Explore North Wales & Beyond: Customised Cruise Shore Excursions with John Hadwin

In episode 128 of the UK Travel Planning Podcast, Tracy again welcomes John Hadwin from Boutique Tours of North Wales.

Known for his exceptional private tours around North Wales, John shares his insights and expertise in catering to cruise passengers looking to explore beyond the ship's offerings.

In this engaging episode, John discusses his background in tourism, including his time with Cunard and how he developed a niche in providing tailored tour experiences for cruise passengers. Learn about the variety of itineraries available at ports like Holyhead and Liverpool, each offering unique insights into Wales's local culture and hidden gems and beyond.

John also addresses common concerns about private tours versus cruise ship tours, explaining the benefits of smaller, personalised experiences and how to plan the perfect day ashore.

For those interested in booking, John shares tips on securing a tour and making the most of your time in port.

⭐️ Guest - John Hadwin of Boutique Tours of North Wales
📝  Show Notes - Episode  128

🎧 Listen to next

• Episode #89 - Unforgettable Adventures: Boutique Tours of Wales with John Hadwin
• Episode #52 - Exploring North Wales with Doug Collins
• Episode #32 – Trip Report: A month road trip around the UK

🇬🇧 Feeling overwhelmed planning your UK itinerary? Book a personalised consultation with Tracy and Doug Collins! Get tailored advice, refine your itinerary, and have your travel questions answered.

We’ll help you make the most of your UK adventure with expert insights and practical tips. Spots are limited—book now!

Chapters

• 0:04 UK Cruise Port Tours With John
• 9:19 Exploring UK Ports With Local Guide
• 19:04 Sharing Cruise Port Tours for Affordability

Transcript

Speaker 1: 0:04

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: 0:44

Hello and welcome to episode 128 of the UK Travel Planet podcast. So this week I have John Hadwin from Boutique Tours of Wales back on the podcast. So now, if you can cast your mind back to episode 89, I spoke to John a while ago, all about his private tours of North Wales. About his private tours of North Wales. So, as I'm aware, quite a few of you like to do cruises around the UK and will possibly be thinking about next year booking that cruise and thinking about having a private tour. Since John is rated as one of the best private tour experiences of the whole cruise around the British Isles by some of his passengers that have been out on his tours before, it seemed absolutely the perfect time to have a chat with you again, john. So welcome onto the podcast.

Speaker 3: 1:33

Good morning, thank you very much for inviting me back and, yeah, great delight. And certainly the last podcast was great. The amount of inquiries that rolled through was superb. That's brilliant. So, yeah, we've just come to the end of this year's cruise season, so already we're getting people booking in for 2025. And get this just uh, three days ago, people booking 2026 already wow.

Speaker 2: 1:58

Well, you know what, if people are listening to this podcast? So if you're listening to this podcast and you're thinking I'm going to get, get that I've got that cruise booked and I want to get those private tours booked, you need to get them booked, because I did have a look, john, on your website at some of the dates that the cruise ships come into Holyhead and Liverpool and I can see that you've already got a couple of dates that are already fully booked. So, without any further ado, let's tell everybody about what it is that you offer and why you are so brilliant at what you do. So tell us, like, why did you end up getting involved in developing kind of specialist arrangements for cruise passengers? Because it's kind of a bit of a niche thing, I guess, is it?

Speaker 3: 2:37

yeah, very niche market. Uh, bizarrely, I've been involved in tourism for 40 years and 10 of those years were actually involved in working with a cruise line, cunard, where I was involved in UK sales and creating actually some of the itineraries. So I can always remember sitting down in one of the board meetings very early on, quite sort of underwhelmed really by the situation, and had all these high-ranking ceos and people from all over the world coming in and they're going right. John, what ideas have you got? We had a little gap in our program for the, the great old ship, the, the kiwi 2, in the transatlantic crossing and they wanted something different than other than going down to the mediterranean. And I straight away said I've got the solution for you guys. Uh, look at southampton and uh, look at what, where we are in the uk, what a brilliant destination, nobody is doing it. And they said, well, where would we take the ship? I said, well, ship was built in scotland, at greenock. There's a port. You could go to our old home in Liverpool and across the water you've got Dublin and, a little bit further up, belfast all iconic destinations with transatlantic voyages. Then we built in Coba, which is Cork, and then we went around the top of Scotland to Inver Gordon, around to Edinburgh and I think we also put in Newcastle and then back to Southampton and do you know what? Before we got the brochure out, the ship was sold out. Wow, that's incredible. That was my influence and every board meeting I went to I was always asked what other new ideas have you got for us this year? So, yeah, I come with a wealth of experience. I understand port logistics, with ships coming and going. I've been involved in lots of functions with ships, with ships coming and going. I've been involved in lots of functions with ships involved in setting up tours when I worked at Cunard land-based tours for looking after travel agents when they came ashore when they were touring with us. So the other big influence was actually when I set up my private tour business back in 2009.

Speaker 3: 4:39

I got approached by the local council on the island of Anglesey where Holyhead the port is. The local council on the island of Anglesey where Hollyhead the port is, and there was an old industrial pier that had become redundant in the harbour. The aluminium company closed down and they come up with an initiative to try and attract cruise ships in now. We were currently back in 2009 only getting about five or six cruise ships visiting this. Next year we're looking at 90. Wow, that's incredible.

Speaker 3: 5:07

Anyway, that project with the council, they brought me in with my experience and essentially I got speaking with the executives from the cruise lines, told them it's a great place to bring the ship and the main reason is a very lovely port to sail in and out of. Church Bay is gorgeous, but when you get there there's nothing actually in the town to step ashore for. So the cruise lines love it for selling tours. It's a big incremental stream for the cruise line themselves and I'm thinking I'm talking to all these guys there is a market for me here as well, because not everybody does the ship's tours and yeah, well, it just rolled on from there. So there was bornique Tours on the back of that project and slowly over the years well, 10 years down the road now I've been nominated for one of the best tours of the whole UK cruise and that's not just from one single cruise line, that's coming up from quite a lot of the international cruise line passengers.

Speaker 3: 6:02

And if you don't trust me, I always say have a look at trip advisor or even check me out. There's a few comments on cruise critic, which is part of the trip advisor group, and you'll see people say um, out of our 10 or 16 day cruise around the isles, it was the best tour we did go oh, that's brilliant.

Speaker 2: 6:21

Well, that's, that's a real accolade, isn't it for you? That's obviously things have developed really well in that kind of, in that market, so obviously you're well placed to kind of offer the tours. So which ports do you operate out of, john?

Speaker 3: 6:35

uh, well, two, and I live right between the two actually. So I'm based in wales, uh, just over the welsh border, so I'm equidistant from both hollyhead and Liverpool and, quite bizarrely, a lot of cruise itineraries. So, if I use one cruise line example, probably the biggest and most frequent visitor is Viking Cruise Line, ocean Cruises. They will do Liverpool one day, followed by Holyhead the next day, or vice versa, and so I don't just see people once, I get them a couple of days running. And you know, we offer different destination experiences at both ports, so it's not essentially a repeat of the tour you've just done in one port. The destination experiences are complete, contrasting. So that's the way I work. I like to offer something different and, um, when you come much more with me, you're going to see the best of it well, it's brilliant's brilliant.

Speaker 2: 7:24

I mean you're going to get the Holyhead in Wales and then you've got, obviously, liverpool. You've got the city of Liverpool, which has got so much to offer. So talk us through some of your itineraries that you offer for it when people are having that day ashore from the cruise.

Speaker 3: 7:37

Yeah. So if I take Holyhead first, it's a relatively unknown port. Most cruise passengers arrive there and really have no perception of what Wales is about. So stepping out with me, for example, will give you a far superior experience and not just blow me out of trouble. Here I look at what the cruise lines offer and they'll give you like one attraction, like a castle, they'll offer you lunch somewhere and if you're lucky, they might give you a little scenic route to bring you back to the ship. And they call that a day's tour, for which they'll charge you £150, £180.

Speaker 3: 8:12

So what I've done? I've taken a great tour line that I picked up in Scandinavia when I worked up there as a tour guide, and it was called Norway in a nutshell. So I have North Wales in a nutshell, so Norway in a nutshell. So I have North Wales in a nutshell. So I go on a circuit loop through the National Park and we pick up a couple of medieval castles and quite a few hidden gems, but you get to see the scenic landscape which we're famous for.

Speaker 3: 8:36

Then a southerly route takes you out through another castle at Carnarvon, famous for Prince Charles's investiture back in 1969. Incidentally, I guide you across all sites, so when you come on a tour with me, I don't just drive it, I guide it and I narrate to you all the way through. People call me a walking encyclopedia, which is actually what the guys did yesterday. I don't take it as a compliment, not an insult, but yeah, we've got a fantastic touring route through Snowdonia to the south. There where we've got a fantastic touring route through Snowdonia to the south, there where we pick up a vineyard so they get a taste of Wales with Welsh rarebit, welsh wine, which people don't know we have wine in Wales.

Speaker 2: 9:11

No, I didn't even know that.

Speaker 3: 9:13

Yeah, well, you've got to come and visit us. I know we are Britain's best-kept secret. And then the third tour is a nice, simple, easy tour which we do get a lot of take up on. People don't want to go too far, so we stay on the island of anglesey which, bizarrely, is the fifth largest island off the uk coast. Uh, so from the port, uh, around the island, it's about 125 miles to circumnavigate the island. So we, we pick out the best highlights and we introduce them to one or two of our, uh, great and unusual stories. So what I tell, which always people are amazed about, I, I always talk about St Patrick's Day. You celebrate it. Of course most Americans will say, yes, we do. And I always chip in. And you know he's Welsh, so the intrigue's there straight away.

Speaker 2: 9:56

I was going to say that's a story there.

Speaker 3: 9:57

Yeah Well, he got shipwrecked, actually off the coast of Wales, whilst he was trying to cross the island. We have a church dedicated to him, wales, whilst he was trying to cross the island. We have a church dedicated to him. So it's one of our hidden gems that we take people to on the island, plus medieval castles and ancient burial chambers which are as old as the Egyptian pyramids. So these are unknown hidden gems that people come and have no idea what they're about to discover. So, basically, every day is varied and exciting and, of course, I have great ability of custom designing if people want to do certain things. So that is just one port. That's just day one at Holyhead. Day two at Liverpool, can.

Speaker 2: 10:34

I just interrupt there, john. I'm just going to mention if you're listening to this podcast and you can hear birds in the background, that's because John has got his pet birds in the room and they're definitely enjoying joining in on this podcast, john they're just verifying that I do this job.

Speaker 3: 10:54

Yeah, my little canaries have got eight of them and uh, it's uh mating season right now, so if they come into song, you'll know why yeah every day with me is lively like this.

Speaker 3: 11:07

Now let me move you on to liverpool, because, um, that is a great destination. Most people come know the city, famous, of course, for the beatles, for its soccer, and it is a fantastic port. You can go out and walk on foot along the riverside. But what a lot of people do is like to get as much culture as they can. So we do a cross-city tour that takes in the soccer, the beetles and all the historic buildings if you want to get out and about from the city. Well, just across the river, 15 miles away, is the border of wales. So we do a very different tour into the northeastern corner, and it's actually an area of outstanding natural beauty.

Speaker 3: 11:46

So we have a unesco world heritage site, the frontisolic aqueduct yeah and we've got the famous wrexham football club, which ryan reynolds, rob mclehenney have come in and taken over and produced this great welcome to wrexham video, and I would say nine out of ten people want to go there. So, uh, I am a soccer man. I nearly made a career out of it before I got into this industry. So you're with the right person.

Speaker 2: 12:13

You're the perfect person to do that trip to Rex isn't it?

Speaker 3: 12:16

We do stadium tours.

Speaker 3: 12:18

We do the Everton Liverpool. We can even zip you across to Manchester, to Old Trafford and the Etihad, and there's a National Football Museum. Then there is another tour. I do Tale of Two Cities, liverpool combined with Chester. They're about 30 miles apart and if you want to just focus getting out of the city, go to historic Chester, spend the morning there.

Speaker 3: 12:39

Then one of my great hidden gems and I love doing this for the Americans and people from all over the world I take you out into the real countryside of Cheshire, up onto a hill where there's this glorious inn for lunch. It's a five-star inn and I can't get people out of it once I get in there. They just sit and love having lunch and having a few drinks, relaxing. But literally across the valley we've got a medieval castle, so we use that in the afternoon as an afternoon stop. And if we've got a medieval castle, so we use that in the afternoon as a afternoon stop. And if we've got time we've got a bit of ancient industrial architecture with one of the old canal boat lifts called the anderton boat lifts. So that is a brilliant day and you get away from the crowds because you're off the touring track, so there's a lot to choose from and if you're coming out with me, you'll get very fulfilled days and great lunches.

Speaker 2: 13:26

It sounds great, and I like the idea of being able to go out one day in Holyhead and then the next day go out in Liverpool. So you get two days with you, but two different experiences.

Speaker 3: 13:35

Yeah, yeah, and I'm there to greet you with a smile every morning.

Speaker 2: 13:39

I can imagine. So now I do hear that cruise lines try to talk cruise passengers out of taking a private, independent tour. So why would that be, john?

Speaker 3: 13:48

Oh right, okay, First up, it's an important incremental stream for the cruise line that the spa, the bar bill, those are the big streams on board. So they'll always put an element of doubt into you. You know, with us, the cruise cruise line, the ship will always wait for you. Now turn that around. If you get a very reputable uh tour company, private tour company, whose experience, they know how the ships work, they'll be there to meet you and they make sure they get you back on time.

Speaker 3: 14:18

And uh, I mean, for example, if I go out and I'm traveling some distance, I always have my sat nav on on screen on the dashboard so people can see where they are and the distance to the ship at the time and it takes away all the concerns.

Speaker 3: 14:32

Plus, we are on the side of a little bit of safety. We get back a little bit earlier. When we get back early we're into the town or the area so we can show you just a little bit more and that's, that's a comfort factor built in. So it's more reassurance than anything but the the cruise lines, if you go to their port talks, they'll always flag it up because they want you to take their tours. So if you like touring with the crowds, where they put in 50 people on a coach. Then it's a different league. But to be honest, private cruise touring is something the cruise lines are turning to themselves, and I'll give you an example. I actually did a bit of research on it. Uh, earlier this year I was astounded they were charging double my rate and I was thinking okay, yes, I can understand your pitch, but twice the rate and that people do buy it.

Speaker 3: 15:20

So there is a comfort factor with booking with the cruise line. The luxury cruise lines have a concierge and bizarrely I get the calls from the cruise line concierge like the day or two days before the ship arrives, of which time I'm already booked out. So there's a great sort of turnaround in the question there that why do they book me when they tell you not to book with me?

Speaker 2: 15:41

yeah, that's, that's a really good question absolutely I mean, if you think about the tour itinerary that could be operated by the ship, how does that differ from you know how you do your private?

Speaker 3: 15:53

tours. Well, first of all, they will package it with lunch. They'll give you a set itinerary. You go out at a set time, like 7 o'clock in the morning, and that is it. Also the port agent who books all this on behalf of the cruise lines. They sometimes will buy in just a driver, not a guide, and so you don't get the full destination experience on that that side.

Speaker 3: 16:17

So, having worked on the inside, I have that knowledge and experience to know that that goes on. And, bizarrely, when, when I'm with people who cruise around britain, they've booked the odd ship tour because there's been no other driver guides available and they say, oh, they just got us a drive and it wasn't really a tour, so it does impact on your destination experience. And so, yeah, understand, the cruise lines will protect their, their market there. You know you are their guests. They're going to try and earn as much out of you as they can and that's the way they work as a business model. So you've got to just look outside and if you're confident enough to come with an experienced tour guide, they will deliver.

Speaker 3: 16:54

And it doesn't have to be me. There are lots of us doing this. You know. The good ones do stand out and you can read all about it on the likes of TripAdvisor, cruise Critic, google. Those are the three authorities I would say to check. If you're going to do it and haven't quite got confidence, just read what other people have written about the drive and the guide and if that's reassurance for you, get in and book it, because if you don't, someone else will.

Speaker 2: 17:19

And, of course, another point I'll make as well is that we work with you, so we endorse you as our preferred partner taking those North Wales tours and taking the cruise ship tour. So you know, and I know, we get a lot of feedback from people that they appreciate the fact that we, we kind of do the work, we, we, we meet you, we chat with you, we check all your, you know, all your wonderful reviews before we invite you to work with us. So again, that's another kind of reassuring tick for those of you who listen to the podcast that we recommend John. So John is the guy that you want to go out with if you want to have one of these chairs from a cruise port. Now I left an in-the-room question because I think this is going to come up how do your prices compare to what you could get on a cruise ship?

Speaker 3: 18:05

uh, they vary. It'll always be a little bit more uh than a shared coach tour. So average price on a coach tour you can look at a ballpark figure, about 150 pound for a day a person. Uh, private touring will kick in from about 650 750 pound with me and if, if you book a private tour, the cruise line, you can pay well over a thousand. And, as I mentioned, uh, I did pick up several cruise lines charging 14 to 1500 pounds. That was people like holland, america, for example, a royal caribbean, and you know they're booking you just drivers and not necessarily driver guides. So a lot of the tour guides are actually booked out by the port agent to do the coach tours. So getting a good driver guide up or is, uh, sometimes a little bit of a not quite a fist fight, but you've got to get in early to get the the good guides, otherwise you end up with just a driver like the cruise line will hire. So private tour is not cheap and it's not for everyone.

Speaker 3: 19:04

There is a way to um combat and this is quite an interesting scenario because this year we've had a lot of people book in from viking cruise line and they booked in, secured our service in the day and then they've gone and promoted it to fellow cruise passengers to share with them. So they're sharing the cost. They are using what they call roll call on cruise critic. So they're saying, hey, I'm on this cruise around british isles, these are the ports we're visiting. Do you want to join us on tour? We've got these dates secure and so what they're doing is they're sharing the tour experience and sharing the cost, and that is a great way of doing it and it's quite new and it's gone down great this year and is it something that you, you are happy to do?

Speaker 3: 19:43

uh, what we usually get is the first person come, comes in and underwrites it. So we we basically take 250 pound deposit and guarantee the tour will go. And as long as you promote it and we see the evidence it's promoted, we know that if we get other inquiries we can put people into it as well. From our end, and you know, all we're looking for is two other couples to share that tour with you. So there's pretty good chance with a cruise ship with a thousand, minimum a thousand people. When you get big ships in, you're talking off three and a half thousand people.

Speaker 2: 20:12

It does work. To me it sounds like a bit of a no-brainer. If it's, you know, 750 quid's going to be a little bit too pricey for you as a couple, then why not? I'm sure on a cruise ship you're going to meet other couples that are going to be thinking the same thing. You're going to go out you, I mean. Cruising is one thing around the brit Isles is fine, but get off the ship. Don't just stay on the ship. What's the point? You need to get off the ship and go and do a tour, and so why not? If you can find two other couples to do it, then share the day, and at least it makes it more affordable, if that's something that you're considering. But of course, if you can afford to do it and just take the day trip with John, then go for that as well. You've got an option which I think is great.

Speaker 3: 20:50

Yeah, and that's that's what people like is. The affordability of private touring is outside a lot of people's budget, but this switch to sharing the experience has, since Covid, become a bigger thing each season, and I mean this year we've done more of it than ever before and it's been great because people don't want to get stuck with all the loading and unloading the coaches. You know, with 50 people at every stop doing your own tour, that will impact on at least one or two extra stops in the touring day for you if you come out on a private tour. So there's your win-win-win situation.

Speaker 2: 21:21

Well, absolutely. I know I've been on large tours and when you've got 50 people on a coach, getting everybody back and leaving on time can be an issue, so that you know just needs five or ten minutes at every destination that you stop off and you know it becomes a little bit more stressful where you don't get them out of time, that you want to spend in a particular destination because you've got to get back or you're woofing down your lunch because you've got it. You know you've got to wait for it to be served and then you've got to get back on the coach. So it's definitely more relaxing for sure doing it with you, of you know going and doing it. So but like, how do you plan that day ashore for guests? So if people are thinking, okay, right, I want to book with john and I've got some ideas potentially, or I don't have any idea what I'd like to do, like, how do you plan that day out?

Speaker 3: 23:14

right? Well, uh, the great thing already is, I'm helping you because on my website, when you visit via yourself and come on to me, you will see a cruise calendar of the ship hitting Holyhead and Liverpool and with it I've got the scheduled slots that the ship's in port for. So I already know your timeframe and when it comes to private touring, I work with you. So if you want to lie in bed and your ship's in it like it was yesterday 6.30, I said to people, what time do you want to lie in bed and your ship's in it, like it was yesterday 6.30,. I said to people, what time do you want to join me? And they said, oh, 8.30 would be a great start, and so we set it up for 8.30. And that ship left a little bit early yesterday, at 3 o'clock. So we usually aim for a window of about 90 minutes before to get you back in time. So there's no rush and no hassle, and that's the basic element of planning the day. Now the rest is like right, where do you want to go? And this is what you can see in a day.

Speaker 3: 24:06

So I do put out an idea. All the people come with fixed ideas and this is a great quote for you. I get the tom cruise mission impossible gang like it, like cruise ship, tom cruise mission impossible. Now they have a list of like endless lists. I want to see this. This, this isn't this.

Speaker 3: 24:27

It doesn't phase me, but what I do is I'm not rude, I actually contact the people, say, um, can we meet? I'd like to do a facetime call with you or a whatsapp meeting or a google meet. Just want to go through the time frames and I'll make you aware of, like, the travel distance between points. Uh, you're going to visit an attraction, so you need x amount of time there. You want to stop for lunch or you're happy to go straight on? Uh, do you want to stop for refreshments? And, of course, natural restroom breaks, come into and all that sort of stuff.

Speaker 3: 24:56

So that's all part of the planning process and I have like the network of routes that we drive, so I know what we can fit and create around the ship's timing port and it's like a jigsaw puzzle. You make it fit to the day and literally, with every cruise ship that comes in and out, we're telemaking the day for the individual on a private basis. So, uh, you know I always invite people. If you're interested, come with us and we'll design a perfect day for you. You don't have to do any work, just sit back, relax and you can join the gang of our followers that love what we do and love what we deliver, and you'll go away with one of the greatest experiences of the whole cruise, and that's consistently what I strive to deliver.

Speaker 2: 25:37

Oh no, it sounds fantastic. So I'm going to ask this question, but because I know people will be thinking about it. But obviously we don't want this to happen to happen, but I guess sometimes it might. But what happens if the cruise ship cancels or or doesn't make it into the that port for the day? You know what do you do?

Speaker 3: 25:56

right it, it does happen. Weather is a phenomenal and you know, I would say since 2009, I've only had one ship not turn into port, which was Princess, and it was a very windy day and the dock was really a little bit too small for the ship. So they cancelled and I was actually sitting at the port waiting. I could see the ship out in the bay and the next minute I'm being text by email by the guests and I'm saying really sorry to hear the news the captain's just announced but, um, don't worry, it's not your fault and we immediately refunded what they paid and so you can't beat that. There are companies who will take 50 off you. There are companies who will charge you 100 because because they're there and waiting. But I'm pretty fair. I've worked in the industry so I know it can happen and you know it's aired on the side of safety by the captain. So people do get upset because it's one port they want to see and they go. I only booked this cruise to go there.

Speaker 2: 26:55

Another holiday then, so they can go out on a tour.

Speaker 3: 26:58

So the conversation the cruise line will give give you, not that they do that these days. You would come back on a cruise and get to see us, but yeah, essentially, with the ships now docking alongside in hollyhead, it's removed that chance. And so in what the last 11, 12 years we've had like one ship not not come in in liverpool. You're sailing in on the river, on the tide, so there's no issue. It's a major international port yeah, so yeah my birds are on it again.

Speaker 2: 27:25

I know I can hear they're very noisy. They're very lovely, it's very nice the passion, like me, so. So if you're listening to this podcast and thinking, well, I'm, we're going to cruise, we know that we're going to be stopping off at Holyhead and Liverpool, so I bet you're thinking so how do I book? So, john, how do people contact you and make a booking?

Speaker 3: 27:47

Well, hopefully they come through you on this podcast. Next stage is just email me. I'm pretty responsive. You'll get an automated response acknowledging your email's arrived. So when I get into the office at the end of a workday I usually like to respond and say you know, yes, I'm available, or no, unfortunately I'm not, and it's as quick as that. And then I start talking with you and helping you plan the perfect day. So I get people phoning me.

Speaker 3: 28:12

Sometimes it's difficult because I do take evening meetings online, so my phone is off, but you'll get the answer phone phone. So if you leave me a message, I'll always come back to you on that. And, um, yeah, you can always facetime or whatsapp me, get me live, and there's no better time to connect like that. And I'm not joking this. When you are thinking about it, don't just think, just do it, because there are, if you're on the big ships with 30 000 people, there's going to be at least 30 to 40 others doing the same thing at the same time and looking to secure someone. So if the date is available, you need to snap it and be decisive. That's the big tip.

Speaker 2: 28:51

Yeah, I was going to say that was my kind of last question, which I always end the podcast with which is kind of what would be the one tip that you would give? And I guess that's what would be the one tip with somebody who's considering taking a short tour with you next year.

Speaker 3: 29:05

Lingering is a problem and I do get people who have contacted me, two months ago, for example, and they've checked my rates and they will leave it now until about January before they decide and it's a real chance at 50 50 that date's been snapped up by someone else and it's bizarre. Come next month december, january, february that's the key booking period for tours with most cruise passengers. If you leave it later than that then you struggle and with big ships last this last year I was turning people away. I on certain dates I was getting over 100 inquiries from a single ship.

Speaker 3: 29:42

Wow, okay and we couldn't accommodate any one of those single. I do have a network where I recommend other suggestions, but even those guys are booked up that, by the way, they're just drivers. So I try and do do help out people. I do have a couple suggestions to help if you get stuck. So, um, like to Liverpool, you're okay, you're going to get a lot more choice. But Holyhead, the weakness at Holyhead is I'm pretty much the only full-time driver guide that appears for every ship visit. There are others that come in from outside the area, so if you want the best, you've got to get in early and get it.

Speaker 2: 30:15

Get it booked Absolutely Well, John. Thanks so much for coming on to this episode. I will put a link to your website in this week's show notes, which will be at uktravelplanningcom. Forward slash episode 128. Please do mention to John that you heard about him on the podcast, please. I know that you'll ask them anyway, John, but that's always good for us to know that that's where you've heard all about John and his fantastic tour company and his shore excursion. So thanks so much, John, for coming on again on the podcast, and I know next time you're going to come on another episode and we're going to talk a little bit more about Wrexham, aren't we?

Speaker 3: 30:50

Oh yes, can't wait for that one. Thank you for having me back again. It's been a delight and hey guys, I just look forward to looking after you when you get over here. But, uh, if you're cruising, get on it now and, uh, get your dates booked. That's my best advice perfect.

Speaker 2: 31:06

Thank you so much, john, my pleasure. Thank you for tuning in to this week's episode of the uk travel planning podcast. As always, show notes can be found at uktravelplanningcom. If you've enjoyed the show, why not leave us feedback via text or a review on your favorite podcast app? We love to hear from you and you never know, you may receive a shout out in a future episode. But, as always, that just leaves me to say until next week. Happy uk travel planning.