OxfordwalkingtoursofoxfordReviews of oxfordwalkingtoursofoxford.com

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.

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.

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.

Do not be fooled by this. This guy Matthew came late, talked about what we'll see. He was very unorganized, walking up and down. He charged us with £6 saying if we don't pay he wont take us to the university. We paid however when we told him it's advertised as free he said nobody will take us into the university for free. We were listening his crap. He thought he was funny but he wasn't. What a waste of time with this scam

DO NOT DO THIS TOUR. Matthew is a deceptive lying con artist. The moment we arrived for our “free tour”, he immediately explained about the various levels of donation we should consider. But 10 minutes later on the tour while taking a “break” he approached me to step outside the library and make my payment. When I told him I would play 20 pounds for my wife and I and our two children of 7 and 9 years old, he objected. He said it was a minimum of 24 pounds. When I told him that they are only children, he insisted that kids over 5 must be paid for. He gave some story about his bosses and that this was a franchised operation. As for the actually tour, we only saw the exterior of buildings. We stopped outside of the church and he let us go inside by ourselves. This whole operation is a charade.

Don’t use their service, misadvertised and deceitful. We could have just walked around by ourselves, it was a waste of money and time. I wish I had checked reviews before going with them— not free by the way as advertised and payment was asked by our tour guide matthew and he’s quite pushy. We have not entered the places shown and decribed on the website but we just went walking around which we could have done ourselves. Worst tour ever. Avoid at all cost! I would have preferred to pay more for a tour that delivers what it advertises!

Very poor service; rushed tour; bad humour; left-behind; missed attractions; IT’S NOT FREE! The tour guy will sneak upon you while on a 10 min break with a pdq machine asking for a minimum amount per head; couldn’t go inside of some of the attractions; we were requested to go on our own inside of Oxford college so the porter didn’t see the tour guide and think we were a large group; sudden, abrupt and rushed ending of the tour after a brief explanation of ‘Nárnia walk’. Disappointing tour.

Basically all is said by the other reviews. We had a strange feeling from the very beginning but tried to give it a shot. After approximately 30 minutes into the tour and several announcements what we would see we went on a toilet break. This was odd but maybe it makes sense. When we left the library we were asked if we would pay cash or by card, when asking that it said we should pay at the end we were told we have to pay now. Matthew moved on when it took us too long to find our money. At that point both of us decided to leave as we felt it was not worth a penny at that moment. We found these reviews just now, luckily we only lost about 45 Minutes. Avoid it an book a tour with a real student, we saw some and they seemed nice. Unfortunately it was too late for us to go on another one. If you read this after the tour like we did and would like to help others, please report the google ad as abuse, maybe they will take it down. I tried creating the starting point as a business - if it goes through, please rate it so others can find it when going there.