Published on Aug, 2024
We had excellent pre trip questions answered on Viator with the tour operator! We arranged for the tour pick up at the South Hampton Port following our NCL cruise. Our driver/guide was timed perfectly at 8-8:15am holding a sign with our name right in front of the door that we exited the terminal. Our transport (new, clean, roomy, coach) was only a few steps away. Our family of 6 were loaded and off we went! The coach had waters, wifi, tissues etc. Our driver/guide immediately made us feel secure and comfortable. We took off for Stonehenge. We did purchase our tickets in advance! We loved arriving early and ahead of the soon to be huge August crowds. He provided us the most insightful and thorough understanding of Stonehenge leaving no stone unturned (LOL). It was to the point and so educational. It held the attention of our whole family and kids ages 20-17-14-12 years old. We even had photos throughout books that we would reference while he explained what we were about to see. I had used the audio guides on a previous Stonehenge trip on my own. Jay’s review of Stonehenge was so much better. When we got to the site, we didn’t even need any audio guides and just took in the moments. We had heard and learned everything we needed in advance with our driver in route!
Our tour originally included Avebury, Woodhenge etc. But while in route we discussed the itinerary and asked for alternative suggestions as Stonehenge was our main goal to see. He offered 3 excellent choices, and we chose Windsor Castle after a few family votes. Jay even made reservations for us at an amazing restaurant in the town of Windsor… Browns…. And it did not disappoint. The castle was great (we were able to secure tickets in route which was fortunate). We even had a rare opportunity to enter the church since it was scheduled to be closed on Sunday. The day was incredible. We completed the tour at our airport hotel near Gatwick. This guide and company were willing to customize our experience for our desires. We did agree in advance while booking the tour ahead of our trip to pay slightly extra due to the new route, time involved and extra fuel required. It wasn’t a lot more. Jay knew where to park, how to fast track our entries, and clearly had that “private tour guide expert insider knowledge” that made this tour a VIP experience. I would definitely recommend this guide/driver and company and hope that this review helps. It’s always a bit of a guess and hope that it all works out when booking tours remotely. Will they show up? Will it be worth it? The answers for us was YES! I will also mention that while we were in the Stonehenge inside exhibit…a Stonehenge staff member whispered to me “you got a good one!” We did notice that Jay seemed well known and respected by the staff at the Stonehenge site. Other tourists even leaned in to take a listen of the expert knowledge he was sharing with us.