Shakespeare's Stratford-upon-Avon and Cotswolds Tour from London

This is a bit of a long day, but well worth the effort. Our guide Amanda was so accommodating and helpful. She gave lots of information between stops and knew all the areas we visited really well. Alex our driver was prompt and efficient. We had a really lovely time. Would definitely book with Golden tours again.

We had the most amazing day visiting Shakespeare’s birth town and Cotswolds. Our tour guide Danxia was beyond knowledge, polite, carrying, precise, organized and made our day super interesting! The driver Marius was also great, polite and drove safely. He was always on time picking us up as well. Great team and great quality tour!We will definitely book again and recommend this tour to our friends.

Our guide Danxia was so great and informative on our tour and driver Alex was great too! We really enjoyed spending our whole day with them and loved all the information we learned. Would highly recommend!

a good journey. first of all, the guide Danxia was a nice,friendly lady who did bilingual guidance for today. she gave each stop a clear introduction. the driver Alex was also quite good.thier coorperation made the journey smooth. secendly, the route was well planed. while it was tense, the time for each stop was exactly enough. if you are interested in the countryside view and the picturesque landscape of the UK countryside, I recommend this route.

We went on the tour on April 22. We only had a day and a half in London. This was our only full day. We consisted of my husband, my sister and myself. Our guide was Eileen and our driver Merino. We were on a large tour bus with only 13 guests. Eileen is a wealth of information offered in an interesting, educational and entertaining way. We went from city to country in two hours and as we segue-wayed through the countryside we were given facts and fun stories. Merino was a great driver who was also kind and friendly. He even took us on a small detour on a tiny country lane. We saw everything and more. I would definitely recommend this trip.

This tour was offered to us as a substitute for a tour that got canceled, and I’m very happy to say it did not disappoint! We had the best guide. Danxia was so personable and friendly. She went out her way to make sure everyone was enjoying themselves. She shared her knowledge of the history of the times and kept everything so interesting! Marius, our bus driver was very skilled at maneuvering the very narrow roads with this big bus. I felt very safe with his driving. He was always promptly waiting for us at the pick up points. I highly recommend this tour to anyone who wants to learn more about the life of William Shakespeare and see the beautiful English countryside.

Danxia is amazing tour guide. She share loads of fun facts that made the tour enjoyable. Her communication, instructions and voice is so clear. Thank you Danxia. Marius is a nice driver and drove safely. Highly recommend.

Poorly designed and rushed the group. We didn’t get to do all that we paid for and the driver is extremely poor service and rude.

Our original tour was cancelled 2 days before the tour. We had to scramble to find another trip that was similar. The new tour had five stops and we had 1.5 hour at first stop, and less than an hour at the rest. Guide was a bit snarky. I don’t recommend this tour group.

This is a packed tour with a lot of stops and not a lot of time to explore. Oliver was a great guide but there was definitely a pressured time element. Suggest an edit of the itinerary for future guests.

There is a lot of distance walking at a fast pace which was not stated in the description of the tour. Most of the time the bus was not able to park close to the attraction. Even though the description said it was a guided tour with a knowledgeable guide this was not the case for this tour. The guide very quickly walked to the attraction with no information about the attraction and then left, came back to take the group to the next attraction with the same results. He never waited for the bus to empty before he started walking and the people sitting in the back of the bus did not know where he had gone nor heard any instructions. People were not told that there would not be time for lunch at any of the stops. The guide also spoke very fast and was annoyed when people asked questions and sometimes his explanations made no sense.

Lovely sunny day to come here, we parked at fishermans carpark but not again it's too expensive just for a walk along the river park and ride next time. Stratford is lovely, to stroll along the river, great cafe's, shops. Plus Shakespeare, great to see.

Order Reference CBTDJY84

This Tour was a total disaster

We were 4 people altogether 2 couples

We bought 4 premium tickets with everything included

About the Tour guide whose name was Lisa.

The Tour guide saw our premium tickets but still told us to go inside the bus and take any seat at the back or in the middle because she already gave our seat to some other person.

So we not knowing what’s going on went and sat on the seats at the back where the toilet was of the bus.

Shortly after some time we reminded the tour guide that we have premium tickets booked and then she told the other passengers to vacant the first 2 seats behind the drivers side and gave it to my friend and his wife.

On the other hand me and my wife were told to sit behind them.

The Tour guide then went ahead sat on our premium 2 seats on the left side of the driver in fact her seat was actually down just next to the driver.

We informed The tour guide that those seats are probably our seats but she said that it’s her seat and she needs the full seat and kept her bag. She pulled the mic from the dash board to the passage seats which was very unprofessional and seemed disinterested.

About the Driver

The Driver left 3 people behind including a woman

This was one of the most disturbing acts of a driver who committed this.

That lady was an American who had a family in Stratford upon themes n they were visiting her as per their conversation.

I witnessed the driver with no patience at all while they were trying to get in contact with them from the Golden tour office.The driver just closed the door n just drove off quick.

The Tour guide was trying to explain to the drive to wait but the driver just wanted to go home as per their conversation with a don’t care attitude.

The bus driver left the American lady with her family behind and just paddled faster and didn’t care about anything.

I mean they didn’t even wait for 15 minutes for this lady to come.

I mean how would you feel if you send your elderly family member and they just disowned them on the way.

This made me worry about our safety in Golden tour bus.

Our next stop was Oxford and me n wife n friends just came back to the bus about the driver leaving us behind with fear and horror full feelings

My wife n my friend wife went through emotional experience due the driver attitude who had left the American lady n her family behind and thought that the driver will leave us behind as well.

We did not enjoy this trip at all rather it was a Horror and wanted to get off the buss as fast as I can when we reach London.

I tried to make my wife happy by joking round her to distract her from this whole drama.

The Driver had this don’t care attitude just talking about his Off days.and he needs to go home quick as per their conversation

Being honest the driver should be fired straight away and the tour guide should be give discipline as that American lady and her family could take you all to court because anything could happen to her because its not her home.

I myself work for in the hotel industry.

If I recommend golden tours and you people leave my guest behind we as a hotel will be Legally in trouble.

We all witnessed this with our own eye in front of us.

The tour guide and the driver ,they did not care about anybody rather just wanted to end their shift n go home as per their conversation.

I am writing to you because I am deeply sad about this American lady more than my myself n my friend gone through.

I hope you do justice to the bad service provided to us and hopefully the American Lady and her Family is safe n got back home safely

Golden tour customer service did not help us in any way so please avoid this Tour service at all cost , very unprofessional

Was a very rushed tour and I felt quite herded around at time. Great scenery but barely anytime to have a proper look at the places we stopped

I have booked several viator tours for myself and as gifts. I have always been so impressed with kind, intelligent and caring guides. This tour should have been the highlight of our London trip but it was the opposite because of a very negative, uninformative, uncaring guide. Our guide Dolly started our journey barking at another guest to move out of her seat & ended it by scolding us for booking a tour with too many stops. Golden Tours used a 48 seat bus for 12 passengers going into small villages. A young boy & his sister were left behind twice without an effort to locate them. Meeting points & times were unclearly communicated. The driver & guide badmouthed their company & staff the two hour drive back and because there was no background music we were forced to listen. Any information given by Dolly was then repeated by the sites guide. Even when we arrived at the bus early we were yelled at to hurry and told we were going to be the cause of a police fine. This woman should Not be a guide. As hard as we tried to enjoy our day, her negative demeanour ruined it. I will think twice before I book again.

The sights were beautiful, but the tour was really rushed. It would have been better to have had more time in each location. We spent a lot of time walking to and from the bus to get into the locations as the bus had to park far away. Bathroom facilities were terrible! The last village in the Cotswolds was so pretty, but it was dark and everything was closed by the time we arrived. Our tour guide Oliver was fun and our driver Lucian did a great job keeping us on time. The pick up and drop off should be in the same place. This made things a bit complicated for some people on our tour. I would like to definitely go back to see more of Stratford-upon-Avon, there was so much to to do and see here. The town is adorable with great shopping and coffee shops. Unfortunately no time to see or do much. Even the Shakespeare part was rushed and had line ups to see things, even with a pre booked tour Cotswolds, not easy to get to. Definitely needs more time in each place to really enjoy it. I suggest not combining these places. Do them separately to maximize the experience. If you have mobility issues, this tour is not for you.

The Cotswold are beautiful. Our guide, Dolly, was not friendly and provided minimum information about what we were seeing. At the conclusion she told us we should have taken another tour! That aside the villages are the quaint English ones you read about. There is a lot of driving involved so be prepared. It is basically a tour to see the highlights but not to explore them with any time. I would like to have had more history about the Cotswolds and life in the villages as they evolved. One tip is grab a pasty and continue walking around the village to see the sights instead of sitting down.