Astral Tours
 

I see in another post a couple of comments about Astral Tours and would like some more feedback about them. We are scheduled for one of their tours. Thanks!

We took their "Inner Circle" tour last year (Stonehenge, Avebury, crop circles, etc.). Our tour guide/driver was very competent, but a little shy -- he didn't talk much but when we asked questions, he was full of information!<BR><BR>The bus was comfortable, smallish, probably held about 20 people. Our particular 8-hour tour had only one opportunity to buy food. We had brought sandwiches and were the envy of the whole group!

We've booked several tours with Astral later this summer, so I sure hope someone has something better to say than that they got a discount for being forgotten at pick-up time! We, too, are taking the Stonehenge tour - what attracted us to Astral was the smaller size of the groups. Thinking this would mean less time wasted on pick ups and at each site? Thanks for the tip on food - we'll try to bring something with us, too. Other comments?

The bus for our Inner Circle tour stopped at only 2 places for pickups, and it was the responsibility of the participants to get there on time. Yes, being a smaller group does make for less time wasted at each stop. <BR><BR>Especially with the Inner Circle tour, we had to stay on schedule to arrive at Stonehenge at the specified hour. There was some flexibility in the later part of the day, in the amount of time spent at the stop at Avebury and at the time spent cruising around to look at crop circles. This seems like a sensible approach on Astral's part -- if the tour is running late, you just don't get to see all the crop circles! Since they change all the time, you wouldn't even know what you'd missed.

I was also concerned about a previous post where someone was not picked up. I guess that can happen with any tour company, but We have only 4 days, so we're putting 25% of our time in Astral's hands. I'm going to write down the procedure for getting to Bath by train just in case.

Well I was the one with discount, and I am afraid the full story even worse..<BR>Here is what happened.<BR>I booked Stonehedge tour 6/23 from NY. It was next day after arrival, but I figured out, that Stonehedge on solstice day will be an interesting show by itself. When I came to pick up point, I immediately saw their pickup, parked on the parking space near pick up stop. Driver told me, that tour was cancelled, and gave me his cell to talk with office. They said pretty much what I expected, traffic, logistics nightmare, possibilty of accidents. I realized, that it was true, and I probably should have thought about that before, so we rescheduled for next day. The thought, that they were the one, who should have think about that before and not book tour for that day did not cross my mind, probably I was still jet lag. Next morning I am standing on a pick-up point for 40 min and driver never shows up!!! I was furious, it was my second day in London. I am not a morning person and I wake up for two days in time to make it to pick-up point at 7:30 for such a disaster. I was not sure how to call them at once, or they would got an earful. I called them later that day to make sure, that they did not charge me. They recogmized me immediately, said that driver did not find me(and that was the same driver I as the day before!) and offered me 20pnds discount and reschedule. I was still angry, but in better mood, so I agreed. Next time I saw driver immediately, he started a long story how he was looking for me. I don't know how it was possible. Maybe he came, while I was looking for him on parking spot and left immediately.<BR>Our driver was a tour guide, and I don't think he did more than asking us to order lunch(it was included). Then agaain I read a lot about neolithic stone circles and in Salisbury cathedral they let only their own guides and they were amazing.<BR>Altogether that was a nice trip, driver stopped and slowed down few times, to show us interesting places on the route and small size group goes a long way..<BR>I went to another tour with Golden tours and I decided that I rather take chances with Astral, then suffer big bus and annoying guide. So I booked another tour with Astral next week...<BR>I got to pick up point there iis another couple waiting, here is a bus(another driver) and he calls office to say that he has extra person!!! Obviously they did not have any trace of my reservaion!!! I still went to the trip, because they had a spot, but this was a sheer luck!<BR>Anyway, tour itself was good, but if I ever will use them again, I will call twice to confirm and then stand on the pikup point with phonecard and their number in the hand....