Phillip Island: Ultimate Wildlife & Penguin Parade Day Tour

Long day and 15 more minutes to eat in Cowes would be nice. Our driver, Steve, was engaging and pleasant.

Watching the penguins return is an amazing experience! Be sure to dress warm as it can get quite cool after the sun goes down and is also quite windy.

Seeing the penguins is so fun and a MUST do in Melbourne! Our tour guide was really nice. He talked just enough to point out a few sights in Melbourne and tell you about the penguins nearing arrival, but not overly chatty if that’s what you’re into (I personally found it to be the perfect amount). I only gave it 4 stars because it was a bit pricy, but I thought it was definitely worth it. It makes getting to Phillip Island easy as a tourist, which is worth the extra money in my opinion (I try to save 5 star reviews for trips that exceed my expectation). Obviously this tour price includes the tickets for the penguin parade and the park with kangaroos and wallabies, so your only extra expense is food.

We would like to see penguin through this full day program and finally we can not.. so please put in the brochure that fullday Philip Island without pinguin 🐧

Craig was a fantastic host during our trip to Phillip island. Drove smoothly, gave us plenty of information and was considerate to our needs. I had my kids with me and chauffeured us around the zoo. Craig also was kind us enough to drop us to our hotel even though it was not one in the list of drop offs. Overall a great experience

What a superb day. Elliot was a brilliant guide. A Philip Island native but also really knowledgeable about Aussie history as a whole. He made the trip fun. Would definitely recommend

Eliot was the best. The fact that he grew up on the island only made the day better. Great to have that insight. We loved the Moonlit sanctuary, the beaches and the Penguin parade, and will not soon forget the wonderful adventure. Thank you!

Absolutely brilliant tour! Did this tour solo and it was still a great experience. The tour guide John was amazing right from the start - incredibly knowledgeable and so funny and quick witted. The tour itself if great but stands out so much more because of John! We stopped at five locations in all - Moonlit Sanctuary, Cape Woolamai Beach, Cowes town, Nobbies boardwalk and the penguin lookout. The penguin experience at sunset is fantastic and all locations are well worth seeing. Good amount of food options at Cowes town before seeing the penguins. Can’t complain with the price but could have used a bit more information about the pickup but John was able to sort everything out swiftly. Tour starts just after lunch and returns to Melbourne around midnight. Highly recommend if you get the chance!

Purchasing the experience through the app was simple and straightforward. However, our tickets and the Viator website listed the activity start time as 12:45. We left the hotel at noon and walked 25 minutes to the meeting point to ensure we arrived early. No one showed up. When we called the number on our ticket, we were told the actual pickup time was 1:35 and that they had no control over what Viator prints on the tickets. We were too far from the hotel to return and far too early to simply wait, so we went for a coffee and came back at 1:25. A bus arrived about 1:35, but we were told by the driver that we weren’t on the list. Thankfully, I insisted that the driver call the office and only then did they confirm that this was indeed our bus. By the time the mix-up was resolved, the window seats were taken, and the only two seats together were in the back row. The curtain tie-back was missing, so we spent most of the day wrestling with the curtain just to see out the window. The bus, driver, and scheduled stops themselves were fine. We reached our first stop at 3:00 PM; the driver collected our tickets, returned with instructions, and told us to be back on the bus by 3:50. This gave us less than 45 minutes to see the animals. From there, the day continued with very short stops: a charming town for dinner where everyone split up to find their own food, a boardwalk for 15 minutes that a distant view of islands said to have fur seals (which could not realistically be seen from shore), and a quick 15-minute walk on a beach. Finally, we arrived at the penguin sanctuary. We received our tickets and instructions, then made our way to the viewing stands. The first penguins appeared about an hour later. They came ashore in small groups of 7 to 15, with several minutes between each arrival. In the dark, the experience felt a bit anticlimactic. We were asked to return to the bus about 35 minutes after the first penguins appeared. After that, we boarded the bus and headed back to Melbourne, concluding a 12-hour day. We appreciated not having to do the driving, but I’m not sure I would recommend spending that much time on this particular tour.

This is a totally amazing tour. My thanks to Elliot for his care and attention to our safety, wellbeing and enjoyment. Wonderful to see so many animals and birds being so looked after. Despite the really cold weather it was a joy.