Which Brisband shore excursion did you enjoy and why?

[AWorldCruise4Me]

I'm researching which trip to do in Brisbane but can't really tell from the description which ones are good. Any suggestions from folks who have taken one and thought it was fabulous?

 

MOUNT TAMBORINE & THE GOLD COAST

CROCODILES/CRITTERS/SUNSHINE COAST

LAMINGTON NATIONAL PARK & WINERY

BRISBANE/LONE PINE KOALA SANCTUARY

 

Thanks!

Michelle

[Bob&Janet]

Without a description of the tours it is hard to know exacrly what the tours entail, but if you are a fan of Steve Irwin, then the crocodile and critters tour to the Sunshine Coast is the one to go on ... it will go to Australia Zoo that he set up and his family (including Terri and Bindi) still operate. Probably more to see on this one in tems of Australian wildlife, but not sure ... I suspect Lone Pine Koala Sanctuary may predominantly have koalas.

 

The Mount Tamborine and Lamington National Park tours go through national park areas in the mountains so are good if you like bush scenery. The Mount Tamborine one takes you through the Gold Coast, which is Australia's fastest growing urban area and a very popular holday area but whether it is a beach stop or something else I don't know without more information.

 

Cheers

Bob

[AWorldCruise4Me]

Mount Tamborine & The Gold Coast

Visit Mount Tamborine, a volcanic plateau that is home to national parks and now-chic villages complete with galleries, cafés and craft studios. Tour a glowworm grotto and a local winery. Enjoy free time to explore the shops, studios and galleries. Then cruise along Queensland's fabled Gold Coast ? Australia's vacation capital. WHAT YOU VISIT

Mount Tamborine - Lying inland from the fabled Gold Coast, this volcanic plateau is home to national parkland, rainforests and groves of macadamia nut, kiwi fruit and avocado. Your trip includes a guided walk through a private Glow Worm Cave and wine tasting at a local winery, as well as a tour of the area's thriving arts, antiques and crafts scene.

 

Gold Coast - Every year, more than five million visitors flock to this stretch of dazzling beachfront south of Brisbane. Board your boat for an approximately two hour canal cruise passing the spectacular homes, resort hotels, a casino, beaches and the skyline of the famous beach Surfers' Paradise.

 

LUNCH

A charming winery restaurant overlooking a lake alive with native birdlife is the setting for a hearty lunch.

 

SHOPPING

Browse for art, antiques, crafts and souvenirs at one of the local communities in the Mount Tamborine area.

 

WHAT YOU SEE ALONG THE WAY

From Brisbane, drive south to the Gold Coast heading towards the impresive skyline of Surfers Paradise. After your sojourn there; journey inland to the Mount Tamborine volcanic plateau. On your return descend the mountain and enjoy views of the coastline and beyond.

Crocodiles, Critters & The Sunshine Coast

Visit Australia Zoo - the home of the late Steve Irwin - Australia's legendary ?Crocodile Hunter.? Enjoy free time in the seaside town of Mooloolaba enjoy the beach, boutiques & cafes of the area. A favorite Australian holiday destination. WHAT YOU VISIT

Australia Zoo - With over one thousand native and exotic animals, an army of Wildlife Warriors, and an amazingly adventurous Irwin family, there is never a dull moment at Australia Zoo. Set over sixty acres, Australia Zoo is a tropical oasis amid beautiful natural bush land on Queensland's Sunshine Coast. The newly created Tiger Temple boasts the southern hemisphere's only underwater viewing of tigers and cheetahs.

 

Mooloolaba - Your drive along the Sunshine Coast includes a stop at this seaside resort - one of Australia's favorite holiday destinations. Blessed with a heady mix of ocean beaches, riverfront and a variety of restaurants, Mooloolaba is a popular, central Sunshine Coast resort town and the finishing point for blue-water sailing races from both Sydney and Auckland.

 

LUNCH ON YOUR OWN

Browse the stylish boutiques; visit a local café; enjoy an ice cream cone or stroll along the seaside boardwalk.

 

WHAT YOU SEE ALONG THE WAY

Board your air-conditioned motorcoach and drive north from Brisbane, taking in views of the volcanic, craggy peaks that are the Glasshouse Mountains, before reaching Beewah, home of Australia Zoo. The mountains - of major cultural importance to the Kabi Aborigines - were named by Captain Cook, who thought they resembled the glass foundries of Yorkshire, England. After a guided visit to Australia Zoo, continue on to Mooloolaba for some free time to enjoy this Sunshine Coast resort town.

 

Lamington National Park & Winery Tour

Drive to Lamington National Park on the Tamborine Plateau. Visit O'Reilly's Guesthouse, an internationally renowned eco-lodge where you can hand-feed King parrots and Crimson rosellas. Take a guided tree-top walk through the rain forest and tour Canungra Valley Vineyards, one of Queensland's premium wineries. WHAT YOU VISIT

O'Reilly's Guesthouse - Located in the heart of World Heritage Lamington National Park, O'Reilly's is high in the Hinterland between Brisbane and the Gold Coast. During your visit, hand feed king parrots and crimson rosellas. A resort guide leads an interpretive treetop walk through the rain forest of Lamington National Park, the home of a vast array of unique flora and fauna.

 

Canungra Valley Vineyards - Visit the family owned and operated winery and learn about Queensland wines and sample the local vintages.

 

LUNCH

A traditional Australian lunch is served during your visit to O' Reilly's Guesthouse.

 

WHAT YOU SEE ALONG THE WAY

Board your air-conditioned motorcoach and travel south from Brisbane. Drive up the Canungra Valley to Lamington National Park. Your route travels through the valley's dry eucalyptus forest and ascends the mountains' crests before descending into the park's subtropical rain forest.

Brisbane City Sights & Lone Pine Koala Sanctuary

Visit Australia's oldest and largest koala sanctuary. Then take in the city sights on a sightseeing cruise along the Brisbane River. Travel through the heart of Brisbane, passing the South Bank Parklands. Developed for the 1988 World's Fair, the South Bank is home to the Queensland Cultural Center and to the city's liveliest scene. WHAT YOU VISIT

Lone Pine Koala Sanctuary - The world's first and largest koala sanctuary with over 130 koalas. Hand feed kangaroos and emus, and see wombats, echidnas, wallabies, dingoes and Australian native birdlife during your visit all in a beautiful, natural setting.

 

PHOTO OPPORTUNITY

Kangaroo Point - Take in stunning views of the city skyline from these cliffs above the Brisbane River.

 

WHAT YOU SEE ALONG THE WAY

Board your air-conditioned motorcoach and drive to Lone Pine Kolala Sanctuary. For the return trip, board a boat for a river cruise traveling back to North Quay to meet the motorcoach. Travel past South Bank - site of the 1988 International Exposition - to view the Queensland Cultural Centre, home to the Queensland Art Gallery, Museum, and Performing Arts complex, the Queensland University. Then head to the imposing sandstone Parliament House, built in 1868, and the old Customs House and Treasury - now a casino.

[bobsydney]

AWorldCruise4Me, I think the descriptions summarise the tours pretty well, and I can't add much more to what they say ... it really depends on what your preferences are (which are different to mine). If you have any specific questions about any of the tour elements, more than happy to try and answer them from local knowledge.

 

Cheers

Bob

[AWorldCruise4Me]

Thanks Bob,

 

These all have elements that sound interesting. That's why I thought I'd get some input from folks who had taken them. You know how it is with ship tours, sometimes they sound good but in actuality they are a big yawn or conversely they are sometimes unexpectedly fabulous but you wouldn't know it from the description.

 

I appreciate your taking the time!

 

Michelle

[newfarmers]

Hi Michelle

 

What ship are you arriving on? Also when?

 

Some ships are able to make it under the Gateway and dock at the new passenger terminal (Oriana, Arcadia, Aurora, all the HAL ships that have visited), but others (Diamond Princess size, QV, QM2) can't make it under and dock out at the container wharves at the river mouth. Everyone moans and groans about how terrible it is but we docked in commercial docks all over Europe and we couldn't have cared less. Only problem with them is they are a LONGGGGGG way from the city and there is nothing around them that you can walk to etc.

 

Back to the excursions.

 

As Bob has said depends on what you like doing. We live in Brisbane, my parents and sister down on the Gold Coast and my brother and his family all live up on Tamborine (still the Gold Coast region but up in the hinterland).

 

If you don't want to spend hours on a bus then maybe the Brisbane tour. The cruise back down to the city from Lone Pine is nice, Lone Pine is a bit of a Brisbane institution (as in been around for ever) but you can get close and personal to animals. Brisbane has a great cultural hub with South Bank, the Museum, Art Gallery and Gallery of Modern Art all in a row along the river.

 

Tamborine tour would be nice, always much cooler up in the Gold Coast hinterland than down on the coast. My pick would be O'Reilly's trip as we love it up there.

 

The Sunshine Coast tour would be good as well. Mooloolaba is a lovely coastal town, Australia Zoo would be good if you're a Steve Irwin fan.

 

They'd all be fun, lovely part of the world if I do say say so myself!:);)

[Bob&Janet]

Hi Michelle

 

What ship are you arriving on? Also when? Some ships are able to make it under the Gateway and dock at the new passenger terminal (Oriana, Arcadia, Aurora, all the HAL ships that have visited), but others (Diamond Princess size, QV, QM2) can't make it under and dock out at the container wharves at the river mouth. Everyone moans and groans about how terrible it is but we docked in commercial docks all over Europe and we couldn't have cared less. Only problem with them is they are a LONGGGGGG way from the city and there is nothing around them that you can walk to etc.

 

Michelle is doing a world cruise on the Tahitian Princess, which will be in Brisbane on 21 Feb. Ordinarily, I would say TP will dock at Portside as it is only a small ship (around 30,000 tonnes and less than 700 pax) BUT Pacific Sun is also in port that day so I'm not sure where TP will dock.

 

Cheers

Bob

[AWorldCruise4Me]

Newfarmer, thanks for the descriptions. Based on what you said I'm leaning toward the Lamington National Park & Winery Tour (this is the one you would choose, correct?). I like the walking in that one. Do you think this one would have the most exercise? How long do you think the drive will be? I'm not really interested in the wine tour though.

 

For the Steve Irwin option, I'm not really familiar with his show as I never saw it. I got the impression that he was all about dominate the animals and I'd rather just let them be, so maybe I wouldn't enjoy that one. Please feel free to correct me if I'm wrong.

 

Thanks to you both for your help!

 

Michelle

[newfarmers]

Hi Michelle

 

Yep, I'd go for the Lamington trip.

 

Interesting point Bob. They didn't quite get Portside right. Shame really. So you could somehow share Portside with Pacific Sun. I'll look up Port Of Bris port sched and see if I can see where you'll dock.

 

Time wise to Lamington would be same from both as you'd most likely head through the city to go south from Portside but might go over the Gateway bridge. From the container wharves you just head south (ish).

 

I'm thinking it would take close to two hours to get to O'Reilly's. It's a long and windy road up from Canungra and if you drove straight to Canungra from Portside it would take maybe 75/80 minutes and then 30 mins up to the Lamington plateau. Winery will be Canungra I'm guessing. If you're not intersted in wine head down to the creek where they have some wild platypus. We've never seen them but my sister in law has.

 

 

pete

[Kiwi Kruzer]

I'll look up Port Of Bris port sched and see if I can see where you'll dock.pete

 

Looks like Pacific Sun will be at Portside (the cruise terminal)and Tahitian will be stuck out at FI (Fishermans Island Container Depot).

Shame they cant both be at or near Portside.

 

Pacific Sun 21 February 2009 0600hrs

21 February 2009 1400hrs Portside

Tahitian Princess 21 February 2009 0800hrs

21 February 2009 1800hrs FI Grain

 

http://www.portbris.com.au/files/PDF/Cruise%20Liner%20Schedule%20-%202009.pdf

[AWorldCruise4Me]

Ooh, I would love to see some platypus. I cut that out and put it in my spreadsheet.

 

The other two items I have in my notes for Brisbane are the hop-on/hop-off bus and the walking tours offered by the city. Given that the bus ride for the ships tour is two hours would you suggest one of these?

 

I'm not sure how to find out the walking tour schedule for the day we will be there, Sat. Feb. 21st 2009. I could not find a web site on it. Here is the description of the walking tours from the Frommers web site:

Walking Tours -- The Brisbane City Council has a wonderful program called Gonewalking (tel. 07/3403 8888). About 80 free guided walks are run each week from somewhere in the city or suburbs, exploring all kinds of territory, from bushland to heritage buildings to riverscapes to cemeteries. The walks are aimed at locals, not tourists, so you get to explore Brisbane side by side with the townsfolk. Every walk has a flexible distance option and usually lasts about an hour. Most are easy, but some are more demanding. Most start and finish near public transport and end near a food outlet.

 

What is your opinion of the sites that can be seen with the hop-on/hop-off bus?

 

I'm so embarrassed. I just noticed that I spelled the city wrong in my original post. I apologize to everyone!

 

Thanks again for the help.

Michelle

[newfarmers]

Ooh, I would love to see some platypus. I cut that out and put it in my spreadsheet.

 

The other two items I have in my notes for Brisbane are the hop-on/hop-off bus and the walking tours offered by the city. Given that the bus ride for the ships tour is two hours would you suggest one of these?

 

I'm not sure how to find out the walking tour schedule for the day we will be there, Sat. Feb. 21st 2009. I could not find a web site on it. Here is the description of the walking tours from the Frommers web site:

Walking Tours -- The Brisbane City Council has a wonderful program called Gonewalking (tel. 07/3403 8888). About 80 free guided walks are run each week from somewhere in the city or suburbs, exploring all kinds of territory, from bushland to heritage buildings to riverscapes to cemeteries. The walks are aimed at locals, not tourists, so you get to explore Brisbane side by side with the townsfolk. Every walk has a flexible distance option and usually lasts about an hour. Most are easy, but some are more demanding. Most start and finish near public transport and end near a food outlet.

 

What is your opinion of the sites that can be seen with the hop-on/hop-off bus?

 

I'm so embarrassed. I just noticed that I spelled the city wrong in my original post. I apologize to everyone!

 

Thanks again for the help.

Michelle

 

don't worry about the spelling michelle, brisband is way better than quantas

 

the hop on hop off is the city sights bus. bit different to the double deckers that do most cities. only saw the new bus they're using last week.

 

I've never actually done it. I'll have a look at the route but think it does Kangaroo Point cliffs - nice view of the city from just across the river, Mt Cootha nice view of the city from much higher, through South Bank, and the roads in between. Used to cost $14, so that's about 5 cents for anyone visting from o/s (just kidding) but less than $10 us/canadian.

 

never heard of the walking tours. like the line that they are aimed at locals. I'll ask at work next week and see if anyone else has heard of them, anyone done one.

 

we've got the family here for christmas. dinner for ten last night that meant five hours in the kitchen. was exhausted by the time I sat down to eat. time to shut this thing down

 

merry christmas all

 

pete

[AWorldCruise4Me]

Pete,

 

Thanks for offering to check out the walking tours. It's going to be tough to get enough exercise on this cruise so getting in some good exercise in port will be important.

 

My typos have gone up substantially since I have recently gotten a netbook (very small computer) and am switching back and forth between it and my desktop keyboard. Surprisingly the normal one seems to now be too big instead of the new one being too small.

 

Merry Christmas!

Michelle

[newfarmers]

Pete,

 

Thanks for offering to check out the walking tours. It's going to be tough to get enough exercise on this cruise so getting in some good exercise in port will be important.

 

My typos have gone up substantially since I have recently gotten a netbook (very small computer) and am switching back and forth between it and my desktop keyboard. Surprisingly the normal one seems to now be too big instead of the new one being too small.

 

Merry Christmas!

Michelle

 

hi Michelle

last year we travelled with our Dell laptop. Weighs way too much and is such a drag to lug around. We decided we needed something that could literally fit in a small knapsack and bought an Acer Aspire One a couple of months ago. Keyboard is just as big as the Dell and even same size hard drive. Gee I love technology.

hope you had a great christmas

pete

[newfarmers]

hi Michelle

 

here are some links to have a look through. Not much luck with the walks with local guides though

 

have a look and ask away

 

pete

 

city sights info -

 

http://www.citysights.com.au/home/inner.asp?pageid=37

 

walk info

 

http://www.ourbrisbane.com/lifestyle/health-sport-and-fitness/1455708.medium-fast-health-and-fitness-walk

 

more walk info

 

http://www.brisbane.qld.gov.au/BCC:STANDARD::pc=PC_2015

 

walk info specific to 21/02/09

 

http://www.ourbrisbane.com/lifestyle/events/search-results?daterange=0&date%5B0%5D%5Bvalue%5D=21-02-2009&date%5B0%5D%5Bvalue2%5D=21-02-2009&date%5B0%5D%5Bvalue_jscalendar%5D%5BifFormat%5D=%25d-%25m-%25Y&date%5B0%5D%5Bvalue_jscalendar%5D%5BshowsTime%5D=false&date%5B0%5D%5Bvalue2_jscalendar%5D%5BifFormat%5D=%25d-%25m-%25Y&date%5B0%5D%5Bvalue2_jscalendar%5D%5BshowsTime%5D=false&keywords=&place=&op=Search&form_build_id=678f0639e812831c2cf94db31be2b70f&form_id=ob_event_lifestyle_search_form

[AWorldCruise4Me]

Thanks! You have been extremely helpful. I really appreciate it. I am reviewing all the info in the links.

 

Cheers!

Michelle

[SunnyCoastCruiser]

Hi Michelle and newfarmers (you live in New Farm, right?)

We lived in Brisbane all our lives until last year when we moved to the Sunshine Coast - down the road from Australia Zoo. I totally agree with everything newfarmers has mentioned and just wanted to add that I participated in quite a few activities run by the Brisbane City Council and they were always well organised and fun. If you're looking for exercise, there's probably enough to do in Brisbane and you can walk around the city centre to access many of the points of interest.

[newfarmers]

we were new farmers until 11 months ago, hence the name. I'd lived there for nearly 14 years with a break in Balmoral of a couple of years. wanted a house and didn't want to pay close to seven figures for a renovator's delight so moved five minutes away to herston. maybe we need to change to herstonians:D best thing we ever did tho I still miss the convenience of 'the farm'. it literally had everything and herston is a bit barren in that respect