4 Day Monkey Mia, Kalbarri and the Pinnacles Tour

"Hello,

Just returned home to France and am viewing my photos! Yes, I feel very positive about my trip with Australian Explorer. As a retired grandmother in my early sixties I was a little apprehensive about the age of the other group members and about the trip itself.

It turned out to be an excellent example of successful group dynamics as 19 out of the 21 co-travellers had come along individually and were visiting Australia solo. Not an easy situation for the tour guide at first as people need time to get to know each other and but by the end of the trip the group had become quite close and I certainly had no problem fitting in. Jess, the tour guide was extremely efficient and an excellent organizer.

The communication before travelling was adequate. I had initially booked a 4 day tour to Monkey Mia but I was enjoying the trip so much that I decided to continue up to Exmouth! (7 Day Perth to Exmouth Return To Perth (EX1052).) The company was very good in arranging this. I liked the idea of preparing meals together as this brought people together.

I'd booked single accomodation which turned out to be fine. The visits were as described on the site. The only problem was the last day when a trip to turquoise bay was on the itinerary and the temperature was up towards the 40°. I and a few others would have loved to go snorkelling and explore the beaches, but being a protected site there was absolutely no shelter from the sun so we didn't want to risk sunstroke. Maybe some kind of alternative could be offered in cases like this?

All in all, I thought the trip was good value for money considering the distance we did. I thoroughly enjoyed the experience and would certainly recommend your site to others.

Thank you and your team for the great opportunity to explore a little part of a beautiful country."

May : France

"Thanks for the opportunity to say thank you for the experience. We had a ball. We enjoyed the sight seeing and all the activities including preparing the meals. The communication before the trip was good. I was a bit ignorant. Because my understanding of twin share accommodation was that me & my wife will have our own room. Then we found out that twin share could be up to four persons in one room. Anyway, no drama.

Our expectations were met plus we enjoyed the activities like boating, repelling and sand boarding, etc. Ryan, our driver, guide and tour manager was excellent. He made us feel important and most importantly he was concerned about our safety and well being.

Yes I would recommend it to anyone wanting to see Western Australia. Thanks again for a wonderful experience.

Best Regards,
Rene"

Rene : Nollamara, South Australia.

"i. How did you find the experience overall?

It was FAB!

ii. How was the communication before the experience?

Good. I booked over the phone rather than the internet and someone said that they would ring me back and they did which is always a pleasant surprise.  I also received confirmation by email and instructions of where I needed to be in order to be picked up.

iii. How well did the experience match the original description on the Australian Explorer website?

I didn't read much about the description before hand.  I had wanted to visit Monkey Mia for some years and when I finally made it to Australia, I had fairly specific dates that I could go there so it was finding a tour that fitted my dates rather than anything else.  Seeing everything else just made the trip even better.  I read the description when I got back and it matched what we had done.

iv. On your experience did you feel like a valued customer?

Yes.  We were a small group which meant that it was easier for the guide to spend more time with us and we were very well behaved so he didn't have to step in and sort any argy bargy out.  Mick (don't know his surname) was our guide and he obviously had a deep knowledge of the area and loved the country very much which came over in his descriptions.

v. Would you recommend this experience to others?

Definitely, two friends have actually just returned from the same trip with Australian Explorer.  I think they got back last Thursday.

vi. Any Additional Feedback 

I was staying with friends north of Perth and couldn't get into the city for the arranged 06.30am pick up.  I rang Australian Explorer and they just sorted out a local pick up which was perfect. I think the guides work incredibly hard, all the driving, organising cooking, being the guide, remaining in a good mood at all times is really difficult.  As I mentioned before, Mick was our guide and he was a top bloke. As a group we talked about our music tastes and he made a playlist up for each of us to reflect what we liked. I don't know what they get paid, but it's not enough!  "

Kim : United Kingdom.

"Hi All,

I wanted to let everyone know what a great time I had on the Monkey Mia trip I took last week. We were just a small group - six in total including our guide, Mick.

We were a bit of a motley crew - oldies with youngsters but we all got on - the accommodation was fine, the cooking was pretty good and it's a great way of seeing lots of places in a short time and in my own case, visiting places I wouldn't have done if it hadn't been for booking the tour.

Mick was great - the whole tour was all the better for having a guide who seemed to really enjoy the history of his country and wanted other people to feel as good about it as he did so was keen to share the stories. He was patient with us whilst gently encouraging and worked very hard, being up before us and having to do an enormous amount of driving - the great choice of music he had on his Ipod helped a lot too!

If he is representative of the other guides you have, the tour company has pots of gold they need to treasure.

Thanks for a great trip,"

Kim : United Kingdom