Has anyone taken the Globus Australia and New Zealand Tours

[patpod]

My husband and I are looking at tours to Australia and New Zealand and are looking at both Globus and Trafalger. Has anyone out there taken the tour with either company?

We used Globus for a glorious trip to Central Europe several years ago and loved the service, hotels, etc.

Any help is appreciated. Thanks in advance!!!

[colbourne]

My husband and I took the Globus tour "The Complete South Pacific Experience" 30 days from Nov.5 to Dec. 3,2005. I notice that the tour has changed somewhat this year. We flew into Fiji for 2 days, then on to Australia, Tasmania , New Zealand and final two days in Tahiti. It was a truly fantastic holiday. There is a lot of time in airports as this trip requires a lot of flying time. We didn't mind it as it was time to wind down, etc.
Our tour director, Karen, was absolutely wonderful. Our hotels were centrally located and very , very nice. This had been our 4th Globus tour and we would not go any other way. It may cost a bit more than other tours but the service and care given is well worth it. Since then we did Britain, Scotland and Wales in June and now have a back to back tour "Classic China" and "Discover Japan" booked for April 17 to May 6. Of course we are going Globus. If you have any questions, I will be only two glad to help.

[patpod]

Thank you so much for your reply. We have booked the Down Under Tour (with Fiji and Hawaii) beginning on the 25th of January and are really looking forward to it. This will be our second tour with Globus and hope that it is as great as our last tour (Central Europe). .

We found in our searching that dollar for dollar, Globus provided us with what looks to be a tour that includes almost everywhere we wanted to go and then some. I will definitely report back when we return.

Enjoy your next Trip!!!

[Sue G]

Hi Patpod - If you are still out there I have a question for you. Did you enjoy the "Down Under" tour? My husband & I are doing the inb October - with Fiji extension.

Was Qantas strict about luggage weights? Their website indicates 44lbs in NZ.

Thanks,
Sue

[patpod]

Hi Sue,
We were very pleased with the Down Under Discovery trip. As for the luggage weights . .. .. . I believe that the weight limit is 44 kg, which is more than 44 lbs. We had two suitcases, each a little over 50 lbs., and all they did was put a heavy tag on them. We had to purchase a 3rd suitcase in Australia to hold all of the goodies that we brought back . .. .. . books, etc. As we had three days with three pieces of luggage, we had to pay Globus a little bit extra, but it wasn't much.
You will thoroughly enjoy Fiji. The people are so nice and the facility is great (it even has free laundry facilities, which we used). .
Please let me know if you have any other questions.

Pat

[Sue G]

Thanks for your quick reply, Pat.

I was a bit concerned about the luggage issue because Globus' brochure seemed to stress the fact that they absolutely would not take a second bag. I was also concerned about how strict Qantas might be regarding luggage weight. On our last trip, we saw several people in New York trying to take stuff out of one piece of luggage & transfer it to another in order to make the weight allowance.

Our Fiji extension is on the way to NZ. Looking forward to that! We wanted to arrive rested.

We have taken two previous tours where the clothes you put on in the morning are the clothes you wear to dinner that night because the day is too busy to change. Is that the case for this tour? If so, that is fine with me - less to pack!!

Are there any optionals that stand out in your mind? We usually take all of them!

Thanks again for your help.
Sue

[patpod]

Hi Sue,
We found that we had time to change for dinner each night . .. .. . but we really didn't need anything fancy in the way of attire . .. .. . I dressed up a little for the first night dinner, dinner at the tower in Sydney and our final dinner.
As for tours, I have found it depends on your tour director which tours are offered. We took quite a few of them as we knew that we would probably never be back there again. We did do the dinner with local families in both New Zealand and Australia and found that the New Zealand folks were much warmer and more interesting than our hosts in Australia. Neither of us like jet boats or anything like that, so we didn't opt for that in Queenstown. We did take the Lord of the Rings tour. In Australia we went to the Great Ocean Road, Blue Mountain, and several others (including a Camel ride at sunrise at Ayers Rock). .
If you are into jewelry, save some money for the Opals. They are reasonably priced and beautiful.
We took the add-on trip to Hawaii, too . .. .. . plus we spent several days on our own in San Francisco, so we were gone from home for 31 days. That's quite a bit of clothing to take. As we were in San Francisco in February, we needed to have some warmer clothing, so we layered as much as possible.
Again, please let me know if you need anything else!

Pat

[pachecos]

Was there any time to do laundry along the way on the tour?

[patpod]

Our tour director mentioned whether or not there were laundry facilities as we checked into each hotel. Sometimes even with laundry facilities, there wasn't much time to do anything. We did manage to get two loads of laundry done in Cairns . .. .. .

If you don't take all of the optional tours, you should have time to do laundry several times. We took most of the optional tours and only had a chance to do laundry once . .. .. . but it did hold us through. We just made sure we had lots of undies and also lots of interchangeable clothing . .. .. .

Let me know if you need anything else!

Pat

[pachecos]

Thanks for the laundry tips!!!

[pachecos]

For everyone that did a Fiji stay on the way - any recommendation of things to do / places to eat? How was the hotel?

[patpod]

Hotel was fairly new . .. .. . a real 5 star place. As our luggage went on to Auckland and we only had whatever clothing we were able to purchase there, we didn't wander far from the hotel. We took the tram around to the other resort hotels, which was nice.

We ate at the hotel exclusively. Breakfast was unbelievable. It was a buffet that had not only the normal 'American' breakfast items, but also Japanese and Fiji items. We usually ate about 9 or 9:30 and it kept us going until dinner. The only other buffet that I have ever had that has as many different fruits was when I was on a business trip in Tel Aviv.

There are two restaurants at the hotel. One is in the room where breakfast is served and the other is outside by the pool. There was another restaurant that wasn't open at the time. When we were there they were hurting for tourists.

We had the seafood buffet one night. It was good but quite expensive. The other two nights we ate at the restaurant at the pool, which was very good and reasonably priced.

We thoroughly enjoyed our time in Fiji and would like to visit again.

Again, let me know if you have any more questions!!!

Pat

[pachecos]

What happened to your luggage? I assume this was a mistake??

[patpod]

Yes . .. .. . it didn't get pulled off the plane . .. .. . so we wound up having to buy an outfit . .. .. . and some cosmetics . .. . but it arrived by the end of the second day . .. . that's when I took advantage of the free laundry room at the hotel . .. .. . it could have been worse . .. .. .

[Sue G]

Hi Pat,

I hope you are still out there!! We leave 10/16 for our trip & I have a couple of questions, if you don't mind.

1. MONEY - did you change any money before you left or did you just use ATMs when you arrived?

2. TIPPING - did you ever tip in US dollars?

3. WASH CLOTHS - I remember that in Europe the hotels did not supply wash cloths. Do we need to bring our own washcloths to Fiji, NZ or Australia?

4. PASSPORT/VISA - Did you carry your passport with you at all times. Did you use a money belt?

That's all of the questions I have so far. Thanks in advance for your help.

Sue

[Sue G]

Oops! I just thought of another question.

Did you call home? If so, what method did you use? Personal cellphone, calling card??


Thanks again,
Sue

[Sue G]

I just thought of another question. Did you ever call home & if so, what method did you use?? Calling card, personal cell phone?

Thanks again,
Sue

[patpod]

Hi Sue,
We tried to change money for Fiji at the LAX airport but no one had any . .. .. . so we waited until we got to Fiji and exchanged some there . .. .. . we tried one ATM but our card didn't seem to work there . .. .. . but the shops that we went to all took Visa and Master Card. The hotel is well equipped with a bank plus they accept Visa and Master Card . .. .. . at the hotel there, we didn't tip in US dollars . .. .. . but used the local currency.
Once we got to New Zealand and Australia, there were plenty of places in the airport to use your ATM cards . .. .. . and that's how we changed our money . .. .. . we took along about $750 US because when you tip the tour guides, they like to get US dollars . .. .. . when we ran short of small US bills, we did use the local currency to supplement.
You probably want to take along a few washcloths . .. .. . some hotels had them and others did not . .. .. .
We did keep our passports and visas with us part of the time . .. .. . when the hotel had an in-room safe, we kept large sums of money, jewelry and passports/visas in there. We didn't use a money belt . .. .. . my purse was one from TravelSmith that had a metal cord in the shoulder strap . .. .. . I wore the purse across my body and if anyone would have tried to cut the strap, they would have had a difficult time . .. .. . we saw a purse snatching in Italy done that way . .. .. . made me very cautious . .. .. . but I never felt like we had to worry about safety at all in all of our travels.
Have a wonderful trip and be sure to take lots of pictures . .. .. . the scenery is spectacular. Our tour guide put together a DVD that included pictures that she had taken of us on our trip plus some other photos that were taken at other times . .. .. . it is such a good remembrance of our trip . .. .. . drop me a note when you get home and let me know how you enjoyed it!

Pat

[patpod]

Hi Sue,
We didn't call home at all . .. . but used internet cafes to communicate with our sons . .. .. . some people had cell phones with them . .. .. . and used them successfully . .. .. . we had a cell phone that would work but with our internet access we didn't feel a need for it . .. .. . our cell phone was for someone at home to notify us in case of emergency.
One member of the group did buy calling cards . .. .. . and she had no problem using them.

Take care!
Pat

[Sue G]

Thanks, Pat. You have been very helpful!!

Hope we get the same tour guide as you had. Love the idea of the DVD!

Sue

[Sue G]

Hi again, Pat.. .. .. .

Our flight from LAX to Fiji is due to arrive in Fiji at 5:10 am (yes - AM !!). . I was wondering if that is when you arrived &, if so, were you able to check-in to the resort right away.

BTW - I am planning to pack our carry-on with an extra set of clothes & swimsuits in case our luggage goes on to Auckland like yours did. THE LAST THING I WANT TO DO IS SHOP FOR A SWIMSUIT!!!!!


Thanks again,
Sue[/b]

[patpod]

Hi Sue,
Yes we arrived early . .. . but didn't get to the hotel until after 8 due to the screw-up with our luggage . .. .. . but we were able to check in with no problems . .. .. . taking things with you is a good idea. My husband has several medical problems that meant we needed to have medications as our main carry-on . .. .. . but we did have clean underwear . .. .. . next time our carry-on will be larger.
Enjoy your trip!

Pat

[suebee]

For anyone taking the Fiji extension on the Aus/NZ trip. You should definitely plan on losing your luggage for a few days - then you won't be disappointed. It appears that it is becoming more of a problem. When I was there beginning of January 2008, my father's luggage was lost for the entire 3 days we were there. He didn't get it until night before we left for NZ. I was told there were at least 60 bags not accounted for at the NADI airport. Other people in the same hotel were also without luggage. And, as a final bonus, the local tour director was absolutely worthless at helping us find it. It was the hotel staff at Sofitel that was the most helpful. We spent a lot of our time on the whole issue. It was truly annoying. It didn't help that we had to take three different planes to get there. Thanks a lot American Airlines!

Suzanne

[patpod]

I'm so sorry that your father had delayed luggage. It is amazing how luggage that left LA and was supposed to be put in the bins for NADI winds up in New Zealand . .. .. .

Hope you enjoyed Fiji as much as we did!

Pat

[suebee]

Not really sure where the lugguage got diverted. It was checeked all the way through from Baltimore. It didn't go to New Zealand, though.