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Zoe, everything worked out beautifully. We loved your choices for all four hotels. Locations were perfect!
The Great Ocean Road tour was interesting, but the day was too long (13 hours). We loved the
Melbourne tram dinner, and all of your other arrangements. I will be writing it all up---including all the great restaurants that we discovered. I will send it as an email attachment to you.
Didn't get to Doyle's in Sydney--seemed a bit high priced and too touristy!! I thank you so much for your help and patience in planning our trip! No pics yet. The
Sydney Harbour BridgeClimb was great. We got a picture from it. Can you request that they send you it via email? I would like to write more, but I have lots of catching up to do at work. I have lots of friends--and I suspect that you will be hearing from them in the future!!
We hope to go to New Zealand some day--after we save up more money---so I will hopefully be able to use your services again" J. & M. H., USA (3 Jan 03)
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Jo : G'day and Happy Holidays. Hope your Christmas was fun. Just a note to let you know we successfully completed our trip to Australia. Wow, what an adventure. It was outstanding. A very amazing country. I just can't believe there are only 18 Million Australians... The
Hotel Saville in Sydney first nights was great. Good location and close to a supermarket for food.
My first encounter with Australian ways was when I went to cross the street in front of the hotel and looked the wrong way for on-coming traffic. Opps, but the drivers let me know with their horns that I just stepped out into a rush of cars...
Port Douglas was also great. We loved the
Great Barrier Reef and wished we could have stayed longer.
Virgin Blue was a great choice for us. They made our travel very fun for the kids and we were able to secure open seats for Maegan...the face painting was the highlight for Louis and Maegan...
Perth was fun too, but very very hot! 38 degrees almost every day, and the nasty flies were driving us all baty. I had to break down and buy a cork hat...silly but effective. The Indian Ocean is gorgeous! Our travel back to the States Christmas eve and day wasn't so bad, except I lost my camera in the Perth Airport somewhere in security. I made a few attempts to ring them and see if it was located but no luck. Thanks again for everything. We had a great trip! Hope to hear from you soon." J.P., USA (28 Dec 02)
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Hello Gayle. We're finally settling back into our daily grind and so I wanted to take a few moments to give you some feedback on our trip. Overall, it was truly a wonderful honeymoon. We enjoyed every leg of our journey!
First,
Sydney...
The Four Seasons was beautiful and the service impeccable. Thank you for telling them (and all of our hotels) that it was our honeymoon because every time we checked in to a new hotel, we had a complimentary bottle of wine or champagne brought to our room. We REALLY enjoyed the
Harbour BridgeClimb. The night climb is definitely the best time to do it, because the climb starts while it's still daylight and then the sun goes down during the climb and then we had incredible night views of the city.
Sydney's a lovely city to explore.highlights for us were
Darling Harbour, The Rocks, a harbour ferry trip, the Opera House and Botanical Gardens, and the Paddington weekend bazaar.
Next stop was
Hayman Island which was simply luxurious, starting with the launch that took us from
Hamilton Island to Hayman. It's a beautiful yacht and they greet you with champagne and afternoon tea. The
Pool Deluxe room was perfect. The room was very large and faced the pool and the ocean. The décor of the room was just lovely and the grounds of the resort are stunning. It is VERY expensive to do activities there but we were prepared for that before we arrived. The only free activities are to take out your own small catamaran sailboat or canoe. We did a paid kayak trip to another part of the island called
Blue Pearl Bay 2 and did some great snorkeling there.
We also took an exhilarating seaplane ride over the reef which then landed on
Whitehaven Beach for a couple of hours, perhaps the most pristine beach I've ever seen. That was a highlight! One thing about Hayman that surprised us a bit was the food -- the restaurants were expensive and all had beautiful décor, but the quality of the food was not 5 stars. The food was good for sure, but it was not the exceptional quality I would have expected from such a luxury resort. We spoke with several other guests who shared that opinion. But don't get me wrong -- we overall really enjoyed our stay there.
You may remember that we had to leave Hayman very early that morning to fly to
Cairns... you may want to remind your clients, especially international clients, that the weight limits on luggage for Qantas domestic flights on regular size planes is 32 kg per piece and for the smaller Qantas planes (and Rex) is 15 kg.)
Next stop was
Silky Oaks in the rainforest. We really loved Silky Oaks. What a beautiful place. All guests have their own private chalet (fairly large too) set right in the rainforest with balconies surrounded by lush jungle. The grounds are exquisite, including the pool and the treetop restaurant overlooking the
Mossman river. The service was 5 stars and so was the food. Truly gourmet (far better than Hayman).
We spent an afternoon in
Port Douglas which was very charming.
The Daintree tour that was included in our package was a lot of fun. It was a full day excursion and we had an excellent guide. Fortunately, there were only six of us in the van (two other honeymooning couples) which made it very nice. But FYI, the van can hold 14 people which I think would really be too much. Those types of excursions I think are better enjoyed with smaller, intimate groups, which we were lucky to have.
Which brings me to my only negative feedback of the trip.the
Quicksilver reef trip. I would not recommend that trip to anyone. It's a monster of a boat and they take 300 passengers! Not exactly my idea of intimate. It's not even an attractive boat and it's so overcrowded that you're constantly bumping into people in order to move around. We felt like we were in a herd of cattle. The seats on the decks were hard like those on a subway and very close together. When the boat reached Quicksilvers's permanently fixed pontoon out on the reef, 300 tourists made a mad dash for the bins where the snorkel masks and fins were held in order to be first in the water. It was totally unorganized and chaotic. We signed up to scuba dive and fortunately that went fairly smoothly. We had a fun guide and the dive, though not cheap, was enjoyable...
Several people recommended to us that
the Aristocat boat is a much better reef experience. They only take about 30 people at a time, and their price includes two scuba dives... November technically starts the wet season in the rainforest, which ordinarily would mean rain all the time, but it rained for the first time there since April while we were there, but only at night. The days were very humid. We were told that come January, it will rain for 3 months straight...
The one night in
Adelaide was very pleasant. The loft suite in the
Radisson Playford was huge! Very nice hotel. We tried to see the eclipse from a park in Adelaide, but unfortunately it was too cloudy. The next morning we started our adventure to
Kangaroo Island. As you know, we had the luggage dilemma, which we solved by storing one of our suitcases at a place called Morgan's Corner at Adelaide airport. For security reasons, the airport itself no longer provides storage services, but this was a private retail/convenience store in the airport. It's $10 per day per bag.
The bus ride from Adelaide to the ferry was almost two hours... It's about an hour on the ferry and it was a very long hour! We were happy once we got there. I think flying from Adelaide is the better option! (Our flight back was easy and uneventful -- only 20 minutes). But Kangaroo Island was probably THE highlight of our trip. We loved it!
First, the
Seascape B&B was wonderful. Jenny and J.P. our hosts are two of the nicest people you
could ever meet. And their house is beautiful. It's on the top of a hill overlooking stunning Emu Bay. The house is only about a year old and the rooms are huge, all facing the bay. The breakfasts and dinners were excellent. J.P. is a freelance tour guide and he took us on a nocturnal walk to see penguins and other wildlife. Kangaroo Island itself is a very special place.
We went to
Seal Bay (a sea lion colony on the beach),
Parndana Wildlife Park where you can play with kangaroos and koalas and see every type of wildlife,
Flinders Chase National Park where there are animals in the wild and beautiful rock formations and trails,
Hanson Bay Sanctuary which is a koala "colony",
Kingscote which is the largest "town" on K.I., but is only about 4 blocks long, and finally we went scuba diving on our last day with sea lions and leafy sea dragons! (That made up for Quicksilver!).
Most of the island is unsealed roads, but a few main arteries were sealed within the last couple of years. The island is the same size as New York City but with only 4500 residents! (vs. 6 million in NYC!). There are more kangaroos than people! I would highly recommend Kangaroo Island to anyone and especially the Seascape B&B!
Finally, the
Grand Hyatt in Melbourne was very nice, as one would expect. Excellent location, which made for easy exploring, especially given our limited time. So overall Gayle, our honeymoon was unforgettable and we really appreciate all of your help! I will surely recommend you to anyone I know that is planning a trip to Australia! Have a very happy holiday and new year! Warm regards" S.F., New York, USA (18 Dec 02)
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Hello Tina, I just wanted to write a short email to thank you SO MUCH for recommending that Gavin and I go to
Hamilton Island Beach Club. We had an absolutely wonderful time there and were very sad to come home. After eating at some of the "family restaurants" and swimming in the communal pools a couple of times I found myself saying "I am so glad we didn't go to Club Med!"
It was really nice to be able to escape the screaming families and enjoy the peace and quiet at Beach Club. We felt so special having our own pool and cushioned lounges on the beach. I look forward to booking my next trip away with you hopefully in the not too distant future. Thanks again" S.Z., Melbourne, Australia (17 Dec 02)
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Hello GlobeNet, I wanted to drop you a quick email to tell you how pleased my husband and I were with (Consultant)
Gayle. While researching travel to
Lizard Island I came across your website and found Gayle right away. She was INCREDIBLY helpful both during the booking and in getting us our tickets....we had a pit of a tricky schedule as we were traveling, already on the road, and needed to reroute our original destination, Bali.
Gayle was really super and I wanted you to know we very much appreciated her services. We have worked with many travel agents, primarily in the US and Europe and none have been as professional and helpful as Gayle! Should we travel back to Australia or have friends who travel we will surely pass along her contact information." J.A., New York, USA (15 Dec 02)
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Hi Sonia, It's the last leg of our Australia journey. It's been a great trip, the reef was spectacular.
The Daintree & Angsana exceeded all our expectations. Each stop was better than the one before. THANKS for all of your help. It would not have been as good without it!" S.B., Cincinnati, USA (14 Nov 02)
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Hi Joanne, Thank You! Safe to say, the trip was wonderful.
Lizard and
Bedarra were truly fantastic. The islands are beautiful and the service (and the bar at Bedarra!) outstanding. Very glad you recommended them.
All the travel arrangements went off without a hitch...well apart from the charter plane that 'broke'...but that was before we were in the air and we had beer on the next one, so it was all good, plus it's a good story to tell!!! Thanks again for arranging everything for us, and for the little 'package' that arrived at Bedarra for us.
By the way, just something I found interesting. At Lizard I think I was the only Aussie guest, mostly Americans and a few English. At Bedarra though it pretty much all Aussies. Do you know if that's normal or it was just coincidence? Regards," C.B., New York, USA (14 Nov 02)
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Hi Kylie, Thanks heaps for all your help with our arrangements, we had a great time and so did our relatives from the UK.
Tangalooma was great, we enjoyed the bar on the beach and Jazz (our 2yr old loved seeing the dolphins). We've all only just got back from
Port Douglas, so we've been busy and seen heaps. Thanks again." J.F., Gold Coast, Australia (13 Nov 02)
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Hi Sonia, Many thanks for helping us to have a great holiday.
Vanuatu was hot, humid, wet and an exciting place to visit and stay.Our accommodation at Vila was tops. I will send you some material on
Poppys on the Lagoon, a real luxury resort that is not to expensive and not too far from town or from other resorts. If you have not been there I would thoroughly recommend it.
We also stayed at
Vatthe at the top end of
Santo, another fascinating place and also stayed at another spot right next to
Champagne Beach. Really enjoyed Santo, saw many spots tourists would never see or even some of the locals could not get to. Great spot for bike riding and for 4WD. Crossed deep rivers trying to get to the west side of Santo. Visited some of the resort islands and other smaller islands as well in Santo and at
Vila. Anyway I will fill you in at a later stage. Thanks so much again." L.O., Melbourne, Australia (12 Nov 02)
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Hi Sonia, Just a quick note to let you know that our holiday at
Kingfisher Bay Resort Fraser Island went like clockwork. Everything worked out well and we had a wonderful time, including seeing whales on our
Whale Watching trip. It was just fabulous. Thanks for all your help and making all the arrangements for my sister and me. Hope to have you organize another holiday for us in the not too distant future." J.F., Sydney, Australia (12 Nov 02)
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Hi Kylie, We had a great time-
Stamford Plaza Brisbane was a great suggestion ;also the
Radisson treated us very well (the marina is a real building site, however);and
Lizard Island was brilliant as usual-our rooms were superb). You did a really good job by us and we'd like to thank you for your help. Best regards," C.F., Edinburgh, UK (7 Nov 02)
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Dear Zoe, Indeed, we had a fantastic time at
Dunk Island! There were so many things to do in such a short time! Next time we'll make sure that we stay there a little longer. Thank you once more for giving us such a great suggestion! I am looking foward to speaking to you again if I should need any information for our next holiday," H.L., Sydney, Australia (6 Nov 02)
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Hi Shelley, How are ya'!!! We had a fabulous trip and want to thank you profusely for all your help. Here's a synopsis!
Melbourne Tramcar - WONDERFUL!!!! We recommend the earlier time b/c we got to see sunset. Its a great ride around the city and you get to see the outer areas!!!
The bestest part was you pass the big clown face at the entrance to
Luna Park!! DO you know what that is?? They closed the one in Sydney and it was my favorite place to go!! Anyway...the food was really good and you know its all you can drink too!!! It was really fabulous!!! We met some people that had done the 5 course later dinner and they said the food was good but it was too much and not being done til 11:30pm was too late! so we did good!!!
Penguin Tour and Great Ocean Road! - Really great tours! But then again, when you're seeing those cute little penguins and driving past such amazing scenery, they can't really screw it up!!!! BUt I would recommend!!!
Port Sea Hotel - Probably the only disappointment. Its not your fault that
Port Douglas is the way it is. First, you can't drink the water and this hotel charged you for bottled water!!( the other places filtered their water or provided free bottled water!)...
Quicksilver at Great Barrier Reef - This was fine. Nothing to sing home about but nothing negative to say either. Victor and I are not water people and the reef was a little choppy so we weren't comfortable snorkeling. It was OK though!
Skyrail/ Scenic Train ride and Aboriginal Cultural Center - Train ride was a train ride. Not much to see because the trees are in your way!! But the skyride was incredible!!! A little scary.. you're VERY far up!!! The Aboriginal Center was also really great. Very entertaining and educational. We liked it a lot!!! Our trip was wonderful and we will be going back sometime! And of course, when we do, we'll be calling on you!!!!
Who knows, maybe next time, we'll go to the
Sunshine Coast and visit you in
Brisbane!!! OR...maybe you'll be coming to New York sometime!!!! Please look us up if you do!!! We hope you're well! Thanks again!! Take care!," S.L., New York, USA (6 Nov 02)
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Hello Kylie, Without a shadow of a doubt
Heron Island was the best holiday of my life. In simple terms, the accommodation was great and to boot when we arrived they upgraded us to a better room. Then we discovered the food which was outstanding and could be taken anywhere. Next the plunger coffee, a real treat on the beach.
The staff kept saying"sure we'd be happy to..." to anything, they found us a CD player, then they had the first bbq of the season and the staff made friends with us. We had fantastic music bya talented guitarist each nite. We went diving and snorkelling and swam with manta rays, sharks and even three turtles. We had massages, played chess, read books and had a picnic... we had to keep pinching ourselves. Then we found turtles laying eggs! The temperature and weather was perfect, the water was 26 degrees, like a bath.
The downsides were: The room tab made buying cocktails, trinkets and dive trips way too easy- we both put on weight cos the food was so good- the coffee plunger was quite heavy to carry to our room... do you suspect I'm grasping at straws trying find bad things?
Thanks so much for your help, you made the bookings a breeze, everything went perfectly to plan and despite my fears of"this has got to go wrong" it didnt ! Thanks a million, have already been raving about your service to all and sundry," N.M., Sydney, Australia (5 Nov 02)
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Hi Gayle, Our trip was fantastic, we didn't have to worry about a thing, we just handed over our booking sheet and that was it,
thankyou very much for all your help, the photo of us is on
Daydream, we found
Long Island a bit run down, but was still good, the food was excellent everywhere we went, but Daydream was definitely the pick of the islands.," P.M., Brisbane, Australia (3 Nov 02)
•"Hi
Tosh, Well, what a blissful holiday, our best so far.
Lizard Island was superb! Everything you mentioned and more, the view, the food, service, decor and the Reef, was exquisite. Fit for a king and queen. Pretty hard to top this holiday, yes keep us informed (occasionally). Thank you again for your excellent service." N.G., Sydney, Australia (1 Nov 02)
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Hi Sonia, Just like to say thankyou for organising our holiday to
Lindeman Island Club Med. Jeff & I had a fantastic time and will most likely revisit the island in the future. Our holiday went with out a gliche, we went to the
Great Barrier Reef, did some snorkelling, learnt to sail and how to hit a golf ball (that was a challengeall on its own). We really appreciate the effort in putting this package together for us. Thanks again," J. & Y.B., Melbourne, Australia (31 Oct 02)
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Hi Rene, The trip was absolutely amazing, we had a great time at
Contiki Great Keppel and met a lot of great people. I would like to thank you and also pass on the thanks of my other 2 travelling companions. We found everything was organised perfectly and it allowed us to enjoy ourselves and not have to worry about it. Thanks again," W.A., Melbourne, Australia (30 Oct 02)
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Hi Tina, We had a wonderful time in Australia and absolutely fell in love with the country. Everything was perfect. It turned out that the camping we did in
Uluru, Kata Juta and
King's Canyon had to change at the last minute because not enough people had signed up for the trip you had booked us for. So instead of having people to do the cooking and tent set up for us, we were part of a group that did the cooking and clean up ourselves. It turned out fine though. It was actually a lot of fun and felt much more like an adventure since we had to do everything for ourselves. Everyone was so nice in the group with us too.
Orpheus Island was magnificent. There turned out to be only four other couples (for a total of 8 people) on the island! Needless to say, the service was magnificent and the food was outstanding.
The only"bad" thing was that the tides had been particularly low in the couple of days preceding our arrival and during our stay, causing the visibility to be less clear than usual. But the snorkeling was still reasonably good and we even got to swim up to whale! I will attach a picture here from the trip and also send you a couple more. Thanks for planning such a wonderful trip for us!," Y.C., Boston, USA (29 Oct 02)
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Hi Tina, What fascinating places
Italy &
Sicily are! I had no idea there was so much difference both in culture and scenery between the North and the South. It was just wonderful. I would like to thank you and the company for the professional way every thing was handled.
Belinda, our guide was excellent. She has so much knowledge of her country and its traditions. I heard the love of her country in her voice, every time she spoke she made us feel welcome. I will certainly be advising all of my friends to contact you if they are traveling and I know I will be contacting you again next time.," A.P., Sydney, Australia (28 Oct 02)
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Hi Tina, I have been meaning to get in touch with you and thank you for the great service and the smooth hassle free holiday we had! It was great fun and very well organised! It was so convenient to be able to book over the internet and have such a friendly consultant such as yourself! Thanks for everything, and if you like, you can show this to your supervisor and put my comments on the website to encourage other travellers to book with you. Have a great day!," L.K., FairyMeadow, Australia (28 Oct 02)
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Hi Gayle, Boy, being back at work is no where near as much fun as travelling on Holiday !! Thanks again for your help. All of the arrangements you made for us worked just great. The
Crown Tower is really an amazing complex. We were given a complimentary upgrade and the suite we had was fabulous.
The Hyatt in Adelaide was fine. I had expected more of the town of Adelaide itself, but we really enjoyed the day trip to
Kangaroo Island and on our other free day we rented a car and drove through the Adelaide Hills and through part of the
Barossa Valley. We enjoyed both of those very much.
The connection at
Cairns to
Port Douglas was fine and we enjoyed both the
Sheraton Mirage and Port Douglas. The connections to and from Hayman worked perfectly as well.
We had a very relaxing time at
Hayman Island and had an opportunity to do the diving or snorkeling that we wanted. So all of the pieces you handled for us were just great.
We found both
New Zealand and
Australia to be very easy places to travel. I think the hospitality of the people is what made is so easy and fun. I know we'd both enjoy traveling there again. I will certainly recommend you to any friends who travel to Australia in the future. Thanks again," G.T., California, USA (26 Oct 02)
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