TS Tours & Tripsmiths Avis 38

Very interesting and informative trip. The guides were very knowledgeable and provided plenty of information about each site wd visited. Also very friendly and helpful

A thoroughly enjoyable tour, booked through TS Tours but I believe run by Brightwater Holidays. Sue, our guide, was very knowledgeable, warm and friendly and did everything possible to make sure things ran smoothly. Monty Halls was a great addition and Ian Mackie, the coach driver, looked after us brilliantly and kept us entertained with his wit. We felt sad when the tour ended and wouldn't hesitate to recommend it to others.

I travelled to Agincourt, Ypres, the Somme, Waterloo and Dunkirk with Tripsmith with Mike Peters as the host and guide.

The trip was really enjoyable and extremely informative, with a busy itinerary and some great locations chosen to bring these events to vivid life. Mike was very open and approachable, and displayed an enormous knowledge and enthusiasm for his subject, which really added to the trip.

This is the 6th tour I have been on. All have been great, but I think this one was the best.
Of course, the subject matter helps a lot, but I have to say that the company was great (many friends from other tours) and very convivial, which counts for a lot.
Regarding the organisation, I would say that the logistics were flawless, although Mike was not completely satisfied he could fit everything in. The coach were really really comfortable and the driver was cheerful and very efficient, ensuring very smooth transport from vastly varying locations. The hotels in Ypres and Amiens were also of a high standard (rooms and food) and very conveniently located.
Finally and most importantly, our tour leader Mike Peters is outstanding by his encyclopedic historical knowledge on a wide raging subject (600 years of history after all), which was probably to be expected, but also his sense of bringing the subject/location alive by practical insight and entertaining anecdotes. He is also an excellent (and tolerant) companion and friendly to all.
Full marks from me for all those reasons!

Communication was good from TS Tours and Tripsmiths. Travel was smooth; Wesseling, a very deprived area and is know as a chemical and industrial town was not a good place to be left for 2-3 hours prior to being able to board. Nothing to do on a Saturday afternoon, most restaurants/cafes closed - we were lucky it wasn’t bad weather. Very poor planning. Cabin was nice, staff friendly, food dreadful, very little information about the towns to be visited. It could have been a lot better for not much effort. Required to pay extra if you wanted to secure a table each meal - if you chose not to it was a stressful scrabble to try and find somewhere to sit each meal - truly awful organisation. A lot of tables weren’t used because people had paid for them so they were ‘reserved’ but then they didn’t come to the meal so they were just vacant all evening.

The whole package made this our best trip ever. Superb Organisation that seemed logistically impossible! The best tour guide, drivers, clear instructions re. Tipping, not getting lost, meeting times etc . We felt protected and safe and yet saw the real india. A wonderful mix of ages in the group. Great communication from Newmarket throughout booking process. Will use again and recommend.

Where do we start...
1. Nightmare journeys, both ways. Each way was typically a 17 hour journey. We had to handle our cases everywhere, including moving on underground in Paris. And we had to help several others who were not coping.
2. Hotel nice, minimal interest in guests though.
3. Not informed of a la carte allowance on dinner menu. Would have been nice, as food options very basic.
4. The area around Orta closed down at the end of September, I.e. no ferries, no bus service. And lake walk was interdispersed with main road walking, no footpaths in places.
5. The day trips were well managed, but long days, coach journeys up to 3 hours each way and then typically 2 to 3 hours in location. Seemed very rushed.
6. The final trip was missed, by 20 out of our group of 23. Why? We couldn't face a 6 hour round trip on a coach, the day before our journey home.
7. We were not clearly informed of journey and location features prior to payment. This was the general feeling of our group ....
8. It took us 3 days to fully recover from this "holiday".
9. Jeanette was a gem, very supportive.

Although we joined this tour separately as 2 Kiwis on a coach of 34 Poms we were well received & they were ideal travelling companions :-) & we made some life-long friends
The itinerary and scenery were ideal & what I had wanted and travelled so far to enjoy & I wasn't disappointed. The hotels were a good standard and ideally located. Pete our tour guide was exceptional and went above & beyond to assist any requests
& Niko the driver likewise.

Excellent speaker Katya Hoyer; articulate, knowledgeable, incredibly well read and au fait with German history. Excellent speaker and organiser in Clive Harris; brought a British army perspective to the tour which added to the excellence of the trip. All the visits went smoothly thanks to Clive and were an important element of tour. Good hotel with friendly staff and good breakfast. Suggest a hotel which serves light suppers would help the tour group get to know each other better. Very good coach driver.

Great experience. Jane, our tour guide, was fun and informative as was Lucy Worsley who attended on the last day excursion to Burgh Island. All activities included were well coordinated, entertaining and informative. Good meals. The Murder Mystery evening was wonderful. The Imperial Hotel was very nice in the entry and main rooms but guest rooms have seen better days. The view of Torbay from my room was stunning. Lucy Worsley was just as delightful in person as she is on all the documentaries she appears in. I would have given 5 stars but communication with the company previous to event not up to par with price point of tour.

Recently returned from a wonderful small group (8) 6-day tour to Slovenia. The natural scenery is just fantastic, and the welcome received in various tour locations (mountain plateau walking, craft beer brewery, vineyard, truffle 'hunting', caves & gorge, salami producers) could not have been bettered.

Two factors made our tour a great holiday; the small group size of compatible travellers, and especially our excellent tour guide (Arne) who introduced and explained everything so well & with humour.

I very much enjoyed this tour ,the coverage of the subject was suberb. The expert on the tour ,Katja Hoyer was brilliant talked without notes displaying her complete knowledge in the subject. The places and palaces plus a few statues the coverage was spot on .

Just returned from the 8 day trip to lake Como. Main concern was the company made no allowances for the bad weather. The hotel had zero facilities. The only lounge area had seating for 6 people. The accommodation was basic . No boats were running from colico most of the week and the town itself offered nothing in terms of entertainment or places of interest. Three separate guides accompanied the day trips but no information on what guests could do in the bad weather. Very little time to explore anywhere on day trips . In Como we were walked in torrential rain to a restaurant over 10 mins away and all were soaked. Then straight back to boat after meal. Some thought needs to be given to sending guests to Colico in bad weather season . A train was available that we all used but this suffered many disruptions n

This was a first class, excellently organised tour, with very knowledgeable and helpful guides, very good accommodation, delicious food, and memorable visits.

The actual trip along the River Douro was out of this world, the boat itself was lovely, the cabins, the food, the staff, all made for an extra special experience

This was my first trip with TripSmiths and it was really enjoyable. We were a large group of more than 30 and our guide Pietro, quickly made contact with us all. The trips to St Moritz on the Bernina express, to Varenna, and to Como by private boat were very well organised, well planned and exceptional. I had let the company know in advance of my dietary difficulties and, on each occasion a meal was included in the itinerary, the restaurants or hotel staff contacted me and confirmed what they were serving was appropriate. Pietro then found me, and just gentle checked that all was ok. Because of the severe weather which hit Italy during Sunday night and continued during our journey to Milan airport the next day, we had to take the motorway but the coach engine became flooded so we had to change coaches. But once again Pietro and the coach driver managed this well and Pietro went through the coach ensuring that everyone was ok. Thanks to everyone at TripSmiths and I will certainly travel with you again.

The Glacier Express tour needs to be tested and trialled by a competent tour guide, prior to offering to the public

We were most disappointed with the holiday which turned out to be exhausting. As you will know our original guide was ill and so the "stand in" who was charming had absolutely no idea as to where we should go and was permanently on the phone for more instructions - it was like the blind leading the blind.
Out of 16 train journeys there were 10 with cases - considering the average age of the party went from 63 to 93 it was very hard. You will receive a letter from us in due course.

The organisation was extremely efficient. We saw some lovely places. The guide (Mariangela) was very good, knowledgeable and very friendly.
Hotels were very clean and efficient.

The location at Lake Molveno was outstanding ,the excursions were well planned and thoroughly researched by our excellent tour manager Mariangela Piccoli. Mariangela exceeded our expectations, her knowledge, enthusiasm and patience made the excursions enjoyable and fun. Our main driver Donato made our journeys comfortable and stress free especially on the winding mountain roads.
Despite the good location the Hotel Ariston was a disappointment , meals in particular did not meet the standard we expected.