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Have you toured with Royston/Ashton or Thenford Grey

4275princess

By 4275princess,
in St. Kitts & Nevis

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4275princess

4275princess

Posted
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I have a group of (8) and want to do a tour of the island. It's important to be in a clean, comfortable AC vehicle. Tour operator needs to be considerate, knowledgeable and accommodating. Have you toured with either of these companies and if so, would appreciate comments. Thanks

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bonzijam

bonzijam

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I have toured with Royston and found him to be very good, polite and willing to work with whatever you want to see/do and is reasonable. We were a group of 4 then. We are touring with him next week, having a group of 18. He can accomodate that many because his cousin works with him also. We are looking forward to seeing him again. The only problem with his tour is that Royston does not have an airconditioned vehicle. We don't mind that because for us, when on the islands, live the islands. So, if an a/c vehicle is what you want, I wouldn't suggest booking with him. If you don't mind giving up the a/c, then book with him and have some island fun.:D

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Zeno

Zeno

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I have a group of (8) and want to do a tour of the island. It's important to be in a clean, comfortable AC vehicle. Tour operator needs to be considerate, knowledgeable and accommodating. Have you toured with either of these companies and if so, would appreciate comments. Thanks

 

We toured with Royston and were exceptionally pleased.

 

As someone else pointed out the only problem with Royston's vehicle (from your standpoint) is that it is not air-conditioned. He pops the windows out - so it actually is quite comfortable and great for picture taking. It is "clean enough" (that is to say clean enough that your clothes won't get dirty but not so new and spotless that you worry about getting sand from the beach in it or getting the seats wet if you go swimming).

 

Now I gather that his cousin Ashton's vehicle is newer, nicer and air-conditioned - so if you are considering booking with Royston, you might want to ask him if he has an air-conditioned vehicle available.

 

As for the other stuff - Royston is exceptionally accommodating and considerate and flexible and an excellent, safe, courteous driver. He will set things up to suit you. He does not so much give a "guided" tour as answer questions and provide tidbits of interesting info.

 

I guess, it really depends on how "formal" a tour you want. We loved our time with him because of his flexibility and very pleasant demeanour. He never rushed us and answered all our questions. It was funny though because when our friend initially saw his van, she was a bit put off (it looks its age) but by the end of the day, she was chattering on about what a great, relaxing time it had been. She concluded that she preferred Royston's more relaxed approach to the more formal tour that we had had when we were in Barbados - so it really is a matter of personal taste and expectations.

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ocsuzie

ocsuzie

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Our tour with Royston on Oct 28, was the highlight of our 15 day cruise! We had 8 in Royston's van and 10 went with his cousin, Ashton, in the AC van. We loved the tour with Royston and highly recommend him. He was personable and lots of fun. He drove that "open-air" van like an off road vehicle, and we went up mountains, through the grasses and down on the beach. Lunch was great, and he had plenty of drinks for everyone. We were all pleased and talked and laughed about this tour for the rest of the cruise. He took a tour and made it an adventure that we all loved. :)

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Houston Pegaroo

Houston Pegaroo

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We toured with Royston in Oct. Fabulous day ...one of the best of our cruise. Royston is delightful and very knowledgeable about his island. He is willing to structure tour to include whichever sites are important to you. He covered all of our requested spots, then also took us to some "off the beaten path" locations that were great. His price is really low for what he includes. Can't recommend him highly enough.

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Cruizlovers

Cruizlovers

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One more thumbs up for Mr. Thenford Grey. We took a tour with him last year. He was polite, caring and an intelligent man. He accommodated us (a party of 4) and even accommodated an older woman who in the middle of the tour wanted to go back to the ship. We wanted to do lunch at the beach. Mr. Grey took us to a wonderful beach for lunch and said he would take the two ladies back to the ship and be back for us. We never once felt abandoned. He returned promptly which was amazing because we were, it appeared to me, on the other side of the island. We toured Brimstone Hill Fortress and several other points of interest. Amazing. He then took us a high point on the island, the view was breathtaking and we took some fantastic photos. This was one of our best tours ever. I highly recommend Mr. Grey!

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Jeepers385

Jeepers385

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Here's another vote for Thenford Grey. Great service, wonderful stops along the way to Brimstone and then to the beach. His van is air conditioined which my DH appreciated since it was very hot that day and I took pictures out the window and had no problems with clarity of the pictures.

Whoever you choose I'm sure you'll have a great time, sounds like you can't go wrong with either one :D.

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simple girl

simple girl

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Thenford is wonderful! Very well-spoken and informative, and friendly. We toured with him last week. One thing he mentioned is that people think since he is so well recommended that he will not have space for them...and so they don't contact him...there subsequently were only 6 in our tour group. So FYI, he probably has space, LOL.

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cynbar

cynbar

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We'll be in St Kitts in January and are interested in a private tour, but there are only 2 of us. Do either of these companies group cruisers together to fill up a van? It seems more fun to tour with a group rather than just us and the driver.

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BigRed93

BigRed93

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We'll be in St Kitts in January and are interested in a private tour, but there are only 2 of us. Do either of these companies group cruisers together to fill up a van? It seems more fun to tour with a group rather than just us and the driver.

 

I don't think Royston does that. We booked with him for next week and it was just two of us. We actually picked up a few others from the roll call, so now we have a few more and less cost pp. I told him I would have been open to having him combine us with others, but if you had a group of 4-6 people, would you really want 2 strangers with you?;) Probably why he does what he does. He doesn't seem to be the same as some of the operators that contract out drivers, so they can just keep adding to the numbers.

 

Maybe you can post on the roll call for you sailing and pick up a few more people?

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amsp

amsp

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We'll be in St Kitts in January and are interested in a private tour, but there are only 2 of us. Do either of these companies group cruisers together to fill up a van? It seems more fun to tour with a group rather than just us and the driver.

 

have you tried to get a group together over on your roll call? it is a great place to arrange tours. (oops guess i should have read to the end of the thread.)

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  • 2 weeks later...
nevarez

nevarez

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My husband and I took a tour with Ashton last week. There were 3 couples (including us) in his van. He charged $40 pp as he did have the air going continously. The weather was warm when we were there so we were thankful for the air. Ashton knows his island well; even the plants! He took us all over stopping specifically at Brimstone Fortress which we got a guided tour of by Ashton, Romney Manor/Claribelle Batik, Samuel Jackson's ( Andrew Jackson's grandfather) plantation, a rain forest by the plantation, and South Friars beach where there are wild monkeys! He also fed us a burrito type lunch and there's drinks in his van (water, sodas, beer)in a cooler.

 

We were very pleased with our tour. Ashton answered a lot of our questions about St. Kitts; from economy, traditions, government, foods...

 

His tour was about 6-1/2 hours. We had about 2 hours at South Friars beach. He got us back to the ship with half hour to spare.

 

I highly recommend him!

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EKELLEY

EKELLEY

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We'll be in St Kitts in January and are interested in a private tour, but there are only 2 of us. Do either of these companies group cruisers together to fill up a van? It seems more fun to tour with a group rather than just us and the driver.

 

My DH and I did a private tour with Royston on 12/1/10 and loved every minute of it. You can tell he really loves his island. This was our favorite tour of all the 5 islands we visited on our 10 day cruise.

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