Melbourne

Small-Group Phillip Island Afternoon Day Trip from Melbourne

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Small Group Phillip Island Day Trip from Melbourne

Likely to Sell Out

From $144.28

Select Date and Travelers

up to 24 hours before the experience starts (local time)

8 hours
Pickup offered
Mobile ticket
Offered in: English

Overview

Get up close to Australia’s native wildlife on this memorable full-day tour of Phillip Island from Melbourne, including a handy hotel pick-up. See adorable koalas and wallabies at the Moonlit Sanctuary Conservation Park on the Mornington Peninsula, spot Australia’s largest colony of fur seals at the Nobbies, and watch the sunset penguin parade along Phillip Island's coast. This small-group tour has a maximum of 11 participants, ensuring a personalized experience.

Get up close to koalas and wallabies in their natural habitat
Witness adorable penguins as they march back to their nests after a day in the ocean
Learn about wildlife conservation on Phillip Island
An easy way to get out of Melbourne city for the day

What's Included

Selected City Hotel pickup and drop-off
Transport by air-conditioned minivan
Live commentary on board
Moonlit Sanctuary
Nobbies and Seal Rock

Food and drinks
Gratuities

Meeting and Pickup

You can head directly to the meeting point, or request pickup

Meeting point

Mercure Melbourne Southbank
9 Riverside Quay, Southbank VIC 3006, Australia

Pickup points

Select a pickup point

End point

This activity ends back at the meeting point.

Pickup details

We will message you pick up time from specific hotels. *** Please note this is the time when we depart that hotel, you need to be there at least 5 minutes before that time ***

What To Expect

Moonlit Sanctuary Wildlife Conservation Park

1 hour • Admission Ticket Included

The Nobbies

20 minutes • Admission Ticket Free

Phillip Island Nature Parks - Penguin Parade

1 hour 30 minutes • Admission Ticket Included

Additional Info

Confirmation will be received at time of booking
Not wheelchair accessible
Near public transportation
Most travelers can participate

Children 3 and under not catered for. Booster seat available for children 4 to 7 available.
Tour not normally suitable for cruise ship passengers. Tour starts between 1 and 2 pm depending on time of year from city centre and finishes between 8:30 PM and 11:45 PM. It is your responsibility to check you can make it on time to avoid missing out on tour and cancellation fees.
This tour/activity will have a maximum of 11 travelers

Cancellation Policy

You can cancel up to 24 hours in advance of the experience for a full refund.

For a full refund, you must cancel at least 24 hours before the experience’s start time.
If you cancel less than 24 hours before the experience’s start time, the amount you paid will not be refunded.
Any changes made less than 24 hours before the experience’s start time will not be accepted.

Cut-off times are based on the experience’s local time.
This experience requires a minimum number of travelers. If it’s canceled because the minimum isn’t met, you’ll be offered a different date/experience or a full refund.

Traveler Photos

Featured review

Clare_P

i love my tour guide, his name is Allan, he is so funny and gives so much information about the places where we go. I definitely recommend my friends if they go on the day tour in Melbourne or anywhere else in Aussie.

Reviews

5.0

324 reviews

Total review count and overall rating based on Viator and Tripadvisor reviews

Reviews by Viator travelers.

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Showing 1-10 of 324 reviews

My experience

Marjorie_M, Apr 2024

Seeing the penguins, and learning so much from Travis. We learnt lots of new facts and saw lots of wildlife.

Seeing peguins coming out...

Bipin_M, Apr 2024

Seeing peguins coming out night and noise they make and finding their family and also driving through and seeing kangaroos

Loved the penguins!

Jeffrey_O, Apr 2024

Great tour. We all very much enjoyed the visit to Phillip Island as well as stopping at the conservation center to see the wallabies and koalas. Everything was well organized and smooth. Our guide was excellent!

Excellent trip and worth to go

Clare_P, Apr 2024

Funny Fantastic Fred, Pitiful Penguin "Parade"

JohnD_P, Mar 2024

Fred our guide made this a three star (almost 4!) experience, without him it might have barely made two stars. He was a wealth of information and interesting and funny stoies; and he went out of his way to make our near midnight drop off convenient. The animal exhibit was hot and dusty, with most of the animals laying torpid in the shade. We did get to feed a few wallabies and briefly catch the Tasmanian devil when he came out of his log for a drink of water. We saw more and closer wildlife as we drove around the Penguin peninsula - though that was only wallabies and geese. Though we bought the "plus" Penguin viewing experience, every seat was NOT a "good seat". The viewing area was crowded and only those who suffered the hard board seating an hour early could see well (those on the very front). Not that that made much of a difference as only about 100 penguins passed that location on this night. In all, the rangers reported around 220 for both viewing areas, FAR SHORT of the hundreds to thousands many reviews gush over.

Good to tour Philips Island.

Thomas_B, Mar 2024

Good day touring Philips Island and Moonlit Sanctuary. It was a busy day, as it was Easter Friday. Unfortunately, it was not the best season for seeing the Pequin Parade, as there was fewer sequins the normal.

Cute penguins

Zoe_F, Mar 2024

Although the numbers were low it was worth seeing the penguin parade as the waddle up the beach to their burrows.

Excellent trip. Great guide

Ian_R, Mar 2024

Alan was a fabulous guide, informative, funny and very helpful. Couldn’t have asked for a more helpful guide

Wonderful wildlife experience

Rosanne_K, Mar 2024

Feeding the wallabies and watching the penguin parade was an experience not to be missed Highly recommend spending the extra on the Penguin Plus tickets.

Penguin Parade and much more

Michele_K, Mar 2024

Every part of the tour was excellent. We had enough time at each stop without feeling too rushed. The penguins were supposed to be the highlight but I enjoyed all of the places we stopped at. It was a long journey back but that couldn’t be helped.

Great shorter day trip to Philip island

Anne_F, Mar 2024

Great tour! We got to leave in the afternoon but still saw everyth8ng we wanted to. Moonlit sanctuary was a great stop-we fed wallabies and kangaroos. Philip island is beautiful and the "Penguins plus" has a great viewing location for the penguins. Sam was a great guide!

Great experience!

Angela_P, Mar 2024

What a great trip! Seeing all the different animals at the sanctuary was good, even got to feed the wallabies and a kangaroo. Nobbies was beautiful and loved seeing wallabies in the wild. Penguins were the highlight of trip and not to be missed. Allen was an excellent tour driver.

Unforgettable Adventure

Angel_p, Feb 2024

My wife and I recently went on the Small-Group Phillip Island Afternoon Day Trip from Melbourne, and what an absolutely breathtaking experience it was! This tour is definitely a highlight not to be missed while visiting the area. Our driver was incredibly knowledgeable, ensuring we got to see and do everything on our itinerary. The sights we encountered were simply stunning, and the experience exceeded our expectations. We highly recommend this tour to anyone looking for a memorable and immersive day trip from Melbourne.

Fantastic

Rosemary_D, Feb 2024

Our tour driver Ben was so informative- made the trip more memorable! The penguins were astonishing- never forget this

We will never forget the penguins, the wallabies, and our bus driver and tour guide Fred

Bernard_G, Feb 2024

The penguin parade was unforgettable and feeding wallabies great fun but we would have to rank up there with these at the very top our tour guide and driver Fred. What a knowledgeable guide and what a raconteur!! He made our time on the bus a real delight.

Incredible! Beyond worth it!

Richard_S, Feb 2024

The tour was incredible! Gary was an excellent host and made sure the whole trip was smooth and enjoyable. All the interim stops at the Nobbies and the moonlit animal sanctuary added to the experience. I do think the actual penguin experience may vary with weather, and we lucked out with perfect weather and visibility that offered incredible viewing of the penguins. Note: GET PENGUIN PLUS! The viewing experience is much better and completely worth the marginal extra $. You’re significantly closer (I.e., 2 feet versus 10+ yards) Only downside is it is a bit of a hike to get there, but Gary’s commentary and wit kept it light. Highly recommend!!!

Trip was great! Very...

Andrea_W, Jan 2024

Trip was great! Very enjoyable! Sanctuary was very interesting although could have had another 15 minutes. Penguin parade was great.

Great experience!

Viv_C, Jan 2024

Great experience with an excellent tour guide who was friendly and very knowledgeable. Comfortable vehicle and the trip included everything as advertised. Highly recommended!

Amazing Penguin parade! (with some suggestions to improve the tour)

M_B, Jan 2024

Penguin parade : It was amazing and once-in-a-lifetime experience! I appreciate having an option of purchasing penguin plus seating. However, we were rushed to come back to the meeting point. Then, we found out we had to wait as one guest requested to stay longer. The tour should have given us more time for Penguin parade from the beginning. We wanted to stay another 45-60 min to observe the penguins and check out other things at the visitor center. Nobbies : We loved amazing scenery! We even got to see wallabies and echidnas! Cowes : We really enjoyed dining and checking out the town! which was not included in the tour description in Viator. It would have been very helpful to have a list or a map of eateries as we had limited time and we were not sure what other options were besides what the driver suggested. Moonlit sanctuary : Sanctuary was a bit underwhelming comparing to other sanctuary that we visited. It may be due to excessively hot weather but all exhibits were finished by the time we arrived so we were not able to learn about the sanctuary or animals much. Bus ride : Small group worked very well for us. The driver was nice, upbeat, and entertaining. It was a comfortable ride although it was a long drive. The only downside was that the driver was checking his cell phone multiple times on the way back which was a bit unnerving. Also, there was a couple behind us who talked very loud and non-stop on the way back. It is not the tour's fault but something could have been mentioned to all guests to ensure quiet and relaxing bus ride especially it was late at night. Overall, we had a great time! We feel some areas may need improvements to make it even better.

Australian wildlife fun!!!

Michele_N, Dec 2023

This was a fantastic tour. Our guide, Fred, was not only extremely knowledgeable, he was a hoot! He went out of his way to help us find wildlife including penguins in their nests. The penguin parade was fantastic! Do yourself a favor and buy the upgrade to plus or ranger. Much better views with less crowds. Keep in mind it is cold - very cold. Bring layers and wind protective clothing.

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