Australia, New Zealand, & Fiji with GCT

Since my wife, Mary, and I both retired in 2000, we have been traveling abroad at least twice a year. More and more of our friends expressed an interest in traveling with us, so we started doing organized group tours.

For the last few years we have used Grand Circle Travel, or GCT (347 Congress St., Boston, MA 02210; 800/959-0405, www.gct.com), as the supplier of our trips. We have found it to be an excellent choice. To explain why, let me give some examples from our Aug. 13-Sept. 3, ’05, trip to Australia, New Zealand and Fiji.

Price was a major consideration. GCT is not the lowest-priced tour company around, nor are they the most expensive, but after comparing numerous offerings from many companies online we felt that GCT offered the best bang for the buck. For under $3,000 each, we booked a 3-week trip that others were selling for close to $5,000.

Because airfares make up such a substantial part of most tours, some companies rely heavily on long days of “coach transportation.” GCT’s trip involved five flights between most of the major cities on the tour. (One member of our group figured out the best price he could get for the same flights we took and it came to over $4,000 — just for the flights.)

To make the trips even more financially appealing, GCT gives a discount off the tour price if paid in full at the time of booking — a real savings amounting to as much as 10%. And after every trip they award travelers with another discount to be used toward their next trip.

We had 11 people in our group, part of a total of 43 on the bus. Many commented how impressed they were with the quality of the hotels. These were not 5-star hotels, except for the one in Auckland, but every one of them was top quality — and each was either a destination resort itself (as in Fiji) or within easy walking distance of where we wanted to be.

We’ve stayed with too many tour companies that placed us miles from where the action was, with no way to get there. With Grand Circle, in Australia we were on the Esplanade in Cairns and in the city center in Sydney, and in New Zealand we were in the historic heart of Christchurch, a 3-minute walk from the harbor in Queenstown and one block from the main shopping street in Auckland.

GCT offers tours that tend to stay in each location long enough to get a feel for it; on this trip Down Under, we stayed a full three or four days at each location. We have been with other tour companies that moved every day or two. Not only did we end up hating the constant packing and moving, we would get home with very few specific memories of any one place; it was more just a blur of travel with every place blending into every other place.

(When we traveled with GCT to Italy in 2004 [May ’06, pg. 65], we stayed one full week in Sorrento and another full week in Montecatini. We will never forget either of those places and we have very fond memories of both.)

When you stay for a few days in one spot, you have time to do things on your own. In Sydney, all tour companies take people to see the Opera House. GCT gave us time on our tour to go to the box office so that we could take in various shows while we were in town. We also had time to walk through historic neighborhoods, visit the charming shops of Port Douglas, wander as a group through the “Rocks” area for the Sunday market and take ferry rides to Manly and Devonport, not to mention having some meals on our own in restaurants we chose.

In Queenstown, New Zealand, we recommend the Pig & Whistle (19 Cam St.; phone [03] 422-9055) for a bar — what we remember of it was fantastic!

In the same city, The Cow (Cow Lane; phone [03] 442-8588 or visit www.queenstown-nz.co.nz/information/product/?product=cow-restaurant) has been famous for its spaghetti Bolognaise since they opened 30 years ago, and is it ever delicious! A meal there cost us approximately US$25 for two, with a cold beer.

We’ve also found that with GCT, most of the essential sightseeing is included. For example, while in Cairns, an entire day on the Great Barrier Reef was included without our paying an extra dime for lunch, snorkeling equipment, glass-bottom boat rides, trips in a submersible, etc. People we met with other tour groups were paying as much as $200 extra for a day on the reef.

GCT does have optional tours, but most of them tend to be for people with specific interests. It’s possible to tour with GCT and not feel the need to purchase any optional tours. Some on our tour did exactly that.

In addition, Grand Circle lined up some special experiences for us, including visits to local residents’ homes. In Cairns, we broke into small groups, and six of us had a lovely dinner (and five bottles of wine) on the porch of a fun-loving, energetic couple — a great evening we will long remember.

To introduce us to Christchurch, GCT provided us with a meeting with storyteller Margaret Copland. She came out in full costume and mesmerized us with a 75-minute presentation, playing the role of Sarah Stokes, who traveled as an emigrant from England to Christchurch in 1850 on a ship with her husband and eight children. She brought the entire trip to life. She then changed her costume (and voice) and became Rosalia Gierszewski, who traveled to Christchurch with her husband and two children in a group of German Poles from West Prussia in 1872.

In Cairns we had a very close-up look at a huge cattle station (ranch). We met the cowgirl (jillaroo) who manages it with the assistance of her horse and dog and saw all of them in action. We ate on their porch, drank vast quantities of Australian wine and sang along with a guitar player.

In Fiji we had a formal welcoming ceremony at a local village, drank kava with the community leadership, listened to the children sing (and we reciprocated) and even broke into small groups so we could have lunch in Fijian homes.

I must mention that Grand Circle has its own foundation which supports places all over the world that are of interest to travelers. Some of our tour dollars went to help support a district school in Fiji and also to New Zealand’s National Marae, a sacred place where the customs and traditions of the Maori people are preserved.

This was an exciting, varied, fun-filled, experiential tour filled with adventure (Mary even bungee jumped!). We are happy with the choice we made and will continue to partner with Grand Circle Travel as we form groups of our friends to travel with us in the future.

NORMAN HELBER

Scottsdale, AZ