Private 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.
Welcome to our full day Fine Flavours Kangaroo Island food and wine tour itinerary.
Our first stop takes us to Cifford’s Honey Farm, specialising in honey production from Kangaroo Island’s Ligurian Bee since 1973. Gain insights into honey production and indulge in a tasting of various honey varieties, including Jenny’s famous Honey Ice Cream.
Next, we’ll head to the coastal town of American River, which is home to the Kangaroo Island Oyster Farm Shop, known for its delicious Pacific Oysters. Depending on the season, we’ll sample oysters in the shop or at a secluded picnic spot.
Enjoy an alfresco lunch featuring smoked meats, fresh salad, and a selection of local beer and wines.
After lunch, we’ll venture inland, passing by Fryar’s Kangaroo Island Free Range Eggs. Learn about their fascinating egg farm, where hens roam freely under the watchful eyes of Maremma guardian dogs.
Next stop is Kangaroo Island Olives, where father and son duo, Michael and Dom, cultivate olives from a grove of 5000 trees. We have special access to drive into the grove to enjoy a tailgate tasting featuring table olives and their delectable oils, reflecting the Mediterranean climate and South Australia’s rich immigrant history.
Visit The Islander Estate Vineyard, one of Kangaroo Island’s premium wineries, and sample a selection of their red and white varieties in the tasting room. Learn about the creative winemaking techniques used by owner and winemaker Jacques Lurton from Bordeaux, France.
Conclude the day with a tasting at Kangaroo Island Spirits, globally acclaimed for their award-winning gins and liqueurs, including recognitions in New York and London.
INCLUSIONS
- One day private 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 tasting fees and admissions
Pick-up times
Airport: If you are arriving by air, we will collect you from Kingscote (Kangaroo Island) Airport upon arrival. Please advise flight details booking in advance.
Ferry: If you are arriving by ferry, we will collect you from the Penneshaw Ferry Terminal upon your arrival. Please advise ferry details in advance.
Accommodation: Our standard accommodation pick-up time for private tours is 9:00am – 9:30am depending on the location of your accommodation.
If you wish to request a different pick-up time, please contact our team at info@exceptionalkangarooisland.com or on +61 8 8553 9119.
TERMS AND CONDITIONS
SUITS
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Our wonderful guide, Rick was kind and knowledgeable and great at wildlife spotting.
I went solo, and Rick and the other passengers were welcoming and warm.
Yummy lunches were prepared in nature settings with vegetarian not being a problem.
Shauna, our lovely guide, was always full of interesting tidbits of life on Kangaroo Island, which was great to learn about while on the drives around. We went to look for wildlife in multiple locations, and saw a whole bunch of them, including a lot of koalas, which our family loved. We also loved visiting Seal Bay and the beautiful beaches in the north.
Lunch was also really great, freshly prepared by Shauna in the midst of beautiful greenery.
Definitely an experience not to miss out on.
The second day was our kangaroo Island adventure tour FRANCK was our wonderful guide and driver. We had another fantastic day of touring the island and seeing the wonderful wildlife, lunch again was enjoyed very much.
Day one had a wildlife focus. We certainly saw the local wildlife, Sea Lions, Koalas, Wallabies, Roos and a multitude of bird life.
Day two took us to Flinders Chase visiting sights on the way.
Remarkable Rocks and Admiral's Arch are spectacular. The Fur Seal population at Admiral's Arch was wonderful.
On both days Martin presented a delicious lunch, King George Whiting the first day and marinated chicken on day two.
We also had morning or afternoon tea both days.
Martin was a great guide, knowledgeable, friendly and adaptable.
On the second day we asked if we might visit the honey shop that sells the honey ice cream. Not a problem.
Thoroughly recommend Exceptional Kangaroo Island Tours and you might be lucky to have Martin as your guide.
Thank you for the best time.
She kindly offered to do the tours in Spanish as we both speak the language, but I preferred to do it in English. She was not only very knowledgeable but also very fun to talk to.
I was very impressed by her ability to improvise and find alternatives to our second tour (Flinders Chase) which had to be amended on the spot due to the unexpected closure of the National Park caused by horrific weather. It ended up being great as we spotted two echidnas on the road on our new improvised route.
I highly recommend EKI!
Day one was a dream come true. Our guide Mar was out of this world. She was friendly, knowledgeable, flexible and helpful. We started with a stop at Seal Bay and her explanation of the history of sea lions and seals was really informative. We spent the rest of the day between beautiful beaches,a secluded spot for lunch and up close encounters with koala's sleeping in trees, kangaroos in multiple locations and wallabies. We also stopped at a very nice distillery. The day couldn't have been better and Mar was so accommodating that it felt more like exploring a beautiful place with an old friend that being on a tour.
Our second day was with Shauna looking at areas impacted by a fire that devastated the Island and then exploring Flinder's Chase. Shauna was very knowledgeable and, as a long term resident seemed to know the story of every farmhouse we passed.
The park is beautiful and has lots to see. My only complaint is that this tour involves an enormous amount of driving since our hotel was closer to the opposite end of the Island.
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
He was a patient and let us explore and spend as much time as needed at different locations. The morning tea and coffee along with Anzac biscuits and lamingtons were scrumptious. Lunches were yummy and beautifully presented in a unique setting. Thank you for this Exceptionally unique and informative experience.
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.























































