Couple’s anger after being stuck on coach for ten hours a day during £700 sight-seeing tour of Scotland
Derek and Julia Limbert paid £699 for the five-day tour but have said they were forced to sit on the coach for at least 10 hours a day
A RETIRED couple have been left fuming after being forced to sit on a coach for more than ten hours a day while touring Scotland.
Derek and Julia Limbert said the £699 tour was a "disaster from start to finish", with the couple forced to sit on the coach for 62 hours over the five-day tour.
The disappointed couple said they were left frustrated staring out the window for most of their holiday, with the coach often missing ferries to islands or being forced to turn back due to time constraints.
Retired secondary school teacher Derek said: "We had paid for a tour of Scotland but what we got was a tour of the inside of a coach our only visits were to go to the loo in service stations.
"I would have seen more of the Scottish Highlands if I'd stayed at home and looked the places up on the internet."
He and 73-year-old wife Julia were forced to watch the Scottish scenery crawl by on the trip that started on July 15, with the frustrated couple saying the itinerary was not clear in showing just how long they would be forced to sit on the coach.
Derek said the couple were picked up at 6.20am on the first day, with others picked up in Lichfield, Burton-upon-Trent, Doncaster, Huddersfield, Durham and Newcastle as the coach travelled to the first overnight stop.
He said: "We didn't get to Gretna until late that night. We were then told we'd have to change coaches which took two-and-half hours to sort out. It was chaos.
"Even the itinerary did not show this nor that the time of travel to our overnight stop would be over 15 hours."
The tour group arrived at their hotel in Stirling about 9am before setting off to Oban - with the 80 mile journey taking so long they barely had time to see the town of Lismore.
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Derek said: "We arrived just in time to get a wash before rushing down to our evening meal.
"If that wasn't bad enough on the third day we were supposed to make an early start for a full-day tour around the isles of Mull and Iona, where we would visit the picturesque capital of Tobermory.
"The 'early start' was 11.45am - so late that on our arrival to Mull our driver told us that we would not have time to visit Tobermory."
The tour went from bad to worse with the coach then missing the ferry for their visit to the isle of Iona.
Derek said: "We were told by a driver that the ferry to Iona was every ten minutes.
"We nipped to the toilet but when we got back on the coach we missed it and were then told the ferries were in fact every hour, which meant it was too late for us to visit the island.
"This was the main reason for choosing to go on this holiday in the first place.
"On the fourth day we actually did make it to the Isle of Skye but it took five hours winding through the narrow roads and negotiating road works so by the time we got there we had about and hour before we had to set off back again."
The couple finally returned home after a 16-and-a-half hour journey while the coach dropped off the other pensioners around the north of England.
Derek vented: "Everyone understood it would be a coach tour but this was ridiculous. We barely got to see the outside of the coach at all the entire trip.
"We were absolutely appalled by the service provided and the holiday company are an utter disgrace."
The couple, who have two children and five grandchildren, said they believed their experience was "in breach of the trades description act."
Julia, a retired junior school teacher said they had tried to raise their concerns while on holiday but they were told by the coach driver that it was a problem with the holiday company, not the coach company.
She said: "Throughout the holiday the coach drivers gave little information concerning places which we visited or about the countryside which we were passing through - hardly any commentary at all in fact.
"I feel that the whole experience begs the question as to whether the travel company had ever researched this holiday.
"Even the drivers felt that an attempt was made to cram too much into too short a period of time."
The disenchanted couple said they would now never travel with Diamond Holidays again, saying it was a "frustrating time on an ill thought out mystery tour".
The couple were left further insulted when the company gave them £20 worth of complimentary vouchers each.
DEREK AND JULIA'S HORRIBLE HOLIDAY ITINERARY
Day 1
Sutton Coldfield to Stirling overnight via Yorkshire: 15.5 hours
Day 2
Stirling to Oban: 10 hours
Day 3
Oban to isles of Mull, Iona and visit to Tobermory: 10 hours
Day 4
Oban to Isle of Skye: 10 hours
Day 5
Oban to Sutton Coldfield: 16.5 hours
Total hours on coach: 62 hours
Diamond Holidays managing director Kevin Riley told The Sun Online: "Diamond Holidays has been providing coach tours successfully for 18 years and prides itself on offering a choice of excellent value holidays across the UK.
"We take all customer complaints very seriously and, in the case of Mr and Mrs Limbert, we understand that the driving times required to reach the Hebridean Islands on our itinerary may have felt excessive and did not leave room for delays.
"As such, we have been trying to contact Mr & Mrs Limbert in order to discuss this further and offering a full refund and have already reviewed the itinerary to ensure that this holiday will run as smoothly as possible in the future."
He continued, saying: "Of course, the distances to and from the Inner Hebrides, particularly when driving from the Midlands, will require lengthy spells of time on the coach especially as we need to allow time for comfort breaks.
"The itinerary is very clearly outlined in all the information provided to customers. However, we fully accept that this holiday fell short of our normal standards and for this, we would like to apologise unreservedly."
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