Boutique Tours of Wales

03/06/2022

This week we saw the visit of one of the, largest cruise ships to visit Holyhead during its round Britain cruise. The Emerald Princess has a Gross Registered Tonnage of 113,561 tons, being 290 metres in length, with 15 passenger decks and a passenger capacity of 3,114 with a crew of around 1200 on board.

We provided our famous and highly acclaimed private ‘Castle and Snowdonia’ Tour for American passengers, who rated our private tours at Holyhead as ‘the best of the cruise’

Boutique Tours of Wales generally sells out for all dates when cruise ships visit and their private tour services are highly sort after by cruise passengers. So early booking is advisable to secure one of the ‘best rated private tours of the whole cruise’.

03/06/2022

Cruise passengers from the Viking Venus which called into Holyhead enjoyed our private tour of medieval Conwy. We introduced them to one of our unique attractions with the Smallest House in Great Britain.

03/06/2022

“You hold it and I will pronounce it”. A little photo stunt with our international visitors from Chile at the town with the longest name in Wales, Great Britain and Europe!

23/04/2022

Sightseeing Tour Operator of the Year 2022 - Wales

We are excited to be able to share the great news that Boutique Tours of Wales has been awarded “Sightseeing Tour Operator of the Year” for 2022 in the UK Enterprise Awards hosted by SME News.

This is a fantastic achievement for Boutique Tours of Wales and true recognition of our commitment to providing and delivering top quality private tours experiences.

10/04/2022

Introducing our new luxury executive mini touring coach for our private tours of North Wales, the Snowdonia National Park and the Isle of Anglesey. We have room for 18 passengers to tour in comfort and style. Book early as this tour bus is going to be in big demand! Our first tours was for private cruise ship tours at both Holyhead and Liverpool for passengers aboard one of the highest rated cruise ships in the world - the Viking Venus.

10/04/2022

Day 2 for our international cruise passengers from Texas and Wisconsin cruising aboard the Viking Venus. We collected them from Liverpool to tour the stunning scenic and historic borderlands of North East Wales and introduced them to yet more scenic delights and hidden gems, plus the stunning Unesco Pontcysyllte Aqueduct.

10/04/2022

Lechyd Da! (Cheers) A great way to round off the perfect touring day with a shot of our famous Welsh Whiskey from Penderyn! Our international visitors joined us from their cruise ship the Viking Venus at the port of Holyhead for our legendary Castle and Snowdonia tour.

10/04/2022

Hands up if you can pronounce the name!

It’s all part of our welcome to Wales, because if you can pronounce this one, you’ll have no problem with any other place name in Wales!

So competition time: How many letters are their in the longest town name in Wales?

10/04/2022

Croeso to our first international visitors of the year, all the way from Texas and Wisconsin in the USA.

They joined us for two fabulous touring days from their cruise ship, the Viking Venus which called into Holyhead and Liverpool during a 12 day cruise around the British Isles.

Our guests rated their day ashore with us as the best tour of the cruise and it’s something that we have become famous for with cruise passengers. We offer a great destination and cultural experience with our private tours and the cruise passengers get to see and do so much more than what the cruise ship tours offer.

24/01/2022

The Story of the Slate Industry Tour is our new featured tour for 2022. Unesco announced the Slate Landscapes of North Wales as a heritage site and many of the locations are set amongst the most stunning scenic landscapes. So if you are planning to visit the region and discover the Industrial heritage of the slat3 industry, many of these locations can be difficult to reach. So that’s where a local tour guide becomes invaluable. You’ll get to discover so much more.

One of the featured locations locations of the Unesco Slate Landscapes of North Wales, is the iconic ruins of the Anglesey Barracks. The Quarrymens accommodation is set half way up the mountain. These cottages were built in the 1870s as housing for quarrymen who lived too far away to return home each night. They would pay a shilling (5 pence) a month to rent the lodgings. The houses had few sources of comfort, with just a small living room with a fire grate and a room for sleeping in wooden bunks. They were lit by candlelight or paraffin lamps.

The barracks were particularly cold during the winter months as the gaps between the slates meant the quarrymen had little protection against the elements. The men also had to share their lodgings with pests like fleas and rats. The houses had no plumbing, so water had to be fetched from the nearest stream. There were no indoor flushable toilets. All the cottages shared two outdoor earth toilets known as ‘privies’. The cottages were still in use until 1937 when the houses were condemned as being unfit for human habitation.

The Anglesey Barracks are a true hidden gem of Wales and accessibility is only by climbing the mountainside along rough tracks and up uneven steps across the slate waste heaps.

22/11/2021

Welcome to the beauty of the ‘NEW’ Unesco Slate landscapes of North Wales. We’ve produced a new private tour called ‘The story of Slate’. It provides a fascinating combination of stunning industrial landscapes, with places where people lived and worked, along with with featured walks and a ride on one of the oldest operating train companies in the World. We look forward to the opportunity to being of service with our highly acclaimed private tour services.

19/11/2021

Discover North Wales with Boutique Tours of North Wales. Today we toured one of the five Areas of Outstanding Natural Beauty in Wales, on the Llŷn Peninsula. We took time to walk the beautiful coastal peninsula with a walk down to a local beach bar (inn), rated amongst the top ten beach bars in the world, located in the small coastal village of Porthdinllaen.

27/10/2021

26/10/2021

The latest tour testimonial from our international visitors from the USA.
Karen and Robert joined us for their very own and excluisve 7 Day Tour of Wales

One of their quotes from the week was “It feels like we have Wales all to ourself,” as we drove along the amazing back roads of Wales and introduced them to the unique culture, the amazing history and the very best scenic landscapes that Wales is famous for.

“My husband and I were with John from Boutique Tours of Wales for seven excellent days from Llandudno to Cardiff.

John is an unsurpassed guide. During the planning, he suggested many tour options and provided maps to help us choose routes; suggested accommodations and dining options.

During the trip, he provided meticulously detailed daily plans; accompanied us in every activity; walked alongside us (not half a block ahead); provided detailed historical information; answered multiple questions; stopped often for taking pictures; drove with precision; suggested restaurants, asking our preferences and then calling for reservations; was familiar with locations and was greeted by many people he knew along the way.

He was friendly, cheerful, fun to be with; provided our very own complete daily tour guide to Wales in a binder with maps for us to keep.”

Date of experience: October 2021

26/10/2021

It’s great to be back out on tour again with the return of international visitors. We welcomed our visitors from Florida in the USA on a stunning 7 day Discover Wales Tour.