We used Posh Penguins back in 2018 for our first trip to Phillip Island. We have family that live in Victoria, so we normally make the long trip over every 1 or 2 years. This time we were travelling with friends who had never visited, so we decided to use them again. We had James as our driver last time. This time we had Tom. He was just as good, safe, professional and just wanting us to have the best experience.
The trip back in 2018, we choose to visit the Vietnam museum from their ‘optional extras’ list - which was really good. This time, my wife insisted on choosing the Wildlife Park. Again, this option was very good. We got to hand feed kangaroos, got a picture up close holding a koala (well, as close to holding it as you are allowed) and met some other native Australia animals that our friends from Europe had never seen before.
The rest of the tour had a similar pattern to the previous year. A visit to the stunning Churchill island, where this time we took part in some of the activities. My wife successfully tried the cow milking, whilst I comically failed at the whip cracking. We also watched an interesting sheep sharing demonstration and a working dogs display. Heaps of wildlife here as well. Very varied - black swans, wallabies, funny purple hens, highland cows.....all sorts!).
We visited a koala refuge, got some great pictures. Then we went on a bush walk and saw some wallabies in their natural habitat. Dropped in at a local surf spot, watched a few wipeouts, then grabbed dinner.
Dinner venue was not great (at The Penguin Parade), but it would seem all the visitors eat in the same place as there is literally nothing else anywhere nearby for miles and miles. So I guess this unavoidable. The food wasn’t bad, but it was quite busy and the food is at tourist prices. Our guide did make us feel better about the experience - all the money spent in this venue goes back into the fight for local penguin conservation.
For the Penguin Parade last time we had the Penguins plus upgrade. This time.....we choose the ‘Underground’ upgrade, which was fortunate, as it was raining in the evening, and this is the ONLY place you are undercover AND it’s limited in number, so we were one of the very few tourists who didn’t get wet. I strongly recommend upgrading your ticket, at least to this option. This was very easily done when we made the booking, and we just paid the difference to Tom on the day. It’s worth noting here that the main grandstand can have 2,000+ people, so it was much more civilised to get an upgrade. Plus We were only charged what we would have paid if we had of upgraded directly ourselves, so it’s nice to see a company not seeing it as another way of making extra money in the side.
So yeah, another great day out with Posh Penguins. I feel I have now seen everything there is to see on Phillip island so won’t be using their services again, but I would certainly recommended them to my friends and family.