Travel with Matthew Coach Holidays  Reviews 190

Went on trip to see Tom Jones at Haydock. It took 7.5 hours from Abertillery. Didn't have the stop in Chester that we wanted although at least one of the 3 coaches did have the stop and I believe we all followed the same route. On the way home we came a different way and did the journey in 5 hours. En route we stopped at Builth Wells where an attempt was made to shuffle people around from one coach to another which was a complete shambles and the party of 6 we were in ended up separated until I approached the so called organisers and said I wanted to be with the party I was travelling with and got moved back to the original coach. No organisational skills at all. Would never book with them again.

Travelled to haydock to see Tom jones .
The red coach ( coracle ) driver was terrific
Lewis was the perfect host and compère . Matthew was courteous and generous and got us back to our pickup point ( bargoed )
We have booked further tours the O2 and Scotland next year . So hoping that this great introduction continues through those tours .

We went on the London 1 night trip including Madam Tussauds and London Eye staying at the Hilton Kensington had a brilliant time excellent value and a special mention for Tony the driver who couldn’t have been more helpful

We have just got back from a trip to Liverpool to see Tom Jones . I have to say we had a fabulous experience. We had out 81 year old auntie with us who they treated with such care. The hosts Lewis , Matthew and our driver were fabulous. We had first class treatment from start to finish . The hotel show and coach were great no problems at all. I would highly recommend Matthew and will definitely be travelling again . Thanks so much Matthew & team look forward to the next trip

Traveled to see Tom Jones Haydock Park after having our original booking to Hampton Court cancelled we had to change to Haydock park was really nervous as we were travelling with my aunt that was 81 but no need to worry Mathew and staff were amazing from start to finish we were kept entertained on the bus with bingo and Quiz short stop at Chester for a quick bite to eat then on to our hotel which was wonderful Onto see Tom Jones where Matthew and staff made sure we all new where to go and make sure we knew where to get the bus back and Tom was amazing Day 2 after breakfast we traveled to Liverpool for the drop of in Albert Dock and picked up in the same place and bus was at time for departure all weekend had an amazing time thank you so much Matthew and staff will definitely book again

We were told be at brynmawr bus station at 7 am for pick up by coach to take us straight to London, at 7 two feeder buses turned up however the drivers didn’t have any other information than to take people to Merthyr college, myself and others were left confused as most of us travelling to different destinations. When we arrived at Merthyr we were put onto a coach and left to wait almost an hour only to be driven back to brynmawr to pick up other equally confused passengers. On arrival to London at 1pm the driver dropped us at Trafalgar Square which was no where near the cafe rouge we were booked into and the driver informed us he didn’t have a clue as to it’s whereabouts cause he’d never actually been to London before and we should make our own way there, since my girlfriend had informed travel with Mathews she was gluten intolerant when asked for our meal preferences only to be told they were doubtful cafe rouge could accommodate her and it would be better she took her own food instead also me and my girlfriend decided time was limited enough already due to the holdups we already endured so we’d find our own hospitality that could accommodate her nearby to give us some time for a little sightseeing around London before we at to be back at the bus to be taken to the London eye for 3:15, luckily we did cause we were then informed from other disgruntled passengers that travel with Mathew not only failed to pass on our menu choices and book us in at a time we’d actually be in London for he didn’t even pay for the meals we’d already paid for in the package deal. When we got to the London eye we were told another driver would soon arrive with our tickets finally he did arrive only it was an hour later again shortening our already short day trip, when the other driver did turn up we then found out our driver had the tickets all along thinking they were copy’s that couldn’t be used, we then learned he didn’t have enough tickets to go around so we waited patiently for this issue to be sorted again shortening our trip, to cap off an already dreadful trip when we arrivedt at the services near Swindon the driver then informed us this was the end of the road for him and we’d after wait 40-60 minutes for his colleague to take over the end of this shambles of a trip, on route we were then informed we wouldn’t be dropped off back at brynmawr where we were assured we would be days previously but taken back to Merthyr for a taxi to do the rest. We have since complained to travel with Mathews and the travel store we booked our day trip with that we would at least like a refund on the meals travel with Mathew had failed to book even though we’d already paid for them in our package, unsurprisingly a week later they still can’t be bothered to get back to us on any of our complaints or our request. AVOID THIS COMPANY unless you enjoy this sort of holiday. Hopefully one day we’ll look back on this disaster of a day trip and laugh about it but I DOUBT IT!!!

Trip to Llandudno last Friday.
Took 11.5 hours from Treorchy. We paid for a feeder bus but didn't get one. The main coach picked us up around half six and took us to Aberdare, Merthyr, Caerphilly and the centre of Cardiff. Not impressed at all. And before you tell me to email, I've sent two with no response yet.
Update- still no reply to emails or messages, very disappointed as I was
looking forward to traveling with Matthew, and was so pleased they were opening a branch in Treorchy. Not impressed at all!

Booked a trip to llandudno and was travelling from south Wales valleys, the trip took 12 hrs to get there we had to go to 4 valleys and into Cardiff city centre for pick ups before travelling to Magor services for the remaining passengers to join... we then travelled to North Wales via Birmingham on the M5 and M6. None of this was made clear when I booked with no indication of arrival times given or the amount of pick up points booked in... if you book with this company I recommend you ask for it's itinerary and ETA before booking. The seat numbers given on my booking were not the seats we were allocated... very little organisation. The bus driver was very helpful and tried his best to answer people's queries but a rep should have been available. I was only given a pick up time 2 days before the trip and could not get an answer when I tried to phone. The hotels are very dated and room very basic. I would not use Matthew's travel again, they need to consider using more feeder buses at the least so it does not take 3 hrs before your journey properly starts

Travelled to Weymouth on Sunday for daytrip with my daughter. Pick up was on time, lovely new clean coach.
Several staff onboard due to training, all of them were so friendly and happy, enjoyed quiz, bingo and mama mia film, brilliant day would definitely book again with TWM

Travelled to weymouth on a day trip yesterday, very enjoyable journey
The extra touches made the journey more enjoyable, e.g.. quiz , bingo and a film , our trip had a training day for rep,s to show them the ropes.

Went on a one night trip to London wax works and London eye included in price there was nt enough tickets for London eye or waxworks thank god for the driver sorted it out on arriving at hotel had asked for 2 rooms next to one another because we had grand daughters with us to be told one room on 1st floor and other on 3rd floor we then had to wait for staff to sort it the company seems to be very disorganised and no communication had to go over shop for pick up times because you can t get through on phone hav ent said that our driver Tony was very helpful and had great knowledge of London having lived there for 20yrs he done a amazing job and cannot thank him enough there was quite a few people on this trip said they would nt be using this company again thanks again to the driver

Booked a day trip ( Friday the 20th ) to London for my wife & I,it seemed to be a great way of visiting London, going on the London eye & a meal in planet Hollywood. The day before the trip I was contacted by a member of staff informing me that planet Hollywood has now closed ( closed in March !! ) and they have booked us into Cafe Rouge, had to contact my wife in work to tell her about the change in meal venue & the limited meals to choose from at the Cafe Rouge, informed the office of our selections.
On the day of the trip, it was appalling from the start.
We were late leaving Merthyr college, and then had to do a detour to Brynmawr to pick a party of 6 people as their " feeder" taxi hadn't arrived ? sound familiar with other reviews !!! Bus driver was not expecting to take this detour & eventually arrived at Magor services 2 hours after getting on the bus !!
On arriving in London at 12.30pm, there was confusion over the drop off place, driver hadn't been to London in several years & street closures hampered his attempts to get to Leicester square. Also no communication as to the location of Cafe Rouge, how to get there or how many were going. Luckily a lady on the bus had a rough idea where the restaurant was & we arrived there about 1PM, we were told by the office that it was booked for 1.30pm. but the manager informed us that the tables were booked for 12noon !! fair play to the manager, although only 6 people had arrived ( 19 booked ) & we were over an hour late, they managed to fit us in. We had paid for a two course meal within the cost of the trip, & were then told that our food had not been ordered in advance so we had a limited choice due to availability, to add insult to injury we were then told that Travel with Matthew had not paid for the meals either. Fair play to the manager of Cafe Rouge, he served our meals & told us he would get hold of travel with Matthew to recoup the money for the meals. After food we had about 1 hour before we had to go back to the bus to be taken to the London Eye, just a quick look at some market stalls in Covent garden as we returned to Trafalgar square to meet the bus. On arriving at the London Eye we were then told that there were not enough tickets for us to go in the London Eye, again we had already paid for the tickets in with the price of the trip, had to utilise the bus drivers tickets to ensure everyone could go on the London eye !!
Only positive from what should have been an enjoyable day out in London was the professionalism of the bus driver in extremely difficult circumstances.
I would not recommend this company as they are very disorganised and lack communication ( they need to have a contact number regarding trip issues, or better still an agent on the bus to deal with these type of issues !! ).

Went on a day trip today to Stratford Upon Avon. The pick up was at 6.00am ( rather early for a day trip had this information been provided at time of booking probably wpuld not have booked). Was on the bus 2 hours picking up other passengers before we set off, the bus went from Porth-Treorchy-Aberdate- Merthyr -Bryngawr which took 2 hours!!!!
Once everyone was picked up it was a smooth run to Stratford with a service stop of 30mins. We were the first tour with hosting again so we had a game of bingo ( you have to purchase tickets between £3-£5 for one game) but all the prize money went back in for the winners.Then there was a quiz after which we arrived in Stratford about 10.30 ( 4 and half hours after we set off).
Lovely day in Stratford and return was at 5.00pm ( just about 1 hohr too much there)
We had a film on the way home but no service stop ( toilet won board was available).
After a few drop offs we arrived at Aberdate where the driver told us he had done his driving hours so would have to take a different route home via Maerdy which upset a few of the other passengers as they would be dropped off in Ferndale where a feeder bus would then take them to Treorchy.They felt they had been on the bus too long.
All in all we enjoyed the trip, the bus was clean, the driver was great as was Matthew. Its just the ridiculous pick up time and then spending 2 hours picking up all the other passengers that would put us off travelling again. They would do best to use feeder services like other bus companies do.

DO NOT Travel With Matthew!!

In April I booked a day trip to London with my family, the trip included a meal in planet Hollywood and the London Eye. A day before the trip I was contacted by a member of staff informing me that planet Hollywood has now closed and they have booked us into Cafe Rouge, I had to contact the family and let them know what they would like for food as it was a limited menu and the meals had to be ordered, after disturbing my family in work I informed the office of our selections.
Now on the day of the trip I really don't know where to start, it was appalling from the start!
We were late leaving Merthyr college, some people had already been on the bus for 1hour 45 minutes and hadn't left Merthyr. We then had to do a detour to Brynmawr and Magor services before we even left Wales.
On arriving in London at 12.30pm we went straight to the cafe rouge as we were told by the office that it was booked for 1.30pm. We were then told that the table was actually booked for 12noon. But they managed to fit us in, we had paid for a two course meal within the cost of the trip, we were then told that our food had not been ordered in advance so we had a limited choice due to availability, to add insult to injury we were then told that Travel with Matthew had not paid for the meals either, what a palaver.
After food we only had 1 hour before we had to go back to the bus to be taken to the London Eye, we didn't have time to go in one single shop only to have a quick look at some market stalls as we passed by.
On arriving at the London Eye we were then informed that was not enough tickets for us to go in the London Eye, again we had already paid for the tickets in with the price of the trip, we ended up having the bus drivers tickets to go on, if they didn't have tickets we wouldn't have been able to go on.
On the plus side the bus driver was very professional and extremely helpful in very hard circumstances.
I do not recommend this company as they are very unorganised and lack communication.

I'M NOT WASTING MY TIME EMAILING YOU, YOU ARE SENDING THE SAME EMAIL TO EVERYBODY WHO GIVES BAD REVIEWS. YOU ARE NOT LISTENING TO PEOPLE WHO GIVEN YOU BAD REVIEWS BEFORE. I went on the Isle of Wight trip and I agree totally with the lady from Abertillery. It was a Utter Shambles from the time we booked to the time we got off the bus after the trip. Never again with Travel with Matthew.

Absolutely shocking.
Going to the isle of wight bus was late picking up from Abertillery... no introductory from the driver...was told that the Toilet wasn't working it's a hell of a way to travel without toilet... i had a tummy bug on the way home drivers attitude wasent nice when told about it and that's when he decided to do something about it..he asked passengers if everyone was on the bus instead of counting them himself he was shocking on times...... my hotel room was absolutely disgusting...it was stinking....kingsize Quilt rammed inside a double quilt cover...stains and dust everywhere...Mark's on the walls...grime in the bathroom..I complained but it was useless....the waiter was very rude on times... food and entertainment was lovely..
No temperature checks done before entering the bus that was stated on the paperwork..
I will not be using this firm again unless they sorted things out.

On leaving Neath bus driver drive into lamppost. Toilet was not working on the bus drove around Bridgened fir hour trying to find passengers. Got to Megar services was like a cattle market no signs on Coaches with destinations on. Not ideal for taking 2 car seats 8 month old baby and 3 year old with luggage getting on and off buses. We had to get straight back on bus no comfort break on way up or back 6 hours on bus with no break. Hotel confirmed to me in email 2 rooms together to fi d out my partner was on second floor with my daughters baby. Myself and my daughter and 3 year old was on 4th floor. Told receptionist we had confirmation that 2 rooms be together gave us 2 rooms opposite each other opened the door someone was in the room finally got sorted.

Absolutely shocking. My children have gone to Legoland this weekend with their dad and nanna and from the start it’s been one big mess. They Was told to arrive at Merthyr bus station for 7am for departure at 7:05am.... the buses didn’t arrive until 7:30am due to the driver being given wrong pickup points that then caused a delay in him getting to Merthyr (no fault of the bus driver as he wasn’t given correct information) they then had to travel to Newport to drop people off that were going to different trips , then on arrival to Legoland the driver had no information on park tickets or anything really regarding the whole trip. so caused another delay on them gaining access to the park. The driver tried numerous times to contact Matthew but couldn’t get answer. When the driver finally got tickets for everyone he had no information on what time to pick everyone up to take them to their hotels , and who was staying in what hotel (there was 2 different ones) .... they all ended up staying in one hotel as the driver had to make the choice there and then, then to find out the hotel booked was actually currently temporarily closed so no facilities open for food or anything. It was basically a room and that’s it.
Day 2 again complete shambles . No information given to the driver by the company on times to leave to head home after the park and still no communication from Matthew. So the driver and the families on the trip made the decision between themselves..... I can’t help but feel sorry for the bus driver as he was left with all this to deal with and couldn’t get any information from Matthew as he was unable to get answer when ringing him.
They left Legoland at 4:30pm and arrived at the Newport services at 7:30 it’s now currently 8.40pm and they haven’t even left the services as they’ve got to wait for 2 more buses to arrive to pick people up that are traveling to Merthyr from other trips , They’ve spent more time waiting about than they have anything else. You’d think all this information would have been given to the bus company along with the families booked on the trip and sorted before the day of the trips departing. Before going They didn’t know what time they had to meet or where to meet until 3 days before the trip after ringing and going into the shop numerous times before that.
All them poor kids and parents hanging about, not knowing what’s what.
Yes I understand delays happen , and there are sometimes issues but this has been one problem after another from the start.. what was supposed to be a 2.5hour drive from legoland have turned into a over 5 hour trip...... shocking. When leaving a review on the company Facebook page they claim that this is untrue and pdf emails were sent to the companies 72 hours before .... but Matthew was hanging the driver the day of departure a file to pass onto another driver at Newport for a Drayton manor trip, whom I’ve also read reviews from that was also a shambles of a trip. In all fairness the driver was fantastic and tried his best from start to finish to sort things out for everyone on the trip, even he stated that ‘this is the first and last time I’ll ever work with this company’ says it all really.

Called into their new premises today in Treorchy, not a good experience. Smart looking office, smart looking staff, but that's as far as it goes. Not very helpful there, and staff disinterested. Got back home and the information given was wrong. After looking up the hotel, we wont be using this company !!

Booked and paid a deposit for a day trip using a debit card over the phone but was never sent any confirmation. Rang up to pay balance and pointed out i never received confirmation, it was then emailed to me. Ten days before the trip i had a call from TWM(i assumed it was to tell me the pick up time)telling me the trip was cancelled and if i wanted a refund i would need to send in a letter by post or take it to the Merthyr shop in person requesting my refund as stated in their terms and conditions. I never received a confirmation email let alone a copy of their terms and conditions. Obviously i refused and instructed them to refund the money to the card i used to pay which is normal procedure when a company fails to supply goods/services.
I was then told the refund would be in the form of a cheque as this is the quickest way!!! I was not sending a letter that could get lost in the post nor travelling to the shop to ask for refund and was not accepting a cheque as if and when it arrived i then had to pay it into a bank account and wait for it to clear. I was then told i could send an email asking for refund. I reluctantly did so twice and both times the email failed to get delivered. I contacted trading standards who verified that i did not have to request a refund in writing nor accept a cheque.
I telephoned TWM and asked to speak to Matthew, obviously he was out of the office but would be in the next day! Next day no surprise Matthew isn't available. I said i was making my way to the shop accompanied and if Matthew wasn't available i would proceed to his home. Needless to say in minutes i received a call from him. He babbled on about terms/ conditions/policies etc so i asked him to run through them with me as i had a copy online and to point out where it stated i need to apply in writing for a refund. He failed!! I also told him what would happen if the money was not refunded immediately back to my card, lo and behold he did it while i was on the telephone. He did say it could take 28 days to reach my account which is absurd but it was back in my account the very next day.
The staff contradict and lie probably on his behalf, more fool them.
I have since found out TWM have done the same to a friend, cancelled her trip and given her a refund in excess of £150 by way of a travel voucher. If this his what the company does to everyone (which judging by the negative reviews here it's common)they don't need to actually run any trips as they are doing ok dishonestly keeping customers money. Stay away because unless you are prepared to be extremely forceful you will not get your money refunded when they cancel your trip. It really isn't worth taking the risk of booking with them.