Yarra Valley Wildlife & Wine Day Tour with Healesville Sanctuary
Description
Experience a full-day small-group tour that blends native wildlife encounters with wine tasting in Victoria’s renowned Yarra Valley. Departing from Melbourne, begin with a visit to Healesville Sanctuary, established to help protect endangered species, where you’ll spend the morning spotting koalas, kangaroos, emus, and other iconic Australian animals. In the early afternoon, head to the Yering Station Vineyard for a delicious à la carte main course lunch and wine tasting. The day concludes at the De Bortoli Vineyard, where you can relax with a selection of wine and cheese before returning to Melbourne.
Tour Options
Itinerary
Home to more than 200 species of Australian native animals and set amidst natural bushland, the Healesville Sanctuary is the ideal place to observe our iconic wildlife up close. An enhancement to the visit is a Kangaroo Encounter where you have the opportunity with a keeper to feed and pat these adorable animals (if the animal allows). A Koala Encounter is also available but there's no touching or feeding involved, just an opportunity to get some amazing up close pictures. An additional fee applies for these encounters . Please advise if you wish to book this.
You'll enjoy a tasting of estate and reserve wines in the historic cellar door before adjourning to the modern light filled restaurant for an a la carte, main course meal, glass of wine and coffee.
Set on more than 450 acres of vineyard clad hills, the visit to the De Bortoli Vineyard is a terrific end to the day. The wine tasting includes their estate and premium wines together with their iconic dessert wine, Noble One. The tasting is enhanced with a pairing of selected cheeses.
Highlights
What's included
Pickup Locations & Times
The operator will confirm pickup arrangements by the afternoon prior. You will be asked to confirm receipt of this information. We do not collect from every hotel in the city and our pickup route each day is different depending on where our guests are staying. If we cannot collect you from your hotel, we will ask that you meet nearby. The meeting points listed are some examples of where guests can meet us but are not the only ones. Please note, the advice you receive from the tour operator (Vinetrekker) will be the most current and accurate. Always refer to this advice. If you have not received confirmation by 8:00pm the night prior to the tour, contact the local tour operator on 96998148 to confirm your exact pick up point and time. If you fail to be at the advised pick up point at the advised time, no refunds will be offered.
Traveller Ratings
Important Information
- Public transportation options are available nearby
- Not recommended for travelers with spinal injuries
- Not recommended for travelers with poor cardiovascular health
- Travelers should have at least a moderate level of physical fitness
- Children must be accompanied by an adult
- Minimum drinking age is 18 years
- Please advise of any specific dietary requirements when booking
- Collapsible wheelchairs with removable wheels are welcome providing there is someone with the passenger who can help them board and disembark
- Operates rain or shine; please dress appropriately
- Encounters with a kangaroo, koala, wombat or dingo are available at extra cost. Please enquire if interested although places are limited
- We do not accept bookings with infants
- The tour operates with a minimum of two people
Reviews(346)
Apologize for the late review from two months ago and this was one of the top highlights of our 35 day vacation all over Australia and ending in Maui. Despite us being the only one to sign up on a weekday, Paul, himself, gave us a private tour in his comfortable vehicle. Started the day off in Healesville where Paul walked with us and explained the animals native to Australia. Lunch was great with wine at Yering Station. After that off to two wine tastings at Vineyards and we bought a great private reserve Shiraz which we enjoyed on our cruise. Paul is a great guide who is very engaging and makes sure you have a great time. I can't recommend this any more. Must do!!!!!!!
Wonderful to receive your review BostonBruins33 and thrilled to hear that your tour to the Yarra Valley was one of the highlights of your Australian and Hawaii holiday. It's a terrific combination, native wildlife in the morning and fine wine and food in the afternoon. Ending up with a private tour was the added bonus. Thanks for choosing to travel with us and we hope it's not long before your return visit.
My husband and I went on the Yarra Valley Wildlife & Wine Day Tour with Healesville Sanctuary. It was a great day! We were promptly picked up at our hotel on the morning of the tour. Our first stop was the animal sanctuary - what a great facility! Next was lunch and wine tasting at Yerring Station winery. Our guide Paul was warmly welcomed by the winery staff. Lunch was delicious with amazing views. Our last stop of the day was at DeBortoli winery - the wines were great but the cheese pairings were even better! It was a nice escape from the city for the day. Paul is a hospitable, knowledgeable guide. I highly recommend this tour!
Lovely to receive your review CJD703 and so pleasing to know you had the best experience with us recently. The combination of native wildlife, great wine and food plus an engaging guide makes for a wonderful day tour and we're so grateful to get this opportunity to showcase the tour. Well done on choosing us to travel with, you made the right decision.
BOOK this tour!! Paul was AMAZING! He showed some of the most BOOK this tour. Paul showed us facinating parts of the Healesville Sanctuary that we might have missed otherwise. The lunch was spectactular! The food was over the top with an amazing view. And the wine tasting was over the top!! More than just a tasting, we learned about the local wines and enjoyed the cheeses. Honestly, this was fantastic.
Thanks so much for your lovely review Carol. It means a lot to us to know that our guests have the best experience and love what we do. We appreciate your support and thank you for choosing us to travel with.
Such a great day! Wonderful to combine Healesville with a couple of wineries (kept our six year old AND us very happy!! 😊). Paul is so knowledgeable and perhaps more importantly, genuine and passionate. His love of his city is so evident. And impressively, he knew everyone in our group’s’ name and hometown within twenty minutes of picking us up! Couldn’t have asked for a better excursion from Melbourne. Thanks, Paul!
Thanks for your 5 star review, it's greatly appreciated. We pride ourselves on offering a first class wine experience and connecting with our guests and treating them respectfully is important. It's what separates us from other tour companies. Thanks for choosing us as your travel partner.
One of the best days and activities we had in Melbourne. Paul was a fantastic guide and felt like a friend for the day, so knowledgeable, fun, and a great driver. We couldn’t recommend this more. Our tour included Healesville Sanctuary and some fantastic wineries. Great day, thanks Paul!
Great to hear from you Peter and knowing our tour reached a high water mark puts a smile on our faces. The wildlife and wine combo is terrific and very popular with our international visitors. Thanks for choosing us to travel with.
Paul provided an outstanding day of seeing quintessentially Australian wildlife at the Healesville Sanctuary and then a great afternoon of fine wine and cheese (plus a lunch). Paul was very knowledgeable and personable. My wife and daughter and I had a fantastic time and highly recommend this experience.
Thanks for the review and thrilled to hear how much you loved your wildlife and wine tour experience. It's a terrific tour that combines our iconic animals with great wine and food. Thanks for the booking and we appreciate your recommendation.
Adrian was a great guide. He was very informative and has a great sense of humor. The venue bookings were very well organized.
Thank you Sara for your review and Adrian will be thrilled to know how much you enjoyed his guiding, humour and organisation. Well done on choosing us to travel with.
Excellent tour. Small group. Paul is an excellent guide looking after us all the way ensuring we got to our wildlife encounter & then the wine tasting. Very good lunch & cheese nicely spaced & took the trouble to show us wild kangaroos as well. Definitely recommend
Thanks Donna for your 5 star review and not surprised that you loved the small group experience. It's high quality and our guides are prepared to go the extra mile to entertain their guests. Thanks for the recommendation, it's greatly appreciated.
Great day with fantastic wine - even picked up some cab sauv to take back to the states. Lunch was outstanding and the wildlife sanctuary allowed us to see all the Australian animals up close. Shane- thanks for the great day and for sharing your time and knowledge
Great to hear from you and thrilled that you had a great day with Shane. He's a wonderful guide who invests in his guests and wants them to have the best possible experience.
We had the most awesome time with Rob on our Wildlife/Wine tour! It truly was exceptional. Rob was the best tour guide ever! He knows so many intersting facts about so many intersting things - despite what his son says! He really is a terrric tour guide! Our visit at Healesville Sanctuary was soooo interesting. It is a wonderful place. The animals and plants are so well taken care of. Rob told us interesting facts about the Galah, scat of the Wombat, coffee growing and the tree Kangaroo, and the incredible Kangaroo Apple plant. The bird demonstration was truly amazing. Both wineries that we visited we super! Yering Station provided a very informative wine tasting and the lunch there was so good! De Bortolie was also nice with their wine and cheese tasting! The pickup and dropoff was so easy. The ride in the small van was comfortable. The entire day, which was from 9 to 6:30 was great. It was definitely the highlight of our trip. I feel like we have a great new Australian friend. Thank you Rob!!!
