Phillip Island Penguin, Brighton Beach, Moonlit Sanctuary from Melbourne

Amazing experience!

This trip was so worth it. Perhaps a little more time on the Brighton Beach Boxes, otherwise it was an amazing experience. Terry was a good host. I highly recommend it!

Highly recommended tour

This is a very great tour that is highly recommended! We are brought to enjoy so many beautiful views and met so many lovely wildlife animals. Our guide Michael is amazing! He is super friendly and energetic that he made our trip so interesting! I like how informative he made the journey too! Thank you so much Michael!

Outstanding Tour Guide - A Truly Unforgettable Experience!

We had an amazing experience with our tour guide Israel!! His deep knowledge, engaging storytelling, and genuine enthusiasm made the tour unforgettable. They went above and beyond to ensure everyone had a great time, answering all our questions and sharing unique insights. Highly recommend! Go West Tour 👍🏻👍🏻

Memorable day - Would do it again

The trip was great. Our driver was wonderful and really entertained us. Time is a bit short. So we had not enough time at the visitor center. I would have loved to read the information there an even buy some stuff. But we actually had to run on arriving and as well when we departed. I would recommend more time for this part of the journey, however, not cutting off any of the stops but maybe start earlier.

Thank You

The best tours, the best guides, thanks to Israel. The travelling is well designed, the travelling music is great, and there are lots of cold jokes. We really enjoyed it, thanks for Go West Teams.

Melbourne animal lovers

Jools creates a strong community on her bus. Very friendly but not over the top talking. Learned a lot. Tell she really enjoys her job. Was on a different tour operator day before with different company and experience was night and day. Had a great day

Fantastic

Michael is knowledgeable and friendly tour guide. Thank you. He is very good in his job despite being in the industry for a month and a half

The best time in Melbourne

Had an amazing tour to Philip Island to see the penguins! Highly recommend joining, especially with our fantastic guide Chris N. He was friendly, helpful, and extremely knowledgeable. Big thanks to him for making the experience unforgettable!

Penguins!! Let's rest!!.

Wonderful, amazing, splendid experience. Very cute, adorable and silly penguins. Worth the experience and waiting. Will try the experience and moment again.

Great guide and great planning.

We had a great guide. Felix was patient, gave us all the tips and information. We had a super wonderful time. Thank you Felix and Go West Tours.

🌟🌟🌟🌟🌟

Our tour guide DAMIAN brought the perfect mix of fun and friendliness to our adventure! We had an amazing time and would highly recommend booking with them. #5starreview #travelwithfamily He deserve a good tip!

Great Itinerary to see nature

Great itinerary that brought us to the places that we wanted to go without having to plan for transportation. The sanctuary was relaxing and Philip Island's views are just amazing. Rachael was also the best guide - full of stories, super organised and also going all the way to make the trip even more enjoyable!

Fantastic highly recommended

It was a great tour: very well-organised and timed. Our gide Lucy was fantastic! I really liked her commentary, she has a great sense of humour! I’ll recommend this tour to everybody who wants to get a great experience and enjoy this unique show

Fun day out

Very well organised with the right amount of stops. Kooks and gamnut did everything to make the day enjoyable.Smooth driving , pleasant commentary and quirky fun! The views were stunning and the penguins adorable

Penguins

The trip was good, enough time for each spot, also the guide was nice. Our guide is Israel, a funny and a nice guy. The penguin parade is worth to go, the penguins are really cute, and can see them in a close distance for underground or the penguin plus

Very good

Very good experience,We have nice trip Gumnunt and jools is friendly to everyone 👍🏽There are also detailed guided tours along the way.

Awesome trip to Phillip Island

It was a fun day and the Penguin Parade was certainly the highlight of the day! Jools (and Gumnut) were attentive to our needs and made sure that we had a great time.

Great day on the Phillip Island tour.

What a fantastic day. Excellently led by Rachael. From the pick up to the drop off, the day was a great end to our time in Victoria. Brighton Beach was just like a breath of a UK beach. Got to feed the Kangaroos and see the other Aussie animals. The penguin parade was amazing. Thanks to Rachael for making it so informative and the hilarious snake bite story.

Super fab

Jacqui was the absolute best tour guide, so enthusiastic and informative and clearly cared so much about us having the best trip. Penguins were adorable. Can’t recommend her enough for any Melbourne tour.

5 stars tour

This tour is amazing nice tour guide is lucky no more rain when we arrive Philip island Moonlit we can take a photo with the koala and can feed the kangaroos

Excellent tour

Our guide Christ H is very nice and funny. He tried his best to make sure we get a nice spot for viewing penguins. The whole tour is well planned and totally worth it.

Loved the penguins and kangaroos!

It was so easy to get to see so many beautiful places by this tour bus. We would've missed these places without this day trip. Worth the price

Somewhat disappointing

The koalas at the moonlit sanctuary were really active and cute. Beautiful seaview at the Phillip Island. Brighton beach was not worth going. And our guide Ashley was not very experienced and even asked for tips at the end of the trip!

Cool penguin experience & awesome tour guide

Fun tour mainly bc Luke is an awesome Tour guide! Beautiful scenery, Luke shared a wealth of knowledge he had of the area. Singing on the bus made atmosphere fun! Thanks Luke for an amazing trip! Penguins were so cool to see. I’d recommend getting penguin+ experience.

Great guide makes a difference

Damien has been a great guide. Trip was great, he was v punctual to pick us up, share about the history and stories about places we went. If u like a trip with a local guide, this is the tour to join.

Amazing Penguin Parade sightseeing

Had an amazing tour sightseeing places outside of Melbourne with GoWest - Lucy as our tour guide! She was very experience and also super friendly!

A day spent with Australia's animals!

Our guide, Jon, was great! Very friendly and knowledgeable; always willing to answer our questions. Clean tour bus and Jon played great music when not narrating the tour. Loved getting up close to all of the animals. Long day, but not exhausting. A definite highlight to our trip to Australia!

An absolute highlight of our trip to Melbourne!

So worth it! Our guide Emily was the best! This trip lasts a full day and takes you through Brighton Beach, the Moonlit Sanctuary Wildlife Conservation Park, and out to Phillip Island to see the penguins. It’s a full day trip. You’re able to eat lunch at Moonlit Sanctuary, and your guides will take you to the town of Cowes for dinner. Be sure to bring a jacket! It gets chilly by the time the penguins come out. We had such a wonderful time and highly recommend this tour.

ROB IS THE BEST!

ROB!!!!!! Rob was the best tour guide ever! This was such a great experience and so worth it! Rob was very thoughtful, safe, and considerate on our journey! Loved hearing all his facts about Australia and the places we stopped along the way.

Love Rob

Rob was an amazing tour guide. Very punctual, funny, and gave great information. Made everyone feel joyful and overall facilitated a lovely time. The sights here were amazing and left me starstruck. Definitely a worth-it tour if you don't feel comfortable renting out a car. Only critique is I wish it started earlier so some sights would have more time to spend.

Penguins!

The tour was fun and exciting! there are lots to explore along the trip with ample of stops and time to get our photos! The Penguin was the highlight of the show

Avoid using Gowest. Unprofessional and arrogant. Your tour becomes a torture.

The guide Terry was unprofessional and lacking the basic requirements to communicate articulately in decent English Guests have to strain their ears and brains to understand him. He unashamedly gave me a lesson on how I should speak to him when he made his own inferences on the context of a small conversation we had at the stop in Brighton. He sulked all through the trip and misled us to buy tickets to enter Moonlit Sanctuary. At Philip Island he arranged to transfer me and my two companions to take us back in another bus because he couldn’t get over his grudge. GoWes MD, another Terry was adamant his guide did no wrong in his role. Judge it for yourself, people.

Great day

We had a wonderful day. Weather was great with sun out. First stop at Brighton boxes then watching animals up close and feeding kangaroos in Moonlit sanctuary. Penguin parade was the best part of the day. It wasn’t too cold. 5 stars and a shout out to Bree our tour guide and bus driver. Thanks to her for all the tips. Lovely tour.

Five star for the penguins

Penguins will be the best part of this tour. Please dun take photo / videos of the penguin. Be a better person. Long journey of staying in bus. Brighton bath box was too rush, we run to the toilet then run to get some pictures then run back to the bus, exhausted. Moonlit sanctuary food was actually quite good, we had the pesto pasta salad and bush burger. The food in Philip island was not good though, bland and no taste ; but coffee was very good.

I enjoyed the tour so much with Lucy!

I had a great day in the tour. I was a bit unsure of going so far to see penguins, but now that I've had the experience, I would say it is a must-see spectacle in Melbourne. It is really emotionally moving to see the little creatures heading home. Our tour guide Lucy made the experience super pleasant:) She has the perfect energetic and caring heart for travelers. She lifted up the whole atmosphere for us despite the a bit harsh weather condition!! She has love for wildlife, which made the tour valuable for me as well. I personally believe that it is always good to have explanations about things from the person whom knows the value of the things. Also she has voice that is comfortable to listen. One last thing is that, even though English is my second language, her clear voice and pronunciation helped me enjoy the tour even more comfortably without language barrier issue!

Amazing memories

All activities were amazing, so much for a good price. The tour guide Jacqui was friendly, funny and informative. The tour was entertaining and historical. even though the weather was temperamental i still greatly enjoyed myself. Loved the moonlit sanctuary and the penguins 💛 100% will be going will be booking again with go west tours

Fantastic tour, fantastic guide

Just fantastic! Sharif was our guide, high-energy and enthusiastic, entertaining and knowledgeable. He even played the didgeridoo for us, quite impressive!! Just a great day, with a super guide host! Brighton Beach, the sanctuary, nobbies...and the highlight of the trip was the penguin parade (I have never seen anything so cute as 2000 penguins waddling home, in groups of 10-30). Breath-taking. We saw wallabies at dusk, of course the animals at the sanctuary which was very informative, birds, an echidna during the drive; Sharif was quick to point things out. Great tour!

Thankyou Sherif!!!

Sherif was an excellent tour guide—knowledgeable, informative, and incredibly helpful. He went out of his way to assist solo travelers with taking pictures, ensuring everyone had great memories to take home. Highly recommended!

Great tour guide

Rob was such a fun and kind tour guide that made the experience better! Everything was well paced but may be a little better during the summer where there is more time before sunset. I would visit all of the stops on my own, so it was great to have them all combined and with a well informed guide! Good combination of views and activities.

A delightful short trip

It was fun, knowledgeable and insightful tour leader, Jamie, punctual. Nice scenery, love to see Australian wildlife and last but not least the little cute Penguins

If you love wildlife and stargazing

What a wonderful day and seeing the penguins arrive was the cherry on the cake. Jacqui was amazing. She was punctual with the pickups in the morning, warm and friendly offering a lot of information to what to expect and what to look for at our various destinations as well as information en route. She was a smooth safe driver and having been a professional driver myself and no point did i feel unsafe. She made the whole experience feel more memorable. A great asset to the company A little tip for Star gazers, when walking along the boardwalk beside the Penguins after they’ve returned there is little light pollution, if its a clear night don’t forget to look up.

Highly recommend!

Lucy did a superb job, she was very thorough and provided ample information. Highly recommend! Th kids also enjoyed this trip and learned allot.

Fabulous and Fruitful Trip!

It was really an eye opening experience getting close to animals which we don’t usually see in zoo. Moonlit Sanctuary was really exciting too!

Memorable

Had a memorable experience. Jacqui gave us good amount of information which enhances pur experience. She is truly amazing.

A must do!

Seeing the penguins was magical experience and it was a wonderful day overall. Can’t recommend enough! Cheers to our helpful guide Chris N.

Great experience!

Excellent tour. Highly recommended. As well, very good value for your money. However, the best was the great service, attitude, and humor of Chris N, our tour guide.

Bree was fabulous

From the moment we got on the bus Bree was a breath of fresh air. Great guide, great trip, saw fabulous places, well organized!! And a really good play list on the bus.

Fantastic Up Close Animal Experience!

Right from the hotel pickup Aaron our tour guide ensured our comfort on the air-conditioned, 24-seater bus and maintained high spirits throughout the day. The tour began with a visit to the picturesque Brighton Beach boxes, perfect for photos. At the Moonlit Sanctuary we had the option of a guided tour or independent exploration, with the opportunity to hand-feed various free-roaming animals, creating intimate wildlife encounters. Arriving at Philip Island in the early afternoon, we enjoyed stunning panoramic views ideal for capturing the island’s beauty. The evening’s highlight was the Philip Island Penguin Parade, where we watched penguins waddle ashore at dusk—a magical sight. Photography was prohibited to protect the penguins. We concluded our day with a deluxe hot chocolate from the kiosk, a pleasant way to warm up as temperatures dropped. The site also offered an onsite restaurant and a mini info center/museum about the island’s fauna and penguin habitat. The Philip Island Penguin Tour was a remarkable experience, highlighted by our enthusiastic and knowledgeable guide, Aaron who shared his relevant historical knowledge of both indigenous and post colonial Melbourne. With so many different day trip tours to choose from I highly recommended the Go West Tour Company for those seeking to experience Philip Island's natural beauty and wildlife , enhanced by an outstanding guide for both Australian and international visitors.

Amazing experience, great value, 10/10 guide

Bluey was a fantastic guide!! Everything we saw was amazing and he was entertaining and knowledgeable throughout. The moonlit sanctuary and penguins in particular were incredible, like visiting a fantasy world for us Americans.

Mr. Israel is a super cute tour guide.

Mr. Israel is a super cute tour guide. He has a wealth of knowledge and always tries his best to interact with everyone on the bus. He introduces historical knowledge, sings, and tells jokes. I really feel lucky that he is our tour guide.