I was keen to visit this place after I had heard about it from my friends. Recently I was on a working visit to Melbourne and thought of checking out this place. I don't drive much so I went to the Melbourne Visitor Centre and found out there are a lot of local operators offering day tour with guide and transportation where pick up and drop off at a hotel in Melbourne are provided. There are so many operators that provide similar day tour services and I have decided to take a few of the highly recommended brouchures to study them. I also emailed them to get more information about the tour like what to expect, to see and determine which one has the best value etc. I wasn't looking for the cheapest tour as they all have roughly the same tour price per pax in a group tour. Then I found one network called World Heritage Network that organise a day tour with quite a minimum of pax in a group (only max 24 person per group) but since I went during low season, it may come up to maybe half of that number. I emailed and made some enquiries and, Rorne, a Tour Director was prompt and answered all my queries completely and professionally. I think he really understands what tourist needs as he seemed to be very experienced in answering enquires particularly about the Great Ocean Road attraction. After being convinced by his offer, I paid for the GOR Sunset Tour online and got my instant confirmation letter. It was very convenient and everything was good to go. Next morning, a male guide called Jack came to my hotel lobby and picked me up. He was very punctual and polite. In the air-condiitoned van, I met with other 7 tourists from different countries. It seemed there were only 8 of us and wow it was what I have expected and wanted, a small group! During the journey to the GOR, Jack was trying to explain the historical part of the road and about the shipwreck incident at one of the gorges called Lord Ard Gorge. He was also extremely funny and entertaining. After about more than an hour, we reached the first spot called Memorial Arch and we took a lot of pictures. Jack said this spot is most important as it is the first spot to enter the famous GOR and one should take pictures there to prove that one was there for memory purpose. Then we proceeded to have lunch at Kennett River area. After lunch, Jack took us to the nearby park and we saw wild koalas and wild birds. It was great to actually witness koalas at their natural habitat after having seen them on posters and pictures online. Then we proceeded to Loch Ard Gorge, Razorback, Island Archway. These sites were great especially Loch Ard Gorge as it reminded me so much of Maya Bay at Phi Phi Island, Thailand. The only difference is that you could actually see wild & small birds walking along the beach and they were not afraid of tourists. Then came the finale and the most interesting and most beautiful of all, the 12th Apostles. The sun was setting so Jack was rushing us to this site by speeding the van and he was so worried that we would miss the sunset as he quickly instructed and advised us to just go to one particualry path and go straight to a wooden round platform to view all the apostles from one side during the sun setting and don't waste time exploring the other platforms as we will miss the sunset. We listened to his advice and off we go. Jack was right, the platform that we went has the best view of the 12th Apostles and I heard a lot of tourists spent too much time at other platforms which only have view of half of the entire Apostles. I think what Jack did should be highly commended as it prevented us from missing our best sunset view of this amazing place. We also felt sorry for him for rushing for us because our group spent too much time at Lord Ard Gorge and forgot about our coming back time to the van to proceed to 12th Apostles and he was so patience and nice. I like to thank Jack for his dedication in ensuring that we got what we have paid for which is the great sunset view of the12th Apostles in this GOR sunset tour. Thanks for everything Jack, you are the greatest guide in my vocabulary. Cheers!
.....commented by Jasmine Renong, Singapore
We had one day to tour near Melbourne, so we decided to engage World Heritage Network rather than rent a car and drive (you know, driving on the wrong side of the road didn't appeal, etc.) We could have afforded a luxury bus tour, but a friend recommended we look into this network instead. We choose World Heritage Network and we were delighted! Our guide, Joe, made the day a lot of fun. Each stop was leisurely, with no rush to get back on time (indeed we were late returning to Melbourne). We stopped at more stops than the luxury bus. We saw koalas in the wild, hiked in a rain forest, and still had time for all of the standard ocean sights. The best part came after we returned to our hotel, and my husband noticed that his cell phone was missing! We thought he might have left it on the car, so we called the cell phone by making a US call from our hotel room. Imagine how relieved we were when our guide answered the phone!
As late as it was, he brought it to our hotel because he knew we had to leave at 7am to catch our plane (since we had such nice chats in the tour). And you know, this was pretty typical of the friendliness of the tour itself. But we had far more fun on this tour than we would have had on one twice the price. A great thank you to World Heritage Network ! Bravo!
.....commented by Allen Macarthy, Texas, USA
SIMPLY FANTASTIC & WONDERFUL !!!
This is a short review based on our adventure tour in March 2018. The Great Ocean Road itself needs no introduction but how to see it can prove tricky.
The two of us booked a day tour with World Heritage Network, one of many tour companies offering differing packages at different rates. We chose World Heritage Network because of the price and the amount they packed in to a full day.
They picked us up from Melbourne at 8 and the driver/tour guide was magnificent. He was friendly, funny and full of enthusiasm. He'd done the tour over 500 times before but he treated it like it was his first. He was a joy.
The tour took in an aboriginal centre in Geelong, Bells Beach, Lorne, Apollo Bay, koalas in the wild, a rainforest walk and the unmissable Twelve Apostles.
The size of the vehicle meant we could get to places that the big coaches couldn't reach (worth remembering) and also meant we were not held up by people getting back late to a coach (the bigger the group the more likely it is to happen).
We were dropped back in Melbourne at 9.15. Overall, a fantastic road was enhanced by a brilliant tour. If you're going to go along the Great Ocean Road, engage World Heritage Network. Highly recommended!
The two of us booked a day tour with World Heritage Network, one of many tour companies offering differing packages at different rates. We chose World Heritage Network because of the price and the amount they packed in to a full day.
They picked us up from Melbourne at 8 and the driver/tour guide was magnificent. He was friendly, funny and full of enthusiasm. He'd done the tour over 500 times before but he treated it like it was his first. He was a joy.
The tour took in an aboriginal centre in Geelong, Bells Beach, Lorne, Apollo Bay, koalas in the wild, a rainforest walk and the unmissable Twelve Apostles.
The size of the vehicle meant we could get to places that the big coaches couldn't reach (worth remembering) and also meant we were not held up by people getting back late to a coach (the bigger the group the more likely it is to happen).
We were dropped back in Melbourne at 9.15. Overall, a fantastic road was enhanced by a brilliant tour. If you're going to go along the Great Ocean Road, engage World Heritage Network. Highly recommended!
.....commented by Ashley F. Anderson, Brisbane, Australia
