Australia cruise in 4/14/08, tour suggestions

My wife and I are flying to Sydney 5 days early, any suggestions on local tours ? we also travel to NZ, It is the Saphire princess departing on 4/14/08.

Rolo - have you check out the Australia/NZ under Ports of Call board? Tons of info there. We thoroughly our tour of the Sydney Opera House and the Sydney Harbor Bridge climb. We also took a self guided tour through the botannical gardens and really enjoyed all the lovely plants we saw there.

In NZ, we mostly spent our time there wandering around and enjoying the local sights. We did hired a taxi for the afternoon and asked him to take us to his favorite spots in the city. We went to Cornwall Park and One Tree Hill, Kelly Tarlton's Antartic Encounters and the Art Museum. My DH loved Aukland so much that there was actualy talk of immigrating there.

Do check out the AUS/NZ board though as there is tons and tons of stuff there.

Have a fabulous cruise!

Charlie

There is a huge roll call. Please join us there. Go to the last post and work backwards.

http://boards.cruisecritic.com/showthread.php?t=350302

Lorraine has created a website which describes many of the ports and has pictures.

http://travel.webshots.com/album/551913055GuoHEU

The best suggestions for Sydney will be found in the tripadvisor website. Keep clicking till you reach Sydney.

/Sultan

My wife and I are flying to Sydney 5 days early, any suggestions on local tours ? we also travel to NZ, It is the Saphire princess departing on 4/14/08.

Rolo...hop on over to our roll call for the Sapphire cruise. We have a large groups, lots of things planned and there is a wealth of infor there.

Just click on the drop down menu at the bottom of the page and find roll calls.....you will find us. Maybe one of my more technical shipmates could send you the link....Donna

Why this date and ship,,,just wondering. We are interested in Australia/NewZealand. :)

On this date the Sapphire is repositioning to LA so this is a long cruise (32 days).

On this date the Sapphire is repositioning to LA so this is a long cruise (32 days).

Why this date and ship,,,just wondering. We are interested in Australia/NewZealand. :)

Princess is introducing quality cruising into Australia/NZ ATM. We have the Sun Princess and the Saphire Princess is also visiting. The main difference is that the Sun Princess is being classed as an "Australian ship" ie tailored for the Aussie market and priced in AUD. Where as the Saphire Princess is sticking with the American branding and prices on board are in USD.

The cruise to AUD/NZ are proving to be very popular.

If you stop in Hobart, Tasmania - don't miss Port Arthur.

If you port in Dunedin, write Arthur ASAP and see if you can book him or join a group he may have. He will take excellent care of you!

two years ago we were on the sapphire and went into sydney 6 or 7 days before. we got the 3 day pass for the transit system(monorail,ferries,bus and subway) did the sydney bridge climb- GREAT!!,bondi beach, ferry to manly beach etc. then rented a car, but there are day tours offered to the blue mountains. while up there we went to the caves(dont remember the name) we then drove to the gold coast- lovely!!coffs harbour where we booked white water rafting- wonderful!! but i think the river water levels are down now! the gold coast is lovely though:)

As the others have said, please come and join our roll call! There are many private tours being planned and group get-togethers. With so many sea days (I think 19 of the 31-day itinerary), we should have plenty to do.

On both our cruises to AU we found a travel agent on James Street in Downtown Sydney online. They made all the arrangements for our tours and we just walked down when we arrived and paid and picked up our tickets. We did the Eastern Coast up to Singapore and were able to make arrangements for several of the ports along the way with the Travel Agency in Sydney. Some of the best tours we have ever taken. Especially the day we spent in the Blue Mountains, it was fantastic!

My wife and I are flying to Sydney 5 days early, any suggestions on local tours?

In any event, Sydney is an easy place to do on your own, at your own pace and in your own time. FWIW, the current edition (with help from other CC'ers!) of my suggested tips for Sydney, especially a newcomer, is:-

• The Rocks – historical area, plus some tourist shopping.
• Circular Quay – for views.
• Opera House – do a tour; the backstage tour is the most interesting, but is much less frequent and much more expensive than the standard tourist run. Go to a concert or a show if you can.
• Botanic Gardens and the Domain (parks).
• Darling Harbour – touristy things, including the casino at Star City if you're into that sort of thing.
• Sydney Aquarium (at Darling Harbour).
• Maritime Museum (at Darling Harbour).
• Powerhouse Museum (at Darling Harbour).
• The Australian Museum (in the City).
• Museum of Sydney (in the City).
• Museum of Contemporary Art (Circular Quay – the café is said to be pretty good).
• Bridgeclimb – 3½ hours, but worth it if the weather's good. Not energetic, nor difficult to anyone who has anything other than serious fears of heights. Best to book when you're there and you can gauge what the weather is likely to be. Most popular and expensive climbs are at twilight. Otherwise, a first timer should do a day climb to see where everything is, although night climbs are romantically spectacular. They have a new route which climbs the lower arch, but the standard route is still better for a newcomer.
• Sydney Tower – the tall building thing, also a very ish revolving restaurant.
• Paddy's Markets.
• Chinatown.
• Ferry to Manly.
• Manly – long beach on the ocean side, cafes etc. If you can get there, big park at North Head with good harbour and sea views, but is a long walk from Manly itself.
• Taronga Zoo – take the ferry from Circular Quay for this, too.
• Cruise on the harbour - lots of ways of doing this, standard tourist ones from Circular Quay; also a jetboat from there; but my favourite is on a genuine ex-Americas Cup yacht - a cruise ship is nothing like this!
• Watsons Bay – famous for Doyles, seafood restaurant, also good views. Also, go up to South Head (walking distance) from there, for views.
• Queen Victoria Building – possibly the most elegant shopping mall in the world.
• Bondi Beach – if you feel that you really have to do this. Quite close to Watsons Bay.
• Also, between Watsons Bay and the City, there are Double Bay (elegant, expensive shops) and Rose Bay (pretty waterfront).
• King's Cross at night (for the broad-minded).

Also, Sydney is one of the great eating cities of the world, so there's no shortage of good and/or exotic food.

I second all of Globaliser's recommendations and add one more: Featherdale Wildlife Park. We did this park immediately upon landing in Sydney and it was amazing to us (in our jet lagged state) that we were actually holding baby joeys and petting koals in Australia less than a day after leaving our house.

In Dunedin, we really enjoyed the Taori Gorge train trip. We did it in April, and the autumn colors were spectacular.

I second the notion that it is easy to do Sydney on your own. We took one of those "Hop On, Hop Off" busses and just rode around the first loop. Then we did it a second time and got off at the places that looked interesting. The pass is good for 24 hours.

:confused:

On both our cruises to AU we found a travel agent on James Street in Downtown Sydney online. They made all the arrangements for our tours and we just walked down when we arrived and paid and picked up our tickets. We did the Eastern Coast up to Singapore and were able to make arrangements for several of the ports along the way with the Travel Agency in Sydney. Some of the best tours we have ever taken. Especially the day we spent in the Blue Mountains, it was fantastic!

Did you find the travel agent prior to arriving in Sydney? Would it be possible to provide a web site or name? Thanks.......... Dick

My wife and I are flying to Sydney 5 days early, any suggestions on local tours ? we also travel to NZ, It is the Saphire princess departing on 4/14/08.

Rolo...time is runing away and there is so much to research. Your Roll Call will help immensley. Please email me for the information I have on "file".....you can absorb it at leisure - then decide what tours you would like to join or in what Ports you'd prefer to "wander". A warning...my "file" ends in Auckland/Bay of Islands :p

busybev28@buzzbb.net

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