Lake District - English Lakes Tour company vs Mountain Goat

I would have no hesitation booking with Mountain Goats. I took one of their tours from York last year and it was fabulous. The guide was excellent!!

I was hoping to take a lake district tour with them, but they no longer depart from Keswick. I ended up booking a 3-day lake district tour with Rabbie’s instead.

Thanks, Carrie! That is helpful.

Essentially you are paying more with English Lakes for half the number of people on the van. Like Rick's big bus tours with 2 dozen (ish, give or take) on a 50 seat bus, English Lakes only plan on filling half the seats- so 6 to 8 at most.
It is probably just me, being local, but 8 lakes in a morning feels rather whistlestop. But I grant you that for a tourist (a new one especially) it is going to be a good generalist introduction to follow up on at your leisure as you wish.

Also English Lakes are a much smaller company than MG. As they are at pains to point out on their website they don't subsidise their tours with taxi and school bus work, like Mountain Goat always have done- indeed MG started as a school bus company and still do that work now. EL are purely a tours company.

Thanks, isn31c! I was hoping you would see my question!!

That is very helpful. I missed that Mountain Goat is a larger tour group.

I agree, a 1/2 day tour of the region sounds like a total flash-by! However, I am not going to drive. I will leave the 1/2 tour decision to my travel companion - who may not be interested. We will be taking some literary tours so will have some sense of the area.

I took the MG 10 Lakes (full day) tour with my partner this past September, having done the same tour 5 years ago with my sister. The 2019 and 2024 tours covered the same ground and both times the driver/guides were excellent. However, during the recent tour the 16 passenger tour van was filled...in 2019, there were only 5 or 6 of us on the bus. I think MG tours have become very popular, but the van was crowded and uncomfortable. Think I would opt for a less crowded experience next time.

About five years ago, I took a one day Mountain Goat tour out of Keswick for the Lake District. It was on a 16 passenger van.

Our driver/guide told us he had been a tour bus driver for years and had recently moved up to driver/guide.

He hardly spoke. I had just done two excellent Rabbies tours in Scotland and compared to them, Mountail Goat was terrible.

The other passengers weren't happy either.

I realize we got stuck with a poor guide. The itinerary was good, we just weren't told much about it.

Hopefully, for the sake of future tours, this guy either got better or went back to driving.

Thanks to both of the reviewers above. I appreciate hearing of your experiences.

I hope this reply comes in time to help out. We just spent a few days in Keswick and used English Lake Tours. Mountain Goat no longer picks up in Keswick and both companies had good reviews. We had possibly the best tour experience of our lives with our driver Tim on an all-day tour of the lakes. The small van could hold seven passengers but we were the only passengers that day. Tim gave us splendid accounts of local history, lore and culture as he drove. He was very entertaining and had a great sense of humor. When the boat tour part of a lake was over, it had not taken the route past Wordsworth's daffodils, which I had always wanted to see, Tim drove us to the spot and waited for us to take some photos and for me to weep a bit. He dropped us off for lunch at Grasmere, recommending a lovely tea room, and identified the nearby Wordsworth house and grave. We bought some of the famed Grasmere gingerbread, and he was waiting for us early to continue the tour. We learned much about the many types of sheep raised as well and Beatrix Potter's role in saving the Lake District from crude development. We had the chance to ask many questions and to have a good chat about climate change. We do prefer a smaller group. Five stars for English Lake Tours!

Thank you Michele for the detailed post. It was very helpful!