Theford Grey or Royston?

[QueenMab]

I'm going on my first cruise either January 22 or 29th (booking tomorrow!), and have spent the last week or so pouring over various excursions. Which tour would you recommend for St. Kitts? I noticed that Royston's provides a (small?) lunch.

 

If Thenford Grey, how much better is The Tour compared to the Rainforest Tour?

[CruisinRoxy]

I cannot speak for Royston, others have praised his tour.

We went with Thenford Grey. There were 10 of us, 4 adults and 6 young adults, ages 25 to 14. Thenford tailored a combo tour for our group, taking the youngsters up hiking the volcano, which they absolutely thought was awesome and had a blast! But quite strenuous. The 4 older adults (their parents), he took to Caribelle Batik at Romney Manor where the grounds are beautiful. Then to Brimstone Fortress - an absolute MUST see! Then to the Southeast Peninsula and Cockleshell Beach, which is beautiful and where there is the Shipwreck Bar and Grill where we had some great local beer and nachos (we paid for these ourselves) Then back to Basseterre for some shopping, where we met up with the kids. By the way, the hike up the volcano for the kids was accompanied by a local tour guide who had done the hike many times - the kids thought he was very cool and fun.

[Zeno]

I'm going on my first cruise either January 22 or 29th (booking tomorrow!), and have spent the last week or so pouring over various excursions. Which tour would you recommend for St. Kitts? I noticed that Royston's provides a (small?) lunch.

 

If Thenford Grey, how much better is The Tour compared to the Rainforest Tour?

 

We went with Royston (although I am quite sure Thenford is fine too). Lawrence provides light refreshments (soft drinks, water, beer if you like and and a snack (in our case delicious roti (kind of like a roll-up but with a warm filling - ours were chicken and yummy!).

 

He is very flexible and will customize tours to suit you.

His van is older and not air-conditioned but he can remove the windows which makes for great picture taking. We liked his van because of the great breezes and photo ops and we felt OK about tracking beach sand into it. If you need an air-conditioned van, he can get his cousin for you (who has an air-conditioned van).

 

We loved Royston but I think that you can't go wrong with either of these two. They both seem to have good reputations.

[towemowakcat]

try rosevelt taylor from island paradise tours fntastic

[Willbcruisin]

I'm going on my first cruise either January 22 or 29th (booking tomorrow!), and have spent the last week or so pouring over various excursions. Which tour would you recommend for St. Kitts? I noticed that Royston's provides a (small?) lunch.

 

If Thenford Grey, how much better is The Tour compared to the Rainforest Tour?

I can't speak for either of these tour operators but I am going on cruise number 13:)

 

When we were in St Kitts in April we used Javin. He is amazing and the tour is one of the best we have ever experienced of the Islands. In St Martin we use Bernard Tours and St Kitts, Javin.

 

myislandstours.shutterfly.com

 

Hope this helps and enjoy your first cruise. Beware though, cruising is addicting:)

[k2]

I cannot speak for Royston, others have praised his tour.

We went with Thenford Grey. There were 10 of us, 4 adults and 6 young adults, ages 25 to 14. Thenford tailored a combo tour for our group, taking the youngsters up hiking the volcano, which they absolutely thought was awesome and had a blast! But quite strenuous. The 4 older adults (their parents), he took to Caribelle Batik at Romney Manor where the grounds are beautiful. Then to Brimstone Fortress - an absolute MUST see! Then to the Southeast Peninsula and Cockleshell Beach, which is beautiful and where there is the Shipwreck Bar and Grill where we had some great local beer and nachos (we paid for these ourselves) Then back to Basseterre for some shopping, where we met up with the kids. By the way, the hike up the volcano for the kids was accompanied by a local tour guide who had done the hike many times - the kids thought he was very cool and fun.

 

How do you contact Thenford Grey? Did the van have A/C and how many does it seat? We have a pretty good size group. Does he have a website?

Edited September 28, 2011 by k2

[paul58]

google thenford grey

[Putterdude]

We used Thenford Gray 2 years ago and he was terrific. My DW suffers from MS and at the Brimstone Fortress he, unbeknown to me, drove her privately to all the parts of the fortress that he could...what a great guy. He is very knowledgeable, speaks well and a super guide, you can't do better than Thenford.:)

[Island.Hopper]

:) We Can't compare the two as we've only been with Thenford grey all I can say is the man is a real gent, he know's his stuff, he's got a nice big bus that he "shares with his bank manager" :D he was well organised we was off and away long before the rest, he knows the Island inside out.:cool:

[eclipsethecat]

Thenford Grey’s trip was probably the best shore excursion we have ever been on. Thenford was a complete gentleman and took the time to explain the island to us and was a wealth of information and was the complete opposite experience as we had in St Lucia (if you are booking in St Lucia please be sure to read my review of James Touring so you can avoid having the horrific experience we had.)

 

 

 

Upon our exit from the ship we found Thenford himself waiting for us. He introduced himself and explained what we were going to do for the day and that we were waiting for a couple other people. Once they arrived we got on the road and Thenford immediately began explaining the neighborhoods and interesting sites. He was very knowledgeable and if he didn’t know the answer he looked it up. The van was very nice and air conditioned but not too cold. We drove along the roads and then stopped at the place where there were petroglyphs- Thenford explained in a nice way (and not like we were stupid tourists,) that there would be people along our way with monkeys- if we wanted pictures it would be expected that we would pay for them. If not we could tell them no thank you. I am not a fan of monkeys so I didn’t partake but there was a woman on our tour who did want to and Thenford let her borrow some ones because she didn’t have any small bills. This is what really sets him apart from other tour operators.

 

 

 

He is a gentleman who cares about his clients, their comforts and desires. Never once did he seem annoyed by our questions or did he think they were stupid. After the petroglyphs we drove up to Romney mansion and the Batik store- Romney mansion is beautiful and Thenford offered to use our cameras to take photos of us- again a nice thing to do. The Batik store was beautiful and had a lot of nice gifts at decent prices. Thenford was also very knowledgeable about all the plants and flowers in the garden-knowing the names and background stories on all of them. After Romney manor we were taken to the Fort- it is beautiful and looks out over the sea. He drove very carefully unlike some other drivers we have had and explained the forts history on the way up. He let us walk around as much as we wanted then took us to a lookout point where you can see where the Caribbean and Atlantic meet and then down to the beach at Shipwreck (I think that was what it was called,) beach.

 

 

 

We did not take snorkel gear but understand there was some good snorkeling. We ate a good lunch there and then he took us back to the ship. At the amount he charges you get a very good deal for what you get. We had a marvelous time and can honestly say that this is one tour guide who deserves all the praise he receives.

[Grumpy8]

TG is a awesome man. With a great family and I might add a great wife who can cook. We use him for a Tour last year. His wife made me my favorite dish using BreadFruit. Our whole group of 14 love the tour. We will be using him again in March.:)

[erby2283]

I have only been on Royston's tour and if you're concerned about not having AC, I wouldn't worry about. We were there last month and it was not hot at all. I loved his tour. In my signature is a link for my review that has pictures from St. Kitts. If you contact Royston ahead of time, he might be able to suit a tour just for your group. He's pretty flexible. The lunch he provided was awesome and provided drinks as well. Had a great time. It was probably my favorite tour of the trip! Have a great cruise!

[l2f]

We did a tour with Thenford Grey a few weeks ago. Like mentioned above, it was one of the best tours we have ever been on. Also like the poster above, St. Lucia (we toured with Spencer Ambrose) and it was probably the worse tour we have ever been on.

 

I would use Thenford again without a thought. He is a gentleman, very proud and knowledgable about St. Kitts.

[lovemylab]

We toured with Thenford last week and LOVED it! He is very knowledgable and once you're confirmed, he won't cancel due to not enough passengers. We had 4 people on our tour and he was still happy to take us.

 

We got to see a great overview of the island and also had time for a beachstop.

[eclipsethecat]

l2f- I think the difference is that Thenford is a gentleman. I think on other islands they are more like hustlers as opposed to tour operators. I think that is the main problem. I felt so safe with Thenford- like I could have been left alone with him and nothing would have happened. I didnt feel like that on my tour of St Lucia (please if you are visiting look up my reviews of James Touring- we had a horrific day- I want to spare anyone else from going through what we did.)

[pepperman]

Just returned from a 10 day carb. trip on the Dawn and one of our stops was on St. Kitts.We took the tour(23 people) with Thenford Gray and had a very infomative and great time. The one thing that I noticed was that other companies dropped you off and said be back in what ever time they told you.Thenford took the group and made sure everyone kept up when he gave a personal presentation and explained and answered questions.

 

I and the other 23 people highly recommend Thenford Gray Tours.

[Sunseeker11]

I just did a tour with Thenford on Friday! It was my favorite tour out of all the ports! As others have said, he is very knowledgeable and a wonderful guide. His van is fairly new, clean, has AC and he is very good at maneuvering in tight places (Brimstone). Our tour had 12.

[CruisinRoxy]

Glad you enjoyed your day! That's exactly the way we felt about Thenford!

[cosytoes]

Hi does Thenford Grey include any drinks on the bus I noticed Roystons said drinks/lunch included. Is it just one drink? We have a few beer drinks in our party so a couple of drinks would be great.

[Sunseeker11]

Thenford had water, no beer or food

[CruisinRoxy]

That is correct, but we stopped at a very nice beach where there was the Shipwreck Bar/Grill for a couple of drinks and a yummy lunch - not included in the price, not not too expensive either. Had as much time as we wanted there.

[suesie]

We were also with Thenford Grey two weeks ago and had the Tour. It was excellent.

I won't repeat everything said here by others - but totally endorse it.

We would certainly use him again.

He very knowledgeable, a gentleman and we had a terrific day.

Susan

[craftymom914]

Please let me add another raving review for Thenford. We spent the day with him last week and it was THE BEST tour of the entire cruise. He is a wonderful man, extremely knowledgeable and engaging. He loves his island and loves to share it.

 

Three of us did The Tour with Thenford. (There were 2 other cruisers on the tour). My Son and Son-in-law did the Volcano Tour with his son. They loved the experience even in the rain! You cannot go wrong with Thenford. You may pay a little more than a regular cab, but you will have the best, most comprehensive tour you can get.

[jd1966]

I will echo what has already been said. You can't go wrong with Thenford Grey!

[pdprof]

cruisinroxy, which tour did you book with grey?