Castle Howard Reviews 36

Fun seeing the house and grounds. We booked for Hatter’s afternoon tea - it was really expensive and the food was not good enough or enough of it for £54 per head. Cakes, apart from the scone, were substandard and odd unbalanced flavours and textures and they lacked finesse. I couldn’t eat them. No sandwich top ups (for the price you would expect more than three finger sandwiches a piece). Won’t be boooking it next year. Hatter’s performance was excellent and lots of fun.! Room was ridiculously hot and a window should have been opened!!! This COULD have been an amazing experience - but it wasn’t. Fill up your guests - we had to get a sandwich afterwards on the way home - really not ok for the price tag.

I came this weekend and used the cafe attached to the house . I ordered jacket potato and coconut curry ! The curry had courgettes and either sweet potatoe or pumpkin but it wasn’t cooked all the way through and crunchy. Staff were happy to exchange for alternative which was lovely . But as a celiac not much choice and quite expensive .
It be perhaps nice to see the actual family give a tour and include this in the member price . Also include things like the special events Christmas etc in the price of the membership .
The grounds and house are lovely and I do keep coming back to photograph in different light.

We had a wonderful visit to Castel Howard. As a less able person I have to use a mobility scooter to get around. I was not expecting much of the day due to possible access issues but still wanted to give it a go.
Right from the start at admissions we were made to feel very welcome. How to access the house was explained to us and how we could use the wheelchair lift and one of their wheelchairs. The map showed the accessible routes round the gardens and grounds.
We went to the gift shop as directed and we were greeted by a lovely lady who took us through a locked door to bottom of the staircase. The lady, sorry whose name I have forgoten, (she was wearing a cream suit), was so helpful, caring and informative. All the staff I came into contact with were excellent, checking to make sure I was ok and were I needed to go next with the chair for the best access. I was able to see most of the interior of the house. Nearly all of the gardens and grounds. I cannot comment on the cafe because I took my own food. My husband was satisfied with his food. We visited the farm shop too. Excellent produce bought a couple of items. If I have one negative it was the cobbled access to the grounds bit bumpy on the scooter but only to be expected in a stately home. Did not detract from the visit at all. Thank you all for a great day out.

Absolutely fantastic visit! Thankyou so much to all the lovely and very knowledgeable, approachable staff you have there! Our grandma moved to Castle Howard during the war, from Queen Margaret’s school and it was just amazing to see where she spent some of her life! Before then I hadn’t heard about the fire and it’s really astonishing to hear what happened and how they are restoring the house! I’ve definitely been convinced to visit at Christmas and I really can’t wait to come back! It’s been a fairly poor weather day, but it definitely didn’t dampen our visit. Also great to be able to see all the Tony Cragg sculptures too, a lovely exhibition of his work framed by a beautiful landscape. Thankyou for such a great visit. I would highly recommend!

The grounds and gardens are very well-maintained and nice for a day out with dogs and kids, but the house was disappointing especially the staff. The staff were very annoying, unfriendly, and arrogant. From the house entrance to the end, I got approached over 5 times over very trivial things even asked if I had a ticket in the last room. I enjoyed Harewood House a lot more where the staff were friendly and kind. Gardens, maybe, House surely not.

We were looking forward to our visit to Castle Howard but found it waaaaaay too expensive for what it was. We paid £61.60 for two people to walk around a few very ornate rooms. There was very ltitle to show the history of the house (from it's origins), it just focussed on the evolution of the decor. Two marshalls gave us a bit of info (again about the decoration) but the whole experience just felt vulgar, not informative. I think there could at least be a small guidebook for the £30+ entrance fee. The only saving grace was the Tony Cragg sculpture exhibition which we enjoyed very much and also the grounds were beautiful. We won't return however, it's just not worth the money.

We are Silver Members and have been for several years (our son was even featured in the TV show about Castle Howard), but we won't be renewing. They used to throw a garden party as a 'thank you' to members for supporting them, but now we have to pay for the privilege of attending! We also used to be able to book free memeber tickets for the christmas events for any day/time that there was availability, but now they're restricting how many member tickets are available (especially for the more expensive days) even though there's plenty of availability if you want a paid ticket. Plus, when you do book paid for tickets you soon discover that the advertised prices don't actually exist. There's a booking fee on every single ticket (including the car parking and afternoon tea, even though those are extras!) and a brief mention in the T&Cs that if you want to pay on the day there's an even bigger 10% uplift! It feels as though they're trying to extract every penny out of members and visitors alike, which leaves a bad impression. I wouldn't mind so much if the experience was brilliant, the customer service is fairly non existent and last year's Christmas event was poor. Its a shame that they have put us off supporting them at all now.

I only tried to book tickets and the experience was dreadful. Can only pay by PayPal and very confusing. Just gave up

We have membership, so have used this to visit at Christmas, for the neverland display.
The house looked wonderful with lots of beautiful decorations.
The shop was well stocked with some reasonable priced items alongside very expensive items.
Unfortunately the service in the cafe area was poor and badly organised.
Hot food was served to you first, when you then had a further wait to order hot drinks. Meaning by the time you were sitting down the food had cooled down considerably.
A particular staff member was rather rude and decided to communicate with me through a glass door, rather than face to face.
Overall the house looked beautiful but wouldn't recommend purely on how poor service was, as that was actually where we spent the majority of our money.

Poor. Like a posh Alton Towers but without the fun, a fifth of the time and more expensive. Basically just walking around rooms with fancy lights and decorations costing £140 for the privilege. Car parking - just add it to the whole cost if it’s a non negotiable. Don’t pretend it’s because of the Marshalls and costs. We saw none.

Food over priced and the gift shop(s) took longer than the actual displays.

Save your money folks and spend elsewhere.

SAVE YOUR HARD EARNED MONEY- This experience was meant to kick off Christmas for us as a family.
Having spent over £250 for my family to go and visit we were all disappointed- if you want to walk around a house looking at Christmas decorations and a few sparkly lights then this is the place for you but there was no magic or experience AT ALL- our 9 yr old liked the story with Santa but again, a garden centre Santa would of been cheaper and more magical-!
The cafe was busy and expensive but we knew it would be (we expected that) and the food was loverly - 3 sandwiches, 3 mince pies, 1 bun 3 cups of tea and a hot chocolate = £47… expensive but nice but if you work hard then do not waste your money or your time!! Go local, spend local, you will enjoy it more!!

We went to Castle Howard last Christmas and it was amazing. This year not so much.
It’s nowhere near as good. The exhibitions in the rooms are poor and some of the decorations looked cheap. We were thoroughly disappointed. It’s not worth the money at all. Plus when we got there we were told we had to pay an additional parking fee of £7 which we thought was included in the price. Your a captive audience once you get there, where else are you supposed to park. It’s put us off from going next year which is a shame as we would have liked it to become one of our Christmas traditions.
One bonus was the Christmas Dinner it was delicious.

Christmas in Neverland.
+ lovely decorations, lighting, projections and theme.
- limited soundscape, one manikin (sleeping mermaid..best room), short duration, very expensive, £7 car parking fee on top of expensive entry.
Overall I enjoy going but my tickets are a relatives gift. I would no way buy them myself.
Virtually no character models.??? I think the link to the actual novel is pretty weak overall. Car park charge is terrible for a pot holed dirt track. The food hall is a bun fight. Everything is overpriced but there were masses of people spending lots.
So for me overall no better than average with some good bits.

Very poor customer service. I inadvertently booked too many Christmas tickets and have been trying ever since to rectify this. 3 emails, 1 request form, 3 phone calls, offhand and borderline rude staff who just pass me onto another line which is never answered.
We visit the house every Christmas with family and are excellent garden centre customers. This is so disappointing. Does the business have the capacity and ability to run these events?

Due to a visit to Castle Howard in my late teens (provided by my uncle & aunt) that left a life long impression with me many years ago I recently had the chance to return taking some family members along who had never been.
Thinking it would impress me once again, (and those with me) our expectations were immediately dampened by the admission prices to the house & gardens.
OK,we know things have moved on since my first visit in the mid sixties, but nearly £30. Per person is excessive, And with no concession offered to pensioners!
Anyway we decided to continue, declining the extra expense of a guide book for a further £13.
However it soon became evident that this was a mistake as information on exhibits & artwork was either poor or non-existent.
The guides along the way through the house were helpful & knowledgeable but generally fully occupied probably for the same reason?
It soon became apparent that many items I had seen previously, (including tapestries) were missing and there wasn't the attention to detail I'd experienced before.
I clearly remember that there were flowers everywhere, presumably from the gardens,but there were none, even the gardens themselves did not have that cared for and manicured look from before.
All in all it was a great feeling to be back, but the day was marred considerably by the unexpected high entry fees and "missing"items etc..

Castle Howard: A day to forget
I have been to Castle Howard on a number of occasions but not in the last five years. The memories I previously held were to be shattered by 40 minutes of utter drabness, disinterest by staff and a total lack of care and safety to me , as a visitors on that day to the extent whereby it will a long time before I consider going again.
On the 29th March 2023 at precisely 13.15 we pulled up in the car park of this establishment on what can only be described as a miserable wet squally day. Still there is nothing like an establishment like Castle Howard to lift the spirits and inspire. When I say we I refer to my wife, myself and an excitable dog. Even though I am registered partially sighted and use a white cane, which was evident from the outset, cane I can see enough to make this a worthwhile visit.
I asked the person in the reception – using my best smile – ‘what was the best way to purchase tickets for the day?, expecting the answer well it is x amount for the day, you can buy a season ticket for the year - or some other option only to be told in a negative sullen way that ‘there was nothing open, the house and gardens were closed but we could access the grounds for £9.90 per per person’ sounds reasonable enough in the circumstances but again the reality proved to be so far from the truth.
Having purchased two tickets we set off along the gravel path. I was shocked to find the amount of potholes in the path which were huge and could have caused significant injury to anyone who had strayed into them, did I mention I was visually impaired. The site and works traffic seemed to be using the roads as if it were Brahms Hatch and seemed in a hurry to get somewhere indeed anywhere quite fast ignoring me and my white stick my wife and a dog and often forcing me to step onto the muddy grass. No concession was made to slow down. This happened on several occasions. All the dog watering bowls were turned upside down meaning no water was available.
When we got close to bits of the houses my wife pointed out that signs written on wood warning people to stay off the steps. As a visually impaired person – who has been known to go rogue - and wander of independently- the signs were of little use to me have you considered roped off areas as an alternative?
Following 40 minutes of discovering that this was not a safe environment for us on that day we decided to leave. We took a cursory visit to the gift shop and overheard staff discussing their length of service one stating that she was one of the longest serving, her colleague relatively new was informed that there had been a complete turn-over of staff and most people seemed new. The conversation did not paint a happy picture.
We decided to leave without buying a moment or to indulge in a coffee or cake I mean why would you based on that experience?
A very disappointing experience made worse by a very positive visit to Benningbrough Hall the next day where the customer experience seemed to be a priority
Tom Casling