Good experience with Expat Explore's GBTOUR tour. While some nearby places were missed, the tour offered enjoyable moments. However, extended coach rides felt like time could have been better spent.
This was my first overseas solo trip and I was very nervous and didn't know what to expect as a solo traveller but I was made to feel very welcome and comfortable by the group, tour leader and driver. Our tour leader, Mike, was so knowledgeable of the places visited and all the history (including all the dates!) which blew my mind and he has such an infectious laugh and loves a joke - he was a fantastic leader. Martin was our driver and also such a great guy - I think they worked well as a team! The tour covers all the main areas of each country which gives you a food taste for places you might want to go back to another time. I think it's fantastic for first timers. I like Expat as they cover all ages and each tour has a food range of ages - unlike some others which are aimed at younger people only. My only gripe about the tour was that due to limited daylight hours, we couldn't see everything we wanted to see - Mike and Martin took us everywhere we wanted but we couldn't physically see some of the things. I would prefer to do this tour in summer with more daylight.
As winter days are shorter I feel that it requires time adjustments, specially the first three days, from York to Edinburg. Me and my wife felt that in order to make the tour more attractive you could skip some of the little towns and give us more time in cities like York, that we almost didn't see anything because by the time we got there was dark. The last day of the tour, if you don't buy the optionals, you cannot see anything but souvenir shops and, although we did paid for the optional sale, we found this a little harsh for the people that do not want or didn't have the budget. The tour leader and the driver are great people and overall we had a good time. We like Expat, this is our second tour with them, and we are already booked for 2 more, but we definitely think that the GB tour in winter time should be different.
