I'm going to London.... To watch a show o o o (Newmarket Holidays Coach Tours)

Member Name: abbadabbado

Product:	Newmarket Holidays Coach Tours
Date:	05/11/08 (1029 review reads)
Rating:

Advantages: fantastic service

Disadvantages: a lot of time spent on the coach

I was offered a birthday present of going to see a West End show with my mother in law a couple of months ago. After a lot of online searching for tickets and travel arrangements, she was told about Newmarket travel. I hadn't ever looked into using a touring company to provide me with this service as I will admit to thinking the service was targeted at the older generation. Going with the flow I let her book it and I decided I could put up with a few older people for a day or so on a coach.

Booking was simple and was done over the phone. You have to let the operator know which show you wanted to see, along with the dates you wanted to travel. The operator then takes your card details to secure the booking but no payment will be made until they have secured you overnight accommodation for the dates requested.

The bookings are priced on a per person basis. The prices start from £89 per person for a London show by coach. This price will change however. Ours came in at £109 per person and then we added an extra insurance on plus dinner at Planet Hollywood. All in all we were satisfied with the price as after doing internet research for travel, tickets and hotel, plus transfer costs we would have spent a lot more than that each.

All literature was sent via post a week before you were due to travel. Apart from the courtesy phone call to inform you a room had been booked, there was no more information available to you. I found this quite weird as I like to know details of my trips a long time in advance so I can prepare.
My mother in law told me we would have to carry our luggage around so we all packed very lightly in a rucksack. As it turned out we were able to leave luggage on the coach, so it was little details like this that we weren't told but it would have been nice if we had have been.

The day of travel arrived and we went to our designated pick up point with the booking form which acted as our receipt. I would advise you keep a look out for any coach that stops at your pick up point. We weren't able to pick our bus out very easily as the Newmarket Tours sign wasn't huge in the front of the bus.
We were greeted by the driver who asked for our surnames and ticked us off his list whilst he loaded any luggage into the bottom of the bus. Seats were allocated which we found slightly odd to start with but during the journey we realised why it was so important. As we got on and off the coach for stops and journeys, it was easy to find your own seats and make sure you stayed with your party of people by having allocated seats.

Our driver was very friendly throughout and always told us what we were going to be doing, and when we were having comfort breaks etc.
The coach was modern and averagely comfortable. There was just enough leg room but as with all coaches it was nice to have a break every now and again. There was an on board toilet and coffee facilitates that were provided by the driver if we wanted them.

The coach was full and everyone was going to see various shows. The driver pointed out to us that we would be met by a rep when we got to our hotel and they would give us all the information we needed.
The journey was fine and we made good stops along the way to have lunch and allow plenty of time for the hotel to have our rooms ready.
There were 52 passengers travelling and we were all booked into the same hotel.

Upon arriving at the hotel we were met with the tour guide who took us through what would happen next. She didn't bombard us with information about the whole process and we were drip fed throughout. At first I found this annoying but afterwards I realised we would have had information overload if she told us everything at once.

The plan worked that we had an hour or so to rest at the hotel before leaving for Central London where we would arrive in time for a pre theatre dinner to be collected after the show late that evening.
We were all given maps and shown our pick up points. Obviously there were people on the coach who weren't familiar with London, me included, but the tour guide provided us with comprehensive instructions and also answered everyone's questions well without losing her temper too much. She was slightly condescending at points but I think she was forgetting she was a Londoner and we weren't.

Each leg of our journey was done with ease and we could relax and let someone else take the pressure. There were no taxi fares to pay as we were taken to the nearest point to the theatre and picked up in the same spot again to be taken back to the hotel.
We were giving the mobile numbers of both the driver and the tour guide so if we got lost or disorientated we could call them.

The following day before coming home we were given three hours in central London to do as we pleased. Again we were taken in, dropped off and picked up in the same place. The driver was brilliant at pointing out landmarks and streets so we could all get our bearings and remember a familiar place.

I was pleased to find overall that the whole experience wasn't full of the older generation, and our driver had brilliant friendly banter going on, which kept everyone's spirits up and laughter flowing throughout.
By the end of the journey, as we had all stayed in our same seats it was like saying goodbye to friends as we all got off at our respective stops on the way home.

We saved so much money by travelling with a tour company to see the show and I will definitely choose this option again in the future.
For your price per person you get
- Tickets to the show
- Overnight accommodation in a four star hotel
- Return transfers to the show
- Return coach travel from your pick up point
- A tour guide
- Transfer into London on day two

These packages can be booked online at newmarkettours.co.uk or by phone. I would personally recommend you phoning them as they will be able to answer questions for you. I found the web site easy to understand but I wouldn't want to choose a hotel which was really far out etc.
If you're planning a trip into London for a show keep these guys in mind.

Summary: a great way to go and see a show