Ballarat and Sovereign Hill Day Tour with Optional Wildlife Park from Melbourne

We had a lovely day out enjoyed Sovereign Hill even managed to find gold

This unusual tour for Americans was quite good. My husband's great-great grandfather was a miner at Sovereign Hill where a major gold vein was found. He wanted to visit this recreated mining town. The residents wear period costumes from the 19th century and many ply the trades appropriate to the times such as gold smeltering, tinsmithing, bakers, dry goods, etc. There is also a candy making shop which specializes in lollies--a hard and variously flavored type of candy which is beloved by Australians. Since many of the miners were from Cornwall, England delicious pasties can be had for lunch from the bakery.

Our driver/guide, Don, was knowledgeable about the area as we drove to and toured the city of Ballarat. Sovereign Hill is part of Ballarat. It is a pleasant town with some interesting Victorian arcitechture. At Sovereign Hill he left us to explore the area on our own until departure time.

It was clear that Don enjoyed introducing tourists to this wonderful area.

I should also add that Ballarat is a plot point in A. Conan Doyle's Sherlock Holmes story The Bascombe Valley Mystery in case someone is a Sherlockian--another reason for our visit.

We did not visit the wildlife park. Those who did were dropped off at the park and the rest of us went on to Ballarat. The park visitors were later picked up at the park and driven to Sovereign Hill for their visit.

There is a theatre which at times has an impromptu performance on Main Street. British red coats also march down the street complete with a small drum corp. Muskets are fired off at the town square and horse drawn cart tours are also available. Demonstrations of gold smeltering are given throughout the day. There is also a gold mining encampment that can be seen. Tours of a real gold mine are also offered. My husband who took the tour thoroughly enjoyed it and said that it was also very informative.

Very fun and unique experience in a mining town. Unfortunately I only have 4 hours to stay. I would like to stay longer if I got a chance to come again!

Great trip will do it again

Ballarat is a beautiful city! Had a great time in Sovereign Hill and experiencing the 1850s. Thank you to the Driver Guide and AAT King for a fantastic time!

We found our coach driver Con very impressive .The day was great.

The trip was great, bus driver hilarious, gave good info.
Sovereign Hill worth the visit, very well re enacted, would have liked to see more period related crafts for women but that's just me

Excellent tour. Thoroughly recommended.

The trip was very enjoyable. The coach was comfortable and the driver was friendly and interacted with the group. We had a couple of stops along the way and a tour around Ballarat which was very interesting. Sovereign Hill was great, a wonderful look back in time, we had a ball and would recommend the tour to everyone.

Its A-Must-Visit place. The tour company team members are friendly. Very informative and knowledgeable coach driver. Price is reasonable from Viator as we travelled using coach bus with bathroom.