Shearings Holidays

My partner and I spent Christmas at the Carlton hotel in Great Yarmouth on a Shearings festive break.

Hotel was dirty smelling carpets worn and generally in a bad state. The food was horrendous The traditional Christmas dinner was a joke frozen food and I would go as far as to say frozen ready meals, Boxing day meal was Sausage and chips. Really? £1100 pounds per couple and all they offered as a gesture was £75.00 . I'm sure the CEO had a lovely Christmas day where as Ours was disastrous.

Well thank you Shearings, I would strongly recommend that people do not use this company. Profit over people. They only needed to read the reviews from when the hotel was taken over in June to see it was no longer a suitable holiday destination, it was to late for us because they had taken full payment before the notified us of any changes . We may be getting on in years but we don't deserve to be treated like this.

space, between seats, differs on driver's side up to toilet, from seats on nearside. Driver verified this, saying he would report this to his boss. DID NOT LIKE being dropped off in middle of new town with little info given. LIKED Snowdon Train and Port Merion.

YOU ASK FOR PLENTY OF DETAIL BUT 50 CHARACTERS MAXIMUM! Not enough space

Picked up in hull nice ledger coach. Then changed outside dover very basic coach. Long hold up dover which made the journey 22 hours. That could not be helped. Got to the rhine boat 2am.had to pay even for water nothing in cabin. Coffee & drinks terrible also the food terrible 5 course but very small portions. Never had such a awful christmas dinner. Entertainment man on organ very dull no christmas spirit. Met nice people all thought the same. Rhine was high water. Could not be helped. But could not go to ports or trips as aranged glad to be hopenever again

Booked the Thursford Christmas Spectacular which was absolutely fantastic the rest of the holiday was not....

It took 9hrs to do a 3-4hr journey, down to the driver, not traffic.

We eventually arrive at the Carlton Hotel and are rushed in to dinner because of our late arrival, which in my opinion was virtually inedible. The next night was Christmas dinner, the Turkey was OK but all veg,potatoes, stuffing balls etc were all cooked from frozen, very bland and tasteless. The next evening

We asked our waitress what she would recommend, after turning her nose up at the options she said the pie would be the best.

Also my opinion, the hotel needs a major overhaul, in our room the wall lights were hanging off the wall, stained carpet, broken strip light over bathroom sink, dirty black grout around the bath and shower area, permanently stained toilet seat and dust/dirt around floor edge.

The bar had 2 areas taped off due to a leak causing the ceiling to fall down.

Myself and my companions will not be using Shearings again or recommending.

We did contact Shearings with our complaints before writing a review but feel their response was unsatisfactory.

3 days ago

Shearings appalling Aachen Cologne Valkenburg market trip

Just came back from the Aachen, Cologne and valkenburg trip. Can only say never again by coach or with shearings. The coach part of the journey is just ridiculously long, plus the convoluted journey stopping picking up people everywhere. Then being taken to stop 24 to be placed on your tour coach, not enough seats at Stop 24, queues for the toilets and over priced food outlets. The return journey was even longer due to delays of other coaches returning. Then leaving stop 24 late, given no stop anywhere till Southampton, 5 hours later, toilet on coach had not been emptied and stunk, then being turfed out at Southampton into a small mini bus. Really made the whole holiday a nightmare.

Our hotel was tatty and falling apart, should be classed as 2 star, hotel staff were friendly and breakfast was good, but don't expect a decent evening meal. Our coach drivers exact words one evening was see you tomorrow at 10, if you don't die of food poisoning, and when he dropped us off at stop 24, he said think of me next week I will probably be eating the leftovers from this Week, proves how bad it was.

Now the trips to the markets, Cologne we were dropped off outside the city in a dark muddy carpark, told we could not be dropped off in the city anymore, funny the Ledger holiday people were. Now we were taken to the station by the coach drivers who really had no idea where they were going, no ticket machine at the station, they said just get on, only 150 euro fine if we had been caught without a ticket, we arrived at the Dom station, one driver stayed on and the train went with his group, the Second driver wasn't sure if he was in the right place and boarded the next train, some people were confused and tried to get back on holding the doors open, very dangerous. My friend and I stayed on the platform as we had enough at this point and made our own way to the markets.

Normal German markets gluwien and bratwurst everywhere. On our return to the coach it was dark, we purchased our tickets and returned to a very dark station exit, an underpass with homeless people sleeping under it and a walk to a wet and muddy unlit car park where the coach was. Not safe for people of a certain age or with walking difficulties as some were on this trip. Over half the people who returned were unaware they had to buy train tickets. Shearings your organisation is appalling.

Now we had two coach drivers, only one drove the coach for the whole trip from stop 24 on the Monday to stop 24 on our return, questionable driving hours I think.

The hotel we stayed in was not good, mold in the bathroom around the shower tiles, rust fittings near the toilet and the cheapest towels I've seen in a long time. The hotel area wasn't good either as there was nothing around, 25 minute bus ride to Aachen so you were really stuck to go out in the evening. Unless your driver didn't want to eat the evening meal and took you to the nearest takeaway, yes they did. So if you want a relaxing holiday at the German Markets avoid Shearings and the hotel Buachaus in Aachen.

Sorry Shearings this trip is appalling.

We booked seating appropriate to someone with sight disability and was placed near the back of the bus without consultation with ourselves. We have one week to go and are being forced to review our going on holiday due to this. Thanks shearings for ruining our holiday !!!!!!

They enjoy misleading old people, then refuse to give them anything back when the trip wasn’t anything like they said it was going to be.

where to start, coach not an executive coach, hotel pleasant enough but food very sparse for Shearing's customers although other guests had good size portions of food. Itinerary not well thought out coach crew hadn't been on this tour before so had no local knowledge. Although we all knew that it was half board we did expect to be able to purchase lunch on Christmas day at the hotel but was told that this wasn't possible as the hotelier had 150 local people coming in for lunch. it was a small village with one shop so nowhere to get anything to eat or drink from breakfast time until dinner time, Christmas dinner was underwhelming consisted of turkey sliced fried potatoes and frozen veg, with the smallest slice of apple strudel to follow. Never mind the live music to look forward to but just like a pantomime oh no there isn't as Shearing's had cancelled due to cost, although on the itinerary so should have been costed already.

Good bit about this trip was Christmas Eve day trip to Salzburg please beware this holiday is not as advertised and when complaining to Shearing's they really do not care, Shearing's is the poor relation of Ledger and Ridley's the poor relation of Shearing's. Please do your research before booking any holidays with Shearing's. They take your money but do not provide what they say they will provide so totally mis sell their holidays.

We didn't board the coach until 11:00 am which meant we didn't arrive at the hotel until 7:15 pm. It was an unpleasent journey as people sitting adjacent to us were very poorly and coughing and sneezing constantly. I think it's Shearings responsibility to ensure passengers are fit to travel. The driver was competent although a little quirky, she told us numerous occasions not to poo in the toilet and it was only for liquid. When we arrived in Melrose she told us that on the day of departure we had to be on the coach at 6:30 am which meant we had to have breakfast at 6:00 am the suitcases had to be outside our room at 5:00 am, we had to get up at 4:00 am to have a shower and pack. Due to the early start we decided to go to bed early, huge mistake! our room was under the ballroom and it was as though they were having the New Years Day party in our room!

The Waverley Castle Hotel was awful... It's in a terrible state and requires major work. The corridors smell of damp, the wallpaper if falling off the walls, the ceilings have holes in them, the carpets are threadbare. The stair carpet needs replacing urgently. The bedrooms need decorating, the carpets are dirty the chair is knackered. The bathroom has a rusty towel rail, the toilet seat was loose... it was like riding a bucking bronco! There were handprints on the walls, can only guess this is where the toilet seat was sucessful in throwing someone off. The shower head randomly jumps off the wall! On a positive note the reception, dining room and ballroom were okay and the staff especially the manager were great.

The cost of the holiday for two people was £818.00 considering the late arrival and the obscenely early departure gave us two days and on the second day there was nothing to do. The hotel is in the middle of nowhere, on previous coach holidays the driver has offered an excursion at an additional cost, even a return to Edinburgh for a couple of hours would have been good.

I DO NOT RECOMMEND SHEARINGS OR THE WAVERLEY CASTLE HOTEL, to be avoided!

My mum went on a coach trip with Shearings and on the way back there were not enough customers for a coach so they provided a cab. This cab driver drove my mum and other customers to a deserted street and asked them to get out and wait in the rain whilst he picked up someone else! My 73 year old mum was terrified and thought she would be stranded somewhere she did not know. He then arrived back with an underage special needs boys and drove him home with my mum and others in the car!!! He then drove them back to the station driving so fast my mum was so scared and kept asking him to slow down!

When I informed Shearings they took over 4 weeks to reply to my complaint and offered my my a £20 voucher for compensation that she had to spend on another holiday from Shearings!

Shearings are a disgrace and have no understanding of how these experiences make elderly people feel. They don’t care about their customers and the services are disgusting!

Do not book with Shearings!