Kangaroo Island Luxury 'Fine Flavours' Full Day Food & Wine Tour
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Discover the Fine Flavours of Kangaroo Island! Let us take you behind the scenes to learn about and taste the best produce Kangaroo Island has to offer, including fresh oysters, honey, wine, gin, olives and olive oil.
ITINERARY
Begin the day in the pristine farming region of Cygnet River, which produces a range of primary food sources including barley, wheat, canola, oats, lamb and beef. Learn about the agricultural history of Kangaroo Island and pass by Kangaroo Island Pure Grain, which is ‘GM-free’ and offers consumers farm-gate traceability and complete production history.
Our first stop is Kangaroo Island Olives, where father and son duo, Michael and Dom, produce olives from a grove of 5000 trees. This enterprise reflects both our Mediterranean climate and the rich immigrant history of South Australia. Our tailgate tasting includes both table olives and some of the delicious oils they produce.
On our way to the coastal town of American River, we pass Fryar’s Kangaroo Island Free Range Eggs and learn about the fascinating egg farm. The hens are free to roam wherever they like foraging in the pastures under the careful protection of Maremma guardian dogs.
American River is home to the Kangaroo Island Oyster Farm Shop, which produces delicious Pacific Oysters in the calm waters of Eastern Cove. Depending on the season, we will either sample some oysters in the shop or at a secluded picnic spot. Our alfresco lunch features smoked meats, fresh salad and a selection of local beer and wines.
After lunch, we head inland to visit Clifford’s Honey Farm. Since 1973, the Clifford family have specialised in producing honey from Kangaroo Island’s Ligurian Bee. Here we will gain an insight into the production of honey, including a tasting of a range of honey plus Jenny’s famous Honey Ice Cream!
The Islander Estate Vineyards are one of Kangaroo Island’s premium wineries, producing a range of stunning red and white varieties. We visit their tasting room and will sample a selection of their wines whilst hearing about some of the creative winemaking techniques used by owner and winemaker, Jacques Lurton, from Bourdeaux, France.
End the day with a tasting at Kangaroo Island Spirits, who have won numerous awards globally (including New York and London) for their range of beautiful gins and liqueurs.
INCLUSIONS
- One day small group touring hosted by a local guide
- Home-baked traditional Australian morning tea with a selection of hot beverages
- Elegant al fresco lunch set in the bush with a choice of local wines, beer, soft drinks and spring water
- Access to field guides, binoculars and maps
- All necessary fees and admissions
The pick up time will be around 0900, but this will depend on what other pick ups the tour has on the day. We will advise the exact pick up time to the accommodation the day prior.
TERMS AND CONDITIONS
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Ascertaining that we were interested in birdlife allowed him to develop the day beyond the more obvious photogenic subjects (koalas etc) . We struck gold as Mark showed us a wide range of birdlife we’d have otherwise missed. The highlight was a pair of the threatened red tailed black cockatoos.
Nothing was too much trouble for Mark, we’d go on a tour with him anywhere safe in the knowledge we’d come away more informed than when we started.
Top tour, top fella, this day was one of the real highlights of our long tour of SA. If you’ve any interest in wildlife, history, nature and ecology this tour is for you.








Kangaroo island in terms of history, way of life and how life has evolved there. He was able to find the wildlife with his local knowledge, and we learnt a huge amount about the different animals. He also explained about the really frightening times that people on the island had during the terrible fire of 2019/2020, but showed us how the trees and plants are regenerating. The recovery of nature on the island was just fantastic to see. He told us about rewilding work on Kangaroo Island and other conservation work. Craig also cooked a top quality lunch on a BBQ with a covered table. The food was excellent and we were amazed how he produced such an excellent meal. We learnt so much from Craig that day, the memories will last for a very long time. We were also really grateful to Exceptional Kangaroo
Island in showing us great flexibility as we had to postpone our visit and this tour for a whole year due to serious illness. We were so pleased they honoured our booking from 2023. Thanks so very much











We did the Island Life Tour and the Flinders Chase tour. We had wanted to do them in that order but upon arrival, found that the company swapped our days to maximize how many people they could put on each tour van. That makes sense. However, on that first day (Flinders Chase tour), they packed every seat full in an older van that was way too squished and had poor visibility out the windows. We could hardly see out and my husband got really claustrophobic for the first couple hours until we were able to get out and switch him around with other passengers to fit better.
One of the other women on our tour complained about the experience to the guide who said they haven’t been able to get a new van since covid and they’re received this complaint from other groups before. The company knew it would be a very unpleasant experience, and yet proceeded with accepting as many reservations as they did.
Additionally, the Flinder’s Chase Tour specifically was a TON of time riding around in the van versus being out seeing and doing things. It’s tough because we wanted to visit the landmarks on the island and those take time to drive to, so we understand that a good amount of time in the van is necessary, but when we got there it was like we’d get out for a few minutes and wander around, then go back in the van. I can see how that would be desirable for the other folks on our tour who were all retirement age and older. But for us, who are in our 20's and enjoy being active and maximizing our time spent in each place we travel to, this tour was frustrating and disappointing, especially for how much we spent on it.
The 2nd day for the Island Life Tour was better. We had a newer van that was bigger with better visibility out the windows and less people packed in it. Much more comfortable. We spent more time outside looking at animals and learning about our surroundings.
If I were to do Kangaroo Island again, I would rent a car so that we can have much more flexibility and our ability to get around the island would not be so limited. We could have seen all of the landmarks but also be able to spend more time outside walking/hiking. I probably still would have done the Island Life Tour because it was great to have a guide to educate us. But for the landmarks that we saw on the Flinder’s Chase Tour, we could have googled information about what we were looking at and had the same/better experience.
I want to mention that after the first day, we were told the company owner could call us to rectify the situation, but we never received a call. That is the primary reason I feel compelled to leave this review.
Overall, I do still believe the Exceptional Kangaroo Island is the best touring option on the Island (as we heard that from a few local people), but encourage them to prioritize the customer experience (which should result in more profit over time) over maximizing short term profits. I understand that small companies are still hurting from covid, and specifically KI companies who are still recovering from the fires, and that I do not have visibility to their business strategy; these are my 2 cents.
Thank you for taking the time to read this review.


Lunch was to die for
Throughout the day our guide Mike was excellent
Wine tasting and gin tasting was great way to finish the day


Among the animals we saw on Kangaroo Island were several koalas and kangaroos, as well as several species of birds. It was nice to visit some remote spots that were off-the-beaten-path. A highlight of the day was the opportunity to walk on the same beach as the Australian sea lions. Lunch was lovely with grilled whiting and salad.
Exceptional Kangaroo Island also booked a shuttle bus to the ferry terminal after my tour. I caught the evening ferry to the mainland and then had a two hour bus ride to Adelaide. It was a long, but enjoyable day.




I highly recommend the tours be aware that there is a lot of driving time, but it is well worth it.


We had different guides for each tour - Lee and Franck, respectively. They both provided thorough and fascinating information about KI, its history, the sights and wildlife. They both took us to spots off the beaten path, where we could see wildlife. The Remarkable Rocks (Flinders Chase) were truly - remarkable! The freshly prepared and delicious lunches were served on a white tablecloth, with cloth napkins and real dishes. And wine - as well as a selection of other beverages. In addition, they provided gluten free food for my husband (celiac), including at morning tea.
We were especially fortunate to be the only ones to have booked Flinders Chase Focus on that date, so it ended up being a private tour. And Franck was great at accommodating our last-minute request to enable us to leave a bit earlier to catch an earlier ferry.
Communication with the company prior to the tour was excellent and they provided many helpful suggestions, including transportation information, recommended tours based on our interests, and other logistics. The caliber of these tours made KI one of the highlights of a 5-week trip to Australia & NZ.




cooked by Roberta, in the outdoors.
So glad we did tours with this company.








Two days on KI visiting the main attractions (seals, remarkable rocks , arch and raptor park) would have surficed. Beaches ok.
If you aren't into camping or tramping very limited activities and VERY windy. So windy our two boat activities were cancelled which apparently is not a rare occurence.
On our last morning we finally saw some kangaroos.
Staff at tourist attractions were extremely friendly in South Australia including KI.
Sorry Kangaroo Island one place I would not recommend .














He spent more time talking about his old jobs especially lobster fishing than he did telling us about the island and the things we were supposed to see. He even made a stop showing how you load your gear onto a boat!! Kind of rude and ridiculous. He drove so fast we couldn’t see any animals and even said “oh there’s a lizard “ as he sped off.Bottom line is he offered no insight into the sights other than how they relate to lobster. We could have done this on our own and read the notes at each stop. Now the company has some great guides and we heard from other folks that this tour is good but we suggest you ask for some other person than Lee.


-Expect to travel 100's of kilometres a day to access anything
-'Un'remarkable rocks
-Wind Gusts almost unbearable
-Access roads to lookouts, feature potholes well on the way to becoming sink-holes
-Barren Landscape
-Seen 1 seal, seen them all
Not worth a first, let alone second visit.


A short time after leaving the airport we pulled up at a site where we were served tea & coffee with excellent cookies. Minutes later we were viewing Koalas in the trees! We’ve seen so much over the 2 day period and learned so much about the wildlife, the settlers, the geology and the devastating impact of the 2019/20 fires.
We were fed extremely well (the cooked lunch in the bush was very special) and wouldn’t hesitate to recommend this company and Lee as a guide. Hopefully we’ll be back one day.




We saw lots of kangaroos and some koalas including a mom and Joey koala which was great.
Michael then prepared us a terrific lunch with local wine.
I wish we had more time on the island to explore the towns and beaches - but we had to catch our return flight and it was really raining by then anyway. It is surprising that Kangaroo Island is so unspoiled. I can see why people love living there.
I highly recommend this tour to anyone visiting Kangaroo Island. Don’t miss it! Thanks Michael!




We saw wonderful wildlife - koalas, kangaroos, wallabies and seals -ate delicious food, viewed beautiful beaches and learned about the island and the wildlife.
I would thoroughly recommend this company for an excellent small group tour.










Both tours were truly extraordinary, fulfilling and exceeding our expectations.
The nature was spectacular and we saw both kangaroos, koalas, wallabies, fur seals and sea lions. All in the wild - no nature parks or tame animals.
Lunch was exquisite and not at all what you would expect of a bush-bbq.
Perhaps best of all was our guide - 3rd generation islander Lee Barrymann. He knew where to find the animals, he knew all about the island history and geology and could add a personal touch to all stories. He made our little group of families blend really well and made the experience truly special.


Second day we thoroughly checked out the east of the island.
The fresh lunches and snacks were great.
All in all, it was fabulous.

Had a brilliant day out on 3rd December 2019 with Lee our driver and an American couple Dee and Larry. Lots to see, Admirals Arch, Remarkable rocks, Vivonne bay. Saw Roo's close up, Wallaby, Koalas, Echidnas, Seals and birds even a Black Tiger Snake! Tea and cake and lunch also enjoyable.
Really sorry to hear and see the pictures of the recent bushfire devastation, wishing everyone is safe and well and your business isn't affected too much!