Transport advice from Launceston

[chow018]

I've just got back from doing the Overland Track (great fun!), flying into Launceston and thought I would share my experience in arranging transport to the start. We had a booking though tiger wildernesss - $300. I found them difficult to deal with, and in the end they stuffed our booking up and thought we were arriving a day later than we were! With no transport we approached a taxi and negotiated a flat rate deal which was actually cheaper.

So for everyone's reference, you can negotiate a taxi fare between $250 - $300. The meter on our taxi went to $330 (not much more than what Tiger Wilderness charges), but we paid $280.

It's still a rip-off when I compare the level of service and price you get in NZ for the same thing. There's room for another operator to come in and do a proper job!

[philm]

Hi There
My understanding is that Tiger Wilderness was sold last year to an operator in Derwent Bridge. The previous owner was great, very reliable and went over and above what was expected. I have not used the new owner so interesting feedback.

[South_Aussie_Hiker]

This is interesting to me, as I recently booked with Tiger Wilderness for OT transport to/from Launceston.

I actually went with Tiger because I had no end of trouble with other operators. One was extremely hard to contact and seemed vague and unreliable - it turns out these fears were accurate as another forum member PM'd me about huge problems with them and how they were ripped off.

Another wanted me to write a letter to him with booking details on snail mail before he would take the booking???

Helen from Tiger Wilderness (the new owners) couldn't have been more helpful when I rang, and my booking appeared on their website almost immediately. I'm going to stick with them and hope that your problem was a one-off mistake.

I'm definitely going to ring and confirm the exact dates and times a couple of days prior to the trip.

[walking4charity]

Hmm.. I had booked with Tiger Wilderness for a trip out next April, but being a solo hiker, I was put off by having to wait for other passengers to bring the price down from $300 so I shopped around.
Thankfully, I was told about McDermotts Coaches. They travel from Launceston to Cradle Mountain every Sun, Mon, Wed, and Fri, for just $50.60 and you can book online.
http://www.mcdermotts.com.au/cradle_mountain.htm

[Mutley]

Just returned from the OLT and have some information about tiger wilderness tours. They were recently bought by maxwells coaches, by the way.

They were fairly helpful with the booking process. Emails took a few days to be responded to but generally I have no complaints about the Pre booking process. Their website is a bit hard to use and the purchase of gas link doesn't work.

I was picked up from LST airport on time, with gas bottles delivered. No problems so far...

The mini bus was okay but a bit old and dirty

We had to change drivers about 45 mins from the airport and waited for 30 mins for the new driver to show up.

We stopped at Delorane for other passengers to go to the supermarket. The driver made no attempt to hurry things up and we were in the car park for over 30 minutes.

I ended up starting the walk at 2.15 pm. Four and a quarter hours from being picked up from the airport. There was only a very short delay at the transit centre.

The return bus was booked for 1pm. I called them and was told they wouldn't be there on time and that if I had a problem I should talk to the manager. The lady I talked to, ended up arriving, driving the bus at 4.30. It was later explained another bus had broken down. However the other party booked on the bus had been advised a pick up time of 3 pm two weeks prior.

I won't be using them again but please feel free to make up your own minds. They got me there in the end. I paid 75 and 85 dollars for the inbound to cradle and return leg to Hobart