Oxfordwalkingtoursofoxford Reviews

worst ever expiriance

worst ever expiriance this IS NOT FREE TOUR after 5 min he is asking to pay him or F off he s words very rude

AVOID DO NOT WASTE YOUR TIME AND MONEY

This has been the worst free walking tour I have ever been on If you read this - please do yourself a favour and avoid this walking tour at all costs This is going to be a long review but I hope that it might help anyone reconsider booking this walking tour 1 The guide did not check us into the tour He just handed us a leaflet without checking if we had a booking or not We did not think twice about this since we were 1 whole minute late but this should be a red flag 2 The guide who called himself Matthew told us he was an alumnus of Oxford University and that this was his part-time job He also told us he was filling in for someone who got sick Reading multiple reviews afterwards this is an obvious trick to make you feel like he s your lord and saviour for filling in the position for today and thus the only reason why this walking tour is still happening for your booking 3 10 minutes into humourless jokes mumbling over some of them he brought us into the Weston Library for a toilet break As soon as you step a foot outside he puts the card machine under your nose demanding your payment of a minimum of 6 per head If you do not comply or simply want to wait until the end of the tour to see if this is worth your precious time he will get angry Saying no will get you kicked out of the tour right away which in hindsight would have been a blessing He pressures you into paying right away since a lot of people walk out midway without paying and well - I wish I had the same common sense as those people 4 A lot of people dropped out without us noticing as you are flustered by the immediate pressure of paying the guide The leaflets will say 6 for average 7 for good 8 for amazing 10 for mindblowing guilt tripping you into giving him way more than he deserves 5 After giving payment his enthusiasm and facts just stop He gives out the same information throughout the whole tour Just in different words On different locations You keep thinking to yourself It might get better when we get to those promised stops well It will not get better and you will not see any of these promised spots either 6 Do you think you re getting into any of the sights Well here s the short answer - no He shows you the outside of the building and says You can visit in your own time Sorry sir besides the fact that this is my own time shouldn t a walking tour that advertises going to these sites be going in If I wanted to look at the outside of a building with no further information I would have just done this on Google Earth from the comfort of my bedroom 7 If you re a Harry Potter fan just like us don t bother You will not go into the Divination Hall again - we had to do this after the tour on our own time and you will not visit the tree You will see the tree though just obscured behind walls and roofs Then he jokes that it is just a tree and not worth spending 8 entrance on For someone who advertises themselves as a Harry Potter walking tour why are you making deprecating jokes 8 Forget about Narnia forget about Alice in Wonderland forget about Lord of the Rings Despite all of the opportunities to talk about these incredible authors and stories it is wrapped up in a 2-minute session 9 We were only allowed to go into one sight but only in small groups saying we would be sent away otherwise Only to find out that it s not the groups that are a problem - HE is the problem since he is running an illegitimate walking tour 10 My friend had to call a college on his behalf From her phone With her phone credit To ask a question he should know as a tour guide Probably because they have his number blocked All in all we did not learn anything about the city nor the sights we were supposed to see We did not stop for any pictures or got to ask questions When the tour ended we were disappointed we gave this man 18 If it were up to me I would charge HIM for wasting my time An absolute scam Do yourself a favour and spend 25 on a legitimate walking tour done by a current student who has enthusiasm and love for the city

IT S A TRAP

Our guide was lovely BUT the tour is not free as written on the website You have to pay a minimum of 6 during or after the tour Contrary to what s written you do not enter any site except one where the guide tells you to pretend not to know one another and enter in small groups while she waits outside Is this tour very legal Obviously not Prepare yourself to walk to a few colleges with the guide repeating the same things all over again and waste your time

Stay away

Agree with those who called this tour a scam I have been on many free walking tours all over Europe and have NEVER been given a sliding scale for payment nor have we been pushed to pay up midway through the tour This one smelled fishy right from the start The narrative was slim with no real history of the university or area We were told not to walk in a big group when entering some of the colleges and Mathew asked for a volunteer from the group to go to check if one of the buildings was open We should have walked away from the start It was only after the tour was over did I realize he wasn t wearing a guide ID badge

The tour is not free as stated

The tour is not free as stated There are recommended prices that are suggested in the pamphlet to be payed at the end according to your enjoyment of the tour These fees are collected after about 10 min into the tour and quite aggressively You are asked to leave if you don t pay The only places we went into were the areas open to the public We could have done the tour by ourselves Very poor quality tour but the pamphlet was top notch

Tour definitely not FREE

Very average tour The tour guide is quite persistent in getting his mandatory donation halfway through the tour After questioning this we were threatened with being asked to leave Would absolutely avoid because of this strange aggressive practise

This tour is a total scam

This tour is a scam and Matthew is an irresponsible person We arrived in the morning of January 1 after waking up early in the New Year No one was at the spot we emailed them beforehand to confirm We called Matthew and he told us very rudely that the tour was canceled Moreover it turned out that many promised locations were closed When we asked why they haven t called us and threatened to write a bad review Matthew replied Do whatever you want and hung up AVOID THIS AT ALL COSTS Our New Year was spoiled becuase of them I m myself a university professor and if Matthew was my student he d soon see his way out of the university for scamming people

GHOSTED US

This is a complete SCAM THEY SIMPLY DO NOT EXIST We arrive early morning from London and nobody was at the meeting point We called the guide Matthew and he just told us the tour guide is unavailable today No apologies also VERY VERY RUDE

This is NOT a FREE walking tour as it

This is NOT a FREE walking tour as it is falsely advertised all over the website You can not advertise something as FREE online and then demand payment before you ve started the tour We have done many free walking tours all over the world and whilst they are advertised as free there is the mutual understanding that you tip or make a donation at the end of the tour dependant on how good you thought the tour was This is what we were expecting from this tour to tip at the end Anyway we booked this thinking it would be a great way to introduce us to Oxford and learn more about its history and university Immediately upon arrive before even so much as a Welcome Matthew who we assume is in actual fact the owner and only tour guide of this fraudulent company walks over to us and asks if we were there for the walking tour to which we replied yes He immediately showed us the back page of the leaflet he gave us which showed reccomended donation amounts and told us that whilst other tour groups charge 30 for the same tour we in fact need to donate what we think the tour is worth and we can either pay by cash or card and he would come around later in the tour to collect payment we expected that this would be somewhere near the end Within 20 minutes of the tour starting before you actually see anything of interest he takes you into the library for a break whilst on this break Matthew comes up to you with a cars reader and asks how much you want to pay and points to the suggested prices which state pay how much you think the tour is worth and how good it was We explained to Matthew that whilst we are willing to tip for the tour we usually do this at the end once we know how good it was and based upon what we thought it was worth Matthew stated that sometimes people run away at the end of the tour and don t pay and that s why we had to pay at the start We again explained that we would not be running away and would like to pay nearer the end when we know how good the tour is Matthew stated that if we did not wish to pay we could not continue with the tour which hadn t even really started Not once did we refuse to pay we just didn t expect to be pounced upon so suddenly before the tour had even started This was a massive red flag for us so we discussed as with each other and thought we would give the minimum reccomended 8 per person but we saw Matthew then go on to harass and pressure every in the group in to making payment We actually found it quite rude when we said If you don t pay you don t continue with the tour which in actual fact if you are advertising it as FREE then yes whilst you can hope for tips and donations you cannot force people into paying for your services Due to this we decided to leave before making any payment We were shocked and decided to check out the reviews and as expected this happens to pretty much everyone There were approximately 30 people in the group if everyone paid the minimum 8 recommended donation that s a minimum of 240 per tour Matthew runs these tours 3 times a day so he is potentially getting a minimum of 720 per day Given how false the advertising is on the website which in actual fact is just a plain lie I do wonder how factual and truthful his tour would have been In our eyes and from reading the reviews of people who continued on the tour saying how bad it was this whole company and tour just appears to be one big and quite successful scam It is actually bad for Oxford tourism and has given us a bad taste of the place We have seen some of Matthews rude replies to the bad reviews he gets on here essentially blaming everyone and anyone but himself but having experienced the same treatment ourselves we absolutely know that all the 1 reviews are telling the truth No doubt we will get a rude response this this review aswell stating that we were stingy and didn t want to pay or expected the tour for free or something along those lines However that is absolutely not the case In all honesty when we attend these tours we usually tip approximately 10 per person which when there is 30 people on the tour we don t think 300 for 1 5 hours work is a bad wage especially with such little overheads We will be reporting Matthew and his fraudulent scamming tactics to trading standards and Oxford City Council as this seems nothing other than one big SCAM to us