Trafalgar Travel
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Tour of Britain and Ireland
In general I have a bias against tours as they are 60% more than what I would pay when I set up my own tour, as I would stay in better hotels or B&Bs, eat better quality food and be more comfortable traveling when touring alone. That said, driving on the left was absolutely a non-starter for me to see Britain. I wanted a tour that took us through England, Scotland, Wales and Ireland and hit many of the high points that I would have chosen to see. Overall I would give this Trafalgar tour an overall C grade. The Tourguide and Driver: Gary and Sid are top notch. Gary is personable, intelligent and obviously very experienced. Sid was a fantastic bus driver. They would both get 10/10 an A as far as I am concerned. The Bus: I have taken 2 other tours with Globus and never remember being as uncomfortable as I was this trip. I am relatively at the weight for my height but felt so uncomfortable any time we were not in the “special” seats. The sizes of the buses themselves may not vary but certainly the number of the seats does and we were uncomfortable. Additionally there was little room at the top for other belongings. I would rate the bus a D. The sights: we were very happy with the sights we went to most of the places we were supposed to go. Additionally every stop to use the facilities seemed to be carefully chosen and not wasted. However that said some people never got an email at the start of the tour to see the city of London. Personally we had made other plans anyway but just as a matter of principal we along with others were never notified of this tour. Just no excuse really. Sights were B+. The accommodations: I would say a good 1/3 of the places we stayed we would never stay in. A prime example is the Holiday Inn in Edinburgh that was a complete embarrassment (an F). I took pictures and hope I can post them but many of us were pretty disgusted. It was old, run down, carpets dirty, the heat couldn’t be controlled, the furniture was broken, there was mold in the bathroom and the radiators in our room had paint peeling off them which could be a potential health hazard for children if it's lead paint. Almost every hotel had no ice not 1 ice dispenser or mini-refrigerators. On the other hand the hotels in London, Laggan and the Clayton Ballsbridge in Glasgow were outstanding. Several of the others had issues with lack of control for heat primarily and were in various states of dated. Overall a C-. The food: I didn’t go on a tour for the food and it was hit or miss. Breakfasts at every place we went were exactly the same. It was like the same company prepared the food for the entire trip. First the show at Taylor’s in Ireland was great. Alternately I can say for sure the Dinner at the Crowne and Anchor in Plymouth, the Farewell Dinner was horrible. My wife had the fish and I heard many complaints about it as bony and heavily breaded. I had the sausage and bacon pigs in a blanket, but there was no blanket. It was one of the worst ideas for a meal Ive had in my life. Dessert was good though. The food at Dartmoor was very good as was the Laggan. In a couple of places there was uncertainty about drinks such as Durty Nellies we paid 47£ per person and had to pay for the first drink but initially informed it came with 1 drink? We questioned the waitress and she said she was correct that we had to pay except she later came back and apologized and told us we then had a free round. That’s great if you drink more than 1 drink but not so much if you don’t. There was also confusion at the Welsh Dinner as well so there should be more guidance given regarding what will or will not be served for drinks. Lunch on the farm in Scotland seemed forced. I learned nothing about life on a Scotish farm from that experience. Food overall was a C. Finally, there should also be name tags. I get that Trafalgar is worried about plastic but there is a way to recycle the name tags and just change the names with paper or use adhesive backed paper. It least for a few days this would be useful. I would never consider another Trafalgar tour or recommend it to friends in the future based on my experience and the subsequent ineloquent company response.
