Best of Brisbane Full-Day Sightseeing Tour

Brisbane, Australia

Discover Brisbane's historic city centre, river and wildlife on a full-day tour. You'll tour Brisbane's city-centre attractions by coach, take a cruise along the Brisbane River followed by a ride on the Wheel of Brisbane. Cuddle a koala at a wildlife sanctuary and enjoy Brisbane's most iconic views from the Mt Coot-tha Lookout.

On your coach tour through Brisbane's city centre you'll pass prominent buildings like City Hall, Parliament House, St Johns Cathedral and Treasury Casino, and feel the vibrancy of the city's past and present.

Then you'll see why Brisbane is known as the River City. From Newstead Gardens, you will cruise up the river past prestigious suburbs and historic buildings, including the magnificent sandstone buildings of Customs House. You'll cruise under Story Bridge past the Kangaroo Point Cliffs to South Bank, where you'll sample the cosmopolitan delights of colorful South Bank. After your scenic cruise, enjoy a ride on the Wheel of Brisbane before an afternoon visit to Lone Pine Koala Sanctuary.

Australia's oldest and largest koala sanctuary, Lone Pine gives you the opportunity to cuddle a koala, an unforgettably moving experience available only in Queensland. Lone Pine is home to other unique Australian fauna such as kangaroos, wallabies and wombats.

On your return to Brisbane you will visit Mt Coot-tha Lookout to take in views spanning the Great Dividing Range to the west and Moreton Bay and islands in the east.

USD $146.88

Traveler Reviews

Review by: Carl H	February 2012
A must do. Full day trip from Surfers Paradise and worth every penny. Best koala ranch in Australia.

Review by: Shi Rong L	November 2011
very good, had an enjoyable day.

Review by: Renie	October 2011
Entry to Lone Pine was the best part of the day, as you can feed the roos and hold a koala.

Review by: Rosemary A M	June 2011
Driver friendly, did his best, but difficult to drive and commentate at the same time so that suffered I thought ..confusion over who was doing what re boat, morning trip etc at times.

Review by: Mohd Azri M	May 2011
UPS : Very good if you are 1st time in Brisbane. Good choices of sightseeing spots. Lone Pine Koala Sanctuary was the highlight.

Review by: hayley g	January 2011
if you've never been to Brisbane before, take this tour. It was a great way to get our bearings for heading out on foot on our own over the next couple of days. The highlight of the day for me was holding a koala- AMAZING! A once in a lifetime experience.. We then headed out to Mt.Coot- tha where we were greeted by the most beautiful views over Brisbane. My husband and I would def do tour again

Review by: Terri W	November 2010
River cruise was pleasant, treated to great tea and sconce, couddled the Koala, very patient attendants, beautiful scenery

Review by: Yu-Pei C	November 2010
The morning sight seeing was ok. We mostly were on the bus and passed a few spots. Getting off at a couple of peaks and having the wonderful bird-view of Brisbane city. The cruise was good, especially with tea, coffee, and scone. The wheel taking was so and so as it turned very fast, and the view was just average. Very good afternoon at Lone Pine and Mt. Coo-tha, but the time at Lone Pine was limited. We needed to select a few shows, but no time for all. It was really a pity. The koala cuddle was amazing, but you only got 30 seconds (or less) cuddling if there was a queue. Of course I understand that koalas need rest, but it is very disapointing. Our guide was very kind, and he took care of solo travelers. Always asking you how the trip was, and asking if you needed help taking photos. It would be good if having time to visit Newstead House.

Review by: Karen R	October 2010
Terrific bus driver and a great way to see Brisbane highlights and Koalas all in one day. The Koala Sanctuary was fabulous.

Review by: Yolanda B	October 2010
The tour guide was great.he was helpful to everyone and we all had fun.

Review by: Vonny L	July 2010
Nice Tour.

Review by: EDMUND M, Philippines	May 2010
very efficient and knowledgeable tour guides

Review by: Erich H, Australia	March 2010
An excellent day, highly recommended!

Review by: John E, United Kingdom	March 2010
Would recommend this tour to anyone who is a first time visitor to Brisbane. The tour is roughly broken down into the following: 1. City highlights history, 2. River cruise, 3. Lone Pine Koala Park, 4. Scenic Lookout Point. The City highlights gives a good grounding to Brisbanes history and heritage. From a personal perspective though, we struggled to find any wow factors. The River cruise was a nice touch to the day, allowing you to see things from the water as well as taste some very nice scones with jam and cream. As for Lone Pine, this was probably the highlight of the tour. Unless you have held a Koala before only legal in certain states then you will love this. Be aware you need to purchase a photo with the Koala at $16 however, this will not only get you a professionally taken picture which is printed but the photographer will also be happy to take some additional pictures with your personal camera of you cuddling a koala. Finally, the last point of call was the lookout point, the views are pretty impressive and a nice way to end the day.

Review by: Seth R, United Kingdom	March 2010
Excellent day trip, taking lots of the city and surrounding areas. Started the day off with a mini bus tour of the city with our tour Guide Peter, who was very funny and knowledgable, he really helped make the day! After a morning of sight seeing on the bus we caught a boat from Newstead House were we cruised down the river for an hour and this also included cream tea! This is a was a good opportunity for every one to get to know each other! After an hours lunch stop we then boarded the bus again at the the South Bank and took a trip to the Lone Pine Koala Sanctuary! This was excellent, you can cuddle the animals and also hand feed the 'Roos! A lovely place i a very natural setting. I would highly recommend this day trip to see some of the beautiful sights that Brisbane has to offer, you'll learn lots about the history of the city and get to spend some time with the wildlife, even holding and feeding it!

Review by: Barbara C, Australia	March 2010
I enjoyed learning about the history of Brisbane. Pity the weather spoiled the view from Mt Coot-tha but this means I will have to come back!

Review by: Moira-Leigh B, South Africa	February 2010
Loved the Lone Pine Sanctuary the most. Could have easily spent more time there.

Review by: David C, United States of America	January 2010
The trip was amazing and had a very friendly, knowledgeable tour guide. I would recommend it to a friend. Anytime you get a chance to hold a koala and hang out with kangaroos is a once in a lifetime opportunity!

Review by: Ming Xia W, Australia	January 2010
This was good value of money!

Review by: Kate W	November 2009
Good day, managed to see many sights throughout Brisbane, and the Koala Sanctuary was a great highlight. A must at the Koala Sanctuary is to have your photo taken with a Koala - absolutely brilliant! - and to hand feed some kangaroos - again superb! Only minor bugbear would be the amount of time given at the Koala Sanctuary, we only got 1hr 20 mins there, and I could easily have spent at least half a day if not all of the day. Bear this in mind, as there are tours just to the Sanctuary.

Review by: Anonymous, United States of America	September 2009
This was a very fun day! The koalas were wonderful and the cruise was really nice.

Review by: Virginia N, New Zealand	September 2009
This was an okay tour especially the afternoon at Lone Pine Koala sanctuary. The morning was a bit confusing. If this is your first time to Brisbane and you have no idea of the layout, trying to get back to sights you were shown was difficult! I recommend a blown up size map on the bus so tourists on board can follow the route and be able to find the spots they want to see again more easily on their map!

Review by: Joseph M, United Kingdom	September 2009
Despite staying at a hotel in Astor Terrace and very close to the transit centre, we were told we would be picked up at 7.45am. We then picked up other people on route and arrived at transit centre at 8.40am. We then had to move and wait on another bus which didn't leave to 9.25am. We could have left our hotel at 9am and walked to the transit centre, I found this to be unacceptable and would definitely not recommend this trip to anyone. We found this tour to be disjointed as we had to wait on another bus after the river cruise which arrived about 15mins late. On our Australian holiday we thoroughly enjoyed the Blue Mountain tour in Sydney and the Great ocean road tour in Melbourne and this Brisbane tour was our worst experience.

Review by: JOSEPH M	September 2009
Despite staying at a hotel in Astor Terrace and very close to the transit centre, we were told we would be picked up at 7.45am. We then picked up other people on route and arrived at transit centre at 8.40am. We then had to move and wait on another bus which didn't leave to 9.25am. We could have left our hotel at 9am and walked to the transit centre, I found this to be unacceptable and would definitely not recommend this trip to anyone. We found this tour to be disjointed as we had to wait on another bus after the river cruise which arrived about 15mins late. On our Australian holiday we thoroughly enjoyed the Blue Mountain tour in Sydney and the Great ocean road tour in Melbourne and this Brisbane tour was our worst experience.

Review by: Anonymous, Vanuatu	February 2009
I really loved the koalas, they are so cute.

Review by: Kah Heng L, Malaysia	February 2009
It was a nice trip, and my kids loved the tour, especially to visit koala bear and kangaroo sites. The river cruise round Brisbane also increased our knowledge of the history of the city. Tour guide/driver was very caring.

Review by: Leslie W, United States of America	January 2009
We had one day in Brisbane and this was a great way to spend the day. The driver made this all day trip worth while. We really like the Lone Pine Koala Sanctuary and being able to cuddle a Koala.

Review by: Anonymous	January 2009
Good experience.

Review by: Thelma Y, Australia	September 2008
The driver well informed of all sights around. Well done!

Review by: Peter H, Australia	January 2008
The staff were very courteous and the bus driver was very helpful and knowledgeable.

Review by: Madan J, Australia	December 2007
Very professional tour company! Good itinerary as well.

Review by: Rachel B, United Kingdom	July 2007
The tour was advertised as a one-day trip, but it was actually made up of a number of parts, which made it disjointed. For a single traveller, the advantage of doing an organised tour is meeting people, but different people were on different bits of the trip. An hour and a half for lunch on the South Bank was fine, but advance notice would have been useful, as I had walked all around that area and had lunch there the day before. Those are the gripes out of the way. Overall, it was a good trip with interesting things to see, and it certainly gave me a flavour of the city and its surrounds. We saw a nice variety of things, too. The driver was particularly good and friendly.

Review by: Anonymous, Australia	April 2007
I booked the trip for our Japanese visitor. I believe she enjoyed the day tour. I was disappointed that the Friday trip was cancelled due to low numbers - we were only notified on Thursday of this. Our visitor could have gone on another trip during the week, earlier than Friday and left the weekend to spend with us, her hosts.