Newmarket Holidays
Reviews, experiences and complaints
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Newmarket Holidays
Nowadays you can truly plan trips to anywhere you want to go, whether that is a weekend trip close by or to the other side of the world. The world has become small, we can get to places we couldn’t before, and we have so much information and details in our hands about every place on Earth. But it is precisely this ability to travel anywhere and have so much at our disposal which can feel overwhelming at times, and make you feel lost when planning your holidays– which should be the perfect time to relax and enjoy. That is why having a friendly, knowledgable tour operator and manager can always be a great relief. To find out if Newmarket Holidays is your ideal companion for your travel plans, read our customer reviews to see what other users’ experiences have been like.
About Newmarket Holidays
Newmarket Holidays, part of The Newmarket Group, is a British independent tour operator founded in 1983, based in Wallington, Surrey, and who are known to provide customers with escorted holidays, resort-based stays, river cruises and event-based tours to destinations throughout the UK, Europe and worldwide destinations. They take care of transfers, excursions and entrances which all come included in the price, plus 24-hour global support so their customers can trust that everything is taken care of, relax and enjoy the vacations from the moment they book until their return. Newmarket Holidays are members of the Association of British Travel Agents and are licensed by the Civil Aviation Authority. They’ve also had quite a large amount of recognition from the tourism industry, receiving in 2013 through 2019 the British Travel Awards for Best Escorted Holidays Operator, and also awards in categories like Best Large Holiday Company to Southern Asia for 2019 and Best Large Holiday Company to Africa also for 2019, and many others throughout the years and having a total of 47 awards since 2011.
Products and Services of Newmarket Holidays
Apart from escorted tours, Newmarket Holidays offers tours to Scotland, Ireland, all throughout Europe, North, Central and South America, India and Southeast Asia. It also provides many kinds of ocean cruises from UK ports, European river cruises, rail holidays, plus tours for special events like big sports matches and concerts. Newmarket Holidays claims to offer exceptional prices for their services, 24-hour emergency cover every day of the year, carefully organised travel plans with lots of fun activities, great hotels and accommodation, and friendly tour managers with a lot of experience. They also suggest you always take their Newmarket Travel Insurance which provides cover for personal accidents of up to £15,000, overseas medical emergency of up to £5 million; cancellation charges or abandonment of the holiday, up to the cost of the holiday; personal possessions, for up to £1,000 in total including up to £500 for valuables, and other coverages as well which are detailed on their website.
Compliments, Complaints and Tips for Newmarket Holidays
Have you booked any holiday trips with Newmarket Holidays? Was it worth it to book a tour with them, did it make your visit even more worthwhile? Would you book another holiday with them or do you maybe have some suggestions for the future? Your feedback and insight can be very useful for other customers looking to book their holidays through them, so don’t be shy and share your thoughts with us!
Information
SM6 0BP Wallington
Cantium House, Railway Approach
United Kingdom
trustpilot@newmarketholidays.co.uk
03303411927
Blog
Reviews, experiences and complaints
Spotlight: What do our customers say?
All reviews ( 7 )
trip to south west ireland
Our southwest Ireland trip started with a lot of power and ended happily because of you guys. I can’t thank the whole team enough but would definitely love to thank our tour guide, John. He was so knowledgeable in history and everything he shared was magical. Let me talk about the foods because I love them!! The evening meals comprising of meat and fish is more a nostalgic moment. I can’t forget the cereal and the breakfast sausage plus fruits. The company ensured that the rooms were nicely allocated. The only thing I didn’t love is being woken up at 6 am. I’ll definitely book again soon.
NewmarketHolidaysHolidayTourofHolyLand11May
Avoid! Avoid!
Booking with Newmarket Holidays started well for a Holy Land tour from 11 May for 7 nights to Tel Aviv, Galilee & Jerusalem.
However, the holiday (reference W135244) total cost £2394 then turned to disaster.
Over Easter ‘23 there was an outbreak of hostilities with Israel’s neighbours, Lebanon & Syria firing rockets at the country, & as well as rockets from Gaza & South Lebanon there was also civil unrest within Israel after Government announcements of judicial reform. At that time also, two young British/Israeli sisters were killed as was an Italian tourist on Tel Aviv promenade, with others including 5 British visitors wounded.
Concerned about these developments I phoned Newmarket Holidays in mid April to ask if it was safe to holiday in Israel and whether I could use the money I’d paid towards another trip in May/June or beyond. Samantha Kirton, manager, called back to leave a voicemail that the tour would continue and that “as per terms and conditions” it wasn’t possible to transfer to another holiday, Samantha also sent an 18 April email advising that a Newmarket agent in Israel believed that. “normality (was) starting to resume within Israel” & “that we are monitoring the ongoing situation” and “hotels have added security”.
Ok. So if I couldn’t transfer my credit balance I decided to continue - on the available evidence.
Fast forward to May and I flew from Scotland on 10 May & stayed at the Luton airport Marriott hotel for my flight the next day. That day & overnight, continuing reports of another major outbreak of hostilities were incoming with bomb shelters opened, thousands of reservists called up & sirens sounding in cities including Tel Aviv. Additionally flights were briefly stopped from landing in Tel Aviv on 10 May, with several flights rerouted.
Now, really concerned about my “holiday” I emailed Samantha at 05.41 am on 11 May as follows:
“As the situation in Israel has taken a decided turn for the worse in the last few days, are you and Newmarket Holidays recommending travel should continue?
As you’ll be aware, it’s not just landing customers where Embassies urge extreme caution and open hostilities escalate, it is about getting them to safety and then getting them out of a war zone if the situation continues to deteriorate.
This morning there are numerous reports of:
- Tel Aviv: bomb shelters open due to multiple rockets fired at the area
- Israeli residents running for shelters after sirens sound
- rockets hitting and damaging buildings in Tel Aviv
- Tel Aviv international Airport closed for periods due to danger to aircraft
- updated travel advice (10 May) by FCO : “Updated information on the collateral threat to commercial aviation from rocket fire and the risk of disruption to scheduled services (Summary page)”
I believe the situation is urgent, with a review required, so it would be helpful to get a reply this morning as my flight leaves Luton Airport @ 1230”
Folks, I’ve still not received a reply to that email.
Later, now in Luton airport and just before 10 am I called Newmarket on their given Tel number : 033016077707. I tried four times & it didn’t work. I then called the emergency number and got James of Operations. I told him I’d emailed Samantha earlier, was awaiting a reply, and that I was seeking current information & advice about the holiday. Later James called me back while I was still in the airport to explain that the trip was going ahead and the local agent had advised the rockets were falling in areas I wouldn’t visit. I pointed out that my flight was bound for Tel Aviv Ben Gurion which, according to the FCO, wasn’t safe (indeed my intended flight, along with others, was put in a holding pattern off the Israeli coast that evening and took a very different and longer approach to land). I further pointed out that the schedule was to wait at this airport-under-fire for fellow passengers from other flights & that day one of the itinerary was a tour of Tel Aviv.
I advised James that whatever their Israeli agent thought, my contract was with Newmarket & they’d sold me a “holiday” but landing at an airport under fire & touring a city under attack didn’t count as a HOLIDAY. James said he would advise Newmarket of my decision and that someone would call me the following day.
I’m still awaiting that phone call.
Now, 5 weeks later, the Luton Airport Marriott hotel has fully refunded me the price of my stay for night of my return and, for a small, fee I’ve rebooked my return leg Edinburgh EasyJet flight to another destination. I expect Newmarket will have managed to recoup my money for the Israel trip but they’re still holding on to it.
In summary, this is an unprofessional company with nil customer service. If you don’t want disappointment, stress & losing a few thousand pounds please avoid.
Holiday
Beware of this unscrupulous company who changed the flight plans of our holiday rendering us unable to undertake the holiday, but didn’t advise us until the balance cost of the holiday was due.Newmarkets solution to us unable to take these new flights was to recommend that we cancel the holiday and forfeit the deposit!
Tried very hard to buy a holiday but failed
Do not book with this company they lie and steal your deposit. We booked a holiday before covid that was cancelled due to covid. Each time we rebooked we paid additional costs. In total we've now paid £380 and had a holiday booked for india in November. However the evisa for UK citizens has not been reinstated and we do not have the spare annual leave to take a day off to collect a paper visa. Newmarket advised our holiday company in April this year that if it wasn't reinstated we could have a refund or change our booking free of charge to another holiday. It has now come ro the date to pay for our holiday and the evisa has not been reinstated. Our travel agent called newmarket and asked them to listen to the call in April where they said we could cancel or rebook free if the evisa was not reinstated, which newmarket have done however now they are saying that they have changed their policy since April and we have enough time to get a paper visa (despite the fact we cannot take a day off to get one) so we can't have a refund and if we change our booking we will be charged £75pp or we will lose the £380 newmarket have held for the past 3 years. They have kindly given us 3 hours to decide. Disgraceful company. DO NOT BOOK WITH THEM. Jill has just replied below stating that we have been offered to change the date of our holiday to india. However in April when gareth from hayes travel contacted newmarket because I was concerned about the withdrawal of the evisa for British tourists, he was assured by newmarket that if the evisa wasn't reinstated the holiday would be cancelled and we could change to a new holiday free of charge or have a refund and we needed to wait until just before we were due to pay on 20th August and he would approach mewmarket again. He contacted them on Friday, Saturday and today and they told him they've changed their policy and we need to get a paper visa (3 times the cost of an evisa plus a day off work which we don't have) Newmarket have listened to the phone calls gareth made to them and even though they had advised him in April that if the evisa wasnt reinstated thst we could have a refund( and he emailed me to confirm this) newmarket have now told gareth today that they have changed their policy and if we don't like it we will can cancel and lose our £380 deposit, or pay £75pp to book a different holiday and we have till 5pm on 18th Aug to decide or we lose our deposit ( despite the fact we aren't due to pay until 20th August! Every piece of paperwork from Newmarket that we have states we can apply for an evisa with no mention of a paper visa. WE WOULD NOT HAVE BOOKED THIS HOLIDAY IF WE HAD TO GET A PAPER VISA. All we want is to have the refund of £380 we were promised in April when Gareth spoke to Newmarket holidays. Weve only been offered the opportunity to transfer to a different holiday if we pay another £150. COME ON MEWMARKET HOW CAN THIS PISSIBLY BE GOOD CUSTOMER SERVICE??
Scottishhighlandrailways
Booked with this company 6 weeks ago, circumstances medical was unable to go, so tried to change holiday to a later date, exactly the same one, didn’t want to know, didn’t answer emails, and told I would loose all the money £1576, if this was an airline they are quite happy to change dates, at a cost, which I was quite prepared to do. Customer service is non existent they just want your money, terrible company I would never book with them again, did not supply good service, BUYER BEWARE.
Rosiewillow95gmailcom
Great holiday in lake Garda club le Vela large spotless bedroom and bathroom unparalleled breakfast 4 course evening meal great tours and guide , friendly waiters and night porter would def come again . ..only minus evening entertainment had finished in mid sept .
