Autopia Tours: Litchfield National Park
Think long and hard before choosing this tour. Do you want quantity or quality in seeing Litchfield National Park? If you want to say ‘been there, done that and have the photos’ without spending a lot of time at the sites, then yes, this tour is for you. We, on the other hand wanted quality and were extremely disappointed with the tour.
The option to see ‘Jumping Crocodile Tour’, which didn’t interest us, meant that after these guests were dropped off, we back tracked up the road to Fogg Dam to fill in time while we waited an hour for the Croc Jumping component to conclude. The Dam wasn’t that interesting, there were a few birds, no other wildlife, no crocodiles, so we were stalling for time while the others had their Croc adventure. In our opinion, the Croc Jumping Tour should have been a stand alone tour. The time we wasted waiting, would have been better spent at waterfalls and plunge pools.
After that dubious start, we were back on the coach – ( well it wasn’t a coach or bus - but a small commuter) and headed to a stop for lunch. Not long, just 20-30 minutes. Back on the bus and we headed for Florence Waterfall and Plunge pool, where we were expecting to spend significant time. Not the case. We had an hour, which included the time needed to change into swimmers, trek 15 minutes down steep winding stairs to the rock pool. The pool was crowded with other parties, which cannot be helped, but after 30 minutes it was time to trek back up the stairs to the bus again.
Another trip to famous Termite mounds, 10 min max to look and take a few photos, back on the bus to Buley Rockhole for 10 Minutes, then Wangi Falls. ‘Just 20 minutes at Wangi folks, no swimming as there was a croc seen here a while ago so its all fenced off’. We’ve no issues with that, as safety is paramount, but the short duration at each location was wearing thin on us...
Next a quick stop at a watering hole (bush hotel), no more than 20min though and we are back on the bus. Which by the way was stinking hot with the air conditioning not coping in the heat. In fact, the guide apologised that the air conditioning was not up to scratch. The bus also struggled in the heat and laboured up hills, it was not comfortable, with high backed seats packed tightly together, knees hard against the seat in front of you. If you sat in the aisle you could not see over the head rest of the seat in front of you. If you sat by the window you got fried by the sun.
The entire day was rushed with minimal time at locations. Give us a quality tour with fewer sites and stops to enjoy the Waterfalls, Plunge pools and scenery getting there.
Yes folks, think very carefully what tour you invest in. For us, Autopia Tours are for those who just want to tick the box titled: ‘been there and done that’. With the Tour advertised as a 10hr day we were disappointed that the advertised features did not match the actual experience. Absolutely waste of time and money with no consideration to a QUALITY experience.
A fantastic day! We were picked up from our accomodation on time. Our guide for the day Danny was an absolute legend! Great communication and organisation, highly knowledgeable, safe driver and took us to a cracking waterhole for a swim when the regular one was unavailable for swimming due to crocs. Highly recommend doing the croc cruise. It was so cool!
The experience itself was amazing but we would choose a different tour company if we had our time again.
The bus seats were really uncomfortable with our knees pushed up against the seats in front of ours. The rear of the bus had very limited suspension and the driver Carlos was speeding so we were bounced around a lot. Carlos was so focused on driving fast that he missed our turn-off a couple of times.
To top it all off, we were left behind at the croc cruise and had to contact their head office to phone them to come back and get us, as they didn't even realise that they were two customers short. It was lucky we were left behind where we still had phone reception - had it happened at Litchfield Park we would have been stranded for goodness knows how long.
The croc cruise was amazing though, we thoroughly enjoyed the experience. We can't remember their names but very knowledgeable and entertaining. We highly recommend including the croc cruise in your tour!