88 Luxury Tours — Local services in Melbourne

We loved every part of our day on this wonderful private tour (Great Ocean Road) with Melvin!  The booking process was easy as Melvin was quick to respond and arrangements could be made quickly.  Melvin was gracious to accommodate us with only a few days notice; he picked us up at the front door of our apartment and spent the day driving us around the Great Ocean Road tour which included the Twelve Apostles/Port Campbell National Park, Gorges Chocolates and alpaca farm, a bakery, and the Great Otway National Forest.  Melvin knows all the best spots and how to avoid crowds, is a careful and skilled driver (especially on those windy, challenging roadways), and knows an abundance about the area and its history, along with up-to-date happenings. We had such delightful conversations throughout the day and it was our sincere pleasure to meet Melvin and spend time with him.  It was also relaxing to not have to drive a rental car (especially as Americans and having to drive on the left side of the road!) and we could just enjoy the magnificent scenery.  Melvin's Mercedes is extremely comfortable and he has water and wifi available (who needs wifi on such a gorgeous trip?).  He was patient in waiting for us while we viewed the sights and also for lunch in Fort Campbell, as well as flexible in what to see along the way. It was a long day but one of our most memorable while visiting Melbourne - a huge thank you to Melvin for being a fantastic driver and tour guide! We can't wait to return to Melbourne and book him again for another fun excursion - we highly recommend booking him...

I chose 88 Luxury Tours after a prolonged research on the various tours and their pros and cons. I am happy I chose them. The whole tour and the entire 12 hours for so much fun and enjoyable for my entire family. The communication is excellent, prompt pick up in the morning. Clean, modern and spacious luxury Mercedes coach. Quick stop for a nice breakfast in a quaint little town of Colac along the way to the 12 Apostles. Doing the tour in reverse means we were the first ones to reach and there was minimal crowds. They accommodated our request to do the helicopter tour which was worth every penny. A nice walk in the rainforest was followed by lunch in Apollo bay. We then got to see some koalas in the wild along with some kangaroos in the fields. Drive through Anglesea and Lorne with brief pit stops for some bathroom breaks and photo stops along the way till we reached the Archway of the GORT for the customary photo. The drive along the ocean was awesome. The final stop was at an awesome chocolate factory. We promptly arrived back to our hotel around 18:30 Melvin, our driver and guide was just fab, kept us all entertained with lots on info along the way and kept quizzing us. He made the difference. I can’t recommend this tour...

Update following my original negative (1 star) review: Melvin (who unfortunately was not our guide that day) contacted me promptly after seeing my review to offer an apology and efforts to amend the situation. It was very genuine and kind. If you choose this company, perhaps request Melvin as your guide.

The original review: The booking was easy and our driver was a nice guy. However, we paid for a private tour, not a car hire. The driver, who’s also supposed to be our guide, seemed very unprofessional as a tour guide. We received no information about any of the locations we went to (we ended up googling to learn about the places ourselves). Every stop was something along the lines of “this place is famous” with no explanation. He didn’t seem to know much about the places we were visiting. He just dropped us off and picked us up. Also, the car was supposed to come with water and we received none and had to buy our own. The private tour wasn’t cheap and while the places we went to were beautiful, the “tour” itself was ridiculous. It wasn’t a tour and we felt somewhat cheated. We might as well just rent a car ourselves. There are plenty of other private tour companies. I wouldn’t...