Ffestiniog Travel Traveller Reviews

A relaxing, enjoyable couple of days in N Wales

Good information, good admin.

The highlight of the weekend was an all-day eighty-mile round trip over the scenic and historic Ffestiniog and Welsh Highland Railways. This included a superb buffet lunch at a local brew pub. Each passenger had a bay of six seats which enabled us to appreciate the view on both sides of the line. To the delight of the railway enthusiasts the train was hauled by a variety of historic steam locos, but you didn't have to be an enthusiast to enjoy the ride and the company.

Ffestiniog Travel is a small company specialising in holidays by rail. Despite its size, the company is very well-run and offers a very wide range of holidays by rail for enthusiasts and others at home and abroad. This was the second time I had booked with them, it won't be the last.

This was a tour of the Dresden steam festival over four days with two long days travel added to each end. It was not helped by the fact that clocks had gone forward an hour the week before and Germany is another hour ahead, so every morning start felt like getting up in the night for another day. Little concern was shown for the physical comfort of participants. For example one day had two narrow gauge journeys of over three hours without thought for food, drink or toilets. This was on wooden seats, which is to be expected on historic carriages but not twice in one day! There was barely time between the two to grab a sandwich and carry-on coffee. Another day was an outing on a paddle steamer and the guide had not ascertained which pier the boat would leave from. This meant a kilometre walk round some road works taken at speed so not to miss the boat. Two members of our party were walking with sticks. There would have been a tram taking us nearer if the guide had checked. This was thoughtless. Most information was given out at the last minute, so we could not do our own research on what we needed. This tour was designed for men who needed neither drink, food nor toilets but plenty of information was given out about evening beer drinking.

Ffestiniog travel is a company I would have liked to support as I love its railway but they have let me down on two trips now so I won't be using them again.

Enjoyable, well paced, and good tours.

Ffestiniog Travel

Dresden Steam Festival event/tour

Information really good

A well organised tour which ticked all the boxes for me with regard to places to see in New Zealand. We were made very welcome at all the heritage rail sites we visited, although I'm not a true rail enthusiast I found all the visits very enjoyable and interesting. One or two minor hitches during the tour were dealt with at the time by our tour group leader.

My first experience of using Ffestiniog Travel, I was very impressed at the level of organisation for a such a long tour.

Escorted tour, very good.

Ffestiniog travel,

From Christchurch to Auckland and all in between, the journey by rail and coach was satisfying. There were several items that needed to be fixed, but the group managed to get through them. Hotels were very good and large, but I could NOT recommend Rydges Hotel in Auckland. All the preserved railways we visited went out of their way to entertain us and provided an excellent atmosphere.

Ffestiniog Travel did a great job, but the company they rely on in New Zealand, could be much better in its accuracy for bookings.

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Very efficient and met our expectations

Very well organised holiday

Everything went to plan