Alnwick Castle & Scottish Borders Tour

The tour was amazing. The tour guide B dog had great banter and kept us entertained throughout the trip.

I feel like our guide, B-dog was very entertaining and informative. He was also a great driver, and incredibly serviceminded. Overall the tour was tip top!

Really nice coverage of a lot of sites in one day!! Paul S tour guide rocked!! Added a lot of helpful and interesting background.

I have very mixed feelings about this trip. The guide, Lucky, barely spoke to the group, offering almost no commentary, just chatted to two women. He cut time from published description at every stop, including 30 minutes at Alnwick Castle, making it impossible to see the gardens. The actual stops were nice, but a little underwhelming. A different guide might have made this trip better.

First, the meeting point. There are zero toilets anywhere near by that are open before 8am. Also, be prepared to be outside while waiting, there are no covers if it's raining. We got onto our 16 person van and it was a bit cramped, similar to an airplane seat. As we were starting the to leave the city our guide asked everyone if they brought their passports because we were crossing the Scotland boarder into England. He asked the first four people in front of us, then I mentioned I did not. He asked what type of ID I had, I told him, then I started to get my ID out of my bag to show him and then a passenger behind me said the guide was joking. I like jokes as much as the next person, but this was absolutely inappropriate and went on for far too long. And this inappropriate joke set the tone of the day for my family. We then made an unplanned stop at Eyemouth "New Asgard". We had about 15 minutes here, thankfully there was a free toilet to use. Next, we made an unplanned stop at a tiny convenience store for anyone who wanted to pick up drinks or a sandwich. Be ready to pay in pounds as you cannot use your credit card unless you buy something totaling more than 2 pounds. Then we made our way to Holy Island. The waterway crossing was extremely cool to see. However, we only had 45 minutes here, even though the advertised itinerary stated we'd have "1 hour". Additionally, the parking for the van was so far away from Lindisfarne Castle, we absolutely did not have time to walk to the castle and see the other sites on the island. There was a free toilet at this stop. Next, we headed to Bamburgh Castle. We were dropped off right at the entrance of the castle, but we did not have time to go inside. We chose to walk down to the beach and look for a seashell. We had 45 minutes here, even though the advertised itinerary stated we'd have "30 minutes". Lastly, we went to Alnwick Castle. I am a very proactive traveler and I read hundreds of reviews and Google everything before I purchase tours. I purchased my families Poison Garden and Alnwick Garden tickets about two months before our tour. At the same time, I tried to purchase admission tickets for Alnwick Castle and the castles' website stated there were no admission tickets available the day my family was planning to attend, which was fine. I then made the calculated decision, after relying on the Hairy Coo's itinerary of what time slot we needed for the Poison Garden tour tickets. Ok, now jump forward to our tour date, about an hour into our drive the guide tells us we can purchase both Alnwick Castle and Alnwick Garden tickets through the driver, I was shocked and irritated that was NEVER mentioned on the Viator activity details nor the Hairy Coo tour itinerary, this would have saved me money and the disappoint of not seeing the inside of Alnwick Castle. I had already purchased my families tickets to the Poison Garden and the Alnwick Garden, so I knew there would be very little time to see Alnwick Castle if I purchased the tickets offered by the driver, so I stuck to my original plan. Additionally, we only had two hours and thirty minutes at Alnwick, even though the advertised itinerary stated we'd have "3 hours". We had to leave the Poison Garden tour 5 minutes early in order to walk outside of the castle walls around the town for almost 20 minutes to get back to the meeting point which was at the Alnwick Castle entrance. The guide and driver did drive us to the Alnwick Garden entrance, but we were told to push through the entrance to the castle to make it a shortcut back to the meeting point at the castle entrance-we asked and this was absolutely not allowed. Our guide was terrible with telling us how long we had at each stop. This was our fourth tour of our multiple week long trip and it was the worst by far. All the other bus tours I have been on, the guide always has a whiteboard and they write the time we need to be back on the bus by. Our guide would tell us multiple times and when asked to clarify he would be a bit rude about it, or change the time yet again. Additionally, the guide's microphone was WAY too loud the entire trip, it was like he was yelling at us. And the guide's commentary was inappropriate, he made way too many comments about criminal activity he or the driver committed or would commit, mostly regarding our personal items. And any opportunity the guide had, he disparaged England. I was expecting a bathroom stop on the way back into Edinburgh and there was not one. We arrived back at the meeting point around 5:30pm. However, the itinerary stated the end time should be around 6:30pm, so I am wondering if our guide cut off some of the time we paid for and were told we would receive!? I am glad my family and I saw the sites listed on the tour itinerary, however this was the tour of my entire trip I was most looking forward to and I come away from the tour being extremely disappointed.