Luxury Australia Vacation Packages

"From the beginning, Zicasso's travel agent was very responsive, and helped us think through an itinerary that worked well for us."

This was by far the best travel company I have ever worked with! Their attention to detail, prompt return on emails, and warm and kind presence throughout the entire process were impeccable and greatly appreciated.

For example, when our flight was a little delayed in Sydney, our Zicasso agent was on top of it, let our driver know, and arranged that our sunset sail trip in Sydney Harbour be an hour later. She checked in during our trip to make sure it was going smoothly and celebrated with us when something magical happened, such as swimming with turtles in the Great Barrier Reef.

Australia is such a huge country and we only had two weeks of travel time. I was initially overwhelmed trying to contemplate how to spend our time. Our agents helped me prioritize what would be most meaningful for our family and worked with me closely, designing a balanced agenda with some truly amazing activities. We also were extremely happy with all the accommodations they recommended.

"It was a great trip.The organization by our travel agent was impeccable."

"Without a doubt, all the hotels, ground transport, and tours went without a hitch for the 20 day holiday. It really was the trip of a lifetime with little effort on our part."

Our trip included three couples from Massachusetts. We worked with Zicasso's travel agency to customize a trip to Australia. In general, the trip was excellent. Most of the travel logistics were perfect. All transfers were on time. All of the guides were on time, passionate about Australia, and were very good to excellent. All the hotels were also very good to excellent. The travel app was very helpful for keeping us updated on trip logistics. Most logistics worked out well. Most of the tours arranged were excellent. The fly nets the agency provided were a godsend in Uluru. Seeing Australia's unique wildlife, snorkeling in the Great Barrier Reef, going to a footy game, walking around cities, meeting indigenous guides, and simply being in Australia is an experience we will never forget. The Great Ocean Road excursion in Melbourne was beautiful, but eight hours in a tour bus was very long. The geographic size of Australia is something visitors have to deal with.

I would have rated the trip five stars except for the following minor issues. We arranged travel between the US and Australia ourselves (not using the agency), which, in hindsight, was a mistake. Therefore, most of the travel headaches we experienced are not included in this review. The one miss they should have caught was informing us that a New Zealand ETA is needed for transiting through Auckland, New Zealand (even though we did not clear New Zealand customs). We were able to apply and get the ETA at the Houston airport just before boarding the plane, but the stress could easily have been avoided had we realized we needed this document before the trip began.

The instructions for where to meet for the backstage tour of the Sydney Opera House were a little off. We were told to meet the tour at 6.45am, downstairs by the information booth. This turned out to be the meeting place for the outside tour. By 6.55am, fighting jetlag and the early hour, we figured the meeting place for the backstage tour was upstairs and, luckily, we made it in time for our 7am tour, which was excellent.

The selection of wineries we visited in Adelaide wasn't ideal. Several did not ship their products to the US, which meant, for practical reasons, we could only purchase a bottle or two. Ideally, we should only visit wineries that ship wine to the States.

Communicating with the agency during the trip was more challenging than we expected. For some reason, we didn't always get their emails or text messages. It wasn't clear how often they checked up on us during our journey. Last year, we arranged a similar trip to Greece and the company we worked with provided us with a mobile phone for the duration of the trip to facilitate communications. They regularly called us to see how the trip was going. In our opinion, this capability and handholding would improve the service this agency provides.

Overall, it was a very pleasant and enjoyable trip. Thanks to the great travel itinerary built by Zicasso’s tour operator, we experienced the best of the best in Australia. We loved the experiences in all three cities, Melbourne, Cairns, Sydney! We really appreciated the detailed arrangements, with impeccable care, experiences, and thoughts.