Shearings Holidays Reviews 

Durham and Holy Island 5-day trip.

Our first and last Shearings holiday...

With all the pick ups en-route, our coach travel took from 6.15am (started Cleethorpes) to 3.30pm (our Newcastle hotel) which we didn't bargain for. A very long and tiring day travelling for the relatively short distance you would normally travel if going by car.

Hotel disappointing (budget hotel close to city centre). Room very tired. Windows dirty, dust on kettle, stains on carpet, blue toothpaste up the back of bathroom door that hadn't been cleaned off. Only 1 chair for 3 sharing room. Noisy on opening window because of heat - main road outside and regular sirens, as near to police station and hospital route. Food unappetising and at times inedible. Watery soups, tasteless desserts. Dinner at 7pm and only when all present. No coffee offered afterwards. Bar food no better and overpriced. Despite this, the staff were all very hardworking and friendly - it's a shame they are being let down by their hotel group.

Booked for an accessible/adapted room but none available on our arrival - disappointing.

Only did 1 day visit to Holy Island, which was lovely (because 1 of our party developed cellulitis). Missed 2 days' trips but we ventured into Newcastle city centre to the shops. Good variety. Lots of eateries. Lovely old buildings. Quayside is nothing spectacular but a nice walk by the river (whilst our poorly member was resting legs back at hotel).

Day of travel home also very long and draining, however short stop off at Hexham was very pleasant.

If you like being on a coach travelling lots and lots, sitting all day, okay. But not for us... we will go by car on any future holidays and stay in a much nicer hotel with food we can eat.

Loved Newcastle though and the lovely locals ❤️.

I have just returned from the "Royal Palaces Tour" which I booked in June 2025 (twenty-five). I chose the hotel in Canary Wharf because it was easy for me to travel to as I would arrive independently. I feel that Shearings were DECEPTIVE in not notifying that this hotel was no longer available until just before final balance was due in April 2026, when the Government contract had been known about since July 2025: "The UK Home Office secured the Britannia International Hotel in Canary Wharf as an overflow contingency site for asylum seekers in July 2025. Following protests and community pushback, the first arrivals were moved in at the start of August 2025". Shearings re-booked in was is said to be a 4-Star hotel, The Aubrey Park Hotel Hemel Hempstead. The planned trips each day were to the City of London and the West End. This resulted in journeys of between 1.5 hours and 2 hours each way every day due to the traffic. This is not in any way an acceptable replacement for the location, and resulted in the visits being much shorter than they would have been if Shearings had taken the trouble (In July 2025) to find a suitable replacement hotel. So all the passengers have been short-changed in this trip. It has completely spoiled the trip. The hotel itself fell short in several ways (carpets not clean; draw curtains shabby and torn; only ice-cold water in the wash basin despite mentioning it 3 times; no Wi Fi of any use anywhere other than in reception), but it is the choice of this hotel which Shearings needs to address. CM *** I want to add that all the problems in my review stem directly from the very badly-researched hotel replacement. The Government contract which necessitated the change of hotel began in autumn 2025, making plenty of time for proper inspections. However, we customers were only notified 1 week before the final balance was due. No-one from Shearings can possible have visited it, or checked just how much the daily dense traffic would severely decrease the time at the promised excursions. Being late for our visit to Buckingham Palace after 1.5 hours in traffic, followed by more traffic to reach Windsor with no time to see much. Whilst I appreciate the generic apologies, these do not go far enough in compensating us for not being able to have the time to see what we paid for. I knew I would be travelling independently, but was not prepared for the blunt refusal to compensate the extra milage and time taken. Because it was Shearings who chose this totally inappropriate hotel I strongly feel that, on this occasion, the company should pay compensation. The company choice of replacement hotel severely reduce the time and enjoyment at the lovely Royal Palaces. Please make an individual rather than generic response. Caroline Miller

This holiday was awful and definitely not worth In excess of £5k. First impressions of drivers was poor…looked like they needed a good wash! They were uncommunicative so we received little information on what to expect during our cruise. Coach air con at the back was poor, verging on non existent. Our itinerary was dramatically cut and we never got to do Switzerland, which was our reason for booking this cruise. The Rhine level was very low. Replacement itinerary was poor…basically time fillers via coach! Must mention the crew onboard MS Seranade 1, they were fabulous and worked so hard to make our onboard experience a good one. Thank you one and all onboard!!
Then there is Florin! Rarely have I met a more rude and unhelpful person. He is totally unsuited to his job role. All passengers I spoke to felt the same way and I feel Shearings must be aware of this fact. They must also have been aware the level of the Rhine was so low that the itinerary promised was not going to be met, yet they chose not to tell passengers or give them the opportunity to rebook. Thinking they were far more concerned with taking the money than they were for passengers satisfaction. Many on the cruise were elderly and were saying this was what they were hoping would be their cruise of a lifetime…what a disappointment. I have provided a review directly to Shearings…guess what? No response…aaaah well…

Graziella and Chris were a great team when we went to Switzerland treated everyone like family

The man called Josh on the phone at bookings was very friendly, helpfull and very informative. He made the whole booking process very easy and straight forward.

The drivers Chris and Graziella were amazing. I was a solo traveller and they took exceptionally good care of me. This was my first shearings trip in Europe and the journey was long, but it was a great holiday. I don't know how it's decided who sits next to whom, but you nailed it!!!
I think the trip (to Andorra) could be a couple of days longer. 4 days travel, but only 3 days in Andorra.
The hotel was nice, but food was often cold or ran out. Staff were useful and polite, but maybe only 5 or so working.
Two of the three days were full guided days and I don't think that was needed. The days felt pressured with very little free time.
The drivers and the other passengers made the holiday.

Excellent trip to France - Monet Gardens, Versailles etc.
Very easy to book and travel. Excellent hotel. Very well organised. Staff friendly and efficient.

First time with Shearings. Taken by taxi to their changeover station in Lymm. Really nice coach, allocated seats. The driver was very obliging and ensured no luggage was left behind, etc. Good hotel in Newquay, fabulous food, good evening entertainment, and the beer was not too pricey. The weather was not wonderful, but the trips were excellent. Same driver all week and very obliging.Would recommend.

just had a lovely holiday in bournemouth, the holiday was enjoyable, and our stay was comfortable, had quite a few holidays with shearings always found plenty to do, the excursions are interesting and good, our stay has been comfortable, just decided to book a christmas vacation, have not had one for a few years, and i am looking forward to a break from all the cooking and cleaning lol.

Have had great experiences on excursions with this company. Super drivers with great knowledge of places visited. Very easy process in booking travel.

The taxi pick up and feeder coaches were good,on time and comfortable.
We transfered at Rugby to our tour coach. This coach was a nightmare, definitely not Executive, as the leg room was some four inches less than the feeder coaches and bearing in mind it was 35deg C the air conditioning was inadequate. The driver did open the roof vent but this caused a gale blowing in the rear of the coach. When we reached Dunoon we were staying in the Esplanade Hotel which I can only describe as budget. Adequate but needing attention. When I did a recce of the hotel I went out on the balcony from the entertainment room to see the sea view. When I tried to close the external door the lock mechanism disintegrated. The meals were basic and there were no condiments on the tables. There did not seem to be any option for vegetarians. On the day following arrival we were due to go on an excursion but we're told by the driver that the electrics on the coach were not working. He tried to summon help to sort the problem but the response was abysmal. The driver went beyond what should be expected and kept us fully briefed on the frustrating situation he was put in. Soon this Sunday was declared a rest day but being Sunday the only things open were a few charity shops a cafe and a supermarket. The hotel could have provided lunch but this wasn't possible. We obtained a meal deal from Morrisons. It was even too cold to go for a paddle in the sea. The weather was a bit bleak and the time allowed at venues was too long. When we went to Bute we even took an around island bus tour at a cost of £20 each to find some shelter. When we went on the Waverley we were supposed to to go up Loch Goil to Lochgoilhead and up Loch Long to Arrocar but we reachd neither as I was following the position on Google Maps. We have used Shearings in the past about 20 years ago but would definitely not use them again. Looks good in adverts and glossy brochures but it did not meet expectations.

The rep was very helpfull

Easy booking & very helpful when I spoke to customer service

We recently returned from our coach tour to North Wales visiting Snowdonia, Anglesey and Portmeirion. We had a lovely time and particularly we would like to thank our tour driver Ciaran who was friendly with a tremendous sense of humour and also he took care of us all on our excursions. Thank you. We stayed at the Chatsworth house hotel in Llandudno and found the staff generally very considerate but in particular we would like to thank Jo who waited on us at dinner and breakfast and we struck up a real friendship with her and again thank you Jo for making us feel so welcome and making our stay a real pleasure. In general we have had a lovely time and would recommend this break to anyone. Thank you to all the feed and taxi drivers and to those who organised the whole thing. Thank you

Hiya
Our Driver Derek on Our Coronation Street Experience
Tour WAS SO Helpful & Explained Everything & More
On Our Trip !
Wonderful Driver !
Shearings Holidays KNOW How To Look After Their
Customers !
ThankYou

Due to an imminent eye operation we had to cancel our holiday booked for September and thought we'd lose our deposit, however, the helpful people at Shearings were able to transfer us to a new tour in 2027. They were so helpful at a stressful time.

THE REPRESENTATIVE I DEALT WITH WAS VERY HELPFUL AND FRIENDLY AND FOUND A HOLIDAY I WAS LOOKING FOR.

Dunoon Isle of Bute Waverley Paddle Steamer Tour June 26
The hotel in Dunoon The Esplanade was a lovely hotel
and we loved our stay there
However,the trip did not start well as we were told by Richard our driver that we had a replacement coach -dont ask-and clearly had not been checked over before the trip.The air con was not working properly and it was too hot in the coach.Next day Saturday the air con was working and while waiting for the ferry to Dunoon Richard goes patchily through the itinery Why does he think Dunoon and The Isle of Bute are the same place?Lack of preparation
Sunday our coach has broken down so we have our day off No news by the evening if the coach is mended ,no news at breakfast When found Richard says the coach is mended we are off to Inverary Different chap today -has he been told off ?-tells us there is water available to buy on board meal times departure times etc More like what we expect from Shearings Richard parked at the Castle but after the tour there was little for the less mobile visitors to do as it was a 20 minute walk into the village It would have been nice for them to have been driven 2 minutes into the village to look around and then driven back to the castle to pick up the others
Isle of Bute is very beautiful and would highly
recommend the open top bus tour or not much else to do
Wednesday as advertised by Shearings the highlight of the tour Hours at the hotel in the morning when perhaps we could have had a ride around the island ?Wayverley is wonderful and we had a one and a half hour trip twenty minute transfer from the hotel Not much of a full day
Richard seemed to think travellers like to have hours at a hotel He is wrong We like to be seeing the sights !He may prefer to rest have time off to smoke but its not want we want. I would not want to travel with him again
Sorry Shearings first time I have ever complained but those on their first trip with Shearings would NOT book again That is very sad
Sincerely Clare Lockwood

Trip to St. Ives, Cornwall – 1st June to 5th June 2026
Transport.
The feeder coach broke down after we had travelled for only 8 miles, from Chester le Street to Durham. We had to wait for a replacement coach and for the luggage to be transferred meaning that we arrived at Leeds – Skelton Lane Services a couple of hours late to join the tour coach, meaning that there were annoyed people who had been waiting for hours for our coach to arrive.
For some reason, possibly due to driver hours, we had 3 drivers to get us to the hotel.
Hotel.
St. Ives Bay hotel. [also see separate review]
This type of trip is usually for older people so why this hotel was chosen is a mystery. 12 steps to enter the hotel. Despite checking that the hotel had a lift we were booked into room 26 on the second floor and then told that there was no lift in that part of the building so had to negotiate 4 flights of narrow stairs several times a day. We were told that the hotel was full so we could not be moved.
Entertainment.
Advertised as entertainment most evenings. The problem was that the entertainment started at 8pm but our evening meal was booked at 8pm by Shearings or the hotel so that by the time we had our meal and left the dining room, the entertainment was finished.
Summary.
A couple of weeks after we got home, we received an email from Shearings asking us to complete a satisfaction survey. We did so, noting the above points. The survey asked if we would like to be contacted regarding the negative comments and we said yes. However, after waiting for a month no-one from Shearings has bothered.
Pathetic service once they have your money.
We won’t be using Shearings again.

I've been looking for a coach trip to Ireland for a few years and had one cancelled a couple of years ago but saw the South East Ireland trip and found it very easy to book online.