UK & Ireland - Rail and escorted holidays

“Lovely places to visit and great views. Hotel accommodation and food both good. Excellent coach facilities and driver. The steam trains were a real treat!

“Fantastic holiday, stunning scenery on the islands. Hotels in Guernsey and Jersey were delightful. Tours were very interesting. A superb holiday which I would highly recommend.,

“The Yorkshire moors and dales trip was a joy from beginning to end

“An excellent tour, Sandra our tour manager was really efficient and the tour itself was very well thought out

“Thoroughly enjoyed the round of experiences in this holiday. A bit spoilt by the weather.

“We thoroughly enjoyed the tour. It visited some very interesting locations that were well integrated. The introductions were very good, especially the one on the canal trip. The visiting academic's talk after dinner came at a rather sleepy point when most people were not at their most receptive. We were sorry not to have had more free time in both Manchester and Newcastle to extend the context of the tour.

“Your host Helene went above and beyond her remit, and is to be commended. Stonefield Castle hotel is lovely, if suffering staff shortages. A couple of younger servers somewhat surly, but mainly excellent - even turning out the jolly cleaner to serve dinner one night! The very knowledgable barman also had to serve at table, and did so graciously. It is in a beautiful location, rooms are good and public areas stylish and well appointed. Rather more coach travel instead of train than we had hoped for, and the hotel’s location a bit far from any of our objectives, but we certainly got around and both driver and coach high-grade. The main let-down was the school dinners style food at Hotel Indigo in Glasgow, where I feel we were victims of a long ago pegged price. We stayed an extra night, and felt the breakfast fare improved immediately our tour group moved on. But its location and the rooms were really good, so it’s a tricky call to remedy : they had only reopened four weeks previously, and some of the serving staff seemed poorly suited to their role, though most were trying hard and pleasant. The service improved at our second breakfast, when a restaurant manager appeared. The range of visits was good, Mount Stuart excellent - aided by the sublime Jim’s infectious enthusiasm and depth of knowledge.

“We thoroughly enjoyed our holiday, the hotel including the food, the guides the coach driver just brilliant. Our two disappointments were the trip on the Norfolk Broads and Sandringham due to the closures of the Church, walled garden, museum etc.

“Had only been to Dublin before so enjoyed seeing and visiting some of the interesting places Ireland has to offer.