wonderful tour of Wellington New Zealand by Steve Girvan thru Answers Down Under tours. We had a personal foodies tour that was fantastic. Highly recommend this guide. read more

I booked and paid for a trip for two weeks in Australia through this company, but when I got there every single reservation and event was registered in my husband's name and only my husband could rent a car, check into our accommodations or sign in for our excursions. When I tried to check into one of the hotels, I was told I would have to wait for my "husband" because only he could register us and get the keys for the room. (He was returning the rental car that I had arranged for because only his name was on that, too!) I paid for this trip! I made the arrangements! What century do we live in??!! Is Australia reallly so backwards? Or is it just this company? I had not used a travel agency before, and this convinced me that it is not worth it! No self-respecting woman should use this company. Nor should any man who has any respect for women. read more

If you value accountability, attention to detail, timely follow-up and deep knowledge of your destination in a Travel Agent than I highly recommend you avoid Down Under Answers as they exhibited none of these characteristics on our trip to New Zealand in November 2023. Our primary travel agent, who is excellent, engaged them based on a recommendation from his peers to help plan our 2 week self guided tour of New Zealand as part of an overall 5 week South Pacific trip. The first signals we were dealing with a sub standard agency came in the first, and all subsequent, proposals from them prior to our final booking. Each proposal was fraught with errors but we were assured that they apply real due diligence once they start booking and have a thorough quality control process. It turns out their quality control process is a mirage. While most of what Down Under arranged for us was well done there were several errors/omissions they made that as of today, January 3rd, over a month since our trip ended, they have taken zero accountability for. The failures started with them only purchasing one ferry ticket for us to get from Auckland to Waiheke Island for a food and wine tour. We had to go to three different gate agents, nearly missing our journey, to finally having to purchase the missing ticket ourselves or miss the tour. My wife is Gluten Free to which we informed Down Under Answers when they were first engaged and continually through the process including asking them to recommunicate to all tour operators, especially those involving food, that she was Gluten Free once everything was booked. They reassured us that they had done that. Well, we get to the first tour, the aforementioned Food and Wine Tour on Waiheke Island, an excellent tour by the way, and the tour operator had never been informed of my wife's food allergy. Imagine going on a Food and Wine tour and not being able to eat most of the food provided? I should mention that Down Under Answers' "quality control" process took over 2 weeks to complete which meant we did not receive our confirmed itinerary from them until the day we left leaving no time for review. We had a wonderful time on the North Island from this point ending in Wellington where we took the ferry across the Cook Strait to Picton. As this trip was celebrating our 40th Wedding Anniversary we had asked to book premium class of service wherever possible. Per the invoice and itinerary from Down Under Answers we had booked the premium level on the ferry yet when we checked in at the Ferry Terminal we were unceremoniously told we were booked in economy which was disappointing and embarrassing all at the same time. The final straw with Down Under Answers came with the hotel they booked for us at the Auckland Airport, the Naumi, where we had a layover after an evening flight from Queenstown prior to flying on to Fiji the next morning. We had asked for a nice, or at least decent, hotel convenient to the Airport. The Naumi Hotel was neither decent, forget nice, nor convenient to the Airport. The Naumi was a 35 minute shuttle bus ride from the airport and it's room decor was something out of the 1970's with dozens of dead bugs in the bath tub for kickers. Obviously no one from Down Under had ever stayed or knew anything about this hotel property. We communicated all of these errors to Down Under Answers as they were happening. To date they have made no attempt to reach out to us to explain or preferably apologize for their failures nor have they reimbursed us for the services we contracted for but were never booked for which we paid them. A true measure of quality and integrity in the services industry is how a company reacts when things don't go as planned and Down Under Answers has failed that at every turn. They did a lot of things right/well for us but that is overshadowed not by their failures but their lack of accountability for them. I would avoid using Down Under Answers at all costs. read more

We booked our trip to Australia with DUA via a Groupon special. While we were a bit apprehensive at first about the quality we'd be receiving through Groupon, we decided we could not pass up a trip to Australia, a destination we'd always wanted to visit, for such a great price. Those worries were unfounded. The itinerary we booked took us EVERYWHERE in two weeks. We started in Cairns, then headed to Melbourne, then Adelaide, Kangaroo Island, and finally, Sydney. It was quite the whirlwind. With all the travel we were doing, it would have been easy for our transportation to fall apart, but everything was very well coordinated. We were provided with everything we needed to make the trip as easy and stress-free as possible. DUA provided some of the best customer service we'd ever experienced (before and since) with a travel company. The lady who helped us throughout, Chris Mead, was super helpful and responsive. She provided suggestions on places to eat and visit, and also suggested what turned out to be some of our favorite activities, including the Colonial Tramcar Restaurant in Melbourne. We contacted her what felt like a hundred times, but each time she was very friendly, knowledgeable, and was able to provide any information or assistance we needed. We loved Australia and plan to visit again in the future. We'll definitely check in with DUA when we're ready to go back! read more

My family went with Down Under Answers for our first ever international trip together, to Australia and New Zealand, after finding a deal that was posted through Travelzoo. These guys made everything so simple and straightforward for us; we definitely would consider them for another international expedition. The package deal they put together was so much better than we could have done for a mid September departure and they even offered a bit of flight flexibility to leave up to two weeks earlier if we preferred. But since we knew that September is the start of spring time in that part of the world, we wanted to go as late in the season as possible. This trip was a 14 day trip which included 2 travel days (with one flight leg going from SF to Auckland and the other flight leg going from Sydney to SF). The other days of the trip consisted of 4 days in Auckland (New Zealand), 2 days in Melbourne, 3 days in Cairns, and 3 days in Sydney. The entire package came out to a spectacular $1900/person total with taxes/fees included. In addition to the international flight tickets, also included in the trip package was all the intermediary flights from city to city and stays at 5 star hotels: Hyatt (Auckland), Crown Towers (Melbourne), ShangriLa (Cairns), and Marriott (Sydney). Most communication was through e-mail but they were extremely responsive via telephone and made sure to answer every detail, concern, and question that we had. Confirmation were quickly provided through the days coming up to the departure and reservations for all plane flights and hotel stays were flawless. For future reference, they did let me know there is the flexibility to add or subtract days to travel packages so if there is a particular combination that you would like to have, don't hesitate to get in contact with them. Obviously if you want more days, you'll have to pay more money for the package but it's the utmost importance to have a trip that is best for you in order to see the things you want to see. DUA Travel....you're GREAT!!! P.S. One of their travel specialist named Matt G was top class in his service and professionalism read more

In followup to my initial review, the owner (Kirk) emailed and phoned me in late April about my review. He was concerned about learning of our disappointment three years after the fact in a very public forum. While acknowledging that his company "failed" us, he suggested that there was a technology issue responsible for their office not responding to our concerns via email at the outset of our trip. My husband and I both feel this is highly unlikely because their office responded to an initial email and then no others and all other emails we were sending to other parties were getting through. Kirk also suggested that we could have called the 24 hour hot line -- which we could have done, but frankly my husband was done trying to work with the company because even prior to our leaving on our trip our associate kept telling my husband there were issues with the airline reservations and essentially made him feel like she was doing him a favor to straighten out the issue. Nonetheless, Kirk wanted to try to make it right with us and offered us a trip back to Australia, New Zealand or to South Africa. While we appreciated his offer, we would have needed to add a significant amount of money of our own to make the trip of the caliber we enjoy -- and our attentions are turned toward travel in other areas of the world at this time. I still would have a hard time recommending DUA,. However, I'm glad to see someone else had a great experience with them. read more

I used them for my 2 week vacation to Australia (July/August) and I would gladly recommend them to anyone. Aside from great prices, the service was unparalleled. I did everything pretty much via e-mail and it went smoothly. I received my travel documents about 3 weeks before my departure and my itinerary was detailed that my trip was worry-free when it came flight, hotel and transportation information. Highly recommended. read more

They are not a honest company at all. We bought a trip through our travel agent to spend a month in Australia and New Zealand. We booked before COVID was even an idea and paid $8500 down on a 20 thousand plus $ trip. COVID happened and of course, insurance wouldn't cover the pandemic. It's been over 2 years and they've had our money this entire time. They offered a small portion back, but not all our money. The excuses were many. As of 29 September, they haven't refunded any money. We will never use them again or Cruise Planners travel agency. They don't care about the customer at all. read more

Thank you, thank you, thank you! My wife and I just returned from our trip to New Zealand and Australia through purchasing a package from Down Under Answer. We worked with Kirk Demeter (President) and he was simply amazing. He assist with adding the New Zealand leg to our package for a great price. It just so happen that he was going to be in Queenstown the same day we were arriving to Queenstown and offered to meet up for a drink. We accepted but missed each other due to lack of wifi and mobile access. However, he kindly left a bottle of wine for us. Kirk was prompted to answer all questions we had and offered suggestions for what would be the best value and most affordable way to add Queenstown to our package and our roundtrip flight between Chicago and LA. He even provided his mobile number in the case we had any issues during our trip. The hotels we stayed at were all close to tourist attractions and in the mist of everything. Each hotel also provided breakfast and great customer service. I only wish Down Under Answer covered more locations, so we could book all our travels with them. read more

Used them (via Groupon) for a two week trip to Sydney, Cairns & Melbourne (April 2017). Like others, we were apprehensive as we'd never used a travel agency or a Groupon for travel. The trip was too good of a price and value for us to pass up. The result? I'd use them again in a heartbeat. Never had a single issue (although the Travelodge Docklands room was very small). We thoroughly enjoyed our trip and would not hesitate to recommend them to anyone. If you remember, you're booking a middle of the road trip for a middle of the road price and you'll be extremely happy. If you have unrealistic expectations, you won't be, but that's on you, not them. read more

We found DUA through TravelZoo. I really wished we'd booked a longer trip (only 6 nights in Sydney), but our trip was wonderful. Nora helped me upgrade to Premium Economy from Los Angeles to Sydney, and told us we'd be better off booking our own transit from Chicago to Los Angeles (definitely a good deal, as Delta would have routed us through Mexico City). We also booked the "Essential Sydney" day tour through them, and our guide was fantastic! Everything went very smoothly, and we are already talking about going back sometime for a much longer trip, possibly incorporating New Zealand. read more

I purchased a package from DUA through Groupon for 11 days in Sydney/Cairns which sounded like an amazing deal so I was very excited to plan my trip. As stated in the ad, "Your 11-day Australia vacation can begin in either Cairns or Sydney" so I choose to start in Sydney and the package that I purchased was "valid for departure 2/15/13-3/21/13", I'm going 2/27-3/10. When I went to book the trip with Matt at DUA, who BTW was a really great guy and very helpful, I was informed that there would be an up charge because it was during Mardi Gras and that he couldn't guarantee me an upgrade or free wifi but would request it. The reason that I choose the package that I did was because I wanted to go to Mardi Gras and nowhere in the ad did it mention any up charge during those dates and in fact, the package that I choose was specific in it's dates of 2/15/13-3/21/13. I went back and forth with Groupon over this for 3 exhausting weeks because if it's going to advertise specific dates without any note of up charges then that seems pretty sneaky and they should have made it right. Unfortunately I had already booked things in Australia that I could not get refunds for so canceling the trip was not an option. Groupon contacted DUA and here was their response- "Our trips are always based on availability, and during Mardi Gras we have a limited amount of rooms available. If you could give me the clients' full name, I'll pull it and see if there is anything I can do. Many of our trips go over certain periods, and we can "shuffle" the itinerary so that they can get the price we advertise. As an example, we knew we'd have issues with Mardi Gras, and thus we can reverse itinerary and have them do Cairns during the Mardi Gras period, and thus offer the price. If they insist on going to Sydney during this period, then it is entirely appropriate that they pay a surcharge (in my estimation) - we can honor price quoted if they take itinerary as we propose. But I'll see what I can do - just let me know full name so I can pull it." I was told that Kirk would reach out to me within a few days but after a week I never heard anything from him so I gave up. I totally understand that Mardi Gras is a busy time and that hotels will try to take advantage by raising prices but If as they said, they knew that Mardi Gras would be an issue and a surcharge is appropriate then that surcharge should have been mentioned in the ad and then there would have been no problems as it would have been clear. I'm only going to be in Sydney for 2 days during Mardi Gras. Also, if they had a limited amount of rooms available then how could they have booked me a room? Either it's available or it's not. Again, clarity in the ad would have prevented all that transpired and saved all of us a lot of wasted time. I'm about to embark on the trip and it doesn't look like I'll be getting an upgrade or free wifi. I do hope that it winds up being amazing, worth all of the headaches and I will certainly follow up this review when I return and change my rating if it's merited. read more

Reading the other reviews for Down Under Answers (DUA) makes our review sorta like chiming in singing harmony for the best travel experience ever! DUA provided us with the vacation of a lifetime! My husband and I had never been to Australia however we have traveled internationally enough to personally know how easy it is to return home with stories of "the mis-adventures of international travel". Also this was our first travel anywhere using Groupon, and so we were curious about this company named Down Under Answers. We had a few specific needs as we wanted to extend our time in Sydney and were coordinating with a family member who lives in Australia. Every call and/or email with DUA provided us with super help and great information. We were equally happy with the travel itinerary packet that was mailed to us prior to our departure as it provided complete and comprehensive day to day details for each of the three major cities we were visiting. We took the packet with us, and soon came to rely on it's contents. It was awesome knowing how to navigate to and from unfamiliar airports, what to expect in our accommodations, as well as the different "flavor" for each geographical during our almost month visit. Kim Faucette was the person we worked with at DUA and I can totally recommend working with Kim! As a matter of fact our trip was so great and Australia is such a big diverse continent we plan to return and will certainly be contacting Kim at Down Under Answers for our Australian summer vacation. read more

So this review is coming at some delay. I totally forgot the company was located in Seattle so it never came up in searches... Anyhow, i must say that I highly recommend using this travel agency any time you want to visit down under. They are very flexible if you want to add to your packages. The original deal was somewhere around $1700 to visit Sydney, Cairns, and Melbourne including airfare and hotel for three nights each. We added another flight to add a trip to New Zealand for 5 nights - not including hotel - and the total was somewhere around 2k. This price was fantastic for just the airfare alone. And the hotels - oh the hotels we were put up in were great. They were all in prime location and very nice. There was no better option - very impressed. The only thing we would have changed were the number of days. 3 days in each of the Australian cities mentioned above was definitely NOT enough. Happy Travels! You will love Australia and you will love the deal this company is able to put together for you! read more

I just came back from a trip to Australia. I got a package advertised on their website for ~2200 to Sydney, Cairns and Melbourne, flight and hotels included for 12 nights. This quote also includes a change of hotels which I requested for Sydney so that we would be closer to the downtown. I corresponded with the agent over email most of the time. I thought she was attentive and responsive. She answered all my questions and addressed all of my concerns and was very clear with the procedure. This is the first time I booked an entire travel package with someone so I was concerned that they might make a mistake somewhere along the way but my trip was completely smooth. I was pleased with the hotels they selected. They also gave me a free upgrade for one of the hotels due to everything else being booked already, and I really appreciated this as the upgraded room was just awesome. I also appreciated that they sent me all the documents just a week after we agreed on the final details of the trip. It also helps that Australia is a great place to travel to. I plan on going back to Australia in the future and I plan on checking with these guys for their packages when I do so. read more

I loved the tours and the choices but when we had an error in our itinerary it was not corrected before the trip and subsequently I paid for two rental cars. Never received the refund and contined to get the nearly exact same response from all of the agents. Still looking for my refund far after the trip was over. read more

I would not recommend this travel agent to anyone. I booked a trip to Australia and New Zealand and had issues with my departing and return airline reservations. When I arrived at PDX I was told I had no reservation, but that I did have a ticket. Fortunately I was able to get a seat on the flight I was supposed to be on, however if this was not the case I could have missed my connecting flight. We contact DUA after the issue in PDX and asked that they confirm all of my remaining travel plans. They claim they did this, but when I went to fly home I arrived in Christchurch NZ I was told there was no booking for my leg from LAX to PDX. Somehow the reservation I had originally was canceled and I ended up spending 10 hrs in LAX after traveling for 24 hrs. Additionally one of the transportation services that was pre booked did not show up. DUA was supposed to credit me for the shuttle, however after 3 months and 3 different calls to DUA I realized they had my credit card number wrong. read more

I am not one to post on these sites, but the service was so outstanding, that I feel a need to give credit where credit is due. I've taken my family to New Zealand twice in the last four years. The service and pricing at Down Under Answers has been outstanding. They really seem committed to making everything work out perfectly, and they are very, very passionate about New Zealand and Australia. I talked to one agent there who absolutely loved the Abel Tasman National Park in New Zealand, and I would not have heard of that let alone visited there without their advice - and I loved that place! Most of the people I have spoken are from those countries, and have great insight. I would not hesitate to highly recommend them for the service, their pricing and their overall friendliness. I have referred other friends to them all have been thankful to me for doing so. read more

DO NOT trust this organization with your travel plans. We booked a trip with this company for Australia, New Zealand, and Fiji through our travel agent. BIG MISTAKE!!! They charged us for services they refused to provide or reimburse. read more

Karen Thoreson of Down Under Answers arranged travel to the North Island of New Zealand for a group of 17 of us coming from the U.S. She did an awesome job. The hotels we stayed in were fabulous, our transfers were perfect, and our tours were spectacular. It took all the struggle out of traveling. All we had to do was show up. Karen worked with us for almost 2 years getting this trip completely organized the way we wanted it. She was always available to answer our questions and accommodate requests as possible. She even got us flights to Queenstown to begin our second part of the tour. Definitely give Karen a call! read more

DUA did a good job of following our directions regarding our interests and our desired destinations. Many of the accommodations were well-selected. The Super Shuttle and Tahiti Nui Travel van transportation was always on-time and efficient. Also, please note that premium economy on ANZ was well-worth it. It made the long flight quite comfortable. Unfortunately, there were more than a few incidents that made the trip less enjoyable than it could have been. Our flight to NZ The time allocated to transfer from our international flight to our domestic connection in Auckland was clearly insufficient . . . and we even inquired about this beforehand! We were told we'd have plenty of time. Wrong! The flight arrived 30 minutes early, but we still had to deplane, walk to have our photos taken, walk to baggage claim, walk to customs where they searched our bags then x-rayed our bags. Then we had to walk outside in the heat and humidity approximately 15 minutes to the domestic terminal. We went to check our bags to find out that they stop accepting bags 30 minutes before each flight. THE TRAVEL AGENCY SHOULD KNOW THAT 1.5 HOURS IS NOT ENOUGH TIME TO TRANSFER FROM AN INTERNATIONAL FLIGHT. Rental Car When we arrived at the pick-up location, they found the reservation; but the car was at the airport! We waited an hour for the car, and because we didn't pick it up at the airport, we could not get a GPS. A TRAVEL AGENCY THAT SPECIALIZES IN NZ TRAVEL SHOULD HAVE MADE BETTER ARRANGEMENTS. Queenstown St. Moritz Our room looked out on a concrete wall that captured the noise of arriving vehicles. People could look into our room. Most important was that this upscale hotel DOES NOT have air-conditioning. The first night the temperature in our room was 82 degrees at 10 p.m.! The next day, we departed at 9 a.m. and returned to our room at 4:45 p.m. to find that it had not been made-up yet! We checked at the nearby Crowne Plaza and were told that ALL DECENT PROPERTIES IN QUEENSTOWN HAVE AIR CONDITIONING! Departing Christchurch. DUA booked us on the last flight of the day and put us at our hotel at midnight. That left no room for error with an international flight departing the following morning. THIS WAS SIMPLY BAD PLANNING. Departing NZ After having flown ANZ on one international flight and three domestic flights, we were shocked to be charged over $150 each ($300+ total) for two extra small bags. I find that outrageous. I have discovered that the charge was based on the fare type that the agency had booked us under. There was nothing about that in the itinerary. Surely, DUA knew that we were going to be unexpectedly charged like that. A TRAVEL AGENCY SHOULD HAVE NOTIFIED US OF THAT IN ADVANCE . . . or made other arrangements. In fact, on the itinerary, there are notations for luggage restrictions for Super Shuttle, the ferry to Stewart Island, the KiwiRail Scenic Journey. There is NO SUCH STATEMENT OF A ONE BAG LIMITATION ON THE ANZ FLIGHT FROM AUCKLAND TO PAPETTE. Arrival Moorea Because the boilerplate "description of service" on our itinerary read the same as other transfers, we had expectations of the same. This was much different. There was no identifiable Tahiti Nui agent or van. Instead, we were told to board an old bus. The experience was hectic and disorganized. After stopping at four resorts, we finally arrived at the end-of-the-line Intercontinental. The issue here is EXPECTATIONS. The itinerary description for transfer was the same "boilerplate" as all previous entries. Therefore, we expected our experience to be the same. Far from it! Departing the intercontinental Moorea. Check-out at the Intercontinental was 11 a.m. Our pre-arranged transfer was scheduled for 3:30 p.m. What were we going to do for four and a half hours without a room! Seat Assignments. I had to ask more than once; and, as a result, we had satisfactory seat assignments in advance on our outbound flight to New Zealand. For all the other flights, we had no seat assignments. While traveling, we went online ourselves and arranged seat assignments . . . with the exception, of course, of Air Tahiti Nui. Others on our cruise had seat assignments on the same flight; but because our tickets were issued through a travel agent, we could not get seats assigned in advance! This is the first time I have ever used a travel agency. My experience has shown me that I am perfectly capable of continuing to arrange my own domestic and international travel and will do so in the future. read more

We used DUA for a Cairns/Sydney package, with multiple activities scheduled for each destination. So many things COULD go wrong. None DID. From Hartley's Crocodile Farm to snorkeling the Barrier Reef to the Karunda Skyrail/train ride to the Sydney bus tour to the Harbor Bridge climb... ALL went flawlessly. I cannot recommend Chris Mead and the rest of her DUA team enough. Hopefully they expand to other destinations so we can use them for our next international trip. Until then, if you're going to Australia, they are worth every penny. Thanks again, DUA! read more

We are a group of 5 who just got back from a 10-day tour of Melbourne, the Gold Coast and Sydney arranged by Nora Gregorian and Down Under Answers. We had a great time and very few problems. Nora and her associates at DUA handled everything for us and we got a great price including airfare, all hotel rooms, ground transportation from the airport and two excursions in Melbourne and Sydney. It was a bucket-list trip that we will all remember. Thanks Nora and Down Under Answers. read more

I must say that this agency is very good. My sister and I got a deal via Groupon and was not really sure what we were getting into. However, the deal was super but the organization of the trip with the freebies thrown in by DUA was exceptional. I highly recommend this agency. they took care of everything and were patient with our never ending questions. After all we were doing this trip to Australia for the first time and wanted everything. Special mention of Melody Webster here since she coordinated a lot for us from her contacts in australia. I highly recommend Down Under Answers for your travel booking. Nora read more

DUA planned our honeymoon (absolutely amazing!) to Fiji and New Zealand. DUA took the time to understand the way we like to travel and customized a package that perfectly fit our needs. We enjoyed the trip so much that we had DUA plan a return trip for our first anniversary. They took care of every detail, right down to changing our reservations when we unexpectedly had to return to the US earlier than planned. I would definitely recommend them to anyone wanting to visit Australia, New Zealand, Fiji, etc. read more

My son and I booked a 12 night trip to Australia in June 2019 using a Travelzoo discount with Down Under Answers. We traveled to Melbourne, Cairns, and Sydney. The trip price was fantastic and the travel agents responsive and easy to work with. They took care of getting our Australian Travel Visas along with the hotels and air travel. We choose the standard (cheapest) level of hotels and were very pleased with the location and comfort level of the hotels. In two of the cities we stayed in the Travelodge Hotel. I was happy to find that this is a totally different chain of hotels than the Travelodge brand in the US, and much nicer! We booked some of our day tours from DUA as well and were very happy with the quality of the tour and the tour guides. On my own I would probably not have traveled to Melbourne and it ended up being our favorite city. The only reason I did not give the review 5 stars is because DUA did not give me the proper information about using my cell phone in Australia. I contacted them ahead of time to find out if my cell phone would have service in Australia as I had heard that some people had problems. The travel agent told me she had never heard of any issues with cell phones working in Australia, phones would work fine. Since they are travel experts to Australia I went ahead and added an international plan to my cell phone. They were wrong- I had no cell phone service in Australia. Every US traveler I talked to on my travels told my the only way to get cell phone service is to buy an Australian SIM card and 30 day service plan. read more

Absolutely Fantastic Top Notch Organization!!!!! We couldn't have possibly asked for nor imagined a more perfectly organized and planned out vacation to NZ and Fiji! Thank you DUA for your incredible care in providing us with an absolutely amazing itinerary that went beyond our expectations :) DUA was wonderful right from our initial inquiry to travel into Oceana to providing us with a detailed and comprehensive itinerary full of activities that met our interests and lifestyle. They went out of their way to get to know us as travellers and what we enjoyed doing, seeing, tasting and feeling before setting up a vacation that truly wowed us! Having travelled extensively throughout the world on all 7 continents and 5 oceans we are wary of using any travel company and usually prefer to "do things ourselves". We spoke with DUA out of curiosity initially but found that the insights and experience that DUA provided was obvious from our very first conversation with them. This is first hand knowledge from other travellers that is more valuable than anything you can find in a brochure or in some marketing propaganda on the net. They were able to create a wonderful and detailed plan for our trip to New Zealand's South Island and then SCUBA and snorkelling in Fiji. It was a wonderful trip - Kirk made sure that we spent exactly the amount of time necessary to enjoy all the activities and sights at that spot before moving on to the next adventure! Even the "rest stops" were planned out perfectly :) Allison was fantastic in making sure that everything flowed seamlessly and even found us some sweet upgrades!!! We highly recommend Kirk and DUA for your travel needs. Make sure to call them up and tell them a bit about yourselves - then let them match something to your travel goals. read more

I totally agree with Kareem E. Allison at Down Under Answers booked my trip of a lifetime for three weeks in various places in Australia. The cost of the trip was fantastic, and every reservation, every detail of transportation was accurate and reliable. We checked into 5 different hotels, took 3 in-continent flights, rode the train and took a boat to Kangaroo Island, and everything was perfect. If there were six stars or ten, I'd still give the top rating. Alas, I am sad that Down Under Answers doesnt' cover China since I'm planning a trip there soon. Thank you Allison for giving me my dream trip!!!! read more

We worked with both AAA of Vancouver WA and Down Under Answers to assist with our trip, because we had no experience with travel to the Outback and since we are members of AAA felt that they could give us the guidance and direction to choose wisely. Since the travel company who specializes in Australian travel was part of this, we never second guessed the itinerary or timing; unfortunately, we should have. When we got to the Outback, it was over 100 degrees, we knew it would be hot but didn't realize how debilitating it was for people who are 70 yrs old. Our first night there, we were booked for a dinner outside from 5pm - 10:30, temperature was 97 degrees, (didn't get back to the hotel room til close to 11pm. Next day, which was actually 5 hrs later, needed to rise to meet the bus at 4:45am for a sunrise tour along with a 6 mile hike around Ayres Rock in temperatures at 100+ by the end of the tour. That same day, 4.5 hrs later at 3pm, we were booked for another tour, this time the sunset tour which again involved an add'l 3.5 mile hike in 100+ degree temps. We paid for these tours and I was only able to make the first night. That money went down the drain. Everyone skipped the sunset tour, again that money went down the drain. My complaint is that the Australian travel experts should have taken our best interest to heart and pointed out the fact that these tours were too ambitious and either suggested the smaller hike (less money) on the second day (which was never offered to us) or suggested that we break up the tours and make one the following day, since we were staying over an extra day. I will not be recommending this travel agency in the future. I wrote a letter of complaint but, after 6 weeks, have still not heard any response. read more

Work with Matt. He's the best! He accommodated all our changes, updates and questions quickly and with a positive attitude. He was extremely easy to work with and efficient. I know it sounds like I'm trying to sell them but its for real. All our accommodations worked flawlessly (flights and hotels). If we find ourselves going back to NZ/AUS we will book with Matt at DUA. Nice job man! read more

I am an Aussie that always books her own trips and have done so for the last 38 years. Recently I have had to make spur of the moment trips to Australia to take care of an ailing elderly mother. I decided to call DUA to see if they could access cheaper, last minute reservations for me. I spoke to Kirk and he could not have been more accommodating and sympathetic to my needs. I have made 4 trips since January and each time I have had to change flights because of the seriousness of my mothers health. I even spoke to Kirk after hours and he never made it feel like an imposition. Last trip I arrived at Seatac without my reservation for my Australian flight and even though the office was closed for the day I reached Kirk and he accessed my itinerary and I was able to provide my confirmation code. I have also dealt with his assistant Anna who has been wonderful too. I have rated them with 5 stars because I am so happy with their personal, professional service. read more