Shakespeare's Stratford-upon-Avon and Cotswolds Tour

Our tour went to Warwick Castle, Stratford on the Avon, through the Cotswold area, finishing up in Oxford. The places were all very lovely and interesting. Our tour guide, Oscar, was excellent, giving us clear direction. He was pleasant, and was amazing in fluency in English and Spanish. He did an excellent job with our walking tour through Oxford and was very knowledgeable. The bus was comfortable too.

This tour was a disappointment. I probably won't even call it a tour. No tour guide at all and a bus driver who wasn't very social. The only information he shared with us was where Harrods was and the National History Mueseum. Personally, I go on a tour to learn about the area and the history. Especially with this being a Shakespeare tour I was expecting some information about Shakespeare. But nothing. We were a small group travelling today (8 people). When arriving in Stratford-Upon-Avon, the bus driver took us to Shakespeare's Birthplace then left leaving everyone very confused. We weren't aware of directions to recommended places and we weren't even told the places we were able to visit with our tickets. We only had a short 3 1/2 hours stay in Stratford-Upon-Avon. In total it was only an 8 1/2 hour tour (two hours short of what the tour time was advertised to be). The bus driver also was trying to kick us all off the bus at Gloucester Road and became agitated when asked if we were being taken back to Victoria where as advertised the 'tour' was due to finish I would say this 'tour' was more a taxi service than a tour. I would not recommend this tour to anyone. Very unreasonable for price for what we got. Don't waste your money.

I doubt that Golden Tours ever really provides this tour. In January, I booked it for Saturday, 2 May. Weeks later they sent a message saying that it was canceled due to "unforeseen circumstances." They offered a different tour on that day, which would visit Oxford, Stratford-upon-Avon, the Cotswolds, and Warwick Castle, or to reschedule the original tour on a different day. I really didn't want to do the former, because I am sure that it entails a lot of time on the bus and not much at the sites, especially Stratford-upon-Avon. After a bit of back-and-forth with Golden Tours, and some reshuffling of the rest of our travel plans, we rescheduled the original tour to Tuesday, 5 May. Then on Friday, 1 May, they notified me that the tour was canceled for a SECOND time. Again they offered the rush-through-everyplace tour in its stead, and this time they didn't even suggest the possibility of rescheduling on a different day. This time I have chosen the final option: I am canceling. It's fine, though, because they forced me to find a simple, cheaper alternative: I easily booked a trip with Chiltern Railways and bought my tickets to all of the Stratford-upon-Avon attractions (including Shakespeare's Schoolhouse, which Golden Tours oddly leaves out) directly from shakespeare.org.uk. I expect to spend a wonderful afternoon in the town that produced the Immortal Bard.

They left us in hand. They left ahead of schedule. We're lost in the middle of nothing! Lack of responsibility and professionalism! Unfortunate!

Great day trip. Tour guide Oliver was very informative. Bus driver Corvinder took good care of us and drove us smoothly from place to place.