Joanna Booth discovers the tours that will allow travellers to see cities from a different perspective
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Unless you’re running to catch one, there’s nothing about a bus that’ll set your heart pounding. Buses are boring. So don’t let your clients settle for them as a way to see Australia and New Zealand’s cities – not when there are more interesting ways to explore.
Whether it’s by water or from the air, on a gourmet trip or behind the scenes at a sports venue, there are plenty of options to help you make your customers’ trip Down Under more memorable – and earn extra commission.
SYDNEY
If clients want to get a sense of Sydney’s famous skyline, then book a helicopter flight.
Attraction World offers the Sydney Highlights Scenic Flight (£146 per adult/£110 per child) for superlative views of the Opera House, Harbour Bridge and Bondi beach. Travel 2’s Sydney Helicopter Sightseeing (£190) takes off at twilight for a sunset city tour.
Those with sea legs rather than a head for heights don’t have to miss out. Premier Holidays’ Cruise Like a Local tour (£187) lets clients get out on the water in a luxurious motor cruiser.
With a handful of other guests, the experience couldn’t be more different from one of the crowded tourist boats. Hosted by a friendly local skipper, guests can sip a beer while cruising under the Harbour Bridge before nipping into some of the area’s smaller bays to see some impressive real estate. There’s time to swim, fish, and kayak, before a barbecue lunch.
Back on land, they can take to two wheels on a Bonza Bikes tour, bookable through Austravel (£59). The easy two-and-a-half hour pedal passes Circular Quay, the piers at Walsh Bay, Darling Harbour, Hyde Park and the Royal Botanic Garden.
Travellers can stick to their own two feet and still see something very different on 1st Class Holidays’ Rocks Dreaming Aboriginal Heritage Tour (£30). The 90-minute walkabout with an Aboriginal guide will take them on a journey not just around Sydney, but also into Dreamtime, learning about Aboriginal culture, ecology, astrology and spiritual beliefs.
The chance to explore more modern culture is on offer through Do Something Different. The Sydney Opera House Guided Backstage Tour (£88) gets guests into areas of this iconic venue usually only open to performers. They can stand on the Concert Hall stage, which has hosted everyone from Pavarotti to Michael Bublé, peek into the dressing rooms, and even eat breakfast in the Green Room.
Those more into operas of the soap variety can book a Home and Away Tour to Palm Beach with Attraction World (£62), visiting filming locations made famous by the show, including the Summer Bay Surf Club and Alf’s Bait Shop.
MELBOURNE
Melbourne is noted less for a list of sights than its stylish lifestyle, but that doesn’t mean there aren’t tours to suit. Cox & Kings’ Lanes & Arcades tour (£95) gives guests an introduction to the alleyways and arcades favoured by the city’s creative types, with colourful street art, stylish boutiques, gourmet cafes and quirky bars – there’s a stop for tea and chocolate tasting, ending with lunch and wine.
Travel 2’s three-hour Progressive Degustation Walk (£105) tickles the tastebuds with an early evening trundle to three different restaurants, with generous samples of food and wine in each.
For an even more unique dining experience, try a restaurant on wheels. Kuoni offers tours of Melbourne in a 1927 period tramcar, where passengers can digest the city sights and suburbs of Albert Park, St Kilda and South Melbourne, while enjoying a three-course dinner on board (£61).
This is a city famed for its obsession with sport, and there’s no better way to spoil a fan than by booking 1st Class Holidays’ Sports Lovers Tour (£81 including lunch). The tour visits venues including Flemington Race Course, home of the Melbourne Cup, the Commonwealth Games Athletes’ Village, and drives around Albert Park on the Melbourne F1 Grand Prix Circuit.
Then clients will have to pick a side – they can either go behind the scenes of Melbourne Cricket Ground, with access to the players’ changing rooms and the members’ areas, or choose tennis and tour the Rod Laver Arena, the changing rooms, the Walk of Fame and the arena. The tour ends with lunch at the Etihad Stadium.
Those who’d rather get active can take to the water on Do Something Different’s Moonlight Kayak Tour (£53). Even novice paddlers can enjoy exploring the city from the Yarra River, starting from Victoria Harbour and stopping for an on-water fish-and-chip dinner before heading under Bolte Bridge and on to Southgate.
For some Brits, Melbourne means not sport or style, but soap. Travel 2 offers the Official Neighbours Tour (£38), where fans are whisked to Ramsay Street to meet past and present members of the cast for photos and autographs.
BEST OF THE REST
Hungry holidaymakers can fill their boots in Adelaide. Alongside Do Something Different’s Morning Central Market tour (£35), which gets the day off to a good start with generous tastings, they can book one of expert Mary Anne Kennedy’s trips ranging from those for serious wine buffs to hands-on food-centric fun. (tastesa.com.au)
Visitors with an interest in the shadier side of Perth’s past will love the Fremantle Urban Adventure from Intrepid Travel (£21.74). Fremantle Prison was one of the most notorious in the British Empire, and this tour brings the site to life with tales of astounding escapes, plus other stories of colonial times.
In Hobart, culture, cuisine and thrill rides combine in Tasmanian Air Adventures’ Mona Fly and Dine package. A seaplane ride gives a bird’s-eye view of the state capital before heading out to museum Mona, for lunch and a viewing of the eclectic art collection.
Or clients can keep their feet on the ground and still end up three sheets to the wind on an excursion with Tasmanian Whiskey Tours.
Visiting four distilleries around Hobart, the tour includes tastings of up to 10 single malts, a gourmet picnic lunch, and the chance to meet whiskey makers and see behind the scenes of the distillation process. Both tours are bookable through Tasmanian Odyssey, for £140 and £100 respectively.
NEW ZEALAND’S CITIES
Could there be a more fitting way for clients to see the so-called City of Sails than from a yacht? And not just any yacht.
On Do Something Different’s Sail NZ excursion (£84/£61), they’ll board an America’s Cup yacht, the Formula One cars of the sea, and spend two hours racing around Auckland’s famous harbour. The exhilaration of clinging to the ship as it tilts into the wind is matched by some pretty special views, and those who want to can even have a go at sailing, supervised by the professional crew.
No one wants to see their lunch twice, so don’t schedule something as vigorous as sailing too close to one of Zest’s foodie tours. This specialist company uses gourmet guides who will share insider secrets and introduce clients to local producers as they talk and eat their way around the city.
1st Class Holidays offers its Auckland City Tastes tour (£99), which focuses on the harbour area, and Anzcro brochures two of its Wellington options, Capital Tastes (£102), and Walking Gourmet (£170), the latter culminating in a three-course tasting lunch with New Zealand wine pairings.
Christchurch is a city in flux, slowly but surely rebuilding following 2011’s earthquake. Clients who want to find out how the city is changing should book 1st Class Holidays’ Christchurch Rebuild tour (£18). Film footage and commentary from a museum guide will help them get a sense of what the city used to be like, what’s happening now and what the future holds.
