1770 LARC Coastline Tour With Picnic Lunch: What You Get

The Town of 1770 sits on a peninsula where Lieutenant James Cook made his first landing in Queensland in May 1770, and the coastline either side of it is still edged by Eurimbula National Park, a park of more than 23,000 hectares gazetted in 1986. One of the most distinctive ways to see that coast is from a LARC, an amphibious vehicle that drives out of the 1770 marina, along the beach and across the tidal creeks. This guide looks at the middle ticket in the 1770 LARC! Tours range: the two-hour Coastline Tour with picnic lunch, from $61.11 per person and rated 4.9 across 92 reviews. It covers what the fare buys, how the ticket compares with the one-hour Afternoon Cruise and the seven-hour Paradise Tour, and the practical questions that come up before booking. For the wider picture across all three LARC experiences, the guide to 1770 LARC tours works through the full range.

What Is The 1770 LARC Tours Coastline Tour With Picnic Lunch?

The Coastline Tour is a two-hour amphibious excursion from the 1770 marina aboard a LARC vehicle, carrying up to 29 guests, with a driver-guide and live commentary on board. It is rated 4.9 across 92 reviews and costs from $61.11 per person. Beverages, lunch and snacks are listed as included in the fare, which is what separates this ticket from the cheaper one-hour cruise where food and drinks are excluded.

The vessel itself is the drawcard. A LARC is an amphibious vehicle, and 1770 LARC! Tours runs them as passenger tour vehicles out of the Town of 1770. Every LARC departure in the operator's range leaves from the 1770 marina, and all three tours carry a maximum of 29 guests per vehicle, so even a full vehicle is a small-group experience by coach standards.

The Coastline Tour is a two-hour excursion that includes a beach picnic lunch. The tour includes beverages, lunch, snacks, a driver-guide, and live commentary on board. Nothing is stated about hotel pickup, so plan to make your own way; the LARC boards at the marina in the Town of 1770, and the meeting point is the marina itself.

The two-hour length matters for planning. It is long enough to cover the beaches and creeks either side of the peninsula with a stop for lunch, but short enough that it does not consume a whole day, which leaves room for an afternoon swim at Agnes Water or a wander through the town. For travellers weighing that trade-off against the full-day option, the comparison section below works through the numbers.

How Much Do 1770 LARC Tours Tickets Cost?

The three 1770 LARC! Tours tickets run from $31.61 to $118 per person. The one-hour Afternoon Cruise is the cheapest at from $31.61, the two-hour Coastline Tour with picnic lunch sits in the middle at from $61.11, and the seven-hour Paradise Tour with Bustard Head and sandboarding is the priciest at from $118. All fares are per person and all three carry free cancellation up to 24 hours before the start time.

Those three prices describe a fairly clean ladder, and each step buys more time and more inclusions. The table below sets the tickets side by side using the figures from each tour's own booking page, so you can see exactly where the extra dollars go.

A few observations follow from the numbers rather than from marketing copy. The Coastline Tour is the least reviewed of the three LARC tickets at 92 reviews, though its 4.9 rating is a fraction above the Afternoon Cruise's 4.8 from a much larger pool of 228. The Paradise Tour's full-day LARC experience holds a 5.0 rating across 615 reviews, the largest review count among the operator's tours.

Spread over time, per hour the middle ticket sits between the other two, just under the Afternoon Cruise: the Coastline Tour roughly doubles the one-hour price for two hours, while the Paradise Tour spreads its fare across a full seven-hour day. That arithmetic is not the whole story, of course, because the fare buys different things on each ticket. Only the Coastline Tour and the Paradise Tour list lunch as included, and only the Paradise Tour adds the lighthouse visit and sandboarding.

If you already know the two-hour format fits your day, seats and current availability for all three LARC tickets are with the operator.

Coastline Tour, Paradise Tour Or Afternoon Cruise: Which LARC Ticket Suits You?

Choose the two-hour Coastline Tour if you want the beach and creek scenery plus a sit-down picnic lunch without giving up a full day, at from $61.11. Choose the one-hour Afternoon Cruise at from $31.61 for a short, cheap taste of Bustard Bay and Round Hill Creek. Choose the seven-hour Paradise Tour at from $118 for Bustard Head Lightstation, the lighthouse tower and sandboarding on the Middle Island dunes.

The Afternoon Cruise is the entry ticket. One hour, from $31.61, food and drinks explicitly excluded, and it takes in Bustard Bay and Round Hill Creek. It suits travellers with a spare hour late in the day, families testing whether small children enjoy the LARC experience, or anyone on a tight budget who still wants the amphibian ride. The Afternoon Cruise guide covers that ticket in detail.

The Paradise Tour is the full commitment. Seven hours, from $118, rated 5.0 across 615 reviews, and the only LARC ticket that lists the lighthouse visit and sandboarding. The operator's itinerary runs along the edge of Eurimbula National Park, over four tidal creeks, up Bustard Headland to the lightstation, where a volunteer caretaker guides the keepers' cottage museum and the skipper takes guests up the tower stairs to the balcony. The afternoon brings sandboarding on the 35-metre dunes of Middle Island, with equipment included, and lunch is prepared by the 1770 Marina Cafe. Children under 8 are not permitted inside the lighthouse tower, a building-standards rule worth knowing before booking with young kids. The full Paradise Tour guide unpacks that day trip.

The Coastline Tour splits the difference, and that is precisely its appeal. Two hours, lunch in the price, no lighthouse climb, no full-day commitment, and a departure point at the same marina jetty as the other two.

The three tickets share a vehicle type, a group cap of 29 and the same departure point, so the differences between them come down to duration and inclusions. If the lighthouse is the reason you came, nothing but the Paradise Tour delivers it; if lunch on the beach with a short cruise around the bay sounds like the right pace, the middle ticket earns its keep. You can compare live dates and prices across the range with the operator.

What Do You Actually See On The Two-Hour Coastline Route?

The Coastline Tour is a two-hour run with a beach picnic lunch, with time in Eurimbula National Park. The route follows the coastline around the Town of 1770 peninsula aboard the amphibious vehicle, with a driver-guide providing live commentary. The operator does not publish a stop-by-stop timetable, so treat the route as coastal scenery rather than a fixed sequence.

The scenery here is genuinely unusual by Queensland standards. The Town of 1770 occupies a narrow peninsula between Bustard Bay and Round Hill Creek, and the coastline south of it runs into Eurimbula National Park, the stretch of coast where Cook landed in 1770. Queensland Parks notes that vehicles are not permitted on beaches in the park generally; the LARC tours are operator-authorised, which is why this stretch of sand is rideable from a tour vehicle and not from a rental car.

Bustard Bay itself carries the history. HMB Endeavour anchored in the inlet, named, in the expedition's dry fashion, after a bustard shot in the vicinity, and Joseph Banks collected 33 plant species behind the beach. A rock cairn dedicated in 1926 stands near the site where one of Cook's crew carved the date on a tree. Your guide will point out what the landscape allows on the day; the commentary is live, not scripted to a timetable.

The two-hour coastline tour packs in plenty, though not everything is included. There is no lighthouse visit, no sandboarding, no island landing and no snorkelling on this ticket. Those belong to the Paradise Tour, and the reef experiences belong to a different category of operator entirely. The Coastline Tour is a sightseeing and lunch ticket, full stop.

Weather shapes any open-vehicle tour, and the Bureau of Meteorology's climate averages for Seventeen Seventy put mean maximum temperatures between 21.5 degrees in July and 29.7 in January, with the driest months June to September. The official tropical cyclone season in the Australian region runs from 1 November to 30 April, and the operator's free-cancellation window on this ticket is 24 hours before the start time, which is worth remembering if a tropical low is forecast near your travel dates.

The full-day ticket spends its afternoon on the Middle Island dunes, and the contrast is worth understanding before you choose. The operator's Paradise Tour page describes crossing tidal Jenny Lind Creek to the 35-metre dunes for sandboarding with equipment included and a swim, before returning by LARC in the late afternoon. That is the extra territory the full-day ticket covers; the Coastline Tour stays closer to the peninsula.

Is The Picnic Lunch And Tour Value Worth $61.11?

At from $61.11 for two hours with lunch, snacks and beverages listed as included, the Coastline Tour sits roughly double the one-hour price for double the time, and well under the full-day fare. Whether that is good value depends on what the lunch and the shorter commitment are worth to you; on inclusions alone the ticket is honest, with no gear hire or food to add on, and free cancellation up to 24 hours before start.

Start with what the fare demonstrably covers. The operator includes beverages, lunch and snacks, a driver-guide, and live commentary, in a group capped at 29. There is nothing on the exclusion side to budget for, which is not true of every ticket in the wider 1770 range: on the Afternoon Cruise, food and drinks are excluded, and on the reef day trips, wetsuit hire or hotel transfers can be extra. Everything else covered here is indexed on 1770 Cruises.

Compare it with the one-hour ticket on pure sightseeing terms. The Coastline Tour costs more than the Afternoon Cruise and buys one extra hour plus the picnic lunch. If a casual lunch in Agnes Water would cost two people a modest sum anyway, the arithmetic starts to look reasonable for a shared experience. That is a planning observation, not an operator promise, since the operator does not describe the lunch menu in detail; the operator's own page calls it a beach picnic lunch.

Against the Paradise Tour the value question flips. For less than double the Coastline Tour's price, the full day adds the Bustard Head lightstation visit, the tower balcony climb, the cemetery path, an optional forest walk, sandboarding on the dunes with equipment, and a full lunch prepared by the 1770 Marina Cafe. For a traveller with a whole free day, the cost per hour of the full-day ticket is much lower and the inclusion list much longer. The Coastline Tour wins only when the day is not free, which is exactly the situation it is designed for.

The review pool is thinner here than on the other two LARC tickets, 92 reviews against 228 and 615, and the 4.9 rating should be read with that smaller sample in mind. It is a strong rating, but it comes from fewer guests.

Where Does The Tour Depart And How Do You Get To The 1770 Marina?

The Coastline Tour departs the 1770 marina in the Town of 1770, the same departure point as the other two LARC tickets and the 1770-based reef cruises. Nothing is stated about hotel pickup, so plan to make your own way to the marina. Agnes Water, the adjoining town where most accommodation sits, is a short drive or bus stop away.

Getting to the region is half the planning battle, and the drive times below come from Visit Agnes 1770, the regional tourism body. Brisbane is 479.9 km or about 5 hours 30 minutes; Bundaberg 122.2 km or 1 hr 25 min; Gladstone 123.8 km or 1 hr 30 min; Rockhampton 224.9 km or 2 hr 33 min. Miriam Vale is the closest train station at 54.7 km or 40 minutes away. The closest airports are Gladstone and Bundaberg, and most flights to both operate via Brisbane.

If you arrive by coach, note the stop location. Greyhound services to Agnes Water pick up and drop off at the AMPOL service station on the corner of Round Hill Road and Captain Cook Drive, which is in Agnes Water, not at the 1770 marina. From there the marina is a short taxi or shuttle ride; the regional tourism body lists a local taxi and shuttle service at aw1770taxi.com. The Agnes Water/1770 Visitor Information Centre at 71 Springs Road can help with local directions on arrival.

The marina itself is small and the jetty is the LARC boarding point. Building in a buffer means you board unhurried.

For the full transport picture, including airport choices and the coach timetable questions worth asking, the guide to getting to 1770 for a cruise covers every route in one place.

What Should You Wear And Bring On A LARC Tour?

Dress for an open vehicle on a beach: comfortable clothes, a hat that secures, sunscreen, sunglasses and a layer for wind on the water, since the LARC runs open to the elements year round. Bring a water bottle, a camera and closed or secure footwear for boarding the vehicle. The operator includes lunch and beverages, so food is not something to carry, and no minimum age is stated on this ticket.

The climate data supports the packing list. Mean maximum temperatures at Seventeen Seventy range from 21.5 degrees in July to 29.7 in January, and mean minima sit between 13.9 and 23.1 degrees, so a windproof layer earns its place on any winter morning departure even when the day warms up. Mean rainfall is lowest from June to September and highest December to March, with an annual average of 1165.2 mm, which makes a light rain jacket a reasonable year-round resident of your day pack in the subtropics.

Sun protection is the one item experienced visitors never skip. Two hours on reflective sand and water is a meaningful UV dose even under cloud, and the vehicle is open. Reef-safe sunscreen applied before boarding, reapplied at the lunch stop, plus a hat with a chin strap or a tight fit, covers most of the risk. Sunglasses help with glare off Bustard Bay.

For clothing specifics and the etiquette of an open amphibious vehicle, the post on what to wear on a 1770 LARC tour goes deeper than this guide does. On the water-safety question, marine stingers are present in tropical Queensland waters year round with higher risk from November to May, per the Queensland Government's general advice, which suggests swimming at patrolled beaches and considering a full-body lycra suit; that advice is general and does not single out 1770 or Lady Musgrave. The Coastline Tour does not list a swim stop, so swimwear is a personal contingency rather than a requirement on this ticket.

Can You Combine A LARC Tour With A Lady Musgrave Island Cruise?

Yes, on separate days, and many visitors do exactly that, since the LARC tours run from the same 1770 marina as the Lady Musgrave Island day cruises. The two do not combine on a single ticket, and the reef cruises run roughly 9 hours, so pairing a full reef day with a same-day LARC tour is not realistic. The two-hour Coastline Tour is the LARC ticket most likely to fit around a reef day or a departure morning.

The reef side of the range works like this. The 1770 Reef Eco Tours Lady Musgrave Island snorkelling day cruise runs 9 hours from the 1770 marina, from $222 per person, rated 4.3 across 257 reviews, with lunch, snorkelling gear, a glass-bottom boat tour and a guided island walk included; that operator states the crossing takes about 90 minutes each way. Hotel pickup is stated as not included. Lady Musgrave Island sits 59 km east-north-east of Seventeen Seventy, per Queensland Parks, inside Capricornia Cays National Park, a coral cay built entirely by corals rather than a rocky continental island.

Squeezing both into one trip is the classic Agnes Water itinerary question. The Coastline Tour's two-hour length is what makes it the natural companion: an afternoon LARC run after a reef day would be a stretch, but a Coastline Tour on your arrival afternoon or departure morning, wrapped around a full reef day in between, is a workable shape. For travellers without the appetite or the budget for the reef crossing at all, the one-hour Afternoon Cruise at from $31.61 is the lightest LARC alternative, and the post on doing a LARC tour and a Lady Musgrave cruise in one trip works through the scheduling in detail.

One alternative worth naming: if your base is Bundaberg rather than Agnes Water, the Lady Musgrave Experience day cruise departs Bundaberg Port Marina at Burnett Heads, 10 hours, from $237, rated 4.8 across 368 reviews, with a gourmet buffet lunch, snorkelling gear, a guided island walk and a glass-bottom boat tour. Its cancellation terms are stricter, a full refund only up to 14 days in advance, against 24 hours on the LARC tickets. The guide to Lady Musgrave tours from Bundaberg covers that option, and the comparison of the 1770 and Bundaberg departures weighs the two ports.

How Do You Book The Coastline Tour And What If Plans Change?

Book with the operator, where the from price of $61.11 per person, current dates and seat availability are shown. The ticket carries free cancellation up to 24 hours before the start time, which is the same window as the other two LARC tours, and nothing is stated about hotel pickup. Groups are capped at 29 per vehicle, so seats on a single departure are genuinely limited.

The booking mechanics are simple, but two habits protect your money. First, because the free-cancellation window is 24 hours, a forecast turn or a schedule slip discovered the night before is still recoverable; the same is true of the other LARC tickets, so a change of plan between them costs nothing if you act in time. Second, the vehicle holds at most 29 guests.

If the weather forecast firms up against the amphibious day, the 24-hour window lets you swap. The one departure in the wider range with less flexibility is the Bundaberg reef cruise, which requires cancelling up to 14 days ahead for a full refund, so book that one last and only when your travel dates are locked.

On the operator's Paradise Tour page, infants travel free but must be booked and counted; check the booking page for the party-size fields before checkout.

Across the whole 1770 range, whichever ticket shape fits your trip, comparing the live dates side by side is the fastest way to see which departures still have seats on your dates.

Common Questions About The 1770 LARC Coastline Tour