Blue Mountains Small-Group Day Tour
Wentworth Falls, Echo Point, lunch in Katoomba, then an hour in Leura before the crowds arrive. Guided by Marcus.
See the tourAbout Skivani
Skivani runs small day tours from Chermside with guides who walk the routes themselves
Skivani is a two-tour operator out of Westfield Chermside, not a marketplace reselling other people's buses. We cap groups, keep the itinerary slow enough to actually enjoy, and staff the day with people who know the ground. This page is the short version of who works here, how we got started, and the reasons we do it the way we do.
Where it started
A shopfront in Chermside and one badly timed coach
Daniel Ashcroft bought a second-hand 22-seat coach in 2015 and started running one weekly loop to the Blue Mountains, mostly for people who had been burned by large bus tours and wanted something slower. The shop in Westfield came in 2017, mostly because he was tired of answering the same questions from a phone in a car park.
The reef trip came later, in 2019, after a five-year stretch of chasing different operators for a decent Cairns day boat and giving up. Nobody was putting a real biologist on the deck, so we found Priya and put her on ours.
First coach, first loop
One weekly Blue Mountains run out of a private driveway. Eight guests in the first month.
Shopfront opens
Counter in Westfield Chermside. Walk-ins can now ask their questions in person, which cuts out a great deal of confused email.
Reef trip launches
Priya joins and the first cairns boat goes out with twelve snorkellers, three moorings, and a very nervous cook.
Nine years on the mountain route
Same loop, same range of stops, roughly 4,700 people driven west and back again.
4,700+
guests on the Blue Mountains loop
1,900
snorkellers on the outer reef
22
hard cap on the mountain coach
6
full-time staff in the shop and on the road
How we think about it
Three things we refuse to do
- Sell a tour we have not personally done with a guest on board.
- Pile on shop stops to hit a commission target.
- Let a departure run below six people just to save face. If a day is going to feel thin, we cancel it and say so.
The rest is scheduling. Pick a pace that suits the walking on the day, tell people upfront what they will actually see, and answer the phone ourselves.
People on the coach and on the boat
The team you will actually meet
Six people run this shop. The same faces you speak to on the phone are usually the ones opening the coach door on Sunday morning.
Daniel Ashcroft
Started the operation with one coach in 2015. Still drives most of the mountain days himself.
Marcus Leighton
Walking the Jamison Valley tracks since 2011. Sets the pace and decides when to wait out the mist.
Priya Raman
Eight years surveying outer reef coral cover. Runs the site briefings and the in-water guiding.
Hana Okada
Answers the phone, books the seats and sorts the pickup windows. Usually the first voice you hear.
Projects we are proud of
Two routes, run properly, for nine years
We have never added a third tour. Every time someone suggests a Daintree loop or a wine region day, the answer has been the same: get the two we already sell right first. That has meant a lot of small fixes over the years.
- Re-routed the mountain day in 2020 to skip a retail stop that was wasting 40 minutes.
- Signed Priya as permanent staff in 2021 after a season of contract work.
- Fitted the reef boat with a proper freshwater rinse in 2023, at the request of about forty guests.
Great Barrier Reef Snorkel Day
Three outer reef moorings with a marine biologist in the water. Eighteen snorkellers per departure, no more.
See the tourGot a question that does not fit any of this?
Ring the shop on +61 7 4829 1376 or drop Hana a line at skivani@hotmail.com. We answer within the working day, and if the answer is "we don't do that", we will say so rather than book you onto something else.