My wife and I would like to do an organized group tour to Australia and New Zealand for a duration of approx. 25-30 days total for both countries. We wished to know what companies anyone could share their experiences and thoughts on. We'd like to find a travel co. that offers a Rick Steves type tour to these countries with a group of no larger than around 24 individuals or so. Any/all info is appreciated.
We are booked on a ocean cruise with Viking this December to Australia and New Zealand for 21 days. We do not normally do group tours but the tremendous amount of territory to cover on your own to this area was overwhelming and we didn't want the logistics of moving from point to point to take up too much of our time.
Look at Overseas Adventures Travel. Max group size is 16.
Earlier this year, we had a cruise out of Sydney that went to New Zealand that was cancelled due to mechanical problems. We found out three days prior to the cruise and since we had a transpacific going home, we had to fill the gap with a tour.
A travel agent in Melbourne found us an excellent tour of the NZ North Island with AAT Kings (Trafalgar) that was great.
I have not used any but a friend of mine swears by AAT Kings. He has traveled the world extensively and highly recommends them.
Another of Rick's seasoned guides, Colin Mairs, is now living in New Zealand and leading tours there in our off-season, e.g. March and October: www.mondumo.com/tours.
We had a great tour of New Zealand and Australia thru Holiday Vacations. There were 29 of us on the tour. I was very impressed with the company and our tour director. I don’t know if they limit there size to a certain number of people, but everything is included as far as sightseeing goes. I highly recommend them.