Cooks Coaches Reviews 13

Disappointing Visit to Winchester Christmas Market

I recently visited the Winchester Christmas Market by coach and, unfortunately, it wasn’t the festive experience I was hoping for. The market itself felt flat, with very little Christmas atmosphere and hardly any festive food on offer. Overall, it just didn’t feel like a traditional Christmas market.

However, I will say that the shops in the town were very good, and the staff there were friendly and helpful. The pub we visited also had excellent service, and the waiters were very welcoming. It’s a shame that the market didn’t match the quality and warmth we experienced elsewhere in the town.

Considering the long coach journey and the disappointing market, I don’t feel the trip was worth it. Based on this visit, I wouldn’t recommend the market itself.

Recently, my daughter and I took a trip to Liverpool with Cooks Coaches. Our driver, Trevor Venturer, made the journey truly special. He was amazing—kind, caring, and attentive to everyone’s needs. Trevor went above and beyond his duties, ensuring we all felt comfortable and welcomed. He shared interesting stories about Liverpool, making the trip even more enjoyable. His friendly nature and willingness to help with luggage and questions made the experience memorable. Thanks to Trevor’s exceptional service, our trip was smooth, fun, and stress-free. We truly appreciated his dedication and positive attitude, making our 5 days out with Cooks Coaches unforgettable.

Returned recently from a trip to Worcester and surrounding area. Stayed at the Stourmont Hotel not far from the waterfront town. Happy and informative driver Nick who looked after us all. Good accommodation if you have mobility issues on the ground floor. My husband had a full shave at a Turkish Barbers on the way down to site as we were first on board early doors. Best day was Stratford on Avon with a trip on the river and tasty lunch near the waterfront - great little pub with a garden.

What a fabulous time to chelsworth gardens 30/06/24. The driver was full of information of the areas and buildings. Made the trip educational as well as seeing all the beautiful flowers and gardens. Highly recommend cookes coaches

Just returned from a weekend trip to see Blackpool illuminations. We left on Friday and returned on Monday. We were taken by a lovely driver called Vic. He took our small group of 20 all unknown to each other before the trip and showed interest and concern for all of us asking about each of our experiences. He navigated road closures and traffic jams perfectly asking us to vote on our preferred routes and stop times emphasising that this was our holiday. He was knowledgeable and entertaining and like a friend at the end of the trip. Would love to go on another trip with Vic. He is an absolute credit to Cooks.

We had the trip cruise into christmas on the 30th November our drivers name was Dan he was a very friendly experienced driver, as a retired HGV driver with 48 years driving heavy goods vehicles, i thought the way he handled the amount of traffic in the middle of London, was fantastic, i told him this, Dan is a credit to your company, and Owen the tour guide was very knowledgeable and interesting thank you

Excellent trip with Cooks Coaches and their online booking and customer service have been brilliant. Will not hesitate to book with them again!

I am appalled at the service I, and my party of 9 elderly people received from cooks coaches on Saturday. I organised a trip to Winchester Christmas market for 9 of my elderly residents at a cost of £25pp. One of my residents is an amputee and only has one leg, I made sure it was ok for her to travel before I booked and cooks said it was fine. The driver was disrespectful and extremely rude to this lady and to us as a party, he said it was her fault he was late for his next pick up, as she took too long to board. he never explained where to find the Christmas market and pointed us in the wrong direction, so we never saw the market, it would be far too long to explain all the rudeness we received, but the lady with the disability was in tears after we arrived back. I telephoned the office this morning to complain and was told by mr cook that it was us that was rude and there was nothing he can do! Disgraceful! I will never book another trip with this company again!!!

My wife and myself have used Cooks Coaches numerous times for a number of trips ect. and have always been pleased with the service.
However, we went on the London Christmas lights and fish and chip meal, on December 1st. The driver was very efficient and professional, a lovely drive. The courier boarded our coach at The Tower of London, told the driver that we are not going to have a comfort stop at Covent Garden as was told to us by the driver as we was going to collect the courier. we spent most of the trip on what seemed like a "History Lesson" about buildings, statues, and various landmarks. he also told everyone to make sure we all went to the loo prior to boarding the coach after having our fish and chips!......after which we was shown more history of London while he emphasised continuously how he enjoyed having Americans and students on his coaches, and we did eventually get to see some Christmas lights...
He used this trip to get back into his routine after a long lay off, use it or loose it was all he kept saying. Another thing, the seats my wife an myself were allocated 3 & 4 were never intended for adults, cramped legs really uncomfortable.
All in all, not a pleasant trip at all, we did the same trip a few years ago and was very happy with it.
Unfortunately we will not be repeating this trip again....

Thank you so much for such a great experience! Second year I had London Christmas light tour. Very well organised, coache always on time, even earlier this year! Driver Michael was brilliant, our guide Nigel absolutely fantastic! Highly recommended! Definitely be back! Have a good Christmas and happy new year!!!

Having gone on several trips with Cooks Coaches.

The drivers have always been polite and curtious. I don't know what the other reviews are on able with early rubbish. Either way the coaches wait for you and if your late.

Thats your fault! NOT THEIRS!

Great prices for what you get and some trips are longer than others. Just plan ahead like we did and you'll get the best out if your trip.

Highly recommended company and I'm sure my 10,000 review readers would agree.

Thanks for your help in booking my trips and look forward to seeing you again soon

I booked a DAY trip to Bruges . Everything was well organised but no one explained that it would take 6 hours to get to Bruges!! That left only 3-4 hours in the city which was not nearly enough to do anything worthwhile. The coach stopped outside the city and we were told to get the no 12 bus into town...that was okay but the no 12 does not go onto town...it goes 1 stop then you have to get another bus ...they run every 20 minutes. When in the city you are clock watching all the time as you have to leave at least 30 minutes to get back to the coach to allow for bus times. I know its a long day for the drivers but even having 1 extra hour in the city would have been great. Its a lot of money to go somewhere for just 3-4 hours. Disappointing.

I arrived at the bus station on time, waited half an hour for my coach, I rang up only to be told the coach had allready gone, having walked up the London road if it had only been a few minutes early I would have seen it.
Having travelled to Brighton numerous times before with cooks, I then asked why there was no phone call, as having been on this coach before if some-one is not at the bus stop, the driver makes a phone call, I had not received one, the cooks coach representative then told me to "bugger Off" , his exact words, I then told him what I really thought.
Previously I have been on a cooks coach where the internal clock was approximately 5 minutes fast, maybe this had caused the problem, as some of the coaches are quite old.
If I had realised the dishonest nature of this company I would have collected evidence, I have a state of the art phone, the time is updated by the internet, the coach was early, having had a Dad who worked for British rail all his life, I have had it drumed into me that transport that is early is far worse than transport that is late, this is unacceptable, so to sumerise my problems with cookes coaches are as follows.
THE FACTS
1. The coach was not there on time.
2. The coach was more than a couple of minutes early as I would have seen it having walked up the London road from my house.
3. No courtesy call was recieved from the driver which had been standard pratice for every other single passenger for every other single journey.
4. There staff became abusive telling me to "bugger off", exact words.
5.Having relied on cooks to deliver transport, the tickets I had purchased in Brighton where now worthless
6. I am appalled and disgusted by the service I received from cookes coaches and I will be making alternative travel arrangements and look into taking legal action against this company.

I have been on another trip to Brighton with cooks before and as I got off the coach, the driver said, thanks for helping him out with directions as he was very unsure. I was somewhat amused as I had not spoken to him before, but it did give the impression that he did not really know what he was doing, although he was a very pleasant elderly gentleman, it would explain why the coach was half an hour late, not on the journey outwards, but on the return trip, and as it was a coach to and from Brighton, although it had the feel of a mystery tour, how he managed that was beyound me, maybe the coaches need to instal some sat nav, surely the drivers shouldnt be asking passengers for directions !