Fraser Island tours

loueeeeeez

Hi guys!

myself and my boyfriend are doing the east coast next week. have pretty much an everything planned apart from Fraser Island. has anyone any advice on tours or any good companies they used for this? some people are telling me that the tour that you have to drive yourself etc is best, others says the guided tours are better. So many companies offering pretty much the same! any advice is welcome

Mellor

I was under the impression self drive tours were gone

Jimoslimos

Mellor wrote: »

I was under the impression self drive tours were gone

Are they? I know there's been a lot more restrictions since the accident a few years back. The options when I went (about two years back) were,

Self-drive (own-vehicle) - what we did
Self-drive (rental vehicle)
Shared drive (tour group)
Full guide/No Drive (tour group)

It's pretty difficult to get an objective view on what's best since most people here will have experience of only 1 of the above. Personally I loved the self-drive with own vehicle, with my gf and preferred the time to ourselves rather than trying to fit in with a big group. Also not sure how much inland driving you get to do with the tour groups, this for me was the best and probably the closest to proper off-roading, rather than the usual up and down the main beach. Having our own vehicle meant we weren't worried about leaving it unattended on the mainland for a few days. Drawback I guess was the worry if anything went wrong with our own 4wd it would have been very very expensive to sort it out.

loueeeeeez

Mellor wrote: »

I was under the impression self drive tours were gone

Dingoresort.com still do the self drive tours!

NBTD

You can still do self drive, but its in convoy with a lead vehicle.

When we did it, we just watched a DVD telling us what to and what not to do and away we went! 11 people in a LWB Land Cruiser with all the gear strapped on the roof.

At the time, other companies were doing a group tour, if you are going to meet people and want to sit around the fire drinking and singing at night time, this is the way to go.

As a previous poster said, it could get expensive if you do damage to your own machine.

Mellor

NBTD wrote: »

You can still do self drive, but its in convoy with a lead vehicle.

That's what I was referign to when I said I thought self drive was gone.

matrim

I did the Pippies self drive tour from Rainbow beach a couple of months ago and it was good fun.

There were around 23 of us in 4 Jeeps. The first one was driven by a guide with people who didn't want to drive and in the other jeeps we shared the driving. In my one there were 7 people with only 5 drivers and 3 of them only wanted to do 1 turn so I got about 3 goes of about 1 hour each.

As with most things like that, the group you're with can affect how good it is.

You can also rent your own Jeep and drive yourself the whole time but it works out very expensive unless you have a good few people. The only rule for rentals is that rentals cannot have any equipment on the roof.

Slunk

I done the two day with cool dingo tours. I found it very good. Guide was excellent, transport was very good(big trucks) and accommodation was nice. Food was decent for lunch but dinners were average. Would recommend them if you don't fancy driving.

hussey

Slunk wrote: »

I done the two day with cool dingo tours. I found it very good. Guide was excellent, transport was very good(big trucks) and accommodation was nice. Food was decent for lunch but dinners were average. Would recommend them if you don't fancy driving.

I did that tour too, I liked it too, as didn't fancy driving or camping

Random

can anyone recommend a one day 4x4 tour? ideally with a bit of self drive included too. there would be 3 people and no real preference whether its private or in a group.

have looked at the overnight ones but not sure we see the total appeal.

loueeeeeez

Random wrote: »

can anyone recommend a one day 4x4 tour? ideally with a bit of self drive included too. there would be 3 people and no real preference whether its private or in a group.

have looked at the overnight ones but not sure we see the total appeal.

Hi, not sure of any one day tours but you can rent 4x4 in hervey bay and bring it in on boat yourself and go around for the day.

I'd really recommend the cool dingo tours you can do it for 1 or 2 nights and it's real luxury! (after spending 4 weeks in campervan I call it luxury!) they bring ya to all the popular spots so you get to see everything!

lc180

Sorry for bumping an old thread....

I'm going to OZ in November on holidays, thinking about doing Fraser Island for a couple nights as everyone tells me its a 'must do'.

Only problem is I might be doing the Brisbane/Fraser Island part of my trip solo. Just wondering from your experiences on these tours was there many solo travelers? Is it a good mix of backpackers from different nationality's etc...

I've done loads of solo trips before so that doesn't faze me but I've never done the whole 'organised group tour' thing before on my own so just trying to decide if Fraser Island suitable for that?

Any feedback would be great!

cheers.