My husband and I did 2 full days with Exceptional Kangaroo Island on our honeymoon, as suggested by our travel agent.
We did the Island Life Tour and the Flinders Chase tour. We had wanted to do them in that order but upon arrival, found that the company swapped our days to maximize how many people they could put on each tour van. That makes sense. However, on that first day (Flinders Chase tour), they packed every seat full in an older van that was way too squished and had poor visibility out the windows. We could hardly see out and my husband got really claustrophobic for the first couple hours until we were able to get out and switch him around with other passengers to fit better.
One of the other women on our tour complained about the experience to the guide who said they haven’t been able to get a new van since covid and they’re received this complaint from other groups before. The company knew it would be a very unpleasant experience, and yet proceeded with accepting as many reservations as they did.
Additionally, the Flinder’s Chase Tour specifically was a TON of time riding around in the van versus being out seeing and doing things. It’s tough because we wanted to visit the landmarks on the island and those take time to drive to, so we understand that a good amount of time in the van is necessary, but when we got there it was like we’d get out for a few minutes and wander around, then go back in the van. I can see how that would be desirable for the other folks on our tour who were all retirement age and older. But for us, who are in our 20's and enjoy being active and maximizing our time spent in each place we travel to, this tour was frustrating and disappointing, especially for how much we spent on it.
The 2nd day for the Island Life Tour was better. We had a newer van that was bigger with better visibility out the windows and less people packed in it. Much more comfortable. We spent more time outside looking at animals and learning about our surroundings.
If I were to do Kangaroo Island again, I would rent a car so that we can have much more flexibility and our ability to get around the island would not be so limited. We could have seen all of the landmarks but also be able to spend more time outside walking/hiking. I probably still would have done the Island Life Tour because it was great to have a guide to educate us. But for the landmarks that we saw on the Flinder’s Chase Tour, we could have googled information about what we were looking at and had the same/better experience.
I want to mention that after the first day, we were told the company owner could call us to rectify the situation, but we never received a call. That is the primary reason I feel compelled to leave this review.
Overall, I do still believe the Exceptional Kangaroo Island is the best touring option on the Island (as we heard that from a few local people), but encourage them to prioritize the customer experience (which should result in more profit over time) over maximizing short term profits. I understand that small companies are still hurting from covid, and specifically KI companies who are still recovering from the fires, and that I do not have visibility to their business strategy; these are my 2 cents.
Thank you for taking the time to read this review.