Bodmin Jail Attraction Avis 

Wonderful trip buy asked 3 times to be unsubscribed and still getting marketing emails. Complsint sent to ico

A good afternoon out. The special effects liven it up and it's interesting if you like history. The gift shop has a decent selection of things and not overly priced like some attractions.

I have it 3 for the special effects and give 2 for the over active tour guide, I was expecting a paranormal tour, instead I got a glorifying ghost walk full props, I don't actually think I saw much of a prison just cinematic scenes.
Gutting really, I've been to Shrewsbury prison and the took you round an actual prison. I wasn't actually sure where I was in Bodmin, a theatre or a prison. I'd recommend it for small kids, my teenagers were bored stupid....

After 1 hour queueing was told payment machines were down at 1pm
Pre booked obviously allowed in first once working with a wait of 90mins
Would have been 4pm by the time we got in !!
Should of had a ‘cash’ backup plan
Waste of a journey.

I took my disabled son in 2022 and we waited over an hour but had to leave due to being evacuated..when i contacted for a refund or change of day i was completely ignored and lost out on the tour and the money

It’s all fake. You are taken into a modern building with fake scenes, fake rooms, stories projected on fake walls, fake cells even fake books in a fake library. The tiny bit of real prison you get to see has fake scenes and the cell doors are removed or fake. It was here that the tour guide giving a talk told me to move along as I wasn’t part of their party. It Felt like discrimination.

I can't rate this place anymore.
Many years ago it was a must see piece of British history, now it's just not worth the time.
I get change happens but it's supposed to be for the better, Bodmin has now been completely revamped and now it no longer resembles a prison.
It's basically a hotel with a side show.
I remember walking around many different levels of cell blocks reading heart wrenching stories and getting a real unsettling sense of what it must have been like for the prisoners. Bodmin jail's atmosphere in its vast interiors was unnerving but fascinating making you want to explore and then leaving with a good amount of knowledge coupled with fascination and sorrow for those who lived it.
Now it's just unappealing and uninteresting. About 90 percent of the building is unaccessible and you are restricted to one level of cells and about 4 other rooms that have been crammed with props.
The dark walk was basically a ghost house at a theme park that you have to endure wether you want to or not.
The stories in the cells are the same as the ones the dark walk tells, seriously what's the point of that.
The atmosphere has completely gone it honestly took about 1 hour for us to get through about 20 mins of that was the dark walk. To top it all of we was getting hungry so decided to pop into the cafe only to be told we would have to wait 45 mins for a pasty.
We left disappointed but still some sorrow but not for the prisoners but for what has been done to this once brilliant historical building
So well done Bodmin you have destroyed a perfect piece of history to build a money making scheme.

Absolutely worth the visit. If you can, I would recommend the guided tour as the knowledge bank of our guide was immense. We got given a great amount of information and some morbid humour with it...which is just up our street. Beautiful building, fascinating history and the immersive experience really brought it all to life. We will be returning

The Tour and Accommodation was great. We did not enjoy the set price evening meal at £50 as we did not want 3 courses. A seperate price menu should be supplied. Breakfast was not enjoyable due to the over the top mail staff member watching over you. Need to leave guests alone.

Took my daughter to Bodmin jail as we had been before 10+ yrs ago so as we were in the area we thought why not. What a waste of time, ok so we last went 10yrs ago but surely things SHOULD change for the better …. Right? Wrong, what have they done to the place ??? You DONT see a lot of the old jail anymore, it’s more of a walk around listening to recordings and projected images. We were expecting to see the different areas of the jail including the naval prison section, and the part where they had animated life-like people, like the surgeon in his gruesome theatre behind bars. £18. Odd each we paid, should’ve been more like £5-£6 per for the rubbish they have there at the moment. Very disappointed with the place.

I booked a double room in September to stay for 1 night in December. On searching Booking.com it said that if you booked direct you could have an early check in. 3pm is check in which is comparably late. So, I rang and spoke to a lovely lady. I asked if we could check in at 2pm instead. At NO point in that conversation did she inform me that there would be a surcharge of £15 per hour! I wouldn’t have paid it because at £219 for the room I think that is sufficient. Anyway, I paid up front for the room and went on my merry way.
I DID NOT receive any email confirmation of my booking. A few days prior to our stay I rang the hotel to check they were expecting us and to confirm it was ok to check in at 2pm. This was the FIRST time any surcharge was mentioned. I was surprised and said that I hadn’t been told of an additional charge when I booked. I said we would probably just arrive early like we were told we could do. She said she could not guarantee our room would be ready!
And so we arrived at the hotel at 13.30. Two receptionists stood at separate plinths and neither said welcome, how can we help you.
I chose the more mature woman and proceeded to book in. On giving my name she looked at the screen and sneered slightly. At the chance of being paranoid I politely overlooked it. She said the room wasn’t quite ready so we were welcome to have complimentary tea/coffee in the library. Before handing me the key she asked for an £80 holding fee. I didn’t recall reading about this on the hotel website but naively paid it. She reassured me that the payment was held in case we bought anything in the hotel and it would be cancelled within 4/5 days.
I have never experienced this before but because it was a special occasion I didn’t want to make a fuss and agreed to the additional extortionate fee. At no point did the receptionist tell me that I would be charged extra for an early check in.
So we enjoyed a couple of drinks in the library (tenuous description) and after 2pm I rang reception from the internal phone. I had presumed that they might have come to get us if our room was ready. The receptionist said that the other was on the phone to housekeeping and after a short wait she said we could now go to our room. By this time it was several minutes AFTER 2pm! So we proceeded to wander around the first floor above reception with our bags only to find that our room wasn’t there. Eventually we found another Naval wing out of the way of the hotel entrance.
The room was very nice and to a high standard. I thought it smelt a bit stuffy and the wooden floor was badly scraped by high foot traffic but we were pleased with it. Sadly there is no information in the room so I rang reception the following morning to ask what time breakfast and check out was. A robotic response.
We made our way to the Chapel and sat on one of the few laid tables. Lovely crockery and an exemplary cold buffet greeted us. Only 3 other tables had guests. There was a good choice of hot breakfasts so we both opted for the Full Cornish. On its arrival it looked decorative and appetising. Sadly that’s where the pleasure ended. The potato wedges were undercooked and hard and the bacon was overcooked and leathery. But my poached egg was perfect and I dipped in straight away. So we asked the head waitress to return our breakfasts as we couldn’t eat the bacon or potatoes. Shortly after she returned with the same used plates which had obviously just been microwaved. No sign of toast so we queried that, to be told we have to request it. With a jam selection on the table we assumed it it would have just been brought out. Warm bread in a rack was presented to us so we sent that back as well. The whole breakfast experience was a disaster and to make things worse the waitresses gossiped about us a short distance away.
On checking out we were asked by a lovely receptionist if everything had been alright. We said that the breakfast was really disappointing. She empathised with us and made note of our disappointments. After this I just double checked that there were no additional charges to the room and I would receive my £80 deposit back. She looked and said an early check in surcharge of £15 would be taken. Dismayed and annoyed we announced that this had not been confirmed on checking in. To be fair she looked embarrassed and asked her manager to come over for clarification. The female alleged that we had booked in at 13.30. We exclaimed that was the time we arrived at reception. We said we hadn’t entered our room till about 14.10 and she argued it had been 14.00. She read out a log of a conversation I had when I made the original booking. The receptionist that took my payment alleged she had told me there would be a £15 surcharge. I said that was a blatant lie. Another receptionist claimed that she had left a voicemail about the surcharge prior to our stay. I don’t get voicemails on my phone!
LIES

We were booked on a ghost hunting tour at beginning of November. They messed up and booked haunted at the same time
So there were 2 groups together so over booked. The description isn't what we got. Our 'guides' were over stretched and made 3 groups, only 2 guides. There was very little interaction you were left to get on with it. Supposed to be guide led.
Very disappointed. Would not recommend. Save your money and do a day trip instead. 9 of us went and all were disappointed.
Very poor response from bodmin jail to book and no response to our complaint.
1 star as cant leave less

It is a bit style over substance sadly. There is only one floor of about 20 rooms that you see in the actual jail. I was expecting it to be a jail experience but it's more about the effects and the story telling, understandable to make money but for me it fell flat.

The customer service of this company is disgusting. the morals are questionable and they are only out for the most amount of money that they can possibly get from you. To not be able to make reasonable arrangements with an outside company is incompetent.

Visited Bodmin Jail Hotel from 15th October for 5 nights as part of a group of coach travellers. We arrived mid afternoon and checked into our rooms. Ours was on the first floor and our accommodation comprised of 3 'original cells'. The rooms were very comfortable and very spacious. We unpacked and got ready for our evening meal which we had booked for 6pm.
The meal was pre booked by us from menus that were in our room. When we arrived at the restaurant we informed the staff that we were both diabetic and asked if there was a choice of suitable desserts, as starters and mains did not pose us any problems but desserts were full of sugar and really not suitable. Matt, a really friendly guy listened to our concerns and said that he would have a word with the chef to sort something out for us for the rest of our stay. (We had cheese and biscuits for the first night.
Later that evening Matt informed us that the chef would prepare a reduced sugar option for us for the duration of our stay and we looked forward to being able to enjoy our meals without having to have fruit salad or cheese and biscuits every night. Well, they did us proud and we had fabulous desserts all week and they did not push up our blood sugars. At the end of our stay I made a point of thanking Matt and the chef for our lovely desserts and told him that we had travelled all over the world staying in 2 to 4 star hotels and never been looked after so well. I also informed the reception manager of how well we had been catered for.
All the staff at this hotel were very friendly and really cared that visitors would have a good experience and I can't praise them enough and would recommend this hotel to all that are staying in the area, as it is also a central place for other attractions.
The final cherry on the cake was visiting the 'Bodmin Jail Experience' which was a 2 hour experience of the jail with all it's history. Thanks to all who made our visit so enjoyable.

What a fascinating place.

The AV tour is very well done, really sets the scene and covers a lot of Cornish history.

The jail itself is incredible, the cells are pretty much unchanged and incredibly atmospheric. The museum was incredible, you had to take the time to explore the exhibits yourself, read the information card, look at things, think about it all. Excellent.

And then, as you think it's all over, there's the execution trail... If you thought the cells were crazy, the museum was interesting - wait until you see this. It's not for kids, it's pretty odd and addresses the heaviest of all topics - the killings of human beings as punishment.

It's all there, no spoilers, but wow. It is genuinely incredible. Don't take kids, or Granny, but do it, its definitely, definitely worth it.

As soon as we arrived we were made to feel very welcome. Im disabled and the staff couldn't have been more helpful. Providing chairs and helping with the lifts. It was an amazing experience, the guide was really knowledgable and made our tour really enjoyable. Highly recommended.

The experience I had with my family today was an experience I'll never forget. It started off great, with amazing visual effects and, once we got to the prison cells, I thought it was over!
We couldn't see the rest because of a tripped fire alarm, but we got a full refund, which surprised me, and we saw all the good stuff. It is a total MUST-SEE! I will definitely come again to see the hanging pit. 🎉🎈😁🦄

A sensory experience that really brought the past history of the jail back to life!
The staff were incredibly helpful and kind as I am a little claustrophobic and was concerned about the dark environment I was entering. The lovely young man at the reception took time to explain the experience to me and what to expect. Thanks to this I was able to really enjoy it.
It was just the perfect balance of feeling transported back to another time, some slightly harrowing parts, but overall entertaining, educational and informative.
I’m so pleased to see that an important part of our architectural and social history has been invested in so that it can continue to tell future generations its past story.

My mum and her partner stayed for her 80th birthday so stayed in one of the cells, guided tour n evening meal / they had an Amazing time, the tour was brilliant and scary too! The evening food in courtyard area was very nice and mum said breakfast was’ out of this world’ !! And in an old chapel .The room (cell) was immaculate and they even decorated it inside and out with balloons n banners - they put so much effort into their visit and they came back soo happy and what a wonderful trip for someone’s birthday :) the staff were so friendly and extended their help when needed for anything.. never heard my mum so happy :)