Savannahlander a great experience,
Savannahlander a great experience,
But
I would suggest a different supplier if you are contemplating this trip. What a disappointment,
Do your research! If you follow their suggested trip you will spend 5 of your 6 days sitting in a train or bus between 6 to 10 hours p/day watching trees go by. The remaining day and 2 nights according to their advertising can be spent exploring Normanton.
Normanton has one main street with your accommodation .6 km out of town and from there you can spend 5 min viewing a fibreglass croc another 1km walk to the info centre, pass a couple of pubs and then that’s it for your 40 hr stay.
Having done this trip once before - we were aware of what we wanted, what to see and where to stay so we chose to fly to Normanton rather than a 10hr bus ride, hire a car and explore Karumba with the following requirements
No trans north bus services at all, 3 travellers,1 couple and a single woman requiring separate accommodation plus 1 day and night at Cobbold Gorge to break the trip.{an absolute must}
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Most of this info was transmitted by phone. What a mistake, info not noted, forgotten, whatever. Some comments relayed to us were a blend of fact and fiction. We even sent an email requesting accommodation confirmation to be 1 x double and 1 single....with no reply.
Make sure every word is sent by email and be grateful if you get a reply to your questions. At no stage did we ever receive a full personal itinerary of our amended trip. Don’t pay 1 cent deposit until the entire trip itinerary is confirmed. Not just your overnight stays as was our case they will object but then it’s your trip and your money. Book what you want to do and see..... and not what suits them.
First 3 nights all booked into 1 room.
Instead of a day at the Gorge we were booked on a trans north bus for a 250km ride then another 5hr train ride and further bus arriving at 6.30pm, All instead of a day at our requested destination of Cobbold Gorge
So much for a day at the gorge! Upon discovering this - a rather unpleasant phone call was had with Robert at the Savannahlander and his remedy for solving our issue was
“Just let me know your credit card number and I will fix it”
We had to abandon our scheduled tour at this stage and join another tour group to allow for our stay at the Gorge as we had a late afternoon scenic flight booked. This change resulted in an extra $600 for alternate accommodation, meals and transfers with no refund for unused meals accom. transfers etc.
At the completion of our trip we contacted Robert in Cairns to arrange a meeting at their office to discuss out displeasure. We were unceremoniously told that he had no intention of seeing us.
Well Robert - you will no doubt add your comment about us - so rather than a private office meeting, we can now discuss our trip with the world
April 30, 2019
Unprompted review