joe_travel

We are interested in taking a tour to Australia with Grand Circle Travel. Anyone have experience with this tour operator?

Jed

Plenty of info by searching on US and Europe forums.

Bgale

I have traveled with Grand Circle several times but always in Europe. I think they are a great company and will travel with them again.

Bushranger

Australia is such an easy country in which to travel with a plethora of day and several day or longer trips available as an alternative to the full organised tours.

You'll pay through the nose for the full arranged tour in comparison to a more DIY approach.

Luisah

I will be traveling to Australia/NZ and Fiji with them in April, so can't help you much now. I have been happy with my four trips with this company though.

Check out the web site gct.com and read the reviews from previous travelers to Australia. You will have to select the trip then click on "Read reviews."

If I remember correctly, all reviews were four star. There are some critical reviews on other trips so I don't think the company edits or prints only the positives.

sandys

We went with OAT to Australia, and had a fantastic tour of that beautiful country. We also took the add-on to Tasmania - which was absolutely beautiful. We had a wonderful tour guide there. She even called us a couple of weeks before the tour to give us additional information about what to expect on the tour and to answer any questions that we may have. Australia is a beautiful country with very friendly people.

We have traveled both with GCT and OAT - a total of six trips, and all have been great. Our experiences with GCT and their sister company OAT have been extremely positive - both companies offer excellent value for the money.

Both GCT and OAT send out detailed questionnaires that we receive around a day following the end of our tour. (Unlike other tour companies that have you fill out short questionnaires the last day of the tour to hand to the tour director - who may conveniently lose some of them??) GCT and OAT's questionnaire is very detailed about the tour director, the hotels used, the included activities and meals, and also the optionals. According to our tour directors, many hotels have been changed, and tour directors fired, because of poor ratings by the tour participants. Due to this weeding out, our tour directors on all of our OAT and GCT tours have been absolutely excellent. The tour directors have always been residents of the country that we are visiting, which is an important perspective on a tour.

Fellow tour participants have always been friendly and well traveled. This company also has a commitment to having tour participants understand the country and people being visited - with home and school visits, and also short lectures about the country.

If you have any other questions about GCT or OAT or Australia, feel free to email me at [email protected].