Hey! I'm trying to decide between a couple of tours, and the main deciding factor seems to be the rainforest option. So I'm trying to decide between Reefs and Rainforests and Beaches and Reefs, but also possibly Aussie Explorer. I noticed that Aussie Explorer is basically Beaches and Reefs plus the 10 days in Central and North Central Australia. This seems like a good option, because I was considering seeing these places. However, it doesn't include the rainforests north of Cairns. I'm wondering if seeing the rainforests, for example, in Reefs and Rainforests, is a big highlight for people, or if you could take it or leave it kind of thing? Any insight into these tours and "must sees" would be awesome! Thank you!

If I were you, I would do the Aussie Explorer tour. With that tour, I think you get 2-3 full days in Cairns. One day should be for the Great Barrier Reef, and the other day you can see the rainforest.
For me, one full day was more than enough to see the rainforest, and we went to Mossman Gorge, Cape Tribulation and Daintree. The only disappointment was spending 5 minutes in Port Douglas, but the rest of the tour was very good.

This website shows the offered day tours:
http://www.great-barrier-reef....ainforest-tours.html

The "must sees" were those rainforest sites I listed above. I think you would see enough of Tropical North Queensland (TNQ) on the Aussie Explorer tour without missing anything - plus you get the added bonus of seeing the Outback!

Okay, awesome! Thanks for the quick response! I couldn't gather from your response whether or not you went to the Outback or not? I'm wondering if 10 or so days in the Outback and Darwin area like on the Aussie Explorer tour is too much? Or if it'd be worth the extra 10 days.

I don't think there is ever "too much" time to spend in Australia. With Contiki, I did the Bridge to Reef, which was Sydney, Whitsundays, and Cairns. I joined up the Aussie Explorer tour about a week into its trip. I would have done the entire tour if not for the $.

I went to Alice Springs for 3 days on my own after the tour and had a great time. It is such a unique landscape and setting. Just don't go to the Outback in order to see Uluru. I'm sure it's nice, but there are many more fun and less touristy things to do in the Northern Territory.

I guess I should clarify. I didn't mean to say that it was "too much" time to spend in Australia, I meant if it was a good way to spend that 10 days. I only have so much time available to travel Australia/New Zealand before I begin University in Gold Coast on Exchange, and I want to make the most of it, time-wise. Thanks for the advice, I'm thinking its a good idea now to do the Aussie Explorer, as I wanted to see more than just the East coast.

I guess I'm wondering if its worth it to spend that 10+ days in Central and North Central Australia, or to do something else, say, something to the west or south, or even Tasmania. There's just so many options! Insights, anyone?

Hey Jessy,
I did the beachs and reefs tour in Febuary from Sydney to Cairns and ended up adding the rain forest trip on. I enjoyed it as we had a smaller group. Cape Tribulation is very different from the other parts of Oz that we visited and was a relaxed way to finish our tour. If you like the idea of being in the middle of a rain forest with nothing but a bug screen seperating you from nature then I'd recommend it. I think we may have had our acommedation upgraded?. We saw lots of big spiders and a snake... lots of big croc's on the Daintree river. There were only 2 options on our tour 1)tree surfing $50? (which was great) 2)wildlife cruise on the Daintree river $25. For me it was a nice way to finish my tour.
I hope this helps -Reuben

Hi Jessy,
I live in Australia and as you can probably tell it is a large country. You could spend a year here and there would still be places you hadn't seen. Any tour would be good, but the Aussie explorer would allow u too see a different aspect of Australia, the outback is very differnt to the coast. When you say u are doing an exchange at a uni on the gold coast do u mean the australian gold coast?? because if that is the case, u will have opportunities to see around during holidays and breaks. I'm sure if you went to victoria, western australia, south australia or tasmania you would get lots of different expereince, but obvioulsy with a short time you cant do it all. maybe decide what you like to do and see which places suit that and pick that way.

Thanks Reuben and Patchie for the advice. I actually decided to go with the Aussie Explorer before University starts... yeah, the Australian Gold Coast, I'm going to Griffith University I'm definitely going to take time during my mid-term break to go somewhere that Aussie Explorer doesn't go. I'm only there for a term, so I don't have a ton of time during uni, but I'm definitely going to make the most of it