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Ffestiniog Travel launches its 2023 'Rail Holidays of the World' escorted tour collection that embraces a return to long-haul train travel touring – but book early!

Maria Cook, general manager at the independent specialist rail tour company comments: “As we emerged from the pandemic in 2022 we focused more on offering a choice of tours to destinations in the UK and Europe as people tentatively returned to travelling again.

“For 2023 we have taken the decision to extend our long-haul rail tour range as we feel people are ready to explore further afield and want to see more of the world once again. But we would urge people to book well ahead of departure date to avoid disappointment.

“As a small travel company we have to close bookings on our long-haul tours weeks in advance and often have to disappoint customers who are waiting to decide on a last minute holiday. We are hopeful that the recent 'last minute' trend will ease off as travel confidence improves and people return to planning and booking holidays months in advance. It will certainly help small travel companies trade out of the pandemic.”

New tours, re-runs of cancelled debut rail holidays and many firm train travel favourites all feature in the new ‘Rail Holidays of the World’ 2022 Brochure.

Specialist rail tour operator Ffestiniog Travel is steaming ahead with plans to get travellers back on the touring train by offering 43 escorted tours over the next 15 months! It is hoped they will inspire a renewed sense of wanderlust among those keen to explore the world by train.

Says Maria Cook, General Manager: “It has been a very challenging 15 months due to the COVID pandemic, but we remain optimistic that our new escorted tour programme will run and appeal to existing and new customers. Many of our travellers, disappointed by ongoing tour cancellations, have rolled their bookings over to our 2022 departures. Our swift response to fully refunding customers when tours were cancelled has given them the confidence to book with us again.

“We are limiting numbers on each tour to a maximum of just 29 travellers, but it is worth emphasising that an average Ffestiniog Travel escorted tour size is usually around 16 passengers. We therefore encourage people to book early to avoid disappointment. In the event of us cancelling tours due to resurgence in COVID, customers will be fully reimbursed swiftly as per our refund policy. If a tour proves to be popular and becomes over-subscribed we will endeavour to arrange another departure

“As a small independent tour operator we can be flexible and adjust to an ever changing landscape. Smaller tour numbers also allow a level of flexibility within the holiday - our tour leaders are experienced and will adapt to each group of travellers according to its needs, including helping travellers make the best of any free time. On a Ffestiniog Travel escorted tour you can enjoy a private holiday within the security of a group!”

Rail tour operator Ffestiniog Travel is delighted to have achieved ‘Green’ status on the Which? HolidayChecker. The consumer champion has published its own tool enabling travellers to check out the holiday companies with the best COVID-19 flexible booking arrangements.

Which? compared holiday providers’ Covid travel cancellation and refund policies to create the Holiday Checker. Those offering the best flexible booking options which didn’t leave customers out of pocket if circumstances changed were given a ‘Green’ rating – others were awarded ‘Amber’ and those deemed the worst were put on the ‘Red’ rating

Maria Cook, Ffestiniog Travel General Manager commented: “As a small, specialist independent tour operator we are delighted to firstly be acknowledged and secondly to achieve a good ‘Green’ rating for our COVID booking and refund policy.

“We have always put our customers first and despite the difficulties encountered by the pandemic we were able to do the right thing by our travellers and refund them fully in a matter of days when a rail tour was cancelled due to COVID. It is an approach that has resulted in customers booking with us again on our 2022 tours confident that should we cancel their money is safe.”

In response to the worldwide COVID-19 outbreak, Ffestiniog Travel has cancelled all holidays until the end of July 2020.

Please read below for the reasons for this decision in a letter from General Manager Maria Cook. Ffestiniog Travel will help all customers to rebook as soon as the situation returns to normal. In the meantime, Ffestiniog Travel is reaching out to all affected customers and dealing with the cancellations effectively and sympathetically.