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February 2, 2015

CARCAR
in Grand Australia and New Zealand
My husband and I are traveling on the 20 day Australia/New Zealand Tour on February 2, 2015. I thought it would be nice to start an 11 month discussion to meet some other wonderful travelers on that tour. I enjoy reading all the excellent topics that have been published about this trip. We traveled on Tauck previously (Italy and the Canadian Rockies) and are very excited about this trip. We will be coming from Westchester County, New York. Carole

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    Sue MSue M
    Hi Carole…My husband and I live in Rockland County..not far from you. We will be taking the same tour a week later on Feb. 9th. We too have traveled with Tauck before. We will be taking their Best of the Canadian Rockies tour in June.
    Getting back to the Australia/NZ trip, how are you arranging your air?
    Sue
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    rogfamrogfam
    We are on the Jan 22 trip. Also have traveled with Tauck before and have been very pleased. Live on LI and also interested in the air arrangements. Spoke with Tauck and if we go through them without any stop overs it would be appox. $3600 pp economy (they use Qantas).
    Glenn
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    SalmcgSalmcg
    We are also on the January 22nd trip. Waiting to get airlines prices from Tauck. We will be leaving from either Miami or West Palm Beach. It all depends on the flight times. We are going a few days early so we can adjust to the time.
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    Sue MSue M
    Hi Glenn-
    With the crazy winter we had this year with so many flight cancellations in the northeast, we are planning to fly to LA a day or two before the flight to Melbourne. We want to make sure we are definitely in LA in time for the international flight. I believe that if you book with Tauck from NY and want a layover in LA, there is a fee of about $200 per person. Because of that, we will most likely book our own flight to LA, stay overnight at a hotel near the airport and then continue on (with the international flight booked with Tauck). On the way home, however, we are going to see if Tauck can arrange the flight from Auckland back to NY.
    Sue
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    crackers54crackers54
    I did this trip in 2012 and highly recommend purchasing extra leg room if you can. The room in economy is inhuman on that long of a flight and to top it off Quantas restricts moving around the cabin. They pull the curtains shut after providing the meal and turn the lights down low. You have very little space to stretch your legs.

    This trip was great. If you have time before the trip I recommend taking he Great Ocean Road tour. It was well worth the long day to see. I did it the day after arrival and had no issue.
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    Sue MSue M
    Thanks for the advice about purchasing the extra leg room. I know Qantas offers premium economy, which is much more expensive than economy- a few thousand dollars more per ticket. I guess that is what you are referring to when you say we should go for the extra leg room. I was wondering if the extra leg room is worth paying that much more per ticket. Sounds like it might be.
    I did make note of the Great Ocean Road Tour. What is that tour? We will be arriving in Melbourne two days before the Tauck tour begins so we will have time to do some sightseeing on our own. I assume that the Great Ocean Roads Tour does not duplicate what Tauck does in Melbourne once their tour starts.
    And once again, thank you for taking the time to help those of us who have yet to take this amazing trip.
    Sue
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    Sue MSue M
    One more question about legroom….You said Qantas restricts movement around the cabin. If you are in economy, can you walk up and down the aisles within your section to stretch your legs?
    The premium economy seats are in a small section of the upper level of the plane. I know we would have more leg room, but in that section, there would hardly be any place to "walk" a bit. Can you go down to the lower level to move around a bit if you are in premium economy?
    There are so many things to think about when booking air for such a long flight. Thanks!
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    BritishBritish
    We did Premium Economy when we did the Australia tour and it was a pretty good compromise, same food and wine as Business class and quite a bit more width and leg room. We arrived two or maybe three days early because we figured that getting over jet lag in that time was probably more important to us than extra leg room on the flight because you are going to have jetlag even if you fly first class. So for us it was much, much cheaper to pay for extra nights in a good hotel than pay thousands for Business class. We were certainly in better shape than some people who arrived by business class just the day before. We are finding that this has been true of other big time change trips since, so if we possibly can, we have an "arrive two days early" rule. This way we can hope to afford two Tauck trips a year instead of one.
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    CARCAR
    I know that in the coming two weeks we can book the flights. I am having a travel agent look at the options. We are most likely going to spend the money for premium economy and will get there at least one day early. We will explore going to LA early as this winter was really on our mind. What is the Great Ocean Road tour?
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    jdurkinjdurkin
    edited March 2014
    Go here : http://www.visitgreatoceanroad.org.au to learn about the area. It is one of the great coastal drives of the world. Yes, really.

    Cheers,

    Jan

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