Caledonian Travel

Reviews, experiences and complaints

Order 7.8
Service 7.5
Price 7.8
Delivery 7.3

Total

7.6
62.5% would buy here again

Caledonian Travel

Short breaks

and holidays offer cheap and affordable getaways to recharge your spirit and rest your body. Without even leaving the United Kingdom, the opportunity to explore and travel within the borders offers rich cultural, historic and entertainment sights. Coach tours are a great way of travelling and seeing new sights especially in groups. Looking for a coach tour company? Caledonian Travels is one such company that you could use for your next holiday, but how do you know if this company is trustworthy, its busses are safe and comfortable, and it has tours that offer value and interest to groups? The only way to find answers to such questions is to read reviews from honest customers who’ve used companies such as Caledonian travels. That is why reading reviews is so important because it can help would-be customers better understand what they can expect from a business and its customer service levels.

About Caledonian Travel

Caledonian Travel is part of the group Caledonian Leisure LTD and is based in Edinburgh, Scotland. They operate in the United Kingdom, Ireland, and Europe. This company’s fleet of coaches all feature footrest and seat-back tables, are airconditioned and include washroom facilities onboard. Caledonian Travels specialises in Scottish tours, taking customers to Edinburgh, Glasgow, Oban, Dundee, Aberdeen, Inverness, John o’ Groats and Fort William, and all cities and towns in between. These tours take in the ancient monuments and buildings of Scotland such as the Neolithic Orkney World Heritage Site, Shetland Isles, and the Hebrides. Their tours and destinations also cover the UK and Europe to cities such as Liverpool, London, Blackpool, Manchester, Dublin, Limerick, Cork, across Wales, Germany, France, Italy, Croatia, Greece, Spain, The Netherlands, and Belgium. Tours to European attractions are popular, such as bulb fields, battlefields, lakes and mountains, historic sites such as Bruges, luxury destinations like Monte Carlo, the canals of Vienna, the architecture of Rome and Pisa, culture and history of Budapest, and scenery of the Black Forest. They also offer tours to entertainment such as music and theatre, family fun, sports events such as rugby and motorsport and special events such as air shows.

Products and Services of Caledonian Travel

By searching Caledonian Travel’s website, you can filter results for your destination, your price range and your duration of tour or holiday required. They also offer packages such as Seaside Breaks, City Breaks, Europe Breaks, and event tours such as Christmas Markets, Easter, Mother’s Day. Payment services accepted include debit and credit cards. Available to customers is a customer support centre to assist with bookings, queries, and communications.

Compliments, Complaints and Tips about Caledonian Travel

Have you ever booked a holiday or tour with Caledonian Travels? Have you ever been on a tour of the UK or into Europe with this company? How did you find their online booking system? Did you find payment to be fast, safe and secure? Have you been on more than one holiday with this company? How did you find the comfort and safety of the coaches used on tours? Did the coaches give customers enough time to explore the various sights and for rest breaks? Would you recommend Caledonian Travels to friends and family? Please write a customer review with your feedback, experience, and notes on Caledonian Travels. Your reviews and ratings will help other customers to learn about the services, tours and customer service they can expect from Caledonian Travels.

Read other customers’ reviews to find out about which tours are best, which destinations are most entertaining and what time of the year is best for coach tours.

Reviews, experiences and complaints

Read independent reviews, complaints and experiences here. Be aware of where to make your purchase or rate a shop where you have made an (online) purchase yourself. This way everybody decides for themselves which shops are bad and good!

Spotlight: What do our customers say?

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1 year ago
10
Had an amzing weekend on the mysery trip lovley hotel nice and clean ? the destinations was good choices the driver TONY well he was even more amazing extremely friendly went out of his wa...
i
ian and dorothy taggarts/the canadians 6 months ago
10
to Caledonian tours,the coach was fantastic,the Driver Danny,excellent driving,above and beyond the knowledge of the sites,used COMMON SENSEwhen it came parking the bus and when to park the...
R
Rae G. Hutchinson 2 years ago
9.5
All in all very good. Stayed in Chatworth House Hotel. Great location across road from promenade and round corner from many good shopping streets. Were lucky getting a front seafacing bed...
B
Brian Mahone 2 years ago
8
I hate last-minute disappoints and that Is exactly what Caledonian travel offered me. Disappointments!! Also, I’ve had issues every time I book a trip with Caledonian there are usually minor...
Z
Zoe McPhee 10 months ago
2.5
Hello, my name's Zoe and I'm an Autistic Young Adult. I have been travelling with Caledonian Travel for six years, back in 2017 up to June 2023 I enjoyed every single coach holiday...

All reviews ( 8 )

Mystery weekend

Had an amzing weekend on the mysery trip lovley hotel nice and clean ? the destinations was good choices the driver TONY well he was even more amazing extremely friendly went out of his way and couldnt do enough for you .he got all the coach intermingling with each other so the journey was lovley every 1 chit chatting and laughing top driver i really hope hes taking us on the liverpool chester next weekend

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1 year ago
Order
10
Service
10
Price
10
Delivery
10
Total
10
Would buy here again?

coachtourtoFortwilliam

to Caledonian tours,the coach was fantastic,the Driver Danny,excellent driving,above and beyond the knowledge of the sites,used COMMON SENSEwhen it came parking the bus and when to park the bus,great sense of humor, but he hasnt tried my cream of Brochly soup,hahahahah,he included everybody in the bus in goood crack and and had alot of useless infomation that made everybody laugh.only joking about the brochii soup.
fantastic Tour .Price was awesome.ps Danny you relatives at the airport had a blast when we mentioned your name..thank you again
im pretty sure we will see you again
thank you Caldonian toours,
ive been on alot of buses in my day,this by far top the charts
we

i
ian and dorothy taggarts/the canadians 6 months ago
Order
10
Service
10
Price
10
Delivery
10
Total
10
Would buy here again?

5 Day Glasgow to Llandudno

All in all very good. Stayed in Chatworth House Hotel. Great location across road from promenade and round corner from many good shopping streets. Were lucky getting a front seafacing bedroom which had been recently refurbished. Hotel a bit tired but still comfortable. Could do with a larger entertainment lounge as if you get the 7 pm dinner slot you miss the start of the evening entertainment and also getting a seat can be difficult. Entertainers were excellent. Food plain but well cooked and far too large portions. Good variety of mains and starters. Too much waste as most folk were of the older generation and couldn't finish. This should be brought to the attention of the hotel - seriously. Breakfasts excellent as they were buffer style whereas dinner was waiter service. Llandudno is an excellent destination - clean with great shops, lovely long prom and all on the flat. On our free 1 and half days we used publit transport which is great, using our concession it was very reasonable to visit Conwy and Rhos. Driver John was helpful and considerate and a good steady driver. Would visit Llandudno again as the 5 day was too short to take all that area of North Wales has to offer. Black mark for swimming pool - closed - which is the reason we chose to go to this hotel.

R
Rae G. Hutchinson 2 years ago
Order
10
Service
10
Price
10
Delivery
8
Total
9.5
Would buy here again?

Booked a coach trip

I hate last-minute disappoints and that Is exactly what Caledonian travel offered me. Disappointments!! Also, I’ve had issues every time I book a trip with Caledonian there are usually minor but this one was far way beyond the rest. The coaches were about to leave but the driver couldn’t find our names yet. I was so embarrassed in front of the kids as one, it was too early and I could call the office as they hadn’t opened the offices. We stayed there stranded for about 30 minutes only for our names to be found out of the blue. This is actually my last trip with this company. I have given them enough chances to improve! Wouldn’t recommend it to anyone.

B
Brian Mahone 2 years ago
Order
10
Service
8
Price
8
Delivery
6
Total
8
Would buy here again?

ABigLetDownFromThisCompanyForTheDisabledPeople

Hello, my name's Zoe and I'm an Autistic Young Adult. I have been travelling with Caledonian Travel for six years, back in 2017 up to June 2023 I enjoyed every single coach holiday with Caledonian until the company started to go downhill. They have been ignoring my hidden disability recently when I explained to them about it.

From 01/08/22 to 05/08/22, me and my carer went to The Lake District where we stayed in The Seacote Hotel in St Bees for four nights, the excursions felt rushed and the food in the hotel was at a poor standard with the music blasting to almost 100% volume.

From 27/10/22 to 28/10/22 we have done The Enchanted Forest in Pitlochry with an overnight stay in Perth where Nino the Driver from MacPhails Coaches mistreated me throughout the two-day coach break. One Time during our coach trip the driver laid over to my seat and whacked me so hard in the head with a thick layer of tickets and angrily scolded me for absolutely no reason at all which he found funny, hurting and yelling at an autistic person. My carer told the driver "Do not hit or shout at my granddaughter like that, she's special needs. She was only showing me where the USB socket is". I got upset about Nino yelling and hurting me on the coach. I didn't understand why I got punished for it. When my granny and I had finished doing the forest the return journey to the whisky distillery was absolutely terrible. I was very anxious and uncomfortable on the minibus due to lots of people packed into one minibus and the lack of legroom between seats. I started to sweat like mad and started to feel sick too along with cramped legs on the minibus. It wasn't a nice experience for me. I ended up feeling sick and not able to sleep during the night because I had a very hot body temperature, I also had an anxiety attack after a rough experience on the return journey to the accessibility bus meeting point on the crowded minibus and also the driver's behaviour towards me. The food in the hotel was poor standard for Dinner and Breakfast. I and my carer got food poisoning after we had breakfast. I've reported this to customer service and unfortunately, there's no further action taken about the coach break and a £ 25 holiday voucher from Caledonian for my disappointment.

From 27/01/2023 to 29/01/2023 me and my carer went on the Peterhead and The Northern Lights coach break, the whole coach break was rubbish except for our accommodation which was The Waterside Hotel. Excursions weren't very good, especially The night excursion to chase the northern lights. The Coach journeys to and from were very stressful. The passengers shouted from the top of each other, telling everyone their whole life story and carrying on in a very inappropriate manner, blasting music without consideration for other passengers, especially passengers with additional support needs like me. kept pulling down and slamming their fold tables off our seats every two minutes and drunk alcoholic beverages on the coach. I was getting stressed out about the situation to the point. I ended up feeling drowsy, anxious, worked up, didn't want to eat and feeling overwhelmed for the rest of the coach holiday after three days of torture for me, our coach holiday had gotten too much for me. We had the worst Search of the Northern Lights experience ever, I locked myself in the en-suite bathroom and had a warm bath and cried about when people will ever understand my story of me having autism and accept me for being who I am. I've reported this experience to Caledonian and nothing has been done but give us a £20 voucher for the distress on the coach trip.

Lastly from 17/04/2023 - 21/04/2023, I took my mum on her first holiday to The Cotswolds for five days. we stayed in The Royal Court Hotel where we had the worst experience staying there. We have to move into multiple rooms throughout the week due to some of them being allocated are at a very poor standard. The staff were very ignorant and refused us customer service. Every time we went for breakfast and dinner, it was always a stewards inquiry by the rude restaurant staff at the door. I had to explain we were with a Caledonian coach party, this was not only embarrassing but very distressing for a mother and an autistic young adult like us. It totally ruined our trip to the Cotswolds. I've told Caledonian and requested a full refund on the trip. But a month later Caledonian emailed me back today saying they could not refund me for the holiday and gave me a £60 holiday voucher from them and my disability was ignored.

It was my last straw using this company, it shows that they no longer accommodate young people with hidden disabilities on their holidays anymore. I’ll not be using Caledonian Travel again after the way they have been treating me.

Z
Zoe McPhee 10 months ago
Order
2
Service
2
Price
4
Delivery
2
Total
2.5
Would buy here again?

Caledoniacoachtravel

We went to the Edinburgh Tattoo with Caledonia Travel in August 2023. Stayed in the, 3 star, Brittania Hotel, which was dreadful and should not even be rated a 1 star! We waited 1.5 hours to get checked in, others waited longer. When we eventually got to our room it was disgusting; filthy windows; stained and un-hoovered carpets; dirty sink/bath; no hook to hang wet towels, curtain coming off the rail and very poor decor. The view from the room was of the reception roof which had empty cans, used vapes and other litter strewn around. Slept on top of the bed due to the uncleanliness of the room.

The lounge/bar area was unpleasant and poorly furnished. We were informed the bar closed at 11pm despite it being a Friday during the Edinburgh Festival. The dining room was dull and set out like a canteen. Meals were self- service so food trays had to be carried from the lounge to dining area causing some difficulty for people with mobility difficulties. The choice of food was very basic and unappetising. Desserts were also left on a counter, uncovered for 2 hours, before meal time. We ate out in Edinburgh including breakfast the following day, which was an added expense but at least it was fresh and appetising.

Caledonia Travel must have been aware of the poor online reviews for the Brittania Hotel yet continued to use it for overnight trips to the Edinburgh Tattoo. Coaches cannot park directly outside the Brittania Hotel! We witnessed people struggling to climb the hill to the coach due to mobility issues and breathing difficulties. It's a disgrace.

I've done trips with Caledonia Travel before but will NEVER use them or recommend them again.

L
L Wilson 5 months ago
Order
2
Service
2
Price
2
Delivery
2
Total
2
Would buy here again?

H1

4days 3 nights don't know where 4 days come from 1 hour at Gretna on 4 th day back at Newcastle at 2pm plus visited Gretna on way there driver Andy brilliant steam train journey was good

C
Carole Gray 6 months ago
Order
8
Service
8
Price
8
Delivery
10
Total
8.5
Would buy here again?

5 day coach holiday

Banffshire coast explorer.Great driver Mick even though there were a few problems with the coach.Friendly and helpful making our trip most enjoyable.Thanks Mick

P
Pauline Gibson 1 year ago
Order
10
Service
10
Price
10
Delivery
10
Total
10
Would buy here again?

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