Anderson Tours

My mother and I booked the Stonehenge and Bath tour on the 15^th of january. We were the first pick up location at London Bridge. Our coach was supposed to pick us up at 7:30 and as recommended we we where at the bus stop by 7:15. AS 7:30 came and went with no tour bus in sight i called the number provided with no answer. The entire time we were waiting a woman was also sitting at the stop waiting, but i hadn’t asked her yet if she was also waiting for the tour. I saw an anderson coach approach, but it continued driving past us. When it stopped at a light i approached the coach and showed him my booking papers and he waved me off. Once i got back to the stop i called again, it was about 7:40 at this point still no answer. At the point i asked the other woman sitting at the stop if she was waiting for the tour to Stonehenge too. She ignored me at first and i asked her again thinking maybe she didn’t hear me to which she replied yeah, I’m the guide, theres traffic, thats why the driver is not here yet. It was obvious that we were waiting for the tour as we were talking about it, discussed me calling the company right next to her, it would’ve been good for her to mention hey I’m your guide, don’t worry about the bus, it’ll be here soon. I understand that traffic is an issue, especially on business days in the morning rush hour, but since there are tours running everyday, you would think the company would have taken this into consideration.
There were more stops that needed to be made, and not once was there an apology issued to anyone for the lateness.
As we learned our tour guides name is Kristina. She seemed miserable and very unhappy to be there or with her job. She mentioned how she hoped for a transfer to Australia, and for Australia’s sake i hope that she doesn’t get it. She is a terrible guide. As the coach was driving through the city she didn’t bother pointing out the neighborhoods or the monuments and parks as we passed by. the only time she said anything on the microphone was to complain. Her big contribution to the trip was that the people of the late 17^th and 18^th century had very poor hygiene and most likely smelled awful.
On our return to London there was traffic yet again, and the driver had hit his 4 hour mark so everyone was forced off the bus wether it was their stop or not. I understand safe driving operations, however it makes me think what would have happened if the traffic lasted longer, would the driver had pulled off the road near a train station and made everyone find their own way back. WE also stopped for 15 minutes on our return from Bath at a rest stop, so I find it odd that the driver kept insisting that insisting that he can’t drive for 4 hours straight without a 15 minute rest.
I had booked the independent style tours knowing that we would be independent once we got to the locations, however i didn’t expect the guide to be so miserable and awful at her job, She did not share any of London’s history to a bus full of tourists.
She should really reconsider her career choices, and the company should evaluate how good she is at her job.
Stonehenge and Bath themselves were beautiful, but if i had known how terrible of a guide she would be and how awful the bus service was i would’ve rented a car on my own and purchased my tickets on site for a much better price.

1. The guide did not know how to turn the heat on in the bus, so we were all shivering the whole way to Cambridge and listening to her complain about how cold her feet were
2. She didn’t know what time the tour ended, so she ended up letting us all out, telling us to meet her in the same spot at 4pm and then drove off
3. There was a brief local guide for Cambridge who then left us at the Cathedral. Isn’t the point of having a guide that they guide you around your destination? We were left to wander for hours without guidance
4. The bus was late to pick us up
5. The air con was blasting so hard that we were all sweating the whole way back to London, and the guide said that she didn’t know how to fix it
6. She was a terrible driver, swerving and skidding and complaining that this wasn’t her usual vehicle
7. The gudie told everyone to get out at Tower Hill tube station, instead of dropping us back at our pick up points, because she said the traffic was too heavy
8. After pointing us in the WRONG DIRECTION towards the tube, she sped off, leaving us two blocks from Tower Hill, so we had to find our way there alone and then pay peak fares back to where we should have been dropped off

Anderson Tours was recommended by my London Pass app and of course when it offered the 20% discount, I jumped at the chance because I always wanted to go to Stonehenge and Bath. Their tours are reasonably priced and they claimed they are the only few that include the price of the tickets. My pickup point was at Earls Court and I was staying nearby there so it was an easy walk. It was supposed to be a 9 AM pickup, but the bus came in @ 10 AM because of the London traffic. This August being a busy tourist month and the looming transit tube strike overhanging, so I can’t fault them for being late. Apparently other customers due to the traffic congestions had to take the tube to Earls Court to meet this pickup bus as well.
Once we got out of London, the tour manager introduced herself and her driver. They worked great as a team and the guide herself is a newbie; just into it for close to 2 years. The manager’s knowledge is ok; though the driver knows a bit more than her do probably due to the years of him driving the same routes. We stopped at a comfort stop for wee and pee before embarking a 1.5hrs journey to Stonehenge. Then the tour manager went silent in a deep slumber and only awaken about 15 minutes closer to Stonehenge.
Stonehenge was really nice, though I had no desire to touch the stones, I did silently venture out to touch one because no one’s was looking (huge crowds help mask me). Suffice to say, it seemed to be a standard practise nowadays for guides to dump an audio guide on us and self-​serve through. We had 90 mins around Stonehenge which was generous. I heard some tours only give 45 mins; not enough time if you have to factor in the shuttle bus service from the parking lot to the actual site which is 2 km away and visit the educational centre and learn about the history of it.
As we depart Stonehenge, we spent 1 hr to get into Bath. This time, the tour manager was more lively as I suspect that she may have more knowledge about Bath. She dispensed the usual tourist trap areas. I didn’t go to those, except to Garfunkel’s but even this establishment isn’t the same as what my friends who had been here a decade or more ago. I find the food’s cheaper in some places outside of a tourist trap. Again, the manager gave us 2.5 hrs to roam around. I stayed about 1 hr in the Roman baths, the green and orange oozing unpleasant water. You can’t touch nor drink it. They do have filtered bath water you can freely drink. It’s yucky taste but you know it’s full of minerals.
Bath is a great city and I liked its old buildings and the cathedral abbey. One warning though; the Bath park is not free to non-​resident. It’s 1 pound 50 pence to get in, but there were no clear signs. This is the first park I get charged for being a non-​resident as London has many large parks you can go in for free. But it’s the only park that gives you a good view of the waterfall.
On our way back, we stopped at another comfort stop along the way before we arrived in London, but we started late, we came back really late. So, they had to cut a few stops off except Earls Court and the central London and make most of us take the tube back to where we first started. The tour manager suggested that we should give her and her driver tips voluntarily of course. Few did, but I did because I know it’s tough to be a tour manager with lousy pay. She’s not making a lot btw but I won’t disclose how much. All I can say is that it is a bit better than flipping burgers. This is a job for passionate people if you have some.

These bus tours are always not enough time, and tough to enjoy, but if I had to pick one, I thought Anderson did a decent job. First, the tour I elected, only went to two locations — Stonehenge and Bath — so you aren’t trying to squeeze in too much in one day. But to be honest, you could easily spend a whole day at either.
The bus picked up on time at the agreed upon site, and dropped off at the same spot. In fact, because I was the last person at the last stop, the bus driver agreed to stop me closer to my destination on the way.
The tour guide was absolutely lovely and had a lot of great knowledge and a wonderful disposition. The driver was also lovely, and you could observe the two getting to know each other and being very pleasant people.
The number of people was fine — about a dozen or so, so plenty of space and no rush. Everyone was also good about being on time.

This was my first coach tour so I don’t really have much to go by. But…
I really wanted to go to Bath and with this tour Stonehenge seemed a wonderful add on. Picked up at 7.30am and driving around London until 9.15am for other pick ups wasn’t the best start to my day. Granted, it was nice to see some parts of London on road level (as opposed to taking the tube). I know that London is a big city, but I wasn’t looking forward to doing all of this in reverse at the end of the day!
Stonehenge was intriguing (but take warm clothing!) and Bath was stunning. But, I was surprised at our tour guide who basically travelled on the bus with us, picked up our tickets at Stonehenge and the Roman Baths, gave us our return time, and sent us on our way with the audio guides. I wasn’t willing to give a tip as recommended by our guide at the end of the day.
However, there was a lot of flexibility with dates as this tour runs most days. The bus was comfortable and lots of room as there were about 20 of us on that particular day.

So I booked this one day trip to Stonehenge and Bath, prior to leaving LA — at a cost of £55 per person. When the bus shows up around 8a.m. outside St. Pancras Library, a tall, chirpy platinum blonde with what I think is a slightly odd northern accent checks us in but not before asking where we’re from– when we say LA she says oooh take me with you! Must say Brits have become kind of forward since my last visit! Amazingly for this part of the world, the bus has AC — which is great — though remains mainly unused thereafter, which is not as great.
After wasting an hour inside London, stopping at various stations to pick up more passengers, we are finally on our way. It later dawns on me that the guide is in fact Spanish– well when I say dawns on me, I mean I heard her speak Spanish to a couple of passengers. So her accent is actually a mix of European and Northern English and her every statement is followed by a «yeah?» — «so we’ll be leaving in 5 minutes, yeah? Please make sure you’re back in time, yeah? It’s very important, yeah?» Unlike me, my friend found this highly amusing and in no time had elevated the annoying verbal tic to a very posh sounding «yess?» and was adding it to the end of her own sentences for the rest of our stay.
For those who have not seen it up close, Stonehenge is exactly what you see in the pictures: a giant rock formation dating back to who really knows when. It’s a neither here nor there kind of thing: interesting because it’s historic but otherwise slightly pointless. You can’t touch the stones of course — yes one person in this group wanted to — you know who you are.
Upon arrival, blondie, who had been deathly silent up until then seemed to suddenly awaken from a deep slumber and began to introduce us to the legend — which, let’s face it, is not exactly carved in stone. Were grand ceremonies held there thousands of years ago? Was it a burial ground? Was it to guide lost pilgrims home? Or the site of an alien landing perhaps? How did the stones even get there? No one really knows but apparently a lot of people care. Here, the guide was talking sooooo sloooowlyyyy and deliberately that she sounded like she was on some form of illegal substances and after a few more minutes of this disturbingly gentle lullaby of a narrative, I seriously started suspecting brain damage. It was such an underwhelming, almost whispered little speech that at times it seemed like she was actually struggling for breath. Perhaps she thought she was communicating with a bunch of children. Again, my friend found this drug induced little turn quite soothing apparently.
Sadly, or perhaps not, the guide did not extend her oratory services to the actual visit at Stonehenge and once disembarked, we walked around in the gale-​force winds sporting one of those audio guide things instead. At the gift shop the queue soon snaked around the entire floor which was the size of my shoe (which is not that large in case anyone’s wondering) making it very difficult for us to be back at the bus on time without risking public lynching. Yeah?
At our next stop, Bath, an hour or so away, once again we have the same monotone intro and subsequent abandonment by the Lucy in the Sky with Diamonds tour-​guide. I have to admit that Bath is quite beautiful — at least the parts that we were shown. For a dreaded moment, some of the streets were a little reminiscent of San Francisco with the constant ups and downs, but the architecture is absolutely remarkable.
As for the famed Roman baths themselves: the water is green and in certain parts even orange, at once gross and intriguing and although completely surreal, looking at the aging statues and damaged columns, the sense of history is striking.
Lunch at Sally Lunn– as highly recommended by the sleepy guide– clearly in cahoots with one another, was interesting. The place is on two floors, but ridiculously small and filled with older clientele — it’s basically an old English house converted to a restaurant, so cozy that the people taking the table next to us knocked the water over on our table when attempting to squeeze through to their seats. The food was not memorable, so do yourselves a favour, ignore the false advertising by the tour-​guide and eat elsewhere.
Back in London, after much contemplation and negotiation with the passengers, driver and guide dump us at the nearest tube station because it would take less time to get back home on the train than it would on the bus navigating through rush hour traffic — so be warned. A little unexpected and cheeky perhaps, but ultimately, a fairly practical suggestion.
Okay, rant over.

What a JOKE! I tried to book a tour to Glastonbury and the person at the office on the 2^nd floor of the 185 Tower Bridge Road location was just like the character from Little Britain’s Travel Agency sketch!!! I wanted to book a trip to Glastonbury, Stonehenge and Bath. He typed a few things on his keyboard and said «The computer says No» — we don’t do that anymore. I asked him, «Then why am I even here? Who does ‘that any more?’» He said, «I Don’t Know?» I said, Then find out someone in LONDON THAT DOES!” He typed on his computer keyboard a little and said W1 — I said being an American. «What does that mean?» He said that it was in the W1 area. It went on like this for 10 minutes… I basically said to him in great detail, «Find a place in the greater London that books travel to Glastonbury and get me the direction and print them out so I can go there and do it at their office!» He did not understand what I wanted.
I finally got an address from him, which he wrote on a scrap piece of paper rather than some nice letter head business page, and he gave it to me. At least that was a start. Now for the 2^nd part of my simple request… How to get there, He took quite a while on how to get that pulled up on the computer. He turned the screen towards me and said. This is how… I asked him originally to perform this simple task and to print it out for me. «Unless you are going to give me your monitor, How am I supposed to see how to get to the other location?» So he printed it out, reluctantly.
Then, after a nice walk and a few tube rides… I got to the location. It was a Student Services building for a University that was THEIR CLIENT! AND NOT A TRAVEL AGENCY!!!
I have yet to call them or go back and give them a piece of my mind but… THEY DON’T DO TRAVEL ANYMORE!
The only reason that I wanted to go to the place to book my travel was that it is easier for me to pay in cash/​pounds sterling. I did not want to use my debit card to not be charged the exchange fees by booking it online… DON’T USE THEIR SERVICE…

I used this tour company to do a day trip to visit Stongehenge and Bath. The tour manager and driver were overall friendly. Although the tidbits about Bath and Sally Lun Buns were way off (they’re huge tourist traps and the buns are just okay).
My biggest qualm about this company is that the pickups are not convenient for someone staying in say Picadilly Circus like I did. The website claims convenient pickups in central London but there was nowhere within walking distance that I was able to get picked up. I had to take the tube for pick up and to get back to my hotel after drop off.

Our group of 3 booked a few days in advance for the Stonehenge and Bath tour. I can’t remember the exact price (around 50 pounds?) but I know it was relatively cheaper than the other tours we found. It’s a day trip that is straight to the point: they pick you up from several available locations, drive you to Stonehenge, give you an hour for do the 45 minute tour (audio guide included and recommended!) and grab a snack, load you right back on the bus to drive to Bath, give you about 2 – 3 hours to visit the Bath House and grab lunch. The tickets for Stonehenge and the Bath House are included, which is a great deal since the train to Bath alone would have been 30 pounds alone for a one way. Our tour guide let us sleep during the drive to Stonehenge but gave a few informative tips during the drive to Bath. She did not follow us around while we were in the towns so there wasn’t much work on her behalf, but the tours are self explanatory and you can pretty much roam around as you’d like within the timeframe. You leave at 8am and arrive home at 7pm so it’s perfect if you only have a day to see these two places.

I went to Stone Henge and Salisbury Cathederal last year. Stone Henge=Amazing! I can’t believe I was there touching the stones. Yea, I know you are not suppose to touch them, but I just had to. Our tour guide was funny and had his own picture collection of stone henge. Not bad, I had to contriubute and buy some off of him. The tour was 45 minutes and I got to run around the stones taking pictures. It was very cold so probably bring a jacket and a scarf!

Here’s the thing, I’ve never actually taken a tour from Anderson Tours. But I’ve booked 2 of them… So how does this review work?
Well, back when I was living in London (1997) I booked a tour to go to Bruges for the Christmas Market. It was a great price, short day trip, and a nice way to spend an afternoon Christmas shopping for family. The problem however, was that I woke up that morning with a 101 °F fever… Nope, not going. But what was really nice is that the bus driver called to make sure I wasn’t just running behind and should he wait a few minutes for me. 4 stars there.
But then on my last trip (about 6 months ago, Yes I’m STILL catching up on reviews) I booked a trip to Stonehenge since I was ashamed that after living in England for 2 years I’d never been there. Again, good price, good timing but then… They called hours before my tour was supposed to leave to cancel. They were willing to reschedule me, but I was now a tourist, and leaving the next day. I understand canceling trips (and they did give me a full refund), but it was the timing of it. Because they waited until the last minute, I couldn’t make any alternate plans. Definitely a 2 star feeling there.
I’m evening that out to 3 stars but I’m not sure if I’d book through them again. That last minute cancellation just left a bad taste in my mouth and I don’t really want that to happen again on my next trip.

I went to Avery, Stonehenge, and Glastonbury Abbey while visiting London. The tour was rescheduled (we went on a Thur. rather than a Wed.) There were only 4 of us on the tour which was nice. It was a beautiful day and the sites were impressive. Of the three, Avery was the least interesting and most difficult to appreciate. The guide (was eager but annoying) was arguing with the driver (who was very nice) at various times during the day. Make sure you find out the time that you are to spend at each site before you leave. The guide wanted to limit our time at one of the sites. When he left the van early on our way back to London, we all felt a sense of relief. Be prepared for a lot of traffic.