Luxury Downton Abbey Experience with Lunch

A glorious day in the countryside! The tour is absolutely perfect! Highclere castle is beautiful beyond words. And the gardens breathtaking. Loved seeing the inside rooms library, the oak staircase and the family bedrooms. The open main room gallery stunning. Forever grateful to the Carnarvon family for sharing their heritage! Our tour guides Nick and Jack were excellent hosts for our journey! Thank you!

we really enjoyed our tour. it was fun and relaxing. but lunch was not so good, we had lunch in a kind of a nursery surrounded by plants but the food was not so tastey.

This tour was very enjoyable and our tour guides were very informative and entertaining. We had plenty of time to explore the castle and the grounds and had an enjoyable lunch and tour of Brampton Village. When I left my sunglasses on the bus, our guide called me right away to return them to me.

The main reason we visited England was to see Downton Abbey. This was a very expensive tour for what I thought was a disappointing experience. We were told we would get 2 hours on the grounds of the castle. We were given about an hour and a half at best. The line was long, once we were in the castle we had to race through to see it all. There was no time to read anything within the castle, we did not get to see the grounds, or the gardens, the gift shop, or the Egyptian exhibit. I would have also loved to have been able to have a cup of tea on the grounds and visit the gift shop. After leaving I thought, I want to come back later this week on my own. Everyone on this tour is a huge Downton fan, and paid a lot of money for this tour. I don't think any of us thought that it was worth the money. Rent a car and buy your own ticket. No information was given, none of it was guided. It was not worth the price!

I can't understand the good reviews here. Everything was pretty awful. I can't recommend this trip to anyone. I know people book it because Highclerc says sold out but when we got there they were selling tickets at the gate. I wish we had just travelled there on our own. Pick up at 9am by the thames in a luxury 24 seater coach - pick up spot was moved due to road closure, had to walk 20 minutes - guide didnt even check to see if he had the whole group. Elderly folks were being left way behind. He never looked back. Luxury coach was dirty and much larger than 24 seats. There were 22 of us and it didnt fill half the bus. Short trip to Highclere castle, with quizzes as you go, and Downton Abbey Bloopers on the coach TV Our guide did not no quizzes, nothing on the coach TV. Guide spoke to the bus driver most of the trip - he pointed out the wax museum on our way out of town. Explore the grounds and castle of Highclere at 10:30am 12:30pm got to Highclere at 11, was 11:15 before we got our tickets - were told to be back by 12:30. I asked for an extension considering we got there late and he said we would have plenty of time to do it all and he couldnt move lunch. We had a 15 minute line to get into the castle, then raced through as fast as we could got back to the guide at 12:40 and then was told he extended it so we had 20 more minutes. but what do to now - the line to get into the castle was 15 minutes long and not enough time to do the Eqyptian thing so basically we just roamed around. If we had known upfront we could have enjoyed our visit more. pick up from Highclere castles and short trip to Bampton 1:15pm tour through Bampton village, the home of Downton Village . Went to Bampton for about a 15 minute tour and then were shuffled back on the bus to go to lunch - no time to explore on our own. 1:45pm lunch at a stunning old world British pub, hot meal included in the price 2:15pm you're given time to explore the village and get some great photo opportunities 3:45pm Pick up from Bampton village for a further quiz and games on the coach 5:30pm arrive back at Victoria Embankment Lunch was the Biggest disappointment of all. We expended a hot lunch in stunning old world British pub instead were taken to a modern sandwich shop and were given cold sandwiches, dry salad and had to buy our own soft drinks. I complained to the guide and he said we missed out on hot lunch because we were late. The hot lunches as this establishment were 3 more than the cold lunches but even still didnt offer to make up the difference to us by even buying us a soda? Not matter, we expected a nice experience in an old world british pub, not a sandwich shop. Then back on the bus to go back to London - where finally we played one quiz. side point, guide had the wrong answer for one of his questions - the director of Gosford park is Robert Altman NOT Julian Fellows. All in all, this was a major disappointment. One star at best. I cant believe we were charged over 300 for this tour. The tickets to Highclerc were 22 and the lunch was 5 and I cant imagine the bus ride and bad tour guide worth 200 more than that. I I also do not understand the good reviews from July 2nd since Highclerc was closed to the public until July 9th, how could someone have taken the tour on july 2nd and loved it?