Great Ocean Road and Tasmania could be a perfect itineary. I run a platform about Australia, if you want to learn more visit my website: www.rockytravel.net

Hi Brandonmd,

If you like to have everything taken care of for you and be locked into a specific schedule, then a tour's what you're looking for; if that doesn't describe you, then you should travel independently, and as everyone's said, it's not hard.

I suggest that you go to australia.com, which is a website from Tourism Australia - on the right of the home page, you can click on "Find A Specialist" and look for your state to find a agent who will work with you on planning your trip.

Hope this is helpful!

Regards,

Melodie
Aussie Specialist

Hi Brandonmd - I recently traveled to Australia as a solo travel (single female) and found it fantastically easy to navigate. It was great to be able to set my own schedule and linger at places I was enjoying (whereas on a tour you have to stick to their schedule). I booked some day tours to see certain sights since I did not want to drive myself around. It was an unforgettable trip.

You don't need to tour throughout the country, but you can take tours at your various destinations -- day trips to the Blue Mountains from Sydney, Uluru or Kata Tjuta tours from Ayers Rock resort, etc. The Aussies speak a kind of English that is nearly comprehensible, so getting around is easy.

I've vacationed in Oz twice, both times with three main destinations that we used as bases of operations (Sydney-Ayers Rock-Cairns and Darwin-Adelaide-Sydney) for day or multi-day trips. The major cities are FAR apart, so we flew between each. It's a lot of travel, and it's worth your while.