Montague Island Adventures & Charter Fish Narooma — Local services in North Narooma

First, I have not left a bad review for any company before but felt I wanted to write one here to save other people from the same experience we had. I want to start with beware of this company's extremely strict cancellation policy. No matter what the reason, they will not reschedule your tour, let alone issue you a refund. Only book if you can 110% guarantee you can attend the tour or you will be out of pocket hundreds of dollars. We asked to reschedule our recent snorkelling tour as we had a family member with possible cold symptoms and of course wanted to do the right thing. We were advised that we could only reschedule if they found other people who could take our spot. Given we had already paid for the tour, we are unsure if strong efforts were actually made to fill our spots. After having to follow up with the company several times to hear if our spots had been filled, we eventually received a brief and uncaring 3-word response back saying the spots couldn’t be filled. Even a tiny bit of compassion or understanding for our situation would have gone a long way. We understand that a lot of tourism driven businesses have been hit hard by COVID-19 and need to protect themselves where possible. However, we are so upset that we have lost all money paid for the tours for trying to be responsible. I cannot comment on the actual tour, which may have been amazing, but sadly we will now not get the chance to experience it. Therefore, please know before you book, this company requires 7 days notification to reschedule your tour. This means, for example, if you book your tour 3 days before and then something happens, you cannot reschedule or get a refund. You will only find out about the cancellation policy after you have paid for your and unlikely to be able to reschedule/cancel. Unfortunately, companies like Montague Island Adventures can set whatever cancellation policies they like, so consumers have basically no rights here. Hopefully no one else finds themselves in the same...

Had booked the afternoon seal snorkel for three persons, two months in advance. The night before the tour, one of us got so sick (could not walk anymore and definitely not swim) that we had to go to the hospital in the morning and spent almost the whole day there, including blood tests etc. As soon as we knew we would not be able to go I called and asked if a rescheduling would be possible (I did not even request a refund, only rescheduling), but only got the answer that the refund policy is very strict and that I would have received it when booking. Sure but who plans to have a medical emergency two months in advance? Absolutely no understanding, no question about well-being or anything. Best part was the mention that one should have a travel insurance for such cases - I don't know who would offer a travel insurance covering a seal swim. Was told to send an e-mail but did not get a reply. All about the money is the motto of this company... I do plan to go to Narooma for the seal swim soon but I'll definitely never ever book with this company again. Most disappointing experience I had in 8 months of travelling in Australia with many plan changes, and all companies were willing to help and offer refunds or rescheduling...

TLDR: Do not miss the experience of swimming with the seals! But I recommend going with any of the several other charter companies in Narooma.

Tour left an hour later than advertised (12:45 instead of 11:45). First snorkelling session was cancelled. Disembarking to the island was sketchy, the skipper crashed the port side of the boat into a pylon breaking the waist door. When we re-embarked from the island, the skipper told us that they had lost their anchor and that the afternoon snorkelling was cancelled. They gave us a $25 refund on a $150 tour, without even getting our wetsuits wet.

When we challenged them on it, they became hostile and made a bunch of excuses. Blamed the weather forecast, the cost of the island tour (it’s run by volunteers and state park employees), that we had been rude to people in town (??). They might add a bunch in reply to this review.

We re-booked a snorkel tour with another company the next day, Narooma Charters (cheaper as well). It was an amazing experience, 100% recommend it - just not with Montague...