International Friends Reviews

Name: International Friends
Address: Kent Innovation Centre, Millennium Way, Broadstairs, Kent
Rating: 4.78

4.8 Rating 1,767 Reviews

97 %

of reviewers recommend International Friends

Company Reviews

Metrics

4.8

Based on 1,767 reviews


Shipping & Delivery
Delivery Methods	Own Driver
On-time Delivery	100%
Accurate And Undamaged Orders	Greater than 92%
Customer Service
Communication Channels	Email, Telephone
Queries Resolved In	2 - 3 Hours

International Friends 5 star review on 13th September 2023

Valerie G

International Friends 5 star review on 26th June 2023

Kelly G

International Friends 5 star review on 14th October 2019

Mr Wayne S

International Friends 5 star review on 13th August 2019

Mrs Jennifer B

Anonymous

Anonymous // 01/01/2019

Filter: Rated 2 None 5 Stars 4 Stars 3 Stars 2 Stars 1 Stars Helpful

“Our guide was friendly and entertaining. Obviously, the time at warner brothers was excellent because you are on your own to explore and there was plenty of time to enjoy the attraction. Otherwise, it was a poor experience and I would not use this company again. The bag check was very unorganized. The driver really tapped the breaks often and hard. The hotel drop off process was a disaster. Unfortunately our hotel was the last drop off... which I understand (somebody has to be last) but it took nearly an hour of circling narrow streets to drop off just the first family. Literally the giant coach barely made several turns. Everyone on the bus and on the street was spotting to make sure we didn't hit anything. It was nerve wracking. The driver had to get out several times to survey the roads to see how to go and where we would fit. At the second drop off, we opted to get off too and call an uber. At the rate we were going, I would have wasted my entire evening (in London) on that coach being stressed out. Clearly the route was not planned on the best way for a giant coach to get through the crazy streets of London to deliver families to their various hotels. The concept was good, the execution terrible.”

Helpful Report

“The visit to Stonehenge was fabulous. We arrived early enough to beat the crowds. The trip to Bath was worthless. The Roman Baths were so oversold that you could barely move once you were inside let alone see anything. We walked in and left shortly afterward. It was crowded to the point of being dangerous. The trip to Windsor Castle wasn't worth the trouble. We arrived at 4:00 and had to leave at 5:00. It wasn't worth paying the entrance fee to see the inside of the castle. The trip would have been a better value if it had only included Stonehenge and the entrance fee to Windsor Castle, leaving the Bath portion out altogether. We were satisfied with our guide and our driver.”

Helpful Report

Good morning, Thank you for taking the time to write a review. The city of Bath is a World Heritage Site, and a particular favourite for many of the thousands of customers that we take there every year. The Roman Baths is an ancient and world class attraction and as such, does indeed attract lots of visitors; the number of visitors in the centre at any one time is, unfortunately, not something that we are able to control, but I will ensure to pass on your feedback at the end of the season to the groups team. I do apologise for your disappointment in the itinerary; our tours are planned by expert guides and when we arrive in Windsor at 3.30, we find that this is an appropriate amount of time to spend in the Castle before leaving to return to London at 5pm. Kind regards, International Friends

“After taking 2 1/2 hours to load the bus with only 31 people, we were on our way to Stonehenge. There we were given a marginal explanation of the setting. We arrived at the cruise port at 3 PM, after leaving our hotel at 7 AM,”

Helpful Report

Dear Mr & Mrs Riley, Thank you for taking the time to write a review, I am so sorry to hear that you feel you had a 2* experience with us. I believe my colleague replied to email you sent to us directly, but I feel I should clarify the following; Our website does state the following; "We offer a pick up from any London city centre hotel. Pick ups begin at 07:00am and are completed by 08.15am. We will then collect from Heathrow airport hotels between 09:00am -09:45am." Our website does also state that in normal circumstances the coach will take an hour or slightly less to travel from Stonehenge to Southampton arriving between 1:30pm and 2:00pm. However as we were servicing two different ships on this date, it did push our arrival time back slightly at the second ship which your tour manager did explain. Please be assured that our tour was running on time, and there was still enough time to check in and board your ship. Our Shore Excursions and Transfers are designed for passengers going to and from cruise ships. Our itineraries are based on the ships arrival and departure times; many ships will give allotted check in times, this is to help stagger passenger arrivals at the terminal and is an indication of the earliest time they wish you to arrive. I am so sorry you feel you had a 2* experience with us but we do feel that we delivered this tour as advertised on the date of travel. Kind regards, International Friends.

“Pick up from hotel to cruise ship was on time however pick up from cruise Ship to hotel we waited for over a hour unexceptional”

Helpful Report

Good morning, Thank you for taking the time to write a review. We do sincerely apologise for the delay in your pick up on the transfer from Southampton to London. We understand that the driver collected you at 08.56 on the morning of your tour, 26 minutes after your pick up time, which we wholly appreciate was unacceptable and understand the worry and frustration this could have caused. I understand my colleague has already emailed you with a full explanation as to what occurred on this date with regards to the drivers lateness, and we are currently waiting for you to confirm your card details in order to process a partial refund back to you by way of apology. Kind regards, International Friends

“I am torn in writing this review. First of all, the good. We did a Hotel transfer with a private tour of the Vatican and Sistine Chapel. The tour of the Vatican and Sistine Chapel was great. Tour guide very informative, and ultra nice. Now for the bad. We were told to be off the ship by 7:30 as the bus would leave at 8:00 for our tour, so we skipped breakfast. However, no one was there for us, and after a couple of phone calls I was told driver would be there in 5 minutes. 15 minutes later, around 8:15, driver finally showed. He then proceed to load my family of 4 plus another family of 4. Once we all were in the van we found out from the other family we were doing completely different tours, so we both proceeded to ask the driver who did not answer us, so the other family called in and got an explanation, that they would be dropped off, and then we would proceed to our tour. Fine, but lack of communication from the driver left us with feeling worried. We then did our tour, in which the guide asked us at the end if we wanted to take more pictures, that the driver would be back in 15 mins. Fine, we took a few pictures, headed to the spot to meet the driver. No driver, who still had our luggage with him. Our guide called him again, a couple of times, no answer. She was kind enough to talk to us and wait with us. After about 30 mins, she called again. He informed her he was 5 mins away. She stayed with us, and made small talk. 15 mins later, still no driver. If he did not have our luggage, I would have gotten a taxi and just left. He finally showed after about another 10 mins. If it was just the tour, I would highly recommend. However, due to the driver refusing to answer questions, being late to the port, late to the guide, and just leaving us with a feeling of dread for our first day in Rome, not including losing a couple hours of the day, I would not recommend to use this company for transfers in Rome.”

Helpful Report

Good afternoon, I was so sorry to read your comments regarding your Rome transfers with us, although I was glad to hear you enjoyed the touring part of the trip and have passed your comments on to the guide. Firstly, I must start by offering my sincerest apologies for how your day trip was handled by our supplier in Rome. I have spoken with our supplier, to try and get to the bottom of how and why your transfer was handled in this way and I have managed to get the following information; On this date, our supplier in Rome merged two trips without informing us of this - the other couple were coming from another ship, which docked earlier than your ship did. However, when the driver got to the ship, the other couple had failed to disembark due to operational issues with the ship, of which was no fault of their own. This is turn made him late to collect you. The family that you boarded the vehicle with, were indeed doing a direct transfer - they were to be dropped off at their hotel, while you enjoyed the guided tour. The driver was then to return to your meeting point and collect you. I am very sorry that this was not communicated to you in a proper manner, this has been raised with our supplier and the driver spoken to about this. It is for this same reason that there was a delay in coming to collect you after the tour. Your tour did finish slightly earlier than planned and the driver was not yet back in the area, and then got caught in some very bad traffic hence the bad delay. I can only apologise for how these issues were handled with regards to your tour, and for the lack of communication from the driver. Please be assured that this is, in no way, how we would expect an International Friends tour to run, in any part of the world, and the supplier we use in Rome has been informed that this treatment of our customers is simply not good enough. I hope that this response and the email we have sent to you directly is satisfactory for you - again, I cannot apologise enough for these issues. I do hope that you would consider using International Friends again in the future. Kind regards, International Friends

“2 of the 3 places we went were closed...We got to London much lat”

Helpful Report

Thank you for taking the time to write a review, please be assured that we do take all feedback on board. Salisbury Cathedral was indeed closed for a service on the date of your tour. As it very clearly states on our website "Please note as Salisbury Cathedral is a working Cathedral it may be subject to last minute closures." Unfortunately there will be dates that a cruise ship docks, that inevitably clash with a service at the Cathedral, and as such entry is regrettably, not possible. It is for this reason that we do state this on the website. As a working Royal Residence, Windsor Castle is often subject to closures throughout the year, to align with the plans of the Royal Family. Windsor Castle was closed on the 17th June in order to prepare for the 700 year old Order of the Garter ceremony. This is unfortunately again, something entirely out of our control. As per our booking page for this day trip, "To avoid possible disappointment on the day, we strongly advise you include your attraction entry when booking the transfer." Had you expressed an interest, or booked Windsor Castle tickets when you booked your transfer, we would have of course notified you of the closure. If you do not book Windsor Castle tickets with your tour and do not contact us to enquire about opening times, we can only assume that you do not wish to enter the Castle. On this date, the ship you disembarked from docked later than expected. As per the booking terms for this tour, and for the benefit of all those on board, we did wait until everybody booked on the tour had boarded the coach. This did have a knock on effect on the rest of the tour, and as such did result in the tour finishing slightly later than usual. Once again I thank you for taking the time to write a review, and I do hope my explanation clarifies the situation for you. Kind regards, International Friends

International Friends is rated 4.8 based on 1,767 reviews