09 Apr 2024
The tour started with the guide not knowing where to pick us up. It was downhill from there.
Our guide seemingly had no plan or route. We would arrive at destinations only to find them closed. He would abandon the group mysteriously. It was so odd that other tour guides from other companies actually remarked upon it when they saw us wandering aimlessly. “We stay with our groups” they told us. Must be nice.
The final straw was when we arrived at the Hornblower boat ride. The entire group had purchased tickets through the tour company, but when we arrived at the launch (minus our guide. He had long abandoned us), we all found that our tickets were expired. The Hornblower crew were able to allow us to board… eventually.
Following the ride we were forced once again to trek on foot to a distant location… on our own… to once again meet our guide. When confronted with the reality of this ridiculous situation, our guide flat denied anything was amiss.
We ate our lunch. We paid for it after all! But afterwards parted ways with our guide and forewent the rest of the “tour”.
Essentially, there was no tour. There certainly was no guide. If we could award less than one star we would.
For some context- this was the day of the solar eclipse which I had been looking forward to and planning for 5 years especially due to the fact it was also my birthday. I planned everything well EXCEPT this tour where I trusted that our guide would have the plan and also know where we would be during the eclipse. It was great when he had to ask the group what time everything was happening. It was also a surprise that our lunch was simply at our own hotel at the buffet where we ate the night before. Very disappointed to eat the same food over and again without even a view. We were all supposed to see Skylon Tower and instead we had to ASK for the tickets and go on our own the next day. We were also supposed to see 2 other sites like the Floral clock and something else but the guy just wasn’t letting us know what we were passing and when he did he say “on your Left - no, Right actually”
He also had all the enthusiasm and knowledge of a baked potato. This “tour” was the least fun and engaging tour I’ve ever been on and the low point of our whole experience and my birthday. Don’t book this tour EVER!!!