Rayburn Tours Reviews 14

TrustScore 4.5 out of 5

4.4

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Company details

  1. Tour Operator

Written by the company

Since 1965, Rayburn Tours has been specialising in school and group travel and creating extraordinary experiences. In 2025, the family-run business won the School Travel Award for Best School Tour Operator (Large), which recognises the expertise, care, and dedication that goes into every tour. With a team of over 100 specialists, Rayburn Tours organises educational trips, ski adventures, sports tours, and youth and adult concert tours - all tailor-made to suit the personality and preferences of each group.


Contact info

4.4

Excellent

TrustScore 4.5 out of 5

14 reviews

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Rated 5 out of 5 stars

A fantastic experience with Rayburn Tours!

We had a truly fantastic experience with Rayburn Tours. We went through the process of creating a bespoke school trip to a brand new location, and the planning process was very professional and detailed. Communication with Shane, our Tour Consultant was great, as he was always available and very helpful.

Once the trip was planned, Jonathan, our Tour Co‑ordinator, was very passionate about his job, and had a fantastic eye for detail. The trip itself ran very smoothly, and we were well supported throughout by the fantastic Vamoos app that Rayburn utilise.

I honestly cannot recommend Rayburn tours enough!

February 16, 2026
Unprompted review
Rated 5 out of 5 stars

Our GCSE History trip to Berlin and…

Our GCSE History trip to Berlin and Krakow was an unforgettable experience that brought our classroom learning to life. From exploring the Berlin Wall, the Reichstag, and Checkpoint Charlie to visiting the deeply moving site of Auschwitz-Birkenau, every stop helped us understand the past in a far more powerful way than any textbook could. The guides were knowledgeable, the itinerary was well-planned, and the whole trip left us feeling inspired, reflective, and grateful for the opportunity to learn history where it actually happened.

October 26, 2025
Unprompted review
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Reply from Rayburn Tours

Hi Rohit,

Thank you so much for this wonderful review! We are so happy to hear that your history trip went so well, and we hope that your students came away from this adventure with lots of fantastic memories.

Rated 5 out of 5 stars

Rayburn provided us with a fantastic…

Rayburn provided us with a fantastic three-day tour in and around Krakow, Poland. The excursions were excellent and the accommodation was perfect. All Rayburn representatives were very helpful and attentive and response times were very quick.

November 14, 2025
Unprompted review
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Reply from Rayburn Tours

Hi Bethan,

This such a brilliant review - we're delighted that your time in Krakow went so well! Thank you very much for your lovely words.

Rated 5 out of 5 stars

Very well organised History tour to Prague and Berlin

Very well organised History tour to Prague and Berlin to experience the sites of the Cold War. Superb customer services from everyone at Rayburn who made the whole process run smoothly and ensured we had a great time. I would highly recommend them for any school trip!

October 3, 2025
Unprompted review
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Reply from Rayburn Tours

Hi Mark,

We're so pleased to hear that your History trip went so well - we hope your group came away with lots of meaningful memories. Thank you so much for your kind comments!

Rated 5 out of 5 stars

3 tours with Rayburn and our 4th is in 2026!

We have now run 3 ski trips with Rayburn Tours and have been delighted with the support and guidance given to us throughout the whole process. From location suggestions based on our budget and number of students, to securing the required number of hours of ski tuition each day and confirming the après ski activities, Rayburn colleagues have been fantastic. Special mention has to go to Jess and Ed for organising our most recent tour, and also to Katie who was our rep in Leysin and was absolutely terrific. We are already looking forward to our trip in February 2026!

February 15, 2025
Unprompted review
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Reply from Rayburn Tours

Hi Robert, thank you so much for your wonderful review. It's brilliant to hear that you've had such fantastic ski trip experiences with us, and we really appreciate your kind words about Jess, Ed, and Katie. We hope that you have a fantastic trip in February!

Rated 5 out of 5 stars

Fantastic Tour Operator - Amazing Time Had By All!

Fantastic customer service both in the UK and in Italy, the whole trip was excellent, everything ran like clockwork. Clearly the Rayburns team take on board feedback and they are really helpful in terms of planning the itinerary and tailoring this to the group requirements. We had several pupils and staff travelling with dietary requirements and these were all catered for with no problems. As a school we would very happily use Rayburn Tours again and we would be happy to stay in the same accommodation/have the same excursions etc.

June 1, 2025
Unprompted review
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Reply from Rayburn Tours

Hi L Bruce,

Wow - thank you so much for such a delightful review! We are so pleased to hear that your group had such a great experience with us, and we would be thrilled to organise another trip for your pupils. Thank you again!

Rated 5 out of 5 stars

Outstanding from start to finish

Outstanding from start to finish! Have used Rayburn for a number of years and could not fault them

May 26, 2025
Unprompted review
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Reply from Rayburn Tours

Hi Steve,

Thank you very much for such a lovely review - we're thrilled to see that you've had such a brilliant experience with us!

Rated 5 out of 5 stars

Iceland 2025

Excellent company. Customer service and communication have both been fantastic throughout our dealings while organising a school trip to Iceland.

April 3, 2025
Unprompted review
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Reply from Rayburn Tours

Hi,

Thank you for your lovely review, we're delighted to hear that you've had such a great experience with organising your Iceland trip!

Rated 5 out of 5 stars

Really helpful and reliable - a great trip!

Rayburn gave a competitive quote but also great advice about how to run our trip in the most cost effective way when we were let down by another tour operator. The support we received in preparation for the trip was comprehensive, responsive to our needs, always prompt, clear and helpful. The trip itself was exactly as promised, ran really smoothly, we had a great tour guide and most importantly the students had a brilliant time. Would definitely recommend them, we found them extremely helpful and reliable which made the process as stress free as possible.

March 14, 2025
Unprompted review
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Reply from Rayburn Tours

Hi EC, thank you so much for such a lovely review! We're delighted to hear that your trip with us went smoothly - we hope your students made lots of great memories.

Rated 5 out of 5 stars

Iceland 2025 - An outstanding tour experience

An outstanding tour experience. From start to finish you work with a highly professional team of staff to create a stress-free, hugely enriching school trip experience.
Excellent value for money compared to other tour companies.
I would highly recommend.

February 27, 2025
Unprompted review
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Reply from Rayburn Tours

Hello Scott, we're thrilled to hear that you had such a wonderful time in Iceland! Thank you for such a kind review and recommendation.

Rated 5 out of 5 stars

What a trip!

Really well organised, all students had the best time! Would highly recommend.

March 3, 2025
Unprompted review
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Reply from Rayburn Tours

Hi Luke, thank you so much for such a great review, we're so happy to hear that your students enjoyed the trip!

Rated 5 out of 5 stars

Iceland 2023-25

We have used Rayburn for our school Iceland trips for the last 3 years. They are always attentive to our needs, with supporting staff both in country as field studies tutors and back in the UK office.

They are particularly good with reacting and adapting our travel plans. This year we was unable to undertake our glacier hike due to extreme winds, but the team manage to rebook us into something equally as enjoyable, ensuring we were not left with a gap in our itinerary.

We can't thank Ashley, Ed and the wider team for the support on this trip, and we look forward to working with them on Iceland 2026 and 2027!

February 12, 2025
Unprompted review
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Reply from Rayburn Tours

Hi Robert,

What a fantastic review - it's brilliant to hear that you've embarked on so many wonderful trips with us. Our team are delighted, and we can't wait to work with you on your 2026 and 2027 Iceland trips.

Thank you!

Rated 1 out of 5 stars

Use another company if at all possible

I would not recommend Rayburn Tours in any capacity. The trip started with us being picked up around 5am, several hours late. The coach provided was pumping out heat which could not be turned off, so in the middle of a 30ºc European summer we had the heat blasting throughout a coach with no open windows. Many of us had heat stroke because of this and had to sit out on whole days of our tour since we were too ill - and as it was a music tour, some of our instruments and cases warped and melted in the heat. We were told that we would be walking no more than 100 metres at each destination but were repeatedly dropped off significantly further away than this. One town being over a mile away while having to carry large instruments and percussion (many of which were subsequently damaged, as well as many of us bruised from having to carry them for such distances) because the coach could not fit through the town that Rayburn had chosen for us. Despite all of the above, Rayburn refused to give us an appropriate refund and after over six months of back and forth and outright denying our claims (for which we had proof), settled on a very small reimbursement that was in no way adequate considering the poor quality of the trip. If there are any other viable choices for your trip, use them instead.

In the google reviews, Rayburn were replying to the reviews of my tour-mates, trying to explain away their poor service and in case they do the same with this review here, I would like it to be known that (1) many cities prohibiting vehicular access into the centres, while true, should not have affected us as we were told that we would be dropped off no more than 100 metres away from our destination - we were lied to and were not informed of any changes to this 100 metre promise beforehand, (2) the many months before an agreement was not due to university holidays, it was Rayburn's unwillingness to provide us with a refund that would accurately reflect the quality of our trip, and (3) I believe that if they were truly dedicated to providing a good service as a company, instead of defending themselves in these reviews, they would have acted appropriately to amend the situation as it occurred and worked to sufficiently refund us our money for a tour that we did not receive.

June 21, 2023
Unprompted review
Rated 1 out of 5 stars

Very unreliable

My sons school booked a trip to France with this company and a week before the trip found out that Rayburn Tours hadn't actually got the ferry booking they had on the original plan. The ferry was re-booked and we were told the children would have to leave, from their school at 2.30 a.m, on the night of their trip. The Rayburn tours coach did not arrive to take them until 5.30a.m so they were waiting at school for three hours in the middle of the night and missed their ferry booking.

July 3, 2023
Unprompted review
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Reply from Rayburn Tours

We are sorry about the transport issues that your son’s school faced on their recent trip to France.

Unfortunately ferry bookings have been more difficult than the norm this year due to a surge in demand and reduced capacity, we have also experienced the ferry companies having to reschedule crossings more than usual this year. We were also extremely frustrated to learn of the coach delay on departure morning and we were in contact with the school throughout, assisting in this difficult situation. Once the immediate priority of getting the coach on the road had passed, we set out to understand the reasons for the delay, which resulted from a combination of vehicle breakdown, traffic conditions and driver rest periods, which were communicated to us via email in the early hours of the morning, rather than via our 24hr emergency phone number which is always operational while groups are on tour.

We have been in contact with the school throughout, keeping them updated of our investigation which concluded with the school’s Business Manager thanking us for looking into the matter and confirming that the trip otherwise “did go well and everyone enjoyed the experience”.

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