Best of England 2019 changes

What are your main concerns? The London schedule? The hotel in Bath? Something else?

I know many have posted about problems with this tour this year. All I can say is that I took it in 2015 and experienced none of the issues people are commenting on this year.

I stayed in Brooks Guest House in a small single room. It was fine for my needs.

We had a train delay leaving York (train we were supposed to be on hit a horse, then the train we wound up being on was delayed by a broken rail - nothing RS tours could have anticipated), got in to London late, that year did Westminster Abbey the first afternoon so had a bit of a rush but we managed.

I will also say I think RS tours constantly monitors issues. I do believe they read every single evaluation and take in suggestions by their guides. There is always a guide summit in January where the guides from all programs meet, then break up into their own groups to discuss issues/problems and try to make things better.

editing to add: I just counted up the 2019 departures and there are 19 listed so far. They may have some shadow dates to add as these fill. I'm assuming they had about the same number of departures for 2018 so that is about 500 travelers for this tour over the season. Hopefully everyone filled out their evaluations so the office can see if there are recurring themes!

Some tour changes may not be known until early next year. Each year RSE flies in their tour guides for a week of meetings in January. They brainstorm and discuss what went well, what didn’t and evaluate what if any changes to make. (When the group is on their free time guides are often out doing research on new and different things to do.)

AFAIK RSE does take the post tour evaluation very seriously and each one is actually read. My understanding is Steve Smith was in charge of guides and tours but this changed recently. Perhaps he retired?

If they put London back on the 2016 schedule, that would take care of most of the London problems I experienced in 2018. (Went to Westminster Abbey day of arrival, saved Tower of London for next morning and gave free afternoon for those who wanted to spend more time at the Tower).

If they would insist that the hotel in Bath replace the quite worn-out mattresses, that would be a major improvement.

If they would convince the Indian restaurant in York to make only 8 people eat at the 8-person tables instead of forcing 10 to share the tiny space, that would be a big plus.

Those three things, all easily done, would really improve the trip in my opinion.

How can I know if the problems expressed on this forum about the Best
of England tour will be fixed in the 2019 tours. Or are they already
being dealt with?

When you contacted the tour office, what did they say when you asked the above two questions?

Whatever they said to you is what you can count on.