Our guide Matt was great and the tour was amazing. The sights were wonderful and we enjoyed the sanctuary. - Our guide Matt was amazing. He was very friendly and shared a lot of interesting facts about the area. The sites were amazing and the sanctuary was great.

Great Adventure! - What a great adventure! From start to finish this was a great way to spend a day outside of Melbourne. Our guide, Mark was wonderful. He shared information about the areas we were visiting and gave great tips to maximize our time at each experience. Healesville Sanctuary was fantastic. Mark was able to get our tickets and inside the park quickly and helped direct us to the major must see spots. Exploring the sanctuary grounds and seeing the majestic native animals so close was a treat. We were even fortunate enough to see the ever elusive platypus! After the sanctuary it was a nice ride over to the Puffing Billy Train experience. What a unique way to see the beautiful forest region. I would highly recommend this tour as a great way to get out of Melbourne for the day.

Fun day out - What fun day out this was! The morning stop at the Healesville sanctuary was fantastic, it was great to see animals such as koala’s and kangaroos in really nice habitat, we really enjoyed this element of the tour. The main reason for us taking this tour was to ride the puffing billy steam train and this was so much fun. Tom our tour guide was great, made sure we all got photos on the train, he also took a video of the train departing and coming into the final stop before giving each group a copy.

Scenic train ride 👍 - Scenic view. Unique and enjoyable experience. This trip is a must when you see Melbourne. 👍. Nice to see koalas and kangaroo very close.

Great tour - Tour guide Matt did a great job on the schedule of three spots so the tour managed to finish the spots sightseeing on schedule in which I think is challenging for an one-man driver-and-tourguide. Matt is also knowledgable on wildlife and what he recommended on those spots were perfect to see.

Amazing Tour - Margaret our tour guide was just so full of energy! The ride was amazing to say the least and very scenic. Definitely an experience!

Puffy billy is fun for the family trip - My tour guide name is Gina, her playlist of music is enjoyable, while she also giving all the information we need, and also very talkactive during the tour. Puffing billy train during winter is kinda chilly but fun for family to have a great time. Beside the puffy we also go to the sactuary, koala always adorable and other animal is also cutesy, its another get together for family as well, its fun and enjoyable as well, thank you Gina you are the best

Puff - It was a good day out, started on time with a great driver who made you feel welcome and spoke about things on the way. The train was fantastic and a novel way to enjoy the trip by sitting on the edge of the train enjoying the view. The walk was self paced with freedom to enjoy on the way. Good day

Mismatch between communication and reality - The Yarra Valley is beautiful, and the train ride was fun. My group was friendly, once I had the chance to get to know them. And we were able to see Koalas and Kangaroos and a few others animals. Some animals were hiding, sleeping, or otherwise difficult to spot. I booked this trip because the trip I wanted (with another company) didn’t have enough people signed up, so it was my second choice. Our guide was at least 20 minutes late to pick us up. They told us all to arrive early because they can’t wait for latecomers, so we did! Everyone was there by 8:50 am as requested. However, the van didn’t show up until 9:11 am. By the time we all got in the van and maps of Healesville Sanctuary were distributed, it was at best 9:20 am. We finally left, and what should have been an hour and 15 minute drive somehow turned into an hour and 40 minutes (not sure if the guide took a long way, got lost, or what). At 10:10, I checked the map and was shocked we were still 50 minutes away! There wasn’t a traffic jam or anything. We didn’t make it to the Sanctuary until 11 am! I had to run to try to catch the zookeeper talk on Koalas, which was scheduled for 11 am. Missed part of it… Thankful to have seen the cute koalas tho! Our guide was friendly enough but seemed distracted. He didn’t do anything to create cohesion among the group. Or if he did, I missed it as I was the last person to board. Also, we went to Healesville first, which was great since that was my first priority. However, the itinerary indicated we would do there second, and the reason for the change wasn’t mentioned. Two hours at Healesville felt rushed. I barely had time to grab a yogurt to go. We didn’t have any proper lunch break. And when arrived for the train ride, our guide told us the train was running late. But then a few minutes later, there was an announcement for boarding the train, so again, no time to walk to the lake or barely pass by the gift shop. I am all for efficiency and wouldn’t have wanted crazy amounts of extra time, but the whole thing felt disjointed and with communication not aligning with the expectations that had been set by the company. I would recommend cutting out any picks ups and drop offs other than one main location. We were all made to wait at the main pick up for some reason. — perhaps because others were late? If they are, then abide by your policy and let them miss the tour rather than keeping 16 others waiting so long and leaving late.

Puffing Billy is a MUST - The reason we booked this tour was to experience the Puffing Billy Train which certainly did not disappoint. It felt like we were on the Polar Express, trekking through the forests. It was such a unique experience. The rest of the tour was decent and we could have just gone on the train and been fine with that. Our tour guide was not knowledgeable of the area and we were hoping to learn more as we have with other tours.