I am looking to take a 10-day or so small group tour of Wales with an expert guide. There are many companies that offer tours, but I don’t want to pick one without hearing recommendations from people who have used them. Any suggestions?
I should probably also ask for warnings about companies to stay from!
Thanks!
A number of years ago I did a Road Scholar tour of Wales, staying in 2 locations and doing day trips from those bases. The guide, Conway Davies was outstanding and is still guiding for them. They are designated small group tours and have a max of 24 people.
https://www.roadscholar.org/find-an-adventure/12185/Celtic-Wales-Snowdonia-and-Pembrokeshire
Former RS guide, Mark Seymour, has a tour company and does a tour of Northern Wales. I have not traveled with him but am booked on his Northern England tour for next spring. I follow him on FB and love his teaching style on there.
https://www.seymourtravels.co.uk/northwales2023
If you want to share what companies you are looking at people may be able to give a general opinion. I post a lot on Trip Advisor as well and have a list of tour companies and how their response to Covid was. I will never travel with some of them because of their treatment of customers during the pandemic.
Thank you. I also like Road Scholar, but they don’t offer a tour exclusively in Wales. The other company sounds good, but I would like to see South Wales as well as North Wales. Maybe I’ll contact him and see if he has suggestions.
I don't think their tour is as comprehensive as you want, but Rabbies has a Wales tour. Everyone on this forum, including us, who has taken one or more of their tours loves them.
Actually, yes, the Road Scholar tour I linked above is solely seeing sights in Wales. Is your concern that it starts and ends in England? It does start in Manchester just as an overnight for the arrival day as many participants let Road Scholar book their tour and arrive on Day 2 of the itinerary. It also has it's last night at Heathrow for easy departures. When I took this tour we stopped at Caerleon on the way back to Heathrow but I see they now stop at St Fagans which is a really interesting site. We arrived to the Heathrow hotel late afternoon - maybe around 5PM.
Yes, I’m sorry. The trouble with that is it doesn’t go all the way south to Glamorgan. While it’s not as scenic, I am particularly interested in seeing it because my great grandparents emigrated from there to the USA. My Welsh heritage is what is made me want to travel to Wales.
Oh yes, I see what you were wanting! Hope you can find a tour that meets your needs. Wales is so interesting.
I'm planning to go to north Wales in June 2023, partly to take a Welsh-language certification exam. Any suggestions for small groups or individual guides? Or for an independent trip? I am leery of driving alone (wrong side of road - Ireland was a nightmare) and would prefer train and bus transport. Custom guiding would be great if it were affordable.
You could check out this company:>https://www.seewales.com
I have not used them as I drive or use public transport.
You could arrange to go early or stay after the tour to spend time in Glamorgan. You would have to hire a local guide.
Hello,
We used Welsh Dragon Tours (https://www.welshdragontours.com/) in September. They have a 6-day all-Wales tour. It's just you and the tour guide; they make all arrangements for B&B's, admission to sites, etc. We did the "south to north" tour and loved it. Our guide was Rob Laird who was a history major so his knowledge of historical sites was amazing. We were very happy with the itinerary and I would highly recommend them. I think the only comment I would make is that we stayed in a different B&B every night--had I to do it again, I'd ask for less stops. But that is a very minor comment. We really appreciated their flexibility; our tour began on the day that Queen Elizabeth was buried. Rob and his wife consulted with us and planned out the day as best they could given the day. We couldn't have wished for more.
Has anyone used South Wales Personal Tours? http://www.southwalestours.com/
