Have You Heard Y.E.T? – March 2025
We celebrate 2 years in publication, and launch a new segment in the March edition of ‘Have You Heard Y.E.T?!’
This month’s newsletter celebrates our second Anniversary of Have You Heard Y.E.T?!’ (Yep, our magazine has now been in print for 2 years!) We cover off some highlights from our March tours, introduce a new segment – ‘Our Suppliers’ and the destination of the month is Puffing Billy & The Dandenong Ranges.
What’s happening at Your Exclusive Tours?
Wow…it’s the second birthday of Have You Heard YET?! and we’re celebrating with the launch a new segment called ‘Our Suppliers’.
Your Exclusive Tours has a number of a suppliers that make our private tours come to life and create memorable experiences for our guests. We value the connection and relationships we have built with these suppliers over the years.
We’ve created the ‘Our Suppliers‘ segment to acknowledge and highlight our amazing suppliers that support and work with us. These businesses range from small & family run businesses through to large businesses. They are all every bit different which helps us to create, explore, and experience our extensive range of private tours.
The best part is it will work like a raffle. We will draw one of our valued suppliers out of the bowl and feature that business in our monthly edition of “Have You Heard YET?!”.
With the start of March has come the change of seasons into autumn. We have continued to enjoy an extended summer with warm weather and amazing days. The month has produced some great tour experiences around Melbourne, along the Great Ocean Road, Phillip Island, Mornington Peninsula, Yarra Valley, and several combination tours across multiple regions.
Some of our highlights included:
Exploring and indulging in fresh seafood at Queen Victoria Market on our Melbourne City Sights & Surrounds Private Experience.
We hosted some lifelong motorsport enthusiasts from London on a Phillip Island experience. Our friendly banter with our guests soon turned serious with a “Battle of the Ashes” go-kart racing around the Phillip Island Grand Prix track.
Other guests enjoyed a slightly slower paced experience, enjoying the simple pleasure of walking along the beach and having our YET guide capture some candid and memorable moments for them to treasure.
New Segment : Our Suppliers – Featuring Boat O’Craigo!
Welcome to our new segment Our Suppliers, which will feature a location that we love to include on our tour experiences. We’ll tell you who they are, what they do, who should visit, and why we love them! We’re kicking off this month with Yarra Valley Winery Boat O’Craigo.
Who are they?
Nestled in Victoria’s highly acclaimed Yarra Valley wine region, Boat O’Craigo is a second generation, family owned, boutique winery renowned for producing some of Australia’s finest hand-crafted wines
What do they do?
Boat O’Craigo grow and produce some amazing wines that challenge the pallet of every wine enthusiast, including their unique and winning Méthode Traditionnelle Sparkling combining Chardonnay and Pinot Noir.
Why we love them
When we take our guests to Boat O’Craigo, we are always greeted with a friendly smile and amazing vistas overlooking the vineyard. They enjoy sampling a variety of wines, paired with a grazing board of fresh local produce to taste, and divine casual dining options. Many of our guests leave Boat O’Craigo having purchased a bottle or two to share with their own family and friends.
Review of the Month
This month’s review is from Darren Holcroft. Darren and his family were our guests for both our Yarra Valley and Phillip Island experiences and had a great time with Chauffeur Guide Rob. We’d like to thank Darren for leaving his review.
Destination of the Month – Puffing Billy & The Dandenong Ranges
As Autumn kicks off in Victoria, our beautiful Dandenong Ranges become a riot of seasonal colours. As trees begin to shed their summer leaves, bold reds, yellows and oranges surround the evergreen gums and provide carpets of crunchy autumn leaves for kids (and adults that like to behave like kids!) to gleefully stomp through.
What better way to see the best of the Dandenong Ranges in Autumn than from Victoria’s very own Puffing Billy steam train? Sit back on the authentic wooden benches, or dangle your arms and legs from the carriage windows as you wind through some of the most beautiful scenery the ranges have to offer.
Other breathtaking views await at the Sky High Mount Dandenong Lookout, where guests can take in a view stretching from the Mornington Peninsula across the bay to the You Yangs ranges. Sky High’s gardens, the Australiana Tree and the ‘Giant’s Chair’ also provide fun photo opportunities.
The Dandenong Ranges Botanic Gardens (formerly the National Rhododendron Garden) finish up the trip, with abundant brilliantly coloured blooms of rhododendrons, azaleas, camellias, daffodils and more. Seasonal changes ensure the gardens are a delight all year around, and while visiting in Autumn, this is where our guests can go crunching their way through that carpet of autumn leaves!
Our Puffing Billy and Dandenong Ranges experience is a hit with guests of all ages, and the perfect choice for a multi-generational family tour. You can find out more about it here.
Bucket List Destinations – Kelly Krajnc
Our Bucket List Destinations feature continues with MAPS team member Kelly – where would she go if money, time and logistics were no barrier?
- What is your YET bucket list destination / experience and why?
The Puffing Billy & Dandenong Ranges Tour is at the top of my YET bucket list. The tour starts in the hustle and bustle of the city where there is a symphony of sounds, a constant flow of people walking by and buildings rise up like giants. Within an hour we whisk you away to the peace of the Dandenong Rangers, surrounding you with lush ferns and towering trees. Here you jump on an old steam train with open carriages that allow you to fully experience the beauty of the Dandenongs as you take a ride through rolling green hills and lavish fern gullies. There are plenty of photo opportunities and your host can even capture the moment the train passes over the wooden bridge as you wave from the carriage.
- What is your personal bucket list destination / experience?
My personal bucket list is to tour around Australia. We have a stunning variety of landscapes, from rugged mountain rangers, pristine beaches with turquoise water, vast deserts with dramatic cliffs and lush rainforests, I want to see everything it has to offer.
Stay tuned for more news in our next edition of ‘Have you heard Y.E.T?!’ where we feature Chauffeur Guide Ben, and in the meantime, if you haven’t yet subscribed, you can do so here: