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National Holidays Reviews

1.9 Rating 72 Reviews
18 %
of reviewers recommend National Holidays

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National Holidays 1 star review on 16th November 2022
NICKY
National Holidays 5 star review on 18th July 2022
Anna Clewlow
Anonymous
Anonymous  // 01/01/2019
Terrible customer service after sending detailed email regarding recent trip and lack of satisfaction. Standard email reply from them. Avoid using this company and use a more professional organised company.
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Posted 3 weeks ago
Stayed at the Risboro hotel llandudno need to say this hotel should carry a health warning! Emailed National holidays on my return, complaint will be dealt with within 28days,six weeks later and 2phone calls by me ,no response. Definitely no more National holiday trips for us !!
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Posted 4 weeks ago
The hotel, driver and of course Ireland itself were amazing but the travel company is not great. I originally booked and paid for 4 nights with 3 of them having a free bar. It was reduced to 3 nights, no compensation. The free bar was reduced to 2 evenings but I wasn't informed. The pick up point was moved a week before travelling, costing me an extra £46 in taxis, and when I complained I was given a measly £10. On the return journey we were transferred to a minibus for the last 50 miles, a boneshaker if ever there was one. Will return to Ireland, but will never travel with this company again.
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Posted 1 month ago
Just got back from awful trip to Paris, two feeder coaches to services 24 Folkestone. First feeder dropped us at Watford gap at 3.am , no where open to get a drink, then feeder coach to Folkestone for another wait of 2 hours. The journey over o Paris was awful, told only to us WC when coach was stopped. Journey of 3 hours, with one stop for break, only to be told no bar or restaurant at hotel, meaning people had no chance to eat on arrival after 12 to 14 hours. The hotel itself was very good, but were local to eat or drink. The trips into Paris were ok, but the overall holiday was disappointing. Will not travel this way again
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Posted 1 month ago
Luxury coach used as a feeder coach Johnson. Basic coach / Bus from stop 24 to Europe and return. Long days with very rushed stops in service stations caused by road works through France and Germany. NOT taken in to consideration by coach company. Too longer distances from motorways for overnight accommodation. Late evening getting there and early departures. River cruise did not go ahead not the company's fault 7 night stay in Vienna. On way home arrived at a hotel at 9.30 pm for a very late meal again due to traffic hold ups. Due to our hotel not having a number on the door we spent a good time looking for it even the manager could not 402. Eventually we were given a room at 10.45 pm. Also the lights were on a very fast timer and my husband was left on the stairs in the dark. Bed very uncomfortable creaky with a thin mattress no not water. Although it did have a lovely view. The journey back from Paris was ok until stop 24. We left stop 24 at approximately 7pm but arrived in Coventry at 2.15am Sunday morning no drinks. Toilet door on coach would not open too dangerous anyhow due to the drivers driving. NO drinks were offered no stops other than getting he passengers being let off as quickly as possible with luggage. Arrived at Northampton services to be put in a taxi with 4 other passengers 7 counting the driver and our cases. The taxi driver did say that he was unaware that the amount of passengers he had to give a lift to. The coach driver said not my problem yours to the taxi driver. Due to the lateness of the taxi and not be able to arrange a proper pick up time to get us home taxi driver took us to our home address. I don't know what time the couple from Tamworth and Telford arrived home at that shared the taxi with. It should have been a taxi van far too small. 2 day later I was still feeling the effects of the journey. I have flown long haul economic and never had anything as bad. No thought for passengers health and wellbeing. I was offered another cruise Due to the ship not sailing which I have accepted through the cruise company as my husband and I will never go by coach/ bus again. We have chosen to travel by train. What I have written is true and I am sure I am not the only one to complain. I will never use just Go and National Holidays again. Thank you for giving us the worst coach experience possible. May stress not the cruise company it's not their fault they could not sail due to high river levels and fast flowing due to floods. But the coach company needs to implement a great more time allowances and better quality of coaches for European holidays. I cannot class any part of the journeys by coach as a holiday. My only appreciation was club class on the ferry.
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Posted 2 months ago
I have just had a telephone call from National holidays cancelling my trip to Italy in September, they already cancelled my booking for the same trip last May said there was another trip leaving two weeks later, however they couldn’t guarantee that they would be able to offer me a single room. Not very happy as the company already charge a huge single supplement, not my fault I am widowed, I paid in full some time ago and feel that the money would have been better in my bank account earning interest. Have decided to get refund and book flights and air and b to Italy with my daughter. Let’s hope that there are not enough people booked on my trip to Cyprus next February so they can cancel and give me a refund would cost me if I cancelled.
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Posted 5 months ago
£25 just to change a name, caused by illness
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Posted 6 months ago
Paid deposit; reminders received 14 days & 7 days before balance due. Glad I didn't pay there and then as they then cancelled the trip WITHOUT NOTIFYING ME. I only found out when I tried to pay the balance. It then took them 14 days to refund my deposit!!! This company appears to be trading on customers deposits. I would never attempt to use them again.
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Posted 8 months ago
Did Thursford xmas spectacular. Travelled from the north east. Brilliant weekend well planned organised. Show was brilliant, hotel was good, food good (xmas lunch) could not be faulted. Complementary mince pies and mulled wine on arrival. Driver professional, helpful, and friendly. Thoroughly enjoyed.
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Posted 1 year ago
Did the Edinburgh/Glasgow Christmas shopper , never ever again , absolute comedy of errors , was supposed to set off at 7:10am from Hull no placard on the mini bus that we were ferried on to wetherby so it was late setting off to join the main bus because no one new it was ours , the main bus was there but neither driver knew we were there and the other bus was there just waiting ( only one bus there ) so a passenger said could that be ours , he went over to check and it was , 40 mins later off we go again for pick ups at Durham , Chester Lee street and Morpeth , the first 2 places the driver couldn’t find for ages then at Morpeth the driver told a woman to shut her face when she complained about the lateness and how long would the shop till you drop experience be in Edinburgh, any way got there to have 3 hrs shopping if that back on bus at 18:30 to get to hotel at 19:45, set off at 9:00 am on the Sunday into Glasgow got there at 9:35 back on the bus at 12:30 for home we were dumped back in wetherby for 10 min wait for mini bus , arrived back at Hull station at 19:30 ,worst trip we’ve ever been on .
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Posted 1 year ago
We booked the Harry Potter and London tour. Coach dropped us over 2 miles from Oxford Street due to Palestinian Protests. Police were everywhere and helicopters overhead. It was extremely frightening and we didn't feel safe. Phoned the driver to request he take us to our hotel to be told that he wasn't able to help. Then took over an hour to flag a taxi which cost us £85. Had to wait until 8pm to get our luggage that was left on coach. Was disappointed that there were 4 drop offs and 2 were in Birmingham. Took over 8 hours to get home. Have travelled abroad in less time. Also driver not sympathetic to passenger comfort as we kept having to tell him to turn the heating down. It reached 27 degrees on the coach and people were starting to feel unwell. Also driver didn't arrange return time for Harry Potter and in the end we waited almost an hour for 2 passengers!! Complete disgrace and put us off coach trips for life. Poorly organised, no care for passenger safety being dropped in the middle of a very sensitive political protest. SHAME ON YOU NATIONAL HOLIDAYS. VERY UNPROFESSIONAL COMPANY!!!
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Posted 1 year ago
Three of us went on holiday to Torquay so I had to have.a single room which I paid an extra£80,fine because you pay a supplement if you are a single person in a double or twin room. But I had a single room. So on return sent 3 emails got no reply. So phoned and spoke to Simon he told me the extra £80 was for cleaning my room and the electricity. Heard so daft charges for a room but this takes the biscuit.
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Posted 1 year ago
An absolutely disgraceful company. We used them for the first time. We have written two letters of complaint and all they do is reply with excuses. We could smell drink and asked him if he had been drinking he obviously denied it. The driver who overslept and was two hours late even picking up clients. Our tours were cut short, the hotel was rough. We would have arrive back to our home destination on the day of leaving at between one and two am in the morning and they didn't care. My list goes on and on ,if you're thinking of using them don't ! Over three quarters of our coach were complaining. It was a trip to Edinburgh and I don't expect to be sat on the coach for 12 and a half hours no excuses. With an unsafe driver we ended up having to get a train back off of our own back because they didn't care. Customer service is the worse I have ever experienced.
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Posted 1 year ago
Just had a 2 day, 1 night break in Scarborough and Whitby. The brochure stated that Scarborough Sunday 13/8/23 time to explore and then Sunday 14/8/23 a day trip to Whitby Regatta. Was the regatta on this day? No sign of a regatta!!!! Just a fun fair, no parades or anything to indicate a regatta being on. Apparently, Saturday was excellent, with parades and the Red Arrows display ending with fireworks, what happened Sunday then???
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Posted 1 year ago
Driver very rude swearing putting cases in the coach vaping looking at his mobile reading slip of paper while driving never said in case of accident how to get out
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Posted 1 year ago
Holiday to Folkestone on 6th/11th August 2023. Hotel basic which is usually ok if clean. Food fine. Trips fine, Bruges - too many passport checks but appreciate this is now the norm. Coach was comfortable, however it took 11 hrs from pickup to destination - didn't realise how long it would take with other pickups (own fault for not asking) Here is the real downer for us. My husband as many others on the holiday were bitten - several people quite severly. On the return journey they showed us pictures from their room of bed bugs, which we found sickening. We'll never know, but how shocking if bedbugs were responsible for all passenger bites!
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Posted 1 year ago
Good points first- fantastic driver and nice destination to enjoy exploring with the people I was travelling with. Negatives- As others have said previously this company has gone massively downhill since its takeover! Had the following experience, Booked and paid for a two day trip which included add-on extras at added expense. Office staff didn’t send the tickets for these add-ons so we had to call to chase these up during office hours when not working which was difficult due to working full time during office hours, not the best start but never had a problem with this company before (before takeover) so we persevered, the day before the trip spoke to a member of customer service to chase things up and only then did we finally receive an email with a pickup time/location & an attachment for our add-on tickets- this turned out to be an invalid attachment that didn’t work we found out on the day, didn’t think we’d need to check the link worked because we’ve never had a problem with a link from them or anyone else before! On day of journey got to a drop off point & our driver said that our booked and paid for extra destination wasn’t included in his itinerary and it was a long distance away from the drop off so he filled in a form to inform the office staff that we were entitled to a refund as we hadn’t received the service we had booked two months previously and had paid for, the driver also tried the link we had been sent which again not surprisingly didn’t work, but they had no problem taking money from our account. We got home after our surprisingly disorganised trip and rang the office staff to be told “you’re not entitled to a refund we sent tickets” even though they admitted seeing the driver’s report to say we hadn’t received the service we had paid for. The driver also told us at the time he would have had the tickets to give us & that he would have taken us to the paid destination had the office put it on his paperwork for the itinerary. We received terrible customer service from an arrogant, vacant staff member who had a prepared script to try wriggling out of returning our money, which they are still trying to do, and underhand insults inc. do we speak English and also our ability to open emails which clearly wasn’t the issue. So in conclusion we won’t be travelling with this thieving company again and would advise others to be very wary if they do, personally I prefer to spend my hard earned money with an honest travel company which is what we will be doing in the future!
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Posted 1 year ago
We have booked a trip to Torquay on Monday 6th May. On receiving our travel arrangements, it seems we have to get up in the middle of the night to catch a feeder vehicle from Dewsbury to the coach, which then calls at 4 other towns on the way there. Presumably, we will be travelling for at least 10 hours. This is appalling!! Why wasn't this mentioned before hand? My wife has Alzheimers and will find this totally confusing. There is no way I would have booked this holiday knowing the shambles of the travelling arrangements. We have been on lots of good holidays with National travel in the past, but since takeover things appear to have gone way downhill. I can't imagine booking with them again!!
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Posted 1 year ago
Awful. Awful. Awful. Awful. Used to be good until they got taken over. Now just rubbish.
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Posted 1 year ago
we have had two horrible experiences with national holidays but have to use vouchers but once used we and 20 of our friends will never use national again 1st problem Emerdale weekend arrived hotel the food offered was inedible, complained to national response was tough. 2nd we paid for new year at folkestone, we received a letter to say we had to go to castleford 45miles away to get the coach which was impossible still no refund so we are unable to book with anyone terrible as they would not refund us from hull shop. customer service is ZERO.
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Posted 1 year ago
National Holidays is rated 1.9 based on 72 reviews