Unforgettable Adventures: Boutique Tours of Wales with John Hadwin

In episode 89 of the UK Travel Planning Podcast Tracy chats with John Hadwin, the expert driver tour guide behind Boutique Tours of Wales. 

John offers exclusive, personalised guided tours of North Wales, taking guests on scenic road trips, historic castle visits, and unforgettable experiences in stunning locations. With his custom executive vehicle with spacious seating, John ensures an exceptional and comfortable travel experience. 

Tracy and John discuss the unique offerings of his tours, sharing valuable insights into local accommodations, dining options, and the best ways to experience North Wales. Listeners will also learn about the process of booking directly with John and the popularity of his tours. 

If you're considering exploring North Wales, this episode is a must-listen for an introduction to John and Boutique Tours of Wales and the enchanting destinations they cover.

Guest - John Hadwin Boutique Tours of Wales
Show Notes - Episode 89

Transcript

Speaker 1: 0:03

Welcome to the UK Travel Planning Podcast. Your host is the founder of the UK Travel Planning website, tracey Collins. In this podcast, tracey shares destination guides, travel tips and itinerary ideas, as well as interviews with a variety of guests who share their knowledge and experience of UK travel to help you plan your perfect UK vacation. Join us as we explore the UK from cosmopolitan cities to quaint villages, from historic castles to beautiful islands, and from the picturesque countryside to seaside towns.

Speaker 2: 0:42

Hi and welcome to episode 89 of the UK Travel Planning Podcast. This week I have guest John Hadwin from Boutique Tours of Wales, who has joined me to talk about his private driver to a guided company, award-winning company in north Wales. So first would you like to introduce yourself, john, and share a little bit about your background and Boutique tours of Wales, please?

Speaker 3: 1:05

Great, lovely to meet you, and so I'm a local professional private driver tour guide living in north Wales and I've got a pedigree of tourism and I've worked for many of the leading international tour operators in the UK and across Europe and also one of the world's leading international cruise lines. That's quite a bit of experience that you can't buy elsewhere when you come into the private tour sector, and that's helped me immensely set up my own company, boutique Tours of Wales, which I started up when I got back to Wales in 2009, and my biggest regret is not doing it 20 years earlier. So, yeah, how did I get into tourism?

Speaker 3: 1:38

It's quite a story in its own, because I actually my ambition was to be a professional soccer player and I was doing quite well at it. I was on a big club's books, but Nastalia a bad knee injury hit me, so I got into coaching. That took me into colleges and universities and, of course, educational cutbacks came in the sports sector, so I thought at the end of the academic year I'd better go and look for another job and that took me to a job centre and, bizarrely, I came out of that job centre with three jobs in one day. Wow.

Speaker 3: 2:06

So one was temporary for the summer, baking bread. The other this could have been my mistrue vocation because it was a part in a film with an unknown Hollywood actor at the time and it was his first major movie. You'll know him today as Richard Gere.

Speaker 3: 2:21

Wow I go to start with Richard Gere as an extra. But that's my claim to fame, my 30 seconds of claim. But that all fitted nicely before I took on the third job that I got at the job centre, which is a job in the travel industry for a major tour operator. Yeah, I got into that and it was office-based reservations and I'm a bit of a lively character around the office and I don't like being stuck behind a desk all day and that's what people find out when they're out and about with me on tour.

Speaker 3: 2:48

I love the fresh, open air. That's my sport in me and I like to be active. I like to be with people. Sit down, a desk isn't me really. So bizarrely, they then promoted me and put me up at the airport where I was meeting and greeting people at the airport, checking in, dispatching aircraft. And at the end of that season a company came to us and said hey, we're recruiting for English tour guides in Europe. We've got our own guide school. It's an international guide, a claimed guide school in Denmark. Would you like to apply? I said yeah, of course they would, and they put me in resort to test me out to see how, and I just loved it and really the rest is history, never really looked back from that point and yeah.

Speaker 2: 3:29

Obviously you found a true vocation there than John.

Speaker 3: 3:32

Yeah, you know what some things in life come and find you, don't they? Yeah, that's true. Hey, I've got this business, which is very niche. I aim at the independent international travel. There's nothing about Wales. Some places they're confidence in me to come and find out all about it. So, yeah, I tell you a bizarre story here was I was reluctant to put myself on TripAdvisor, you know, because of all the negative comments that go around. You can't control it all and people say get yourself up there. You're doing a really good job. On every talk people are saying this is the best tool you've ever done. So I went up there and if you scroll through the reviews, I think there's about 320 art now and I haven't got a bad one. I'm doing something right? You definitely are. People are just loving Wales when they get here.

Speaker 2: 4:17

So what makes it, with you, so special and so unique and different from everybody else, john?

Speaker 3: 4:23

Very hands-on, nobody else but me. So when you book me you get me. So it all starts with the inquiry from usually off the internet through the website on the inquiry form, and basically I will be with that person from the first inquiry right through to operating the tour myself. So I don't hire in anybody else, I don't subcontract. So that's a big plus factor that people love is that I'm with them every step of the way.

Speaker 2: 4:50

Yeah.

Speaker 3: 4:50

Now I don't hold your hand. Everywhere I like and respect people's space, I will walk them through attractions. I guide them through pretty much every site we go to. That's what people are amazed with my tours because quite often when they've done other driver-guided tours, the driver will just drop them and say we've got an hour and off you go, no information. And for example, when I go to Conway and the castle, I'll go to the front door and custodian in the castle will greet me personally and say are we opening for you today? My Lord, it's past like grew up in so I do have a few little famous that I can pull there and strings and presale when the staff they've got new staff they always come and listen to my tour when I'm wandering around the castle. I don't get lots of other hangar on.

Speaker 2: 5:31

And that's invaluable. Of course, that's invaluable as well, isn't it, john? Because you're experiencing, you build those connections up to the different, various places that you visit.

Speaker 3: 5:39

You can't beat it and you know. One of the impressive things so when I'm out with people is they always come and go gosh, you seem to know everybody, or everybody seems to know you, and I think really what I've done in a small way because we are a very small country Wales is relatively unknown and Wales on the tourist map in my own way, using my experience.

Speaker 3: 6:00

So, yeah, I'm a history buff, I like being out and about. I present quite a unique story of the history of Wales, how it lost its independence to the English with their conquest. And when you think we're quite a small country, we in fact are no bigger than Stata Massachusetts in the USA. You're a fraction of the population, we have more sheep, but we've got an amazing culture. We've got a fantastic history that's just waiting to be discovered and I can promise you this that anybody who comes along and most of my guests will vouch for it. They say that they've been so blown away by the country they didn't know what they were coming to. Because it's often intrigued, go, let's put it on for a day or two. And one of their biggest regrets is not allowing enough time.

Speaker 2: 6:46

I have noticed actually that there has been in the last few years definitely more requests about information about Wales and to also to spend longer in Wales, and I know quite a lot of your tours focus on on North Wales. So what are the most popular tours that people book?

Speaker 3: 7:00

I've got to tell you the north is better than the south. There's always been rivalry for centuries there. The old Princes of Wales used to fight over it as well. They used to fight over their mountain territories. Now it's a very personal thing. The north gives you probably the more dramatic scenery. With Snowdoni National Park We've also got three areas of outstanding natural beauty and these are lesser known areas. They're not quite national park status, but the touring days are a big surprise to the guests. For example, I do a lot of meet of people at the English border, at the city of Chester. Yeah, they can come in by train or I go up to Manchester or Liverpool and we'll tour across the borderlands of northeastern Wales and that will bring us up towards the coast and into the Snowdonia region. So that is I've introduced. It has been the biggest hit because it's been the biggest surprise. And I can tell you, when you cross the border you get that croix. So a gumry welcome to Wales and the grass just goes greener straight away.

Speaker 2: 7:57

So the is it true, then the grass really is greener on the other side.

Speaker 3: 8:01

Yes, I mean, everybody calls you know, ireland, the emerald isle when they get here they're surprised.

Speaker 3: 8:06

We are actually even greener than Ireland and I have a great saying when I'm out on tour, on up the top of the hills, on a, on top of offers died, which is an old, ancient border with the guests and I said, okay, just how green are our valleys here? Ladies and gentlemen, let me introduce you to 60 shades of green. Yeah, yeah, I always have people that, as my says, if you were coming out of my guiding, yeah, go back to popular tours. If it's day tours to stand out. North Wales in a nutshell, because if you're on vacation tour in Britain, ireland, so taken in England, scotland, you might just be linking Wales just with a through day as you go from the south of England through to Scotland, for example, and so coming to Wales, stop overnight and possibly you'll need two nights because the touring day is quite fulfilling and I'll be out with you for eight, nine, possibly even 10 hours. Yeah, whether's good. I'm not a nine to five person. I like to maximize people's experience. They will get to see the best of the destination and that's my job. Yeah, and I take great pride in that and people do talk about that in the reviews. Yeah, north Wales in a nutshell captures a little bit of everything the culture, the history, the scenery, the landscape, the snowdonia, even out onto the Isle of Anglesey.

Speaker 3: 9:19

In the town with the longest name, we have a competition. So any guest who comes and books will be in, takes the little tour and we go to the town on the longest name. There is a competition, let me tell you, since 2009,. There's never been a winner. It's one of the toughest competitions going. There is a trick to it which I only divulge once they get one. Go at this competition, yeah, and usually everybody's stitches laughing because I've tricked them. Basically, the prize is you get dinner on me, oh, but nobody has won so far though there's the big entry.

Speaker 3: 9:51

Come and find out with me.

Speaker 2: 9:53

Yeah, free dinner from John. Yeah.

Speaker 3: 9:55

Yeah, and the other tour that's come very popular in the recent years is a tour where I've taken a slightly different route into Snowdonia. We do what we call a medieval castle in Snowdonia, torridays of the day, splitting two. I'll take you into Cnaven Castle and I guide you around, and that's the great castle where King Charles was invested as Prince of Wales back in 1966. And I was there.

Speaker 2: 10:17

You don't look old enough, John.

Speaker 3: 10:19

Hey, I tell you I'm wearing well. Yes, we go out from the castle into Snowdonia and do you know? We've got vineyards in Wales.

Speaker 2: 10:28

No, I didn't know.

Speaker 3: 10:29

We've got a walk in vineyards now, so we go for lunch on a vineyard Wow, and everybody loves it because there's a real taste of Wales. You're in the biggest Welsh speaking area of the country, so you get to hear people speak in the language they're sitting all around you, even the staff.

Speaker 2: 10:41

Yeah.

Speaker 3: 10:42

And it's quite amazing because they people will interact with you and that's a little essence. That's very different and I think I'm the only regular tour guide that goes into this little vineyard. They've got a great little cafe and they make one of the best versions of our national dish, welsh Reaver, so you get a real taste and flavour of Wales in one location.

Speaker 3: 11:01

Oh, I love that that takes you up nicely after a nice lunch. They also make a beautiful cider. They've got acres of apple and pear orchards and they've got one of the best tasting ciders in the whole Britain, you know, for a true taste of Wales. I really do hit the mark on that. And when we drive out and we can run up the valley, we actually in a little off track glacial valley that not many tourists get down, but it gives us the perfect view to Mount Snowden from the south side of the mountain. We go past Glacial Lakes and up through the farms. In the springtime, when the baby lambs are being born, we have a game of bingo on the move. Right, quite unique, this isn't it.

Speaker 2: 11:37

Yeah, it is. It's great.

Speaker 3: 11:38

I'm loving it, I love our bingo card, because when the lambs are born, the farmers actually number the sheep.

Speaker 2: 11:46

Oh, that's fantastic.

Speaker 3: 11:48

They complete a card. If you win me for five days, that game can go on for five days. Yeah, it's one of the little. I don't know something different that I don't know anybody else. That's so much fun there's so much fun, John.

Speaker 2: 12:00

Yeah, it's interesting.

Speaker 3: 12:02

And of course I have lots of stories to regale, so I can put you off and you can miss number 18, for example. I'll see that you won't, and so what's the prize for that?

Speaker 2: 12:11

though, if you get the sheep bingo, Usually a bottle of wine.

Speaker 3: 12:14

Oh, You've got a dated completed, though I have extended it into five days when I've got a full cast. Yeah, we do share the wine around. Yeah, so there's two great tours and of course I've only mentioned the part of just getting into Snowdonia. We go up and tour via one of the most pretty villages that you'll find anywhere in Wales, a place called Bedgallot, and then out of there we go up the most scenic road in Wales of the mountain passes and if you've got a glorious spring or summer's day, there isn't a better destination to guide people. And of course, in the mountains we get all the history, because we've got our theory legend, We've got the history of the Welsh princes up there, because we've got old Welsh castles. And we've actually got culture with the UNESCO slate landscapes At the back end of the touring day.

Speaker 3: 12:57

A great finale that I have is I take people out to a little secluded area amongst the quarrying communities and we walk out.

Speaker 3: 13:06

So I drive up the mountain and we walk out on a pretty much a flat level and we get the best views of the day, looking over the slate mountains, which we now UNESCO awarded, and we look right up to Mount Snowdon and in the valley below us we've got the Welsh castle and the two lakes that protected the entrance to Snowdonia. People just love it and it's like a hidden gem. What's coming out with me is all about getting into the hidden gems so anybody can go to the main tourist attractions. I love taking people off track up old little back roads for the best views and, believe me, I have got some really secret views. And when you come out with me in the car, there's a piece of paper which, when I pass it to you, it says this is your declaration to sign the official secrets app. Right, Turn your phones off your geo locations because you're not allowed to tell anybody where you've been. It's just a bit of like fun, basically, but people love it, oh yeah, yeah, absolutely.

Speaker 3: 14:01

The way it passes very quickly with me. It's entertaining, it's fun and it's immersive because there's lots of things to see and learn and do and people go away totally captivated and I'm very flattered. On TripAdvisor You'll see people say this tour deserves 10 out of 10. On TripAdvisor they only give you five, right, yes, and there are quotes like I wish TripAdvisor were allowed 10 because this tour deserves it. And I get. Other people will say this is probably the best tour we've ever taken anywhere in our vacations abroad. And that's just one day. If you want to come with five days, every day will be different.

Speaker 2: 14:37

That's what I was going to say, because not only do you do the one day tour, but you actually do one day tours up to five days. Is it up to five? They do.

Speaker 3: 14:43

Yeah, it's what I call multi-day touring. So in the North Wales region. So if we take Wales from the North, running down into Mid Wales roughly to the southern end of the Snowdonia National Park, Snowdonia stretches out for 288 square miles At the southern end. There you'll hear an area called Aberdove, a pretty small resort town, and I usually do a split two centre base when people come touring and they love it because we've got the southern Snowdonia Mountains which are quite traumatic and they're quite hard to get into if you're without transport. There's no rail infrastructure, the buses are not frequent, so that's the beauty of coming out with a driver guide. And, wow, I tell you I've been hardworking creating this new split centre tour because I bring you in from the borderlands on a route across country. But you're into a quintessential Welsh village for a night in a lovely old inn, gorgeous food, great rooms, and then we go out the next day and we tour out to the highest waterfall in Wales through a lovely reservoir area, through the forests and waterfalls, and we drop into an area called Barla and Barlow is our biggest glacial lake in North Wales and Snowdonia. And from there we tore down into the southern part of Snowdonia using the old drover road, so we disappear off the tourist map and people say how did you get to know these places? And that's the thing with being local. You grew up with it.

Speaker 3: 16:06

My mother was Welsh so she taught me well and she used to like to travel and so I know and I remember a lot of these old roads and they are. The scenery is just wild. I pull up at the roadside in safe areas and allow people to get out and have a wander, so they really get in touch with the destination and they just mess them around and all they've got for company because I'll say I'll meet you down the road. About a mile it's downhill. I went from there and they come down and say, gosh, it's so peaceful, All there is the birds, the sheep and the wind, and that's it and the scenery, and they don't want to leave.

Speaker 3: 16:40

They said we're out coming to eat and I said, okay, we've got to keep going to the coast then, because I should have brought you a picnic, I should have brought the wine hamper up here. So that's something I'm looking at. It's new that we've got. This is quite good. We have a new city called Rexham and it's been documented because we have two famous Hollywood actors come and take over a local football team and it's one of the biggest requests to go and see the ground. It's actually one of the oldest football grounds in the world Rexham Football Club. So the two actors, ryan Reynolds and Rob McElhenney, have taken over the ownership and they are legends within the community and there's been documentaries made.

Speaker 3: 17:19

This is Rexham and everybody asked me now to take them in and see the city. There's not a lot in the city, but the club itself is where everybody wants to go and see and it puts us on a great touring route through the borderlands again. So yeah, I mean I could talk forever.

Speaker 2: 17:33

I know because every time we talk John, we sit and talk for about three hours. But I'm like it's fantastic. You just know that you're going to have an amazing day in a wonderful, beautiful country, and I know a lot of podcast listeners are right now, are going OK, love this idea. I really want to go out with John. So I'm going to get boring now, but I'm going to ask. The kind of practical stuff that I know that people will probably be thinking about at the moment is so how many people can you take? Can you take all our luggage in the car? What about accommodation? What happens if somebody's got a little bit of difficulty with mobility? How do you cope with all of that?

Speaker 3: 18:04

Right. Good news is my policy every three years I change a vehicle and I've just taken delivery of a brand new seven seater Ford Tournail custom executive vehicle. I can promise you this it is probably got the biggest amount of leg space that you'll find in any touring van. I'm six foot three so when I tested it I sat in the rear passenger row. So if you come with seven passengers, I like to see how they feel sitting in the back row, because there's two rows of three seats and the back row. My knees don't even touch the middle row seats, so that just gives you an idea. There's more room than you'll get in an economy class aircraft seat and there's not many cars, coaches or touring vehicles that you can get in that has that. So it's a vehicle I specifically saw and have built the next row I call club class and that is about sort of nine to 10 inches away from the front driver and passenger seat and you can stretch out, especially if there's only two of you. The seats fold down so there's little seat that can fold to become a table. That had string holders. I give you complimentary maps so you can see where you're going, space wise. Brilliant Now when you've got seven people going in a van, or six or four. I know from the US. Quite often they'll come and do a vacation tour for three, maybe even four weeks, so they come with big bags.

Speaker 3: 19:26

My first vehicle. It really opened my eyes and I went more to the top end of the market for a luxury vehicle. But the weakness is there where there was no boot room for the big suitcases. So it really opened my eyes. And as I expanded the tours to get into the multi-day touring and offering up to five days, I know people are going to come with the bigger bags. So I've never had with this new vehicle an issue with luggage. With seven people in the car I can get seven large suitcases in the back and also their carry-ons as well. Yeah, it's perfect size.

Speaker 3: 20:02

So yeah, you asked about mobility issues. The downside is there's quite a high step threshold. I've got grab handles so I do, if I'm informed, I do bring a portable step that will help break the step up into the vehicle. But it's not really geared up for like total disability access with ramps or anything or lifts. So that is something I do talk to people and I've got to make them feel comfortable. So even with the step up. I bring a block of wood that I put together that breaks the step up against and there are two really good grab handles to get in and out of the van. And I do carry people with mobility issues. So, for example, they come with mobility scooters and the walkers.

Speaker 3: 20:44

And the great thing is they actually will go in the boot of the car. Usually I find that when these people come along they're traveling in couples, so there's more space because I can push a rear row seats and make more room for the mobility scooter and they can leave it fixed, so we just have to lift it in and out. It doesn't have to be collapsed all the time, so that is a big plus.

Speaker 3: 21:05

So, yeah, I am pretty much geared up to that. It's when people are totally disabled and they can't step up that that's going to be an issue with me.

Speaker 2: 21:12

If people book in, they can go on your website and contact you and ask you all these questions, can't they?

Speaker 3: 21:18

That's the best way is just make me aware of the situation and I will help you as best I can, even if I can't take you personally. No other drivers have saloon cars that might be more suitable, so I'll point in the right direction.

Speaker 2: 21:34

What's the youngest you've had to a with you. Have children come in the cars and families.

Speaker 3: 21:38

Yeah, I carry a lot of families and the youngest was 13 or 14 months. I take anybody as they come and that's me. I'm a people person. So yeah, I quite often get the extended family coming. So that would be mother and father with children and grandparents and a lot of sixes and sevens, and you know they all find the days quite interesting. Sometimes youngsters will wander off, but the adults are all captured by the stories and legends that I have to tell.

Speaker 3: 22:18

Yeah, it's quite a mixed bag of people. I never know who I'm going to get. I believe it or not. I do get a lot of single people choosing to tour. It's not cheap to tour with me, but I do get single people who want a quality tour experience in a safe environment. And the other thing when people are looking to tour with me, it doesn't matter that you don't know anything, because my job is to help you find the best places. So that includes accommodation. So, although I don't package the accommodation of my tour, because that involves marking up prices, what I usually do I have a little concierge list like any hotel concierge and I will say to people right here some of the places that I can suggest you look at they are the better places.

Speaker 3: 22:56

I don't tend to work with anything below three star level, so it's always. I've usually checked out the places and the majority of places I'm using. I'm recommending a four stroke five star standards and it's a feature that saves people a lot of time. And equally, also when it comes to dining out in the evening, I'll be making suggestions where it's good to dine, sometimes in house, or I'll say I'm with you tonight in hotel or we might be in a country house B&B. I'll drive you up to a nice restaurant I know in the country that you would just never ever get to see, and that's the big difference. When you come to Oremie, I go on to the extended service into the evening. So that's really where you get value for money and you get into these great restaurants and we have great food here in Wales.

Speaker 2: 23:38

Yeah, I was going to say you get the full experience with you, because that's what I'm saying. It's like you take for doing a multi-day tour. You're going out with you. You can recommend great accommodation that you know about. You can recommend, because we often get asked about where to go, where to eat, what's the best restaurants.

Speaker 2: 23:53

Much as I'd love to eat my way through the whole of the UK, I don't think that I'd fit in my jeans if I did that. So it's great that you guys know where the places are to eat so you can make those recommendations, and that's the beauty of going out Somebody who's local.

Speaker 3: 24:05

Yeah, and if you're having a tour base, for example, which a lot of people do choose for example, Conway, medieval wall town of Conway or the resort town of Klamdidno nearby people might stay there and use it as a hub for three or four days touring out, because you can go out at different angles.

Speaker 3: 24:21

And again, if you're on that hub, staying in one of those two locations, I will give you a list of not only just the places to stay but the local restaurants, and most of them have got online reservations so you can pre-book it all before you come out. And that's the big tip. A lot of people make the mistake of wait until they get over here and say where are we going to eat tonight and say, oh, it's okay, We'll wander around town. And that's the biggest mistake because you go literally from door to door trying to find a table, especially a weekend, Thursday, Friday, Saturday night All the locals are out dining, all the best restaurants get booked out and these restaurants can book out three months before you even arrive. So by being ahead of the game, that really is a little tip from the inside that I do work with people.

Speaker 2: 25:01

Where can people find you, John, your website and on social media.

Speaker 3: 25:07

Yeah, okay, I've got two websites. I've got boutiquetourswales and just being revamped and launching in this next week is boutiquetourscouk, so they can hit there, see what I'm about, see what the tour options are. There's the inquiry form. There's even a little short video to show you how I operate. By the way, I'm flagged up in a suit and tie that day. I don't dress like that anymore. I'm more casual because I'm walking in at castles and going to your mountain sides and all this sort of stuff. So the suit and tie is long gone. I do have a standard uniform and jacket, so I am logoed up, so people do. I do have this ID. You'll find me on social media Facebook, instagram, x, as it's known. Those are the key ones I work with. I usually post on Instagram on a regular time basis through the summer because I like to show the place that it goes.

Speaker 3: 25:58

If anybody wants to have a look at the wider field of people being out on tour, I mean, there's a lot of postings there from, like people who come for a day off a cruise ship, for example, and I'll say this is what we've done today, compared to the cruise ship tour, which only took them two places. So there's another big. If anybody that's listening to the podcast is taking a cruise around Britain, look very closely at your itinerary. If you come anywhere near Liverpool and Holly Head, I have to tell you you need to get it early. I get bookings 18 months in advance for the cruise days. That's just a little inside tip with the better end of the quality driver guide market, particularly at Holly Head. There aren't many driver guides out there. We get booked out on a joke and I took a booking yesterday for May 2025.

Speaker 2: 26:40

Wow, that's fantastic, john.

Speaker 2: 26:41

We'll be putting the links to your websites and your social media in the show notes.

Speaker 2: 26:45

I'm just going to interject then say that if you listen to this podcast and think, oh, yeah, we're going to get booked with John, can you just mention that you heard about it on the UK Travel Plan and Podcast as well, because then John will know that's where you've come from, which will be really helpful for us, and we know we get thousands of downloads a month. So I know people listen to this, are going to be as is then thrown as I always am when I talk to John about this and think, wow, yeah, want to go to Wales. My person we want to turn North Wales with is got to be John, and I think we'll have to have you come on again to talk about a more detailed, maybe about a couple of the tours and maybe some of the history of North Wales and the castles which are people are interested in as well. But I always end with the same question of the podcast what is your top tip for somebody planning a trip to Wales for the first time?

Speaker 3: 27:26

The biggest tip I can say is don't underestimate the destination. It will intrigue you and most people are putting on for a day or two and you get here and you realize, wow, this is good, and they wish they'd have allowed four or five days. Really, look at the four and five day options, especially them. Have a look at my multi-day touring pages, because that will capture the whole region for you and you will go away very fulfilled in knowing that you've seen the proper Wales. That's the way I deliver the tour. So, as I promised, I'm making up front because I have this great tagline you'll just love where I take you.

Speaker 3: 28:03

I've got to say what I'm promoting. I get asked by a lot of media because I go to things like the World Travel Market. Sometimes the tourist board will put me up in front of the press and say how come we don't know anything of Wales? We are Britain's best kept secret. Come and discover it and, honestly, when people get here, they love the history, they love the scenery, they love the food, they love the accommodation. It's a winner all around and really it's criminal. Honestly, if you bypass Wales, I've got to say that We'll come and get you off those buses and drag you here to show you what you're doing. And the big tour buses do come, but they can't get to the sort of places I go, and that makes it unique. If you do look at the bus, you're going to get a little sample of what Wales is about. But if you want to get under and into it, then a private tour is going to deliver that, because we'll take you to places where the big tour buses can't go.

Speaker 3: 28:54

So a great example is I like walking and I'll take you. If you love walking, come and come out with me. A couple of times I'll walk you around the Glacial Lake, that's. I call it the secret lake because it's sort of a place only the locals go. My mother used to take me as a young boy and I've never forgotten this. My wife curses me for driving up this road because it's a single track road. But when we leave the valley floor we drive up through a little bit of farmland and then we hit a forest of the fairies which my mother coincidentally told me was the forest of the bad fairies. I was an Aussie boy. She told me I was going to be left there.

Speaker 3: 29:28

She's going to take you there, but no, we go to this fantastic glacial lake. It's about a 90-minute walk around the lake. It's just tranquility.

Speaker 1: 29:37

It really is.

Speaker 3: 29:40

I've got secret views like this as well. Obviously, for secret views we need good visibility. When you're in the mountains, you don't always get it. That's just something to be wary of. I'm always moving things around if the weather's not great, you'll see reviews where I've changed things around and I look at the forecast and my touring route and I'll see what's going to be nice in the morning down in the south. I'll aim south and come round to the north in the afternoon.

Speaker 3: 30:06

The other thing that I would say is look at the options of getting here. So flying in. Obviously most people will aim for Heathrow, but we have got an international airport just across the border. In Manchester. You've got direct flights. That's about a 45-minute drive to the Welsh border, by the way. Direct flights come in with American, delta, virgin, united and Singapore Airlines from San Francisco. From Canada you've got Air Transit and Air Canada flying in. Equally, you could go via Dublin or Iceland with Reykjavik and they feed in. And also you've got KLM with a great network from the US into Amsterdam and then domestic flights or European local flights coming into Manchester or Liverpool Airport. Liverpool's even closer to Wales. You're only about 12 miles off the border at that point.

Speaker 3: 30:53

The other thing is there'll be a lot of people listening to this to say, don't fancy taking a private driver-guided tour, but they'll drive themselves, they'll write their own little schedule up. But what I've found is when people get here they get exhausted, they're not finding a lot of places and I get a phone call from the hotel. Got some guests who want a rest day. They've got a hire car. Can you take them out for a day? And if I've got a slot I will take people. But really plan it in advance and take plenty of rest day and book with me and I will show you probably four or five times more than you would see in a single day, because you haven't got to worry where you're driving. You're going to see more.

Speaker 3: 31:30

You haven't got to worry about parking Because I know where to park the cars and, of course, I've got a nice schedule ready for you. Plus, we've got good restaurants lined up and all this sort of stuff. Yeah, why wouldn't you? Yeah, and the other thing is my business is now no longer available through third party booking agencies. So the likes of the online booking engines I've come off them and there is a reason behind it is two or three of them have been booking bogus dates and cancelling, plus they're charging high commissions. Now, when you're a one-man operator that hits you so commercially, I've had to take a big decision Because I am in a position where the demand is there now and I don't entertain them and I just say sorry, I'm not going to promote through that channel so you actually save. They will charge, through some of those booking systems, 25% extra commission.

Speaker 3: 32:16

So you're saving by booking direct.

Speaker 2: 32:17

Book direct and mention UK travel planning. Basically, that's what we're saying, isn't it?

Speaker 3: 32:23

People are responding already. We've got two bookings in already and I don't know what you've done, but it's working.

Speaker 2: 32:29

Oh, brilliant. Oh, that's fantastic. I didn't know. That's a nice little surprise at the end of the podcast. Well, seriously, John, I really want you to come on again on the podcast and talk more about Wales, because you really have got the gift of the gab. Honestly, I seriously could listen to you for hours and you knew this podcast would be quite long, but I'm going to say thank you, I'm going to sign off for this one and I promise everybody listening we will have John Hadwin from Boutique Toes of Wales will be on again to talk about his tours and share his love for Wales. But I think one big thing I want to say from this if you're listening and you're thinking, I want to go out with John, get on the website and get booked, because he is incredibly popular.

Speaker 3: 33:08

Yeah, I've got to tell you already, dates like May, june are already full for this year. So start planning and look at 25, 20, 26. That's the way to work it.

Speaker 2: 33:18

Well, thanks so much, John, for coming on to this week's episode of the podcast.

Speaker 3: 33:22

Yeah, it's my pleasure. I really look forward to meeting everybody that comes along and, yeah, I'm sure you'll have a great time with me, thank you.

Speaker 2: 33:29

So a huge thanks once again to John for coming on the podcast. Honestly, we can talk for hours and he will definitely be coming on to do more podcast episodes with me. Now, if you want any links the things that John's talked about for his website and social media you can pop over to the website UKTravelPlanningcom. Forward slash episode 89. But that just leaves me to say, as I say every week, happy UK travel planning.