Newmarket Holidays

Despite insisting on a Twin bedded room, and receiving written confirmation of this we were allocated a single bed in a door dank tidy room. Our complaints yielded untruthful replies that all beds. We’re the same. We were eventually forced to pay a penalty of €120 to acquire a room of a standard ww we’re expecting. I expect to be compensated for this surcharge.

Numerous other room faults emerged.

Whilst 46 passengers on the Escorted tour was too many, their were many complaints over quality and food served.

Very disappointing.

No time to enjoy the Pousadas which are situated well outside Lisbon and in the middle of no-where in Amares.

Often arrived at the hotel with an hour to spare before dinner.

Food included was uninspiring.

No choice but to eat at the hotel in Amares from the expensive a-la-carte menu as Newmarket had not checked the local place was open.

Far too much time on the coach (5 1/2 hours one day)

Up and down the motorway as Amares is situated too far away from Porto.

Wrong side of the river in Porto, so no chance to sample the Port.

Tried to visit too many places.

Lisbon was a disaster, why not include a trolley bus tour?, which has to be booked.

Trailing round back streets was poor as our Tour Manager was working off Google maps and limited knowledge.

Note: This young woman was doing her best, she acknowledged she is not a tour guide...why do Newmarket not make this clear?

We would never use Newmarket again.

The Andre Rieu Concert was excellent. The highlight for me was the guided tour of the sights associated with the Beatles. Our Newmarket tour guide had direct connections with people who knew the Beatles well. She had a mine of information to share and was obviously a devoted fan herself which made the whole tour compelling and full of fascinating and very interesting stories of the Fab Four.

I would highly recommend the Beatles Tour to all Beatles fans young and old. If you are lucky enough to have our guide you will be in for a treat.

Just got back from a Costa Rica holiday, by Newmarket Holidays, brochure stated a direct flight from Gatwick, waited until we’d paid the balance then told us we’d have to fly from Heathrow to Frankfurt, then from there to Costa Rica adding about 5 hours to an already 12 hour flight. Then we were expected to be ready the next day at 7.30 am for our first trip, the first three hotels were ok, but the fourth hotel was rather tired and outdated although it was clean, however the final hotel which should have been. A relaxing time on the Caribbean side was awful the hotel was really shabby and the showers really grimy and dirty, our evening meals were included but we had the same menu to choose from for all three evenings with three choices of meals, not ideal. All in all it felt as though it was all done on the cheap despite paying approximately £8,000 in total for three of us. Worst holiday I’ve ever had and would never use this holiday company again

Avoid! Avoid!

It started well as indicated in my previous review of Newmarket Holidays (Jan ‘23) for a Holy Land tour from 11 May for 7 nights to Tel Aviv, Galilee & Jerusalem.

However, the holiday 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. The 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, manager 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 the manager 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 a representative of Operations. I told him I’d emailed manager earlier, was awaiting a reply, and that I was seeking current information & advice about the holiday. Later representative 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 this representative 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. He 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 & losing a few thousand pounds please avoid.

Just finished a tour of New Orleans ,Memphis and Nashville

Representatives are a formidable team

Everything was so well organised the tour ran like clockwork

Driver’s driving is exemplary and an agent’s knowledge outstanding

We are going home with some wonderful memories

Thank you both

Just returned back from the Outer Hebridean tour. Lovely tour of the Isle of Skye and Isle of Lewis and Harris. What a wonderful time we had made better by our tour guide and coach driver. Both very knowledgeable about the area. Would definitely recommend to anyone thinking g about it. Lovely hotels and excellent food, what more could you want.

I have waiting 3 years for my holiday of a lifetime with my family to South Africa, the check in details came one evening when I was at work, when I got home, I discovered all four of us were in separate seats, I was even between two strangers for a 12 hour flight, I used chat twice and was promised they would get back to me, they never did, on the 3rd attempt, I was told, I could pay for us to be moved, but not together, I phoned and waited 50 minutes before an advisor came on and told me it was my fault for not checking in on time, he offered different seats that I would have to pay for, when I refused, he changed the seats, but when I checked later, we were all still separate, it was 4.25 and he just wanted me off the phone to go home. I have emailed twice, but no response. I am so disappointed with this company, I haves used them many times, but afraid, I won’t be using them again

Having had some good holidays in Ireland with the company, looked forward to Swiss Alpine glories and had a pleasant holiday with good weather. Whilst we were aware that only 5 dinners were included did not expect the hotel to close down completely at 12 noon on two of the days. We could get to our rooms but that was all. No tea or coffee making facilities in the rooms so had no hot drink from Saturday morning until at the airport Sunday morning. Other restaurants in the village were a steep walk away. We were also disgusted to hear a row in the restaurant between the innocent tour guide and the chef, should have been done in private. Late arrivals in our party and other guests arriving on the closed days had to collect their keys from a box by the front door and find their rooms which were in 3 separate blocks in the dark. Having been using the village for,30,years I would have expected

the company to have a better relationship with the hotel. 

Do not book with this company they take 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. She has just replied below stating that we have been offered to change the date of our holiday to india. However in April when the advisor 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 he 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 him 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 he 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 POSSIBLY BE GOOD CUSTOMER SERVICE??