down under bus tours

Fun Coach Tours in Australia

Luxurious day trips and extended tours based in queensland, luxurious day trips, short tours and extended tours, why choose down under tours.

Door-to-Door Service

(for tours of 6 days or more)

Fine Motels and Good Food

No Hidden Extras

Luxurious Coach

Exploring Australia by Coach for More Than 30 Years

Down Under Coach Tours is a Queensland-based, family-owned company with over 30 years of experience planning and conducting tours. We offer inclusive luxury accommodated coach tours and personalised service. Most of all, we care about people, and our primary emphasis is on endeavouring to make your holiday a fun and exciting experience that will provide memories you will treasure. Be looked after by our professional and caring crew throughout your holiday as we take you to some of the best and most popular destinations in Australia.

Join us on one or more of our wonderful and exciting, fun holiday packages. Our all-inclusive tours are “the best way to see the best of Australia”, meet new friends and enjoy your time with us.

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 our tours.

Great Day Getaways

1 - 4 Day Trips

Short escapes to explore new destinations.

Extended Trips

Explore Australia's vast beauty on our unforgettable extended tours.

Have a Great Time “Down Under”

Australia is a diverse and glorious country that we, as Australians, should be proud to call home. Why not take the opportunity to explore, experience and see the variety of beautiful landscapes, the history, and the way of life of our fellow Australians? Be captivated, enjoy, and get to know this great land we call our home and be proud to say you had fun doing it the “Down Under” way.

Happy Travellers

My husband and I have just returned from the 12 day Floride and Snowy Mountains tour.  An excellent tour every day bringing beautiful scenery and new places.  Mitch and Linda the best driver and hostess completing a most enjoyable tour.  Friendly group very good accommodation and wonderful food.  Thank you Down Under Tours.

We get 1st class accommodation, 1st class meals and someone else does the driving.

- Barrie S.

I love Australia, and feel the only way to see it properly is by coach, it enables one to get up close to the real Australia and appreciate the variety this country has to offer. 

I mentioned a tour about a year ago to North Qld, Port Douglas, Lava Tubes, Gemfields Emerald and you listened and we are booked for this tour. Keep seeking these tours.

- Ted & Freda S.

I would always be happy travelling with Down Under, feel very safe. Past experiences with Down Under very enjoyable.

Love the no fuss attitude if / when plans have to change. Love stopping at the tiny places. they need support.

- Lesley E.

Join us to explore 'Down Under.'

Quick Links

Contact Information

Phone: 07 4123 1733

Mobile:  1800 072 535

Email: [email protected]

Address: 188 Lower Mountain Road, Dundowran, QLD 4655

Business Hours

Moscow Tourist Bus

Discover the different routes and stops of Moscow's tourist bus and explore the city comfortably enjoying panoramic views of its main monuments.

Routes & stops

The Moscow sightseeing bus has two routes with 46 stops around the main tourist areas of the Russian capital , throughout which you can enjoy recorded commentary in English about the places you are passing through and the city's history .

Some of the unmissable stops for the Moscow bus are: Kropotkinskaya metro station, the  Pushkin Fine Art Museum , the Red October factory and the Alexander Gardens. And of course, no trip to Moscow would be complete without getting off at Red Square to explore the heart of Moscow, admire the Kremlin , St Basil's Cathedral , and the Moscow River.

You can check out the route with all the stops by clicking on the following link:

• Routes and stops on the Moscow bus .
• The ticket with 2-day validity costs € 33 ( US$ 35.60) for adults and € 30 ( US$ 32.40) for children between 7 and 13 years old. The bus ticket for children under 7 years old costs € 16 ( US$ 17.30).

Operating times & frequency

• Red line : from 10 am to 6 pm, every 20 minutes. The whole route lasts an hour.
• Green line : from 10 am to 6 pm, every 40 minutes. The whole route lasts two hours.

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Moscow Metro

Opened in 1935 under Stalin, the Moscow Metro is one of the largest networks in the world and a tourist attraction in itself. Discover how to get around on it!

While Moscow has an efficient public transport system, you may sometimes find it more convenient to travel by taxi and prices are usually affordable. Find fares and top tips here!

THE 10 BEST Moscow Bus Tours

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• Good for Big Groups
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Hop On Hop Off Moscow - Bus Tours

Hop on hop off.

We have been unable to find any activities that match your search. Please try again using alternative search criteria or call +1855­ 626­ 0117 where our travel experts are standing by ready to help you.

Experience Moscow in Hop On Hop Off Bus Tours

The capital city of Russia, Moscow is home to the largest number of billionaires in the world. The city is the key political and socio-economic center of Russia and was named after the river Moskova. The city boasts a rich history spanning over eight centuries and is home to numerous UNESCO World Heritage sites. Arbat street in Moscow is over 500 years old. With over 6 million passengers using the metro every day, Moscow’s metro is among the busiest in the world.

A hop-on hop-off Moscow bus tour aboard the double-decker buses is the easiest and most convenient way of sightseeing around this busy city. You can pick 48 hr ticket option to see the entire city at your own pace. The engaging commentary and complimentary walking tour work like icing on the cake. Make sure to book early and try an add-on boat tour to make the most of your itinerary.

Frequently Asked Questions

Q: what is the best time to book a moscow hop-on hop-off tour.

March to May is the best time to plan a visit to Moscow. The days are long with significant sunshine which makes this time ideal for exploring the city. January is the coldest month so make sure to avoid it if you have a low tolerance for chilly weather. However, you will be able to score some good deals on airfare and accommodation during this time.

Q: How does it work?

Moscow bus tour offers you the convenience and flexibility to get off at the nearest designated stop. No tour guide, you set your own itinerary. You’ll find all the stops are located strategically at all the major attractions, making your touring as hassle-free as possible. And then, when you’re ready to continue, return to a designated bus stop, show your pass, and hop back on the bus and onwards towards your next attraction. So, go ahead and make a whole loop of the route once you have your tour ticket, get familiar with the city and pick out your favorite places to visit and then return to them during your stay.

Q: How many days are enough to explore Moscow?

We recommend at least two to three days to explore Moscow at a relaxed pace and cover most of its prominent attractions while enjoying shopping and local cuisine.

Q: What is the validity of the ticket?

There are several ticket options available to you, depending on your length of stay. Each bus tour will have validity from 24, 36, 48 to 72 hours. And the great thing is you can plan ahead as the vouchers are valid anywhere between 6 months to 1 year and can be used at any point during that period. Check the product page or bus tour operator for complete details.

Q: Where can I find a list of all the stops and a map of the various Moscow hop-on hop-off tour routes?

You can visit the relevant product page and check the Useful Downloads section to find the latest information as routes, stops, and timings change frequently.

Other Hop On Hop Off Destinations

• New York City
• San Francisco
• Washington DC
• Los Angeles
• Johannesburg
• San Antonio
• Reykjavik Iceland
• St-Petersburg
• Benalmadena
• Thessaloniki
• Kristiansand
• BUENOS AIRES
• Hop On Hop Off Bus Offers and Deals

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LGBTQIA+ rights advocacy, togetherness, and visibility are powerfully expressed through pride parades and festivals, which go beyond simple festivities. During Pride Month,… The post Celebrating Diversity: A Guide to the Best Pride Parades in the U.S. appeared first on The Guidebook - isango! .

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Moscow Throws Putin Fanboy Scott Ritter Under the Bus

The former U.N. weapons inspector turned sex offender says he was pulled off a plane heading to Russia.

Allison Quinn

News Editor

David McNew/Getty Images

Former U.N. weapons inspector turned sex offender Scott Ritter has made a name for himself parroting Kremlin propaganda about the war against Ukraine.

But if he was hoping Moscow would back him up after he says he was barred from traveling to Russia because Washington is “afraid” of him appearing at a St. Petersburg economic forum, he was apparently sadly mistaken.

While Ritter and his supporters—including Russian media—have played up the notion that his passport was seized because he has the U.S. administration shaking in their boots, the Kremlin did not share in this hysteria.

Asked about the scandal Tuesday, Vladimir Putin ’s spokesman Dmitry Peskov played down Ritter’s claims. He told reporters the “details” about the situation were not clear and that there was nothing unusual about a former intelligence officer facing certain travel restrictions.

“This is practiced in almost all countries in relation to former intelligence officers,” he said.

He added, however, that if Ritter truly was thrown off the flight to stop him speaking in Russia then it was part of a “frenzied campaign to prevent U.S. citizens from establishing at least some contacts with Russia.”

Ritter famously visited Chechnya in January and delivered a pep talk in broken Russian to thousands of troops who’ve been waging war in Ukraine, so he’s already had plenty of “contacts” apparently even with Russian leaders sanctioned by the West.

The State Department has declined to comment on the “status” of Ritter’s passport. Ritter, who was convicted in an underage online sex sting in 2011, told Kremlin-controlled media on Monday that he was pulled off a flight on his way to the St. Petersburg International Economic Forum, where he was slated to speak.

“They took my passport. When asked why, they said ‘orders of the State Department,’” he told RT, later claiming that the real “purpose” of the move was to deprive Russia of his presence.

“They stuck it to the Russians,” he claimed.

Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov told reporters at a press conference on Tuesday that there’s nothing Moscow can do to help Ritter.

“He’s not a Russian citizen,” he said.

Got a tip? Send it to The Daily Beast  here .

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Battlefields of Glory: Stalingrad

Travel to Volgograd to visit the most memorable places of the grandest battle in human's history, the Battle of Stalingrad. Learn more about details of the battle which lasted for over 5 months after Stalin issued one his most famous orders, "Not A Step Back". They did not. Here, in Stalingrad, Soviet Army first stopped the German advance into the Soviet Union and then turned of the tide of war in favour of the Allies. This is a must-see place for those with interest in military history.

Visit Stalingrad and battlefields of the world's most famous battle, travel with the military history expert

2 days to explore the countryside and most famous locations of the battle

See the place where general-field marshall Friedrich Paulus surrendered

Visit Mamaev Kurgan, the memorial complex

Lyudnikov's Island & manhy other places of special interest

Fully escorted tour with professional military history expert

Day 1, Arrive Russia

Day 2, Stalingrad - Volgograd

Day 3, Kalach-on-Don tour

Day 4, Roads of fame

Day 5, Memory Lane

Day 6, Back to the XXI

Dates & rates

Reminder about season

Advanced Travel Experience

Please select the additional tour options (for the registered users these options will be added to their wish-list):

Stalin’s “DATCHA” and WWII museum This was the place where Stalin lived for over twenty years, the place that saw many famous people and so many historic decisions made within these modest walls surrounded by a high, green fence. And the place where Stalin died. Visit to nearby Poklonnaya Hill which has a great open air military museum Extra cost, pp: ₽12,000 RUB

Ride the famous T-55 or T-62 tank If you are interested in the history of tanks, or simply want to know more about this world-famous Russian feature, just go on a test drive! We are sure that you will like the van. Extra cost, pp: ₽90,000 RUB

Bunker-42 Nuclear Forces Center Visit the command post of Long-range air force (Strategic nuclear forces of Soviet Union), a town down under, 65 meters below the gound level right in the heart of Moscow! See the table where the Cuban missileCrisis was resolved and classifed Russian military equipment: No photos in restricted areas! Extra cost, pp: ₽3,380 RUB

Transportation

• Flight Moscow-Volgograd-Moscow (economy fare)
• Meet & greet at the airports/train stations
• Private return airport/train station transfers
• Private transportation on tours as per program in a comfortable a/c car/minivan/bus (except on walking tours)
• Volgograd full day (8 hours) guided tour: the Mamayev Hill memorial complex (the main height #102.0), Motherland calls monument, Square of Fallen Fighters, open air Weapon of Victory exhibition and "The Battle of Stalingrad" museum, the Pavlov's House
• Volgograd full day (8 hours) guided tour: "the Factory", the monument to Felix Dzerzhinsky, the last legendary T-34 tank, Lyudnikov's Island, Soldiers' Field on the outskirts of the city
• Full day (8 hours) guided tour to Kalach-on-don – the city of Military Glory, which is 80 km from Volgograd. The tour includes a visit to the battlefields outside the city and will be completed on the Don Heights near "memorial tank" of Josef Stalin
• Full day (8 hours) guided tour to Kotelnikovo via Tinguta-Abganerovo-Aksai-Verkhnekamsky including visiting local museum in Kotelnikovo to see the panorama of Liberation of Kotelnikovo
• Volga River cruise

We value your comfort

• Private English-speaking guide (specialist in the WWII)
• 24/7 support before and during your trip with us
• Best places to stay, to eat, to go out and have fun - safe and secure with the tour operator that specializes in Russia. Tips already included
• Maximum group size 20 people
• Group tours are fully escorted by a bilingual tour director

Entrance tickets & visas

• Entrance tickets to all included sightseeing attractions (except optional)
• Russian Visa supporting documents, including an official visa invitation letter, and step-by-step guide on how to apply for your visa

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No Cancellation Charges  up to 24 hours before the chosen travel date. 100% cancellation fee applied within 24 hours of travel date.

For groups of 12 or more, you may send us an inquiry at [email protected]. Although we do not guarantee bulk deals for all our tours, there are some tours for which we can offer discounted pricing. Ordinary hop-on-hop-off bus tickets are entitled to group savings. Attractions, pass items and combo tickets aren't.

Due the nature of this type of tour and varying demand, group travellers should be aware that there is no guarantee that the group will be able to travel altogether as the available seats vary from stop to stop and depends on demand each day. The group may need to split up and/or wait for the next bus(s).

As, we cannot guarantee that the group shall be able to travel together as one group, therefore we will reduce the group size down to 4-5 smaller groups per ticket (depending upon group size).

City Sightseeing: Moscow Hop-On, Hop-Off Bus Tour

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Select Date, Travellers and Ticket

• The Bus Tour offers unlimited 360° panoramic views of main sights of Moscow.
• Access to audio-guide in 10 different languages which enables to know about Moscow’s history and traditions.
• The three-bus tour routes and 40+ stops around Moscow completes the trip. Draw an itinerary to explore the city on your own.
• There can be a boat tour and bus tour to enjoy panoramic views of Moskva River.
• Smartphone Voucher Accepted. (No need to print)

The City Sightseeing at Moscow begins at Bolotnaya Square with Hop-on-Hop-off bus service. The bus operates on the Red, Green and Orange lines. If you have limited time in Moscow, start your trip on the Redline and get yourself acquainted with the city’s 16 best attractions. The green line, however, covers 26 amazing spots so if you are staying for an extended period catch the green line.

• Pushkin Museum of Fine Arts
• Alexander Garden
• GUM State Department Store
• Sofiyskaya Embankment
• Cathedral of Christ the Saviour
• University Square, Vorobyovy Gory Observation Deck
• Hotel Ukraina Pier
• Zaryadye Park
• Memorial Museum of Cosmonautics
• VDNKh Metro Station
• Cosmonauts Alley
• Ostankino Television Tower
• Red Route: Schedule: 10:00 - 18:00 , Loop: 60 Minutes , Frequency: 15 Minutes
• Green Route : Schedule: 10:00 - 18:00 , Loop: 120 Minutes , Frequency: 30 Minutes
• Orange Route : Schedule: 10:00 - 18:30 , Loop: 140 Minutes , Frequency: 30 Minutes
• 24 / 48-Hours Hop-on Hop-off Bus Ticket
• Red Line Audio Guide: Russian, English, German, Spanish, Italian, French, Chinese, Arabic, Portuguese, Farsi
• Green Line Audio Guide: Russian, English, German, Spanish, Italian, French, Chinese, Arabic
• Orange Line Audio Guide : Russian English, German, Spanish, Italian, French
• Guided walking tour
• Boat Tour (If option selected)
• Hotel Transfers
• Entrance Fees (Unless Specified)

Redemption Info

You can board the bus at any stop and voucher can be exchanged directly with the driver. Printed vouchers required for this tour and are accepted at all stops. You will receive a ticket in exchange for your voucher, which you must keep until the expiry date/ tour. Please check your ticket to know when it expires. After exchanging your voucher for a ticket, your voucher will no longer be valid. In loss of voucher/ticket, company is not liable for any refund. Book Now! You can use your ticket any day within 12 months.

Know Before You Go

Wheelchair Access, Heating Please note that face masks must be worn on board the bus. Orange Route is temporarily suspended   

Operational Details: Walking Tour

• Daily at 10:45 a.m.
• Duration: 2 hours 30 minutes
• Meeting point: next to the monument to Saints Cyril and Methodius (Kitay-Gorod metro station)

Capital River Boat Tour

• May - October: from 11:30am to 6:30pm (Subject to change)
• Duration: 60 minutes
• Departure Point: Zaryadye Park Pier

Useful Downloads

Cancellation policy, other cities in russia.

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Reuthers Berlin-Moscow / Europe Guided Adventure Tour

After the Great success of our Special Event Tour in June 2017 we follow many wishes and scheduled further adventure tours from Berlin to Moscow - combined with sightseeing tours of historic locations such as Gdansk, Riga, Warsaw, Saint Petersburg (here we will also see the midsummer sun in Russia) and Moscow. We start in Berlin, the German capital - in style in front of the historic Brandenburger Tor - and our destination is the Red Square in Moscow with a group photo and the Basilius Cathedral as a backdrop.

Day 1: Berlin (D)

Welcome to Berlin, the German capital! Per transfer or individual arrival, you head for your hotel which is located near the center. During our Welcome Drink and Dinner we get ready for our adventure tour.

Day 2: Berlin (D) > Gdansk (PL)

Early in the morning and after a group photo at the historic Brandenburger Tor, we head straight to the Baltic Sea, where our overnight stay is in the Slowinski National Park, the "Polish Sahara", with its white sand beach and the large dunes.

Day 3: Gdansk (PL)

During the day we will take a sightseeing tour of Gdansk and spend the night in this city full of history.

Day 4: Gdansk (PL) > Vilnius (LT)

Our adventure tour leads us into the capital of Lithuania, to Vilnius. From the 16th century, Italian master builders created here numerous baroque buildings and so the old town of Vilnius is today among the largest in Eastern Europe and was declared by the UNESCO as a world cultural heritage and carries also the surname "Rome of the East".

Day 5: Vilnius (LT) > Riga (LV)

From Vilnius we travel on towards the north to Latvia, the capital Riga.

Day 6: Riga (LV)

The old Hanseatic city and largest city of the Baltic States is famous for its art nouveau buildings and its well preserved old town. Reason enough to put in on our trip a relaxing day to your own free disposal.

Day 7: Riga (LV) > Tallinn (EST)

Today we travel to Tallinn, the capital of Estonia. It lies on the Gulf of Finland of the Baltic Sea. Sights are i.e. the remnants of the medieval castle constructed in the 14th century, the castle built by the Russian czar Katharina II and the Russian orthodox Alexander-Newski-Cathedral with its visible onion domes.

Day 8: Tallinn (EST) > Saint Petersburg (RUS)

A further highlight on our adventure trip is quite surely the visit to Saint Petersburg, the second largest city of Russia after Moscow and the fourth largest city of Europe. Due to the location during the summer solstice at night it stays quite light.

Day 9: Saint Petersburg (RUS)

We will take an extensive sightseeing tour of the former capital of the Russian Empire and briefly named city Leningrad. Saint Petersburg is a culture center important throughout Europe with famous sightseeings like the Peterhof, the Amber Room in Catherine Palace, the Church of the Savour and the main avenue Newskj Prospect. The historic inner city is a world cultural heritage of the UNESCO and is exceeded in this regard worldwide only of Venice.

Day 10: Saint Petersburg (RUS)

Today is at your own disposal. Our hotel is located in the center of Saint Petersburg and so everything is easy to reach.

Day 11: Saint Petersburg (RUS) > Vyshniy Volochek (RUS)

A sheer endless expanse awaits us and so our overnight stay is half way from Saint Petersburg to Moscow, in Vyshniy Volochek. Here we get to know a very simple and rustic sleeping quarters.

Day 12: Vyshniy Volochek (RUS) > Moscow (RUS)

Finally - we reach the absolute highlight of our trip: Moscow, the capital of the Russian Federation with its approximately 12 million inhabitants. For the next three nights, we spend the night in the political and economic center of the country.

Day 13: Moscow (RUS)

A full day program awaits our travel group. Planned is a City Sightseeing Tour with the highlights Metro Station, Bolshoi Theatre, Red Square, Kremlin, Saint Basil's Cathedral, Nikolskaya Street, KGB Headquarters, GUM department store and others. As an option - if possible - in the evening a performance at the world-famous Bolshoi Theatre.

Day 14: Moscow (RUS)

Today is at your own disposal. During the day the Metro (underground train) is usually the fastest option to many places within easy reach.

Day 15: Moscow (RUS) > Smolensk (RUS)

Even if we head back on our return journey westwards to Berlin, so awaits us some more great highlights such as our destination, the town lying near the border of Belarus, Smolensk. Smolensk was mentioned in 863 the first time as a city in a document. It's location in the Kievan Rus running along the Dnieper trade route brought it early to the rank of a trade town.

Day 16: Smolensk (RUS) > Minsk (BLR)

We cross the boundary to Belarus and stopover in Minsk, the capital and at the same time the largest city of Belarus. Well worth seeing in Minsk are mainly the Old Town, formerly known as "uptown" to the Orthodox Holy Spirit Cathedral, the old monastery of the Bernadine Sisters from 1628 and the Town Hall rebuilt after original historic plans.

Day 17: Minsk (BLR) > Warsaw (PL)

The longest day on our adventure tour leads us over endless stretches with border crossing to Poland into the capital Warsaw.

Day 18: Warsaw (PL)

An organized sightseeing tour of the town brings us closer to Warsaw with its numerous palaces, the old town and the unique culture monuments. Very impressive are the world class Polin Museum, which shows the history of Polish jews as well as the former Warsaw Ghetto with a still standing historical wall.

Day 19: Warsaw (PL) > Poznan (PL)

Today we travel to the western part of Poland, on the Warthe River, the historic University City Poznan (formerly Posen). The city belongs to the cultural focal points of Poland.

Day 20: Poznan (PL) > Berlin (D)

On our last day we head directly to Berlin. During the traditional Farewell Dinner in the evening we will look back and reminisce about our common adventure tour.

Learn more about this Guided Adventure Tour:

What's included - pricing - dates.

What's included: * The Original Tour - developed and organised by Reuthers * Reuthers Tour Guide - trained and multilingual + local Guides * Travelling in comfortable Minibus * 20x Accommodation Middleclass Hotels/Motels in shared Double Room * Accommodations including Breakfast * Luggage Transportation during the Tour * Secured Payment Certificate (Sicherungsschein) * Reuthers Tour Book with Itineraries and Tips * Reuthers Travel Lecture (in English) * Reuthers Welcome Drink * Welcome Dinner in Restaurant * Farewell Dinner in Restaurant * Transfers Airport > Hotel > Airport * Entrance Fees * Gdansk + Saint Petersburg + Moscow + Minsk + Warsaw City Tour * Reuthers Rewards"> Reuthers Rewards

Pricing: Per Person = EUR 7825 Twin Room extra charge (2 separate beds instead of 1 common bed) = EUR 325 Single Room extra charge (instead of shared Double Room) = EUR 1585

Optional Bookings: Additional Accommodation prior tour start in shared Double Room (1 common bed) = EUR 115 Additional Accommodation prior tour start in shared Twin Room (2 separate beds) = EUR 125 Additional Accommodation prior tour start in Single Room = EUR 185 Additional Accommodation after the tour in shared Double Room (1 common bed) = EUR 115 Additional Accommodation after the tour in shared Twin Room (2 separate beds) = EUR 125 Additional Accommodation after the tour in Single Room = EUR 185 Berlin Best Of - Sightseeing on Day 1 including additional Accommodation prior tour start in shared Double Room (1 common bed) = EUR 235 Berlin Best Of - Sightseeing on Day 1 including additional Accommodation prior tour start in shared Twin Room (2 separate beds) = EUR 245 Berlin Best Of - Sightseeing on Day 1 including additional Accommodation prior tour start in Single Room = EUR 305

All pricing payable in Euro . 3% Early Bird Discount (booking more than 12 months prior tour start) 2% Golden Ager Discount (age at least 60 years prior tour start) 10% Group Discount (from 8 registrations made within one week, one common Payment of Balance) Please note: The Total Discount for all applicable Discounts is a maximum of 10%.

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‘We Are the World Power.’ How Joe Biden Leads

You can read the transcript of the interview here and the fact-check here .

Joe Biden makes his way through the West Wing telling stories. In the Cabinet Room, with sun pouring through French doors from the Rose Garden outside, he remembers the first time he sat around the long mahogany table, its high-backed leather chairs ordered by seniority. It was more than 50 years ago, Biden says, and Richard Nixon told National Security Adviser Henry Kissinger to brief the 30-year-old first-term Delaware Senator on the still secret timing of the U.S. withdrawal from Vietnam. Walking slowly through the halls, the President unspools anecdotes about heads of state: Vladimir Putin, Xi Jinping , Emmanuel Macron. In the Oval Office, he talks about his childhood home in Scranton, Pa., and the 2008 phone call from Barack Obama asking Biden to be his running mate.

Biden recounts these memories over the course of more than 90 minutes on a warm spring day, speaking in a quiet, sometimes scattershot way. The impression he gives is one of advancing age and broad experience, of a man who has lived history. Biden leads the U.S. as the American century is fading into an uncertain future, a changing world of threats, opportunities, and power shifts. At 81, he holds fast to a vision that has reigned since World War II, in which a rich and powerful America leads an alliance of democracies to safeguard the globe from tyranny.

On June 6, Biden will travel to Normandy, France, to memorialize an event that has served for eight decades as a focal point of this vision. He will arrive as the 12th—and certainly the last—American President who was alive on that day in 1944, when 73,000 American troops led the largest amphibious invasion in human history, accelerating Nazi Germany’s defeat and Europe’s liberation. For generations, D-Day has been a hallowed anniversary. The President says commemorating it is as much about the future as the past. “We’re playing [that role] even more,” Biden says. “We are the world power.”

Whether this view of America’s role in the world will outlast Biden’s presidency is an open question. Voters face a clear choice this November. Biden calls America’s democratic values the “grounding wire of our global power” and its alliances “our greatest asset.” His presumptive opponent, former President Donald Trump, called for withdrawing American forces in Europe and Asia and has promised, most recently in his April 12 interview with TIME, to cut loose even our closest allies if they don’t do as he tells them. By his own account, Trump sees all countries as unreliable, the relations between them transactional. That sentiment has spread throughout a Republican Party that once championed America’s values abroad. J.D. Vance, the Ohio Senator in contention to become Trump’s Vice President, tells TIME that the D-Day story has become a sepia-toned distraction. “The foreign policy establishment is obsessed with World War II historical analogies,” says Vance, “and everything is some fairy tale they tell themselves from the 1930s and 1940s.”

Buy TIME's President Biden 'If He Wins' cover here

During his 40 months in office, events have tested Biden’s vision of American world leadership. Alliances haven’t been enough to win a new European war in Ukraine. U.S. power and leverage haven’t prevented a humanitarian catastrophe in the Middle East, marked by alleged war crimes. Putin is trying to assemble an axis of autocrats from Tehran to Beijing. In China, the U.S. faces an adversary potentially its equal in economic and military power that is intent on tearing down the American global order. President Xi has told his military to be ready to invade Taiwan by 2027, U.S. officials say, raising the possibility of a dark analogue to Normandy in Asia. Biden doesn’t rule out sending troops to defend Taiwan if China attacked, saying, “It would depend on the circumstances.”

Biden’s record in facing these tests is more than just nostalgic talk. He has added two powerful European militaries to NATO, and will soon announce the doubling of the number of countries in the Atlantic alliance that are paying more than the target 2% of their GDP toward defense, the White House says. His Administration has worked to prevent the war in Gaza from igniting a broader regional conflict. He brokered the first trilateral summit with long-distrustful regional partners South Korea and Japan, and coaxed the Philippines to move away from Beijing’s orbit and provide the U.S. new access to four military bases. He has rallied European and Asian countries to curtail China’s economic sway. “We have put together the strongest alliance in the history of the world,” Biden says, so that “we are able to move in a way that recognizes how much the world has changed and still lead.”

But American Presidents must earn a mandate from their fellow citizens, and it’s far from clear that Biden can. In surveys, large majorities say that he is too old to lead. As he walked TIME through the West Wing and sat for a 35-minute interview on May 28, the President, with his stiff gait, muffled voice, and fitful syntax, cut a striking contrast with the intense, loquacious figure who served as Senator and Vice President. Biden bristles at the suggestion that he is aging out of his job. Asked whether he could handle its rigors though the end of a second term, when he will be 86, he shot back, “I can do it better than anybody you know.” Age aside, Biden’s handling of foreign affairs gets poor marks from voters, and not just for the bungled withdrawal of U.S. forces from Afghanistan or the ongoing war in Gaza. While 65% of Americans still believe that the U.S. should take a leading or major role in the world, that number is down 14 points from 2003 and is at its lowest level since Gallup began polling the issue two years earlier.

Biden, who is the most experienced foreign policy President in a generation, believes that role is in America’s interest. “When we strengthen our alliances, we amplify our power as well as our ability to disrupt threats before they can reach our shores,” he said soon after taking office. To judge the merit of Biden’s plan to sustain American world leadership, voters can look to his record: what he has accomplished, where he has fallen short, and how he intends to build on his work in a second term.

Around 3 p.m. on Dec. 13, 2021, the White House Situation Room put through a call from Biden to his Finnish counterpart, Sauli Niinisto. Putin’s invasion of Ukraine was still more than two months away, and Finland, with its 830-mile border with Russia and tense history with Moscow, had long declined to join NATO. Less than a quarter of Finns supported entering the alliance at the time. But Biden had decided, aides say, that if Russia invaded, the West’s response should be not just to defend NATO, but to strengthen it.

On March 4, days after the invasion, Biden met with the newly enthusiastic Niinisto in the Oval Office. Together they called Swedish Prime Minister Magdalena Andersson, who had resisted joining the alliance, to try to persuade her. After both countries applied for membership in May 2022, Biden turned to getting the rest of NATO to accept them. In June, he called Turkey’s leader Recep Tayyip Erdogan from Air Force One on the way to a summit in Madrid, in hopes of getting Erdogan’s support for expanding the alliance. Dangling a one-on-one meeting, Biden said of Turkey’s long-sought access to America’s F-16 fighter jets, “Let’s find a way to get that done,” according to the White House. By March 2024, Sweden and Finland were in. “Everybody thought, including you guys, thought I was crazy,” Biden says. “Guess what? I did it.”

The accession of Finland and Sweden was part of Biden’s broader efforts to respond to Russia’s invasion of Ukraine by rallying the free world. Starting in October 2021, Biden held a series of meetings with European and NATO leaders, discussing postinvasion support for Ukraine, including military assistance, sanctions, diplomacy, and economic support. Biden also brought Asian allies into the effort. South Korea and Japan have imposed sanctions on Russia and its arms suppliers. The result, Biden advisers say, is a strengthened alliance of shared democratic values worldwide. “He has connected Europe and Asia in a way no previous President has,” says National Security Adviser Jake Sullivan.

Others view all the investment in Ukraine as a distraction from the bigger challenge America faces in East Asia. “Who doesn’t think that $200 billion spent in Europe would’ve been incredibly useful in the Pacific?” says Elbridge Colby, a former Trump Administration Pentagon official and lead architect of the 2018 National Defense Strategy. “Great nations fail,” says Lieut. General Keith Kellogg, Trump’s former National Security Adviser, when “you fix somebody else’s potholes instead of fixing your potholes.” 

Biden says he remains committed to Ukrainian victory. Asked about the war’s endgame, Biden says, “Peace looks like making sure Russia never, never, never, never occupies Ukraine.” But last year’s Ukrainian counteroffensive was a failure. Russia recently has made its largest advances since the opening months of the invasion. Alliance building may have reached its limit, along with Americans’ appetite for funding a war of attrition. Biden’s allies in Kyiv complain he has been too cautious, giving Ukraine enough weapons to survive the war but not to win it. “It’s not a decisive stance,” says a senior official in President Volodymyr Zelensky’s government. “It’s not the way to victory.”

On balance, however, even longtime critics are impressed with Biden’s efforts in Ukraine. Former Defense Secretary and CIA director Robert Gates wrote in 2014 that Biden had “been wrong on nearly every major foreign policy and national-security issue over the past four decades.” But on May 19, Gates said that Biden’s response to Russia’s invasion has gone a long way toward repairing the damage of the disastrous Afghanistan withdrawal. “He gained a lot of credibility with the speed with which he assembled the coalition of partner countries, allies, and friends before, during, and after the Russian invasion of Ukraine,” Gates told CBS’s  Face the Nation.

Biden says his response has been part of a broader deterrence strategy. “If we ever let Ukraine go down, mark my words, you’ll see Poland go, and you’ll see all those nations along the actual border of Russia [fall],” he tells TIME. But in other theaters, the high-minded Normandy vision has given way to a different kind of diplomacy.

Halfway through our interview, Biden responds to a question about America’s relationship with Saudi Arabia by saying that the U.S. has two kinds of alliances: “There are values-based, and there are practical-based.” During the campaign, Biden had sworn to make Saudi Arabia a “pariah.” One of his first moves in office was to cut off certain arms supplies over the kingdom’s war in Yemen, which has displaced 4.5 million people and killed 377,000, including 11,000 children, according to the U.N. Soon after, the de facto Saudi ruler, Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman, known as MBS, met with China’s Foreign Minister and proposed greater cooperation on nuclear energy and security with Beijing, already the kingdom’s largest economic partner.

The Biden Administration quietly pivoted. A new “great game” was afoot, with the world dividing between competing Chinese and American spheres of influence. For all Biden’s efforts to stimulate a green transition, Saudi Arabia was still providing much of the world’s energy. Moreover, the Saudis had expressed willingness during the Trump presidency to normalize relations with Israel, which would tilt the regional balance of power against Iran and in the U.S.’s favor. On Sept. 27, 2021, Sullivan traveled to Saudi Arabia with instructions from Biden to explore the possibility of a peace deal between the kingdom and Israel.

Biden himself traveled to Saudi Arabia in July 2022, bucking a flurry of criticism for meeting with MBS, who has led a widespread crackdown on clerics, academics, and human-rights advocates critical of his regime, according to Human Rights Watch, and who the U.S. says ordered the murder of Washington Post journalist Jamal Khashoggi . But the visit helped stabilize relations. Over the course of the next year, it began to look as if Biden’s moral climb down with MBS had brought the Saudis back on the U.S. side, and restarted a possible bargain with Israel. The outlines of that deal, Biden now says, were “overwhelmingly in our interest.”

Hamas, the terrorist group that controls Gaza, was determined not to allow it. Days after its Oct. 7 attack against Israel, which killed some 1,200 people, Hamas spokesman Ghazi Hamad told TIME, “We planned for this because Israel thinks it can make peace with anyone, it can make normalization with any country, it can oppress the Palestinians, so we decided to shock the Israelis in order to wake up others.” Eight Americans were among the estimated 240 taken hostage in the massacre. The Biden Administration has sought to secure their release, but it is not clear how many of the American hostages have survived; three reportedly have been killed. “We believe there are those that are still alive,” Biden tells TIME. “I met with all the families. But we don’t have final proof on exactly who’s alive.”

Biden’s reaction to Oct. 7 was to provide rock-solid support to Israel. Within a week he had deployed two aircraft carriers to the region. Quietly, he tried to rally Egypt and Saudi Arabia to resist expansion of the conflict into a war between Israel and Iran. Biden’s “practical-based” alliance building appeared to pay off on April 13, when Iran responded to an Israeli attack on a satellite diplomatic office by launching more than 300 missiles and drones in its first-ever direct attack on Israel. The Saudis and Jordanians reportedly provided intelligence assistance and opened their airspace to U.S. and other jets. With Israel leading the way, the ad hoc alliance managed to shoot down all but four of the projectiles, with no fatalities. More important, the episode helped avert a region-wide war.

But Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has upped the cost of Biden’s commitment to Israel at every turn. Nearly eight months after the conflict started, the death toll in Gaza, according to the local Hamas-led Ministry of Health, has climbed to more than 36,000 people, including an unknown number of Hamas fighters. More than 1.7 million have been displaced by Israeli attacks that have destroyed much of the enclave. On May 20, the prosecutor for the International Criminal Court requested a war-crimes indictment for Netanyahu, his Defense Minister, and three leaders of Hamas. Four days later, in a largely symbolic move, the International Court of Justice ordered Israel to halt operations in Gaza . Human Rights Watch says Israel has “imposed collective punishments on the civilian population, deprived the civilian population of objects indispensable to its survival, and used starvation of civilians as a weapon of war.”

Asked if Israeli forces have committed war crimes in Gaza, Biden says, “It’s uncertain.” From the start, the Administration knew Israel was pushing the limits of legal warfare, the Washington Post and others have reported. The conflict is driving a wedge between the U.S. and its allies. On May 31, Biden laid out a phased cease-fire plan that would end the war and secure the release of hostages. He has continued to pursue the complicated regional deal with Saudi Arabia. Some close to Biden say the only holdout to the broader pact is Netanyahu. The President declines to say as much, but when asked by TIME if Netanyahu is prolonging the war for his own political reasons, Biden admits, “There is every reason for people to draw that conclusion.”

As aides try to bring the interview to a close, Biden turns to China. Hawks say Beijing is in a sprint to match American economic and military production. By some measures, it is catching up on GDP and defense manufacturing, and already has a larger navy. But Biden takes a bullish view of the competition with the rising Asian power. “Everybody talks about how, how strong China is and how powerful they are,” Biden says. “You’ve got an economy that’s on the brink there. The idea that their economy is booming, give me a break.” That doesn’t mean they can’t pose a threat. Asked if China is using AI or other means to meddle in the upcoming U.S. election, Biden says someone is, but declines to say who. Pressed, he adds, “I think China would have an interest in meddling.”

What Biden describes as China’s economic weakness could make confrontation more, not less, likely—another argument, as he sees it, for expanding America’s alliances in East Asia. And in that arena, the President has pursued a mix of “values-based” and “practical” approaches.

Biden was on Air Force One on his way to a fundraiser in Illinois on May 11, 2022, when the results of the Philippine presidential elections were announced, showing that Ferdinand “Bongbong” Marcos Jr. had won. Biden “had the instinct to just pick up the phone and said, ‘Hey, let’s get together soon and start building a relationship,’” Sullivan says. It was a long shot. Marcos has a pending $2 billion judgment against him in a U.S. court relating to his parents’ human-rights record during their more than 20-year dictatorship, which ended in 1986. The Philippines are now rated “partly free” by Freedom House, and the outgoing President, Rodrigo Duterte, had courted China even as Beijing claimed nearby islands and territorial waters. Marcos had sent cold signals to the U.S. during his campaign.

Biden’s call was the first Marcos had received from a foreign leader. As U.S. officials followed up, they briefed the new President on the parallels between Putin’s invasion of Ukraine and Xi’s declared goals in the South China Sea. Biden dispatched Vice President Kamala Harris and his Secretaries of State and Defense to woo Marcos. Deputy Secretary of State Wendy Sherman made clear Marcos had diplomatic immunity and would be welcome in the U.S. Less than a year after Biden’s congratulatory call, Marcos made a visit to the White House. More significantly, he provided the U.S. military new access to four bases in the Philippines. In April and May, the two countries engaged in their largest military exercises together, simulating an effort to repulse an amphibious landing. “The President got engaged early in a very personal way,” says Sullivan, “and then kind of showed both respect for him and a vision for where the relationship would go.”

Biden has pursued this brand of personal realpolitik across Asia. He elevated the communist autocracy in Vietnam to the highest diplomatic status, comprehensive strategic partner, and has moved to embrace the increasingly repressive regime of Narendra Modi in India. He has tried to boost the “Quad” alliance with India, Japan, and Australia, upgrading it from a meeting of Foreign Ministers to one of heads of state. In April 2023, Biden convened a Camp David summit with the South Korean President Yoon Suk-yeol and Japanese Prime Minister Fumio Kishida. Overcoming long-fraught relations between Seoul and Tokyo, the three countries criticized China’s behavior in the South China Sea and declared “a hinge point of history, when geopolitical competition, the climate crisis, Russia’s war of aggression against Ukraine, and nuclear provocations test us.”

Critics say the problem is too much friend making and not enough deterrence. The U.K. recently said China may be preparing to provide lethal aid to Russia, a move that Biden said in March 2022 would put Xi “in significant jeopardy” of harsh U.S. sanctions. “The single biggest problem with the Biden team is their failure to grasp what it takes to achieve effective deterrence against aggressors,” says Matt Pottinger, who was Deputy National Security Adviser under Trump. “They failed against the Taliban, then Putin, and then Iran and its proxies. And now Beijing is making moves that could prove fateful for the world.” Former Trump official Colby says Biden’s diplomatic work is a weak substitute for the one thing that can deter China’s rise. “These high-profile photo ops,” says Colby, “are not a substitute for raw military power.” He points to recent statements by senior U.S. military officials that China is outpacing the U.S. on missile- and shipbuilding, and war games showing the U.S. losing badly in a contest over Taiwan, and says the U.S. should put all its efforts into defending the “first island chain” of Japan, Taiwan, and the Philippines.

Biden believes that withdrawing from Europe and the Middle East to focus on East Asia would backfire, aides say. If America abandons its allies elsewhere, they argue, its Asian allies will abandon it, in turn. The U.S. needs European and Middle Eastern countries to increase its economic and military advantages over China. And ultimately, failing to confront instability now—in Ukraine, Gaza or elsewhere—will only make doing so later a more costly distraction from the competition with Beijing.

Back in the Cabinet Room after the interview, the sun is lower, and Biden has more stories. He turns to a sideboard with a commendation from the Kosovo government to his son Beau Biden, who died of cancer nine years ago. The President relates with evident pride his son’s work supporting its judicial system. A mention of diplomat Richard Holbrooke, who brokered the Dayton accords for the Balkans, elicits a story about Afghanistan and an argument Biden had with Holbrooke over the search for peace there. 

On a matching sideboard on the other side of the door, the President opens an album with travel pictures, launching a series of anecdotes about the Popes he has known, including John Paul II and Benedict, whom Biden calls “the Rottweiler.” Recounting an exchange with one over abortion, he casts an eye toward the cracked door to the Oval Office and asks an aide, “Are they in there?” Turning back to his visitors, he says, “Let me show you one more picture.”

This avuncular politicking remains a Biden trademark, one that has helped with allies overseas but failed to unite Americans at home, as Biden pledged when running for President. Not that he has stopped trying. Biden ultimately persuaded Republican House Speaker Mike Johnson to move a roughly $95 billion supplemental aid package for Ukraine, the Middle East, and Taiwan. To build support for his Middle East peace package, he has worked both sides of the aisle. On Nov. 8, 2023, Biden sat for two hours in the windowless Roosevelt Room with a bipartisan group of nine Senators who had just returned from the region, asking for impressions from the trip and moderating a conversation between them, Sullivan, and Middle East coordinator Brett McGurk. At the end, he pulled Democratic Senator Chris Coons and Republican Senator Lindsey Graham into the Oval Office for separate 10-minute conversations about next steps in the effort, says Coons.

Biden may be right that despite the partisanship, a consensus exists for a values-based, pragmatic role for America in the world. His challenge is to get Americans to focus on that rather than on other issues driven by foreign affairs, like inflation or immigration. Biden denies that his expansion of Trump’s trade war with China will increase prices, and says his only regret about lifting Trump’s anti-immigration measures is that he didn’t do it sooner. His goal in a second term, he says, is “to finish what he started.”

At stake is the direction of the world for the coming century. At Normandy, Biden will make the case for what historian Hal Brands says is “the 80-year tradition of internationalism that has been quite good for America and the world.” The alternative, says Brands, would be a “more vicious and chaotic” world where Americans ultimately would be less safe, prosperous, and free, but only after everyone else suffered first.

Wrapping up his conversation with TIME, Biden offers cookies from a tray in the outer Oval. “They’re homemade,” he says. Turning to leave, he offers a final salutation: “Keep the faith.” But then he pauses and turns back, as the phrase triggers one last story. It’s about a relative who had his own response to that admonition. And here Biden taps one of his visitors on the chest and says, “Spread the faith.”

— With reporting by Simon Shuster/Kyiv; Leslie Dickstein, Simmone Shah, and Julia Zorthian/New York; and Melissa August, Brian Bennett, Vera Bergengruen, Eric Cortellessa, and Sam Jacobs/Washington

Order your copy of the President Biden 'If He Wins' issue here

Correction appended, June 5: The original version of this story misstated the terms of an agreement the Biden Administration struck with the Philippines. The Philippines provided the U.S. new access to four existing military bases, not permission for four new bases.

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Election latest: Sunak not taking questions amid talk of Tory battle to succeed him - as Dragon joins Starmer at brewery

A poll has found Reform's Nigel Farage would be the favourite to take over as Tory leader if Rishi Sunak loses the election. Labour says the Conservatives are already battling over the succession. Earlier, the transport secretary denied that the PM's D-Day blunder had lost the election.

Saturday 8 June 2024 23:04, UK

• General Election 2024

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Election news

• PM not taking questions as D-Day row rumbles on
• Sir Keir joined by Dragon to launch small businesses plan
• Farage should take over from Sunak as leader of Tories, poll finds
• Tories will scrap ULEZ expansion in 'backing drivers bill'
• Sunak vows to axe stamp duty for first-time buyers
• Electoral Dysfunction:  What could be in the party manifestos?

Expert analysis

• Rob Powell: It beggars belief someone didn't sound the alarm about PM leaving D-Day events early
• Tamara Cohen: Labour can't believe their luck

Election essentials

• Battle For No 10: PM and Starmer taking part in Sky News special
• Campaign Heritage: Memorable moments from elections gone by
• Trackers: Who's leading polls? | Is PM keeping promises?
• Follow Sky's politics podcasts: Electoral Dysfunction | Politics At Jack And Sam's
• Read more: Who is standing down? | Key seats to watch | How to register to vote | What counts as voter ID? | Check if your constituency is changing | Your essential guide to election lingo | Sky's election night plans

The Lib Dems have announced plans to create 1,000 new  hospital beds to end the "corridor crisis" in hospitals. 

The party is ramping up its focus on health and social care ahead of its manifesto launch next week, which will include a dedicated chapter on care.

The issue is personal to leader Sir Ed Davey, who is a carer for his son John, who has a neurological condition and learning difficulties.

On the campaign trail in Wokingham, Berkshire on Saturday, he told broadcasters: "The Liberal Democrats are putting health and care right at the centre of our election campaign, and on ambulance delays and waiting times, it's been a crisis.

"We've seen in some parts of the country people's loved ones dying before the ambulances arrive.

"We've seen queues at hospitals as ambulances are waiting to hand over their patients and something has to be done."

Sir Ed said he would "turn around this mess the Conservatives have made" by investing £400m per year to add an extra 1,000 staffed beds in hospitals.

The party says this would help end excessive handover delays and the scandal of patients waiting in corridors to be treated. 

It has also pledged an upfront capital investment of £280 million to expand urgent treatment centres and A&E wards. 

The Lib Dems did not say where the money was coming from, but insisted the the pledge is "fully funded" and more detail will be unveiled in their manifesto - which will include a chapter on care. 

Rachel Reeves has accused the Tories of acting like Jeremy Corbyn with a "fantasy manifesto". 

The shadow chancellor, who campaigned twice to be an MP under Mr Corbyn's watch, has written an op-ed in The Sun in which she said she "totally rejects" the former Labour leader's approach. 

Accusing the Tories of making unfunded promises to cut taxes, Ms Reeves said: "The approach the Conservatives are taking now is the same as the approach Jeremy Corbyn took - and I totally reject it. 

"I’m not going to offer you a fantasy manifesto that writes cheques we could never cash. I will never do this."

CCHQ were quick to point out that Ms Reeves, an MP since 2010, will have campaigned twice for Mr Corbyn's manifesto - at the 2017 and 2019 general elections. 

"Imagine her shock when she finds out she campaigned for this manifesto, and to make Jeremy Corbyn Prime Minister… twice", they said in a post on X. 

The Labour shadow cabinet have been at pains to stress how much the party has changed since its historic defeat at the 2019 election. 

Ms Reeves in particular has been painting herself as fiscally conservative, in sharp contrast to Mr Corbyn who made a number of big spending pledges such as free school meals and the abolition of tuition fees.

The latest attack could risk angering the Labour left, who are keen to see greater spending commitments. 

But Ms Reeves made clear there would be no surprise spending announcements in the party's manifesto when it launches next week, repeating her mantra: "We are a changed Labour Party. I will never play fast and loose with your money." 

Question. If a prime minister is heckled at a rally and there's no backdrop scandal to imbue it with meaning, should it still end up on the news?

I ask because so often in election campaigns, individual and often innocuous events get sucked into the black hole of a political narrative and spat out as something very different and much more dangerous.

Exhibit A - the torrid two days Rishi Sunak has had after his early departure from the D-Day commemorations.

Such was the scale of this saga that even a solitary road sign in rural Gloucestershire was transformed into a symbol of the hapless Tory campaign stumbling from one PR disaster to another - simply because it read "Veterans Way" and happened to be next to a school the prime minister was visiting.

A GP with gripes about the widening of access to medical care topped off the party's hell day after she interrupted Mr Sunak at a rally in Wiltshire.

This was inevitably seen as another blow for the embattled campaign, despite the prime minister giving a fairly convincing defence of his policy.

You wonder how such a situation would have been received had it happened to Sir Keir Starmer - the drama potentially diluted by his huge lead in the polls and polished campaign machine.

None of this is to deny the importance of the D-Day story.

As one pollster put it, the debacle seemed almost "laser guided" to inflict the maximum amount of damage on a leader leaking votes to the right and facing frequent accusations of being out of touch.

That was certainly evident in Bishop Auckland on Saturday.

The Tories took this seat for the first time ever in 2019, but metres from a Conservative campaign stop one former candidate for the party told Sky News he could "never vote for that man" after events of the past two days.

"He's leading them off the cliff like rats following the Pied Piper," he said.

So how can Rishi Sunak change the weather?

Read Rob's full analysis below... 

The polls are stubbornly refusing to move for the Conservatives.

Sky's latest average poll tracker shows Labour on 43.6% while the Conservatives trail on 22.8% - a commanding lead.

And - despite Rishi Sunak appealing to the right of his core vote with policies on immigration and national service, Nigel Farage's Reform party are nipping at the Tories' heels. 

One YouGov poll this week showed the party on 17% - just two points behind the Conservatives on 19%.

Conservative peer and poll expert Lord Hayward has said the Tories have been "flatlining" in the polls. 

"I think the polls have somewhat overestimated the Labour lead but it's still solid and it's still very substantial," he tells the Politics Hub. 

He says Reform's position is "dangerous" to all other parties. 

"What's interesting is that Reform, and other disruptor parties like the Greens, are taking away votes from the major parties," he adds. 

"It will hit all parties, not just the Conservatives, and this what people have to be aware of nbecause voter loyalty is very low." 

He adds that he believes his party's chances of achieving a majority is going to be "pretty difficult". 

Ali Fortescue is joined now by our political correspondent Tamara Cohen , and the pair are discussing whether the Conservatives can dig themselves out of the hole they've found themselves in after a bad week. 

Tamara says there is a lot of deep despair in the Tory ranks. 

"Rishi Sunak refusing to speak to journalists today and just look at the seats that they're visiting. The prime minister in Bishop Auckland, where the Conservatives have an 8,000 majority," she says. 

"Whereas Labour today is in Aldershot - a seat the Conservatives have held for 100 years. 

"Next week we have the manifestos released. Is that a moment for Rishi Sunak to regain a bit of momentum?

"We've also got more debates including our election event and the Tories are chucking out a lot of ideas here." 

Next up on the show is Labour's shadow treasury minister James Murray. 

Ali begins by asking him about Labour's plan to overhaul the business rates system if it gets into power. 

Mr Murray explains that his party wants to replace the current system with one that "rebalances the burden away from high streets and make sure that online giants pay their fair share". 

"People want high streets to thrive... but at the moment they pay a disproportionate amount of tax through business rates," he adds. 

He explains that bricks and mortar stores would be given extra support under a Labour government. 

He reiterates Labour's pledge to not rejoin the single market, the customs union and it will not have the freedom on movement again.

But he says that the party wants to "reduce friction" with the European Union to improve the economy. 

Business Minister Kevin Hollinrake is the first guest to appear on tonight's Politics Hub with Ali Fortescue. 

He is asked about the Conservatives defenders seemingly missing in action, saying everybody's time in politics eventually comes to an end, and they have their own decisions to make. 

Mr Hollinrake is among those standing again as an MP. 

"Politics isn't the only thing to do in your life," he adds. "But there are some fantastic people coming through, and we have a fantastic leader in Rishi Sunak." 

Ali pushes him on the criticism surrounding Sunak over his decision to leave D-Day commemorations early. 

"He made a mistake, and he was of course in the commemorations in the UK and in the British commemorations in France," Mr Hollinrake says, adding that the PM has apologised. 

He adds that only one person he has spoken to in his constituency have raised D-Day as an issue. 

"I think it's time now to talk about other issues," he says. 

Moving on now to the Ultra Low Emission Zone in London, he insists the Conservatives want to make sure the cost of moving to a cleaner environment is "sensible and proportionate". 

   Prime Minister Rishi Sunak has been trying to move on from anger over his decision to leave D-Day commemorations early – today he refused to speak to journalists.

Last night though, a cabinet minister speaking on live TV told the country his decision was "very wrong". 

But where have all those who would be out defending the Conservatives got to? 

Boris Johnson, long-time deputy Prime Minister Dominic Raab, Sajid Javid, Liz Truss, even Michael Gove, have all deserted the field.

None - apart from Liz Truss - are even standing at the election.

Here's our political correspondent Rob Powell's latest report from today's campaign trail... 

In the last few moments, Rishi Sunak has posted on X about the release of four Israeli hostages in Gaza. 

He said it was a "huge relief" to see them returned home after their "unimaginable ordeal". 

"We will continue to strive towards an end to the fighting as well as safety and security for all," he added. 

Earlier, Labour leader Sir Keir Starmer reposted a message from shadow foreign secretary David Lammy, which said the hostage's rescue was a "glimmer of hope in the darkness". 

Tonight's show begins with a look at the rescue of four Israeli hostages from Hamas captivity in Gaza earlier today.

Israel's Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said his forces had acted with "creativity and boldness" and they will not relent until all hostages have been returned home. 

Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas has accused Israeli forces of a "bloody massacre". 

The Hamas-run government in the enclave has said at least 210 Palestinians were killed during the rescue mission. 

You can read all the latest updates in our dedicated Israel-Hamas war blog below...

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Home » Kuranda Day Tours » Kuranda, Scenic Rail & Skyrail

Kuranda, Scenic Rail & Skyrail

Enjoy the journey from Cairns to Freshwater Train Station on board a luxury coach.  Along the way our expert local guides will tell you the stories of Kuranda’s fascinating history before leaving you to explore on your own.  To guide you on your journey we provide a written trip guide with your itinerary and boarding passes for the Kuranda Scenic Rail and Skyrail Rainforest Cableway.   To help our international guests feel comfortable we offer these in English, Deutsch ,  Français ,  Español,   Italiano,   日本語,  and  中国人 .

Kuranda Scenic Rail:

On board the famous railway, enjoy the scenic journey to Kuranda, with breathtaking views of the mountain ranges tropical rainforest and across the rocky Barron Gorge and waterfalls.  Along the way listen to the stories of the early pioneers who laboured to build the rail line in the 1800’s.

Kuranda Village:

Upon arrival in Kuranda, it’s time to explore this fascinating village at your own leisure. The Kuranda Heritage Markets are full of colourful and interesting arts and crafts. You might also like to visit Birdworld, the Australian Butterfly Sanctuary,  or Kuranda Koala Gardens – make sure to use the coupon on your boarding pass for discounted entry.

Skyrail Rainforest Cableway:

Described as the World’s most beautiful rainforest experience,  you’ll be amazed as you journey over and through World Heritage Listed Rainforest on the cableway. This iconic rainforest experience includes time at both Red Peak and Barron Falls stations, both with lookouts offering spectacular views across the Barron Falls waterfall . Complimentary guided boardwalk tours are offered throughout the day at Red Peak Station.

Meet your local guide at the cableway’s Smithfield Terminal and relax on your coach transfer back to Cairns.

Tour Times & Days of Operation

With transfers from cairns.

• Operates daily.

Tour Departs

• Departs Cairns from 7.15am (choose Train 08:50am options)
• Departs Cairns from 8.15am (choose Train 09:50am options)

From Northern Beaches or Port Douglas = please refer to KSQ option .

Your Itinerary

Upgrade To Gold Class on the Kuranda Scenic Railway

Want to make the very most of your day and travel in style ?  The Kuranda Scenic Rail offers a Gold Class service on its 9.50am train,  enjoy;

• Dedicated host service.
• Individual seating in lounge-style chairs.
• Quality refreshments including sparkling Australian wine, beer, orange juice, soft drink, ice water, mocktails, tea, coffee and appetisers and a chilled refresher towel during the journey.
• Ambient, historical décor, including timber look flooring, historical photographs and cedar interior.
• Kuranda Scenic Railway gift pack including Kuranda Scenic Railway badge, pen, postcard and postage.
• Souvenir trip guide

Choose option with gold ‘GC’ icon to book Gold Class.

*only available on tour options with 9.50am Train

What's Included?

• Transfer from Cairns to Freshwater Train Station on our luxury coach
• Experienced Local Guide on transfers
• Kuranda Boarding to lead you through the experience
• Kuranda Scenic Rail trip from Freshwater to Kuranda
• Time to explore the village of Kuranda
• Coupons for discounted entry to Australian Butterfly Sanctuary, Birdworld & Kuranda Koala Gardens
• Skyrail Rainforest Cableway experience from Kuranda to Smithfield
• Transfer from Smithfield to Cairns on our luxury coach

What’s not included

• Meals – use your free time in Kuranda to source lunch from one of the many eateries at your own expense
• Entry to Australian Butterfly Sanctuary, Birdworld & Kuranda Koala Gardens

Fare Information

Prices are in AUD inclusive of GST and valid until 31.03.2025

Child price applies to children aged 4-14 years inclusive. Children 0-3 years are free of charge,  please notify our reservations team if you are traveling with a child or infant aged 0-3 years so a seat can be reserved for them.

Family price includes 2 adults & 2 Children

Accessibility

Contact us to discuss how we can help you enjoy your tour if you have mobility, vision, hearing or cognitive needs.

• Phone +07 4047 9066
• Email  [email protected]

For more information and FAQs, please  visit our accessibility page here.

Booking Flexibility

We understand the importance of flexibility.  If you need to amend or cancel your tour for any reason,  we will always accommodate you, at no charge up until 24 hours prior to travel.

If you need to cancel on the day of travel, or miss your tour pickup, a cancellation fee of 25% will apply.

To find out more information on booking flexibility including full terms & conditions visit   Terms & Conditions

Recent Reviews

Booking in North America?

If you are booking from a North American Time zone,  the date you have selected for your tour may show as a day earlier inside the shopping cart – this is an error due to the time zone difference. On completion of booking you will receive an email confirming the date you initially selected for travel.

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