customized tours
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Custom tours - choose your own length, style and activities

family seeing wildlife

Half-day, one-day, overnight to a week or more with fully personalised itineraries See examples
Mostly starting from Brisbane, and usually for four to ten participants.
With sufficient advance notice for four or more  (or surcharge) can start from other venues.

Please note: we need at least one month, preferably more, to plan for most custom tours, especially overnight ones

What would you like on your holiday or study tour?

(You may like to copy and paste the following into an email, adding your own comments)

    • one of our regular tours but with some additions/modifications? e.g. 3-day wildlife tour plus a day of snorkelling or whale-watching and visiting an Aboriginal museum, an extended outback tour, or a bird-watching day-tour staying at Lamington National Park instead of returning to Brisbane
    • a totally different itinerary? If so, where to? (not everything is possible, but many things are)
    • special interests? birdwatching? other wildlife-viewing? geology? Aboriginal culture? environmental issues?
    • visits to zoos or or wildlife parks as well as seeking animals in the wild? ( although wild is usually most satisfying,  if you are on a tight schedule and very keen to see a platypus, koala, lungfish or other particular species, or interested in  rare, cryptic or threatened wildlife, then viewing them in good captive settings may \be the best way to guarantee certain species in a short time)
    • active hiking? gentle walks? rock-climbing? horse-riding? canoeing? snorkelling? whale-watching? just chilling out ...?
    • luxury accommodation? budget or mid-range accommodation? dormitory? camping? close to forest/beach/walks/shops ...?
    • staying in a secluded area, away from the crowds? or in an area with other couples or families?
    • visiting particular places (Australia Zoo, Lamington National Park,   ...)?
    • farm-stay? wining and dining? art? interesting souvenirs? theme parks?
    • what kind of habitats? forest? beach? outback?
    • natural settings for the whole tour or combine wild experience with city, theme park etc?
    • other...?
Please also let us know if you would like:
  • a totally personalised tour with no other guests joining your tour (this could add to the cost)
  • other adults okay but no children
  • shared facilities (e.g. in a 2-bedroom cabin with shared bath) or private (single or double) - this may also increase costs
  • 'normal' hours (rise well after dawn, breakfast before activities, lengthy night-time meal) or if you prefer to vary mealtimes etc. to maximise searches for animals (early morning  bird searches, brief evening meal allowing time for longer nocturnal searches). We still see animals both ways, but generally see more by adjusting to their schedules
  • starting and/or ending somewhere other than Brisbane (this would also add to the cost)
  • whether you require a larger vehicle for your group (our usual vehicle is a 12-seater, but some groups  like to spread out a bit), or  (if going to remote areas away from sealed roads)  you mind sitting sideways in a 4WD vehicle while getting there (it's really not such a bad ride). We can  hire different vehicles at added cost


Some tours we do on a semi-regular basis, but "on demand", with sufficient notice

  • Bunya Mountains tour, visiting tall, ancient-feeling, bunya forests in the mountains northwest of Brisbane
  • Girraween tour - a little way to the west from our usual tours, to experience a different habitat, different birds, and lots of kangaroos, with dramatic granite boulder scenery
  • Whale-watching - we can add an extra day (during the winter months and early spring) to our regular three-day wildlife tour, to join Spirit of the Gold Coast whale-watching, including a night on the Gold Coast - again with sufficient notic.  We can also combine this with a visit to an Aboriginal museum (owned and run by indigenous people)
  • Our Coochiemudlo Island tour can be extended to an overnight experience (with beautiful sunsets)
  • A birdwatching day-tour when instead of bringing you back to Brisbane we leave you at O'Reilly's or Binna Burra to spend another day or more enjoying the rainforests
abseil
horse-riding at Cedar Glen, Scenic Rim
Customised tours can take a bit of planning, so the earlier you contact us the better.
NOTE: the true outback takes about a day to reach, so a one-day or two-day outback visit is not  possible.

Remember to tell us your special needs and interests





Sample of past customised tours (also see conference tours)

Birdwatching half-day activity for a group of home-school primary-aged children
  • Guessing game designed to aid memory of a number of local birds (associating names with pictures)
  • Discussion of some interesting behaviour of selected local birds, sometimes involving miming the behaviours
  • Calls of local birds, with children (enthusiastically!) repeating these calls
  • A gentle walk with children and their parents to look for waterbirds and bushbirds


Various customised birdwatching tours

  • overnight tours to rainforests, wetlands, coasts and elsewhere

Brisbane to Sydney, with rainforests, canoeing, horse-riding, beaches and wildlife: for a group of scuba divers from Poland
 
customized tour for Polish group
 
customized tour Brisbane to Sydney


Rainforests, coastal heaths and Indigenous museum: group of travelers from USA
 
palmlily in rainforest Woolli Indigenous Museum 


Agriculture and rainforest: for a group of farmers from Kansas USA

 walking in Bunya Muntains  dinner in Toowoomba  kangaroos near Dalby  harvesters

Aboriginal culture and wildlife: for a group of cultural ecology students from San Francisco (the Aboriginal people involved in this are unfortunately no longer there, but the property still belongs to Indigenous people of the same language group, and something may be possible in the future)

Aboriginal camp

Wildlife, Aboriginal culture, horse-riding, 4WD, canoeing and whales: for a family from Taiwan

Mt Barney Aboriginal property boomerang condamine gorge canoeing at Tweed Heads riding in the Tweed Valley whale-watching at the Tweed

Post-conference tour for the Intecol conference (International Ecology)

Intecol group in the rainforest  Intecol group at Fingal Intecol group birdwatching Intecol group at lunch
Pre-conference tour for International Symposium/Workshop on Frugivores and Seed Dispersal: rainforest, glow worms and fruitbats
Cedar Creek theatre flight of the fruitbats Frugivory symposium

Post-conference tour for International Symposium/Workshop on Frugivores and Seed Dispersal:

Border Ranges NP watching dolphins watching wild kangaroos

Ten-day tour with horse-riding, kayaking and variety of habitats

horse-riding at Tamborine Mountain Walking at Girraween

Four day tour with two nights by beach plus rainforest and other habitats and two wildlife parks

Fingal Currumbin





We have also run: activities for children at our wildlife Ecology Centre over Easter weekend, day tours or longer tours which combine elements of several of our standard tours, talks to  various groups, workshops etc.




(also see conference tours)