Golden Tours (UK) Ltd

Don't do it! You'll end up spending 1/2 your time waiting for a bus to pick you up. They tell you anything to buy a ticket. One driver told us to go down the wrong side of the river to get our river cruise tickets that we paid for through Golden Tours, he was wrong and we had to cross the bridge and go along the other bank. It took an hour just to find out that information and get to the ticket exchange.

The river cruise was great, best part of the tour. The narration on the bus was lacking also. Overall I would not waste your money. Take a Big Bus hop on hop off tour instead. Many more buses running throughout the day. We were left standing at a bus stop after lunch for 1 1/3 hours, no Golden tour bus. Ended up calling an Uber.

I booked a hop on hop off for 5 (cost 144 pounds). Started at 10am. Managed to do 2 stops only. Issues: X= no golden tour related issue Y=golden tour related 1. traffic jam ( so walk or use bikes if you can). X 2. Signage/announcement : very poor. You have no ideas what stop you are at (May not even know if you are in a jam or at a stop) Y 3. Map stop number NOT on street stop signage. Y 4.

Customer services bad bad bad. I spent hours so.: Y. Y and Y Typically "customer no services" -- all I asked (chat session) was to be able to reused for another 5 hours and chat session the standard classbook answer --- you have to email customer service (see attached) cannot help you on that. Then I called the mainline and same answer was given after 1 hour of talking. So bottom line don't waste your money. Get a map and pick a location use Uber/taxi or bike or walk!

If I could give zero stars, I would. We booked a saloon car transport and tickets to the WB Harry Potter studio tour for 4pm and were extremely disappointed. They said a car would pick us up at 4:30 and then make the hour drive out to the studio lot. At 445, we call them and they said a car will be there in 5 minutes. No car. We call again and they say 10 minutes, and we finally got a "car" at 5:45 to arrive at the lot after they close (at 6pm).

They basically just call an Uber for you, which I could've done myself for less expensive. Also, they don't tell you it's an Uber, so the driver has no idea who they are picking up and you don't know who you are looking for. Terrible system! When we got to the studio, all was well and the kids loved it. We called early to get our pickup (another Uber) arranged and had to call twice and wait an hour, while my kids froze, to wait for our ride back to the city.

All in all, it took twice as long as needed and twice as frustrating as necessary. I could've called my own Uber and been in contact with them myself instead of a third party so everyone was confused and no one could communicate directly. I'll never use golden tours again for anything.

If you have Danxia as a tour guide, be prepared to run to the bus 10 minutes before she departs without you! Although she was great at storytelling, she left us behind at the first stop. The six of us, all tourists in England, stranded just because we were a few late to the bus. Thankfully her colleagues came to the rescue and had seats available for us to go to the next destination. However, our time at this spot was now cut short.

I have never experienced a service where they leave you behind and resume the 2.5 hour bus ride with your belongings. They told us to carry very little to get past security at Windsor Castle so our backpacks and belongings went with our tour guide. She reunited us in the middle but the first 1/3 of the experience was a lot of anxiousness. I wish I knew this before. Hope it helps the next group of tourists!

We enjoyed taking a tour with golden tours. We did the simple trip to Stonehenge. As we were limited on time. We got a little bit of not so great advice from our driver. He told us when we got to the destination of Stonehenge in the parking lot that we should walk 2 miles to Stonehenge to see the countryside and then look around Stonehedge come back maybe get something to eat in the cafe in and see the exhibit.

I will tell you on this simple six hour tour I do not recommend walking the distance you will only be able to do the walk spend very little time at Stonehenge and not be able to come back and enjoy a little bit of the artifacts before you have to get back onto your tour bus. My recommendation is to take the shuttle over to Stonehenge once you get there spend at least 30 minutes looking at the beautiful rocks.

Take the shuttle back enjoy yourself at the cafe as the food is delicious I had a steak and potato pastie and their tomato soup, it was delicious. I got to go around and see the exhibit and walk the grounds a little bit before getting back onto my shuttle bus. You can still walk around a bit and see all the sheep.

This tour exceeded my expectations! Like others we found this because tickets were sold out on the main website. Private transportation sounded nice and it WAS. The communication was great and the private cars there and back worked out perfectly. Our tickets were waiting for us in the box office and we had no issues. The tour itself is great fun as a fan! So much to see and don't forget to get butterbeer. Such a stress free experience. We loved it.

We booked our WB Harry Potter Studio Tour through Golden Tours because tickets were sold out for the date we wanted on the official Harry Potter studio tour site. Golden Tours was recommended. The process was smooth. When the bus showed up, we checked in and were off to the studio. Leaving was also smooth - the bus once again picked us up and dropped us back off at Victoria Station.

During the bus ride, you could charge your phone with the USB port. They also played Harry Potter 1 and Harry Potter 3. The only part I disliked was, the audio and image quality of the movies was terrible. They provided earphones so you could plug it into the tablet in front of you. I could barely ever hear what the dialogue was in the movie, which is kind of unfortunate.

Our experience was awful with Golden Tours Hop-on/off. The audio plugs were not all working in the bus and when it was working the narration would suddenly stop or cut-off key words. More importantly, there are so few buses that we had to wait for over 45 minutes to hop back on. When we called their Customer Service to see where the bus was they were not helpful and it turns out the route was changed and they were not aware.

Take the Big Bus tour instead as there are so many more buses. Ugh.so disappointing and a waste of a day. If you do hop-on a Golden Tour Bus.never hop off until your final destination.

We just did the Golden Tours one-day hop-on hop-off tickets (no river boat ride included, which we didn't actually want) and were very happy with this choice. We got on a Blue Classic Tour bus with a live tour guide at the stop in front of the London Eye and easily found seats on the upper level. The guide Dominic was very knowledgeable and quite funny, so we decided not to hop off and instead stay on for the entire loop in order to hear his full tour, hopping off back at the Eye about 2 hours later.

After grabbing a quick bite for lunch, we walked over to the bus stop on the Westminster Bridge to try the Red Essential Tour, which takes you by places none of the others do (like King's Cross station, where you can see Platform 9 3/4 from the Harry Potter movies). We only had to wait a few minutes for a bus to arrive. We did hop off and back on this route a few times, and every time a bus arrived shortly after we got to the bus stop.

This route doesn't offer live tour guides, and our only complaint is that the audio tour wasn't working on one of the busses. It did work on the others and we used the ear buds they provided us to listen to the recorded commentary. Overall, we were very happy with our day using the Golden Tours hop-on hop-off service and definitely recommend them.

The tours are well organised. We took the Stonehenge tour and had a friendly driver which was talking for pretty much the whole trip and at one point it felt a bit forced as he wanted all to leave him a good review. that's not too bad, I'm sure some people on the trip appreciated. on the other side I'm not a morning person so having someone talking so much through the speakers at 8am in the morning wasn't my favourite part.

Went to WB Harry Potter studio. Ordered ticket through GetYourGuide app. Bus was on time. Ride was pleasant even though someone became violently sick in like first 5 minutes and kept going till we arrived (journey took approx. 1 hour). I felt so sorry for that poor soul, staff managed the situation very well. After arrival I received my studio ticket and info what time is bus going back to London. Studio is just an amazing place to visit. Journey back to Victoria Station was smooth and fast (not much traffic on Sunday afternoon which was a nice bonus).

We have taken the Windsor castle, Stonehenge and bath. Our guide Pablo kind and trying to entertain us with the stories about each places. It is a long journey on a day almost 12 hrs. We need to be careful about timings if we have to return on that time we have to otherwise they will leave us. Pablo instructed us clearly about the timing.

Everything ran smoothly. Bruce and our driver Amando were great. Bruce kept everyone entertained. Even other tour groups beside us laughed at his commentary. The sites were beautiful. Got to have well needed resting time in the bus which was also very comfortable.

The tour started out well with a lovely young woman named Anna giving the guided tour. We hopped off at picadilly but when we tried to get back on the problems began. We watched 2 buses NOT stop, I called customer service. I was informed that at 5:15 pm most buses were finishing up their routes and that they were heading back to the terminal. When we bought the tickets we were told that we could get on ANY bus up until 6pm.

We finally caught the last bus at the stop, made it 5 more stops and the bus BROKE DOWN! We were at least 30 minutes walk from our hotel. Customer service was closed and the driver informed us that there was no way the company would pay for a taxi or Uber to get us home! Don't waste your money on this company. I'd definitely go with another hop on hop off company

Great tours operator, i booked a tour to Windsor, Bath and Stonehenge. Omg it blew my mind. The service was amazing, punctual like british clock, the tour guide is bloody funny and is not p.c at all, so i enjoyed it pretty much. Not only historical info but also curiosities, weird and unexpected details about the most famous and recognizable venues in the world.

Update: I contacted customer service and they asked for more details like where I had been waiting and times. I gave them every detail they asked for. I got two emails back saying they'd "look into it" and get back to me. And nearly 6 weeks went by and still nothing. Just a further waste of my time. DO NOT BOOK with them. They obviously don't value my time or Monday as shown yet again.

We booked a tour with golden tours before getting to London. On the day of the tour we went to Westminster Abbey first and then planned to get on the bus there. We couldn't easily locate a stop, so I called the contact number on the tickets. I was instructed to go to a stop on a side street outside a Pret A Manger. We found the stop and waited for 20 minutes.

During that time, we saw two busses from Big Bus tours come by. I called the customer service number for Golden Tours again and they assured me a bus should be by within 10 minutes. 40 minutes later we gave up and purchased tickets for the other tour company who had at least 6 buses come by while we waited for Golden Tours. Don't waste your money. Their customer service either lied or are clueless and you may end up waiting for nothing for an hour and a half in the rain.

Family booked a guided bus tour around downtown London because it was my BFs first time in England. They shoved two tours on the same bus and drove around with no guide and the audio on the bus video system didn't work. We pointed out grand looking things but didn't know anything about them. It was cool to go over London bridge and see the Tower of London on the way, but that was all the info I could give him.

We got off after 30 minutes and they refused to give us a refund for our $100. I'd say save your money and get a taxi driver to drive you around, probably would be cheaper too.

DO NOT BOOK WITH THESE CROOKS! It sounds hyperbolic to say this, but dealing with this company resulted in absolutely the worst experience I've ever had on a vacation. I was supposed to do their Windsor Castle/Stonehenge/Bath day tour in early December of this year. They sent me incorrect location information on both the confirmation email and the link to my tickets.

I arrived at the pickup location I was given prior with time to spare before departure but there was no bus anywhere. I was on the phone with the company within a few minutes (again, still prior to the scheduled departure) and was repeatedly told that my ticket was saying information different from what was plainly in front of me. The only bus that showed up for the company in the time I was waiting was for a totally different tour (the only positive note I can give in the whole experience was talking to the guide on this other tour bus, who was polite and sympathetic)! Trying to get refunded for this just resulted in more lies and insults from this horror show of a company.

I was again repeatedly told that my confirmation and link were saying a different pick up location from what was on everything that I had, even when I sent the confirmation and screen shots of the link back to them showing them otherwise. They also told me that I showed up late for the tour, which was again another lie as I was on the phone with them before the bus was slated to depart.

They refused to give me a refund at all. The only thing they offered was ridiculous 25 GBP comp for a future tour with them. As if! Seriously, do not waste your time or especially your money with these people.

Hop on hop off bus is a great way to have a taste of London, particularly if you are traveling with kids. The guided tour lasts around 2 hours and begin and end near the London eye.

One of the best guided tour I have had in recent times. The guide(Mr. Bruce) was just awesome. He has the right blend of sarcasm needed to make the tour fun in your otherwise boring ride to the attractions. The ride was as fun as the attractions. Worth it.

My wife and I visited London last week for the first time. Our Stonehenge/Bath tour was a great experience, but 11 hours. No matter what tour you take, the time on the bus is the most difficult just sitting for the amount of time it takes to get to the venue. Without our tour guide Bruce the ride would have been not worth the trip. Bruce filled us in on many details, of not just the venues we signed up for, but other areas in between.

In addition, Bruce provided a walking tour around the city of Bath at no extra charge. He was also helpful in suggestions for other sites to visit and places to eat. There were many architectural sites we saw that would not have had time to find ourselves. He really made the tour a much better value than just reading a booklet or hearing an audio file. Glade we booked the trip, but really glade we had a solid guided tour.

Cons and Pros Using the London Pass app offer I signed up for an 8:30a tour of the Roman Baths and Stonehenge on a Tuesday for 92 per person. Cons 1) Restroom facilities were broken on bus, meaning an extra pit stop was necessary to relieve group 2) Meet up times at locations are only verbally said, no written itineary for the day beyond the initial check in time, starting departure time, and approximate ending return time. 3) The lunch provided was really just sub par.

The water appeared cloudy, and the Ploughmans sandwich rather failed to inspire any flavor. 4) Cold interior cabin, if you forget a jacket or a few clothing layers, there are no blankets to borrow for the journey 5) Our tour guide administered a heavy dose of British comedy intertwined with a sarcastic outlook about the tour itself. Personally not my cup of tea. Pros 1) The tour left on time 2) Depending on preference you could explore the locations independently or with the group 3) Like all things it eventually came to an end Overall I didn't enjoy my experience, they did drive me to both of the destinations I paid to see, however depending on your standards you may or may not have a good time. In retrospect I wish I had done more due diligence before signing up.

Had a wonderful experience utilizing Golden Tours for the Warner Brothers Harry Potter Studio Tour. My friends and I didn't have a car while in London so the ability to get dropped off in Victoria and then take Golden Tours' bus to the studio and back was really helpful. On the way back, they do offer a stop on Baker Street in northern Central London, too.

The photo I uploaded shows a blue dot with a more accurate representation of where to board the bus. The 4 Fountain Square address takes you to the main building area, but Golden Tours and the bus loading area is toward the inner part past a large open courtyard. On the way there, you watch the first half of the first Harry Potter movie and on the way back, you finish the last half.

As you board the bus, you're given an envelope with a voucher to board the bus at the end of your studio tour and also the tickets to get into the studio. The last tour of the day and bus ride have you getting back pretty late (11ish), but that last tour has the least amount of people and if you're looking to get clearer shots, that may be your ideal time.

We went on the second to last time period (5 PM ish entrance and leaving the studio at around 8 PM). Absolutely do bring a camera and feel free to dress up. I wore a pretty basic uniform with Slytherin tie, but saw quite a few other people in full regalia - robes, wands, etc. One other tip, the food court area that you find in the middle of the tour is the ONLY place that you can get butterbeer drinks and soft serve so make sure to get your fix because they won't let you back around through the studio just to get it.

This was the worst experience I have had in tours in the past forty years of traveling across Europe and the USA. We waited in line for 2 1/2 hours to see Windsor Castle. We got through security at 11:38. We were told to be back on the bus at 11:45 and the bus would leave at 11:55. My sister asked what if we were late and the tour guide said "I will leave, so don't tempt me".

We went straight to the exit we did not see the changing of the guards, Windsor Chapel or the apartments. While the exit across the lawn was beautiful it was not what we expected. When I got to the bus the tour guide gave us a sandwich and said we won't be leaving for awhile, so go use the toilet if you have to. That was not what I expected. Stonehenge was the same treatment and I did not even get to go to the Baths. HORRIBLE EXPERIENCE and WORSE Customer Service.

HORRIBLE rushed experience! STAY AWAY! ABANDONED! If you want a Hitler style boot camp tour this is perfect for you! Susan was super strict with time and nothing was relaxed about this tour from the minute you hop on or hop off. Everything was rushed, you had limited time for each spot. She was very confusing, when trying to talk to her I was ignored on 2 occasions had to ask the driver who was super sweet (only good thing) Start of the trip; NO HOT FOOD DO NOT: bring any breakfast for she will make you throw it out, no coffee no hot sandwiches Bibury : max time under 20 mins; again rushed; all you got to is walk around see the Trout Farm come back to the bus: *did not count who is on or off and bus left Lunch: is a joke, bread with a slice of cheese lol, better just eat at the Trout Farm for sandwiches Bourton on the Water: max time under 50mins, don't get to see everything because she kept warning she will leave if you are 1 minute late : got to see the Motor Museum : again rushed and ran back literally to the bus just to find out that 2 people were left from the other tour bus Anne Hathway house : max time rushed again 30mins : rush back to bus : nobody was counted : bus left faster then told Shakespeare: tickets to birthplace were included : nothing was told or communicated : just dropped off and she left : I called the company just to find out the time 5:25-5:30pm when bus leaves : max time maybe under 1.30min come back to find out that bus left early Call 3 more x to the customer service NO HELP on hold 19:33 min : maybe she didn't count like she did the rest of the tours : was abandoned at Straford max time for each was under 30 mins, if you got lucky maybe 1 hr Warning you will suffer : Bad anxiety, being stranded, No communication, No maps, Customer Service wait time about 19:33 minutes Your belongings: better take them ALWAYS with you just in case like myself you get stranded in Stratford like myself because your Tour guide decides she doesn't care about anyone and just leaves at whatever time she decide! Golden Tours is horrible! Best to try something else! Customer Service is horrible no compensation back to London (no partial refund for even transportation).

Nothing overly good or bad to say about Golden Tours, just a few observations. We tried to get tickets through the Warner Brother's site for the Harry Potter tour. Even MONTHS in advance, they were sold out (I'm guessing because bus companies like this buy them out so there's no other option, but I digress). No other issues buying the tickets. Had a heck of a time finding the bus stop at King's Cross, but made it in the nick of time.

The bus was nothing to write home about. The seats were a little uncomfortable, the bus was a good temperature, and it was clean. The Free WiFi that they advertised didn't work on the way to the tour, (but did on the way back). I liked that they played the first HP movie during the drive to and from. The staff onboard were pretty rude in general.

There was no introduction or "what to expect" conversation. When we arrived, the driver was loudly complaining about the bus gates not being open yet (that was uncalled for). The instructions for our meet up time were rambled out in passing as we got off the bus. It just seemed like they didn't care and didn't want to be there. Ultimately, we got where we needed to go on time. Don't expect any bells and whistles. And if you are going on a tour that requires more guidance from the staff, I would look elsewhere. But if you're just getting dropped off for the HP tour, this will do!

Booked this tour to see some sights outside of the city and this tour did not disappoint. These tours can be hit or miss based on the driver, tour guide and the level of professionalism of both. We were luck that Eugene was our guide and Vaughn was our driver. Both made our trip seemless and easy. Vaughn weaved his way to each destination ease and Eugene provided great commentary and history throughout the day.

The weather was horrible but we made the best of it. Tours can't control the weather but they provided us ponchos which was helpful. We toured Leeds castle, saw the Dover cliffs, toured Canterbury Cstherdal and ended by traveling by water taxi on the Thames. Also provided a small boxed lunch which was great so we did not have to waste precious tour time finding a bite.

It was a long day but we fit a lot in that we might not have been able to see on our own. Definately recommend this tour. You might not be able to spend a lot of time at each spot but with time management it can be done!