Full-Day Trip to Plymouth and Newport from Boston

The Plimouth village was very run-down and scruffy, not in an 'original' way the Puritans would have been very diligent to keep their places clean but in careless neglect, weeds, decay. Disappointing waste of good potential!

It was ok, but not great. I was a little disappointed that this was the way I introduced my parents to the Breakers. It states on the add that the guests are responsible for the ticket fees to get into the sights and the cost of food. I was completely expecting that. What I was not expecting was to have the tour bus driver explain that we are also going to the Grist Mill in Plymouth an addition 7 per person, the Plymouth Rock and a Chinese sushi/BBQ buffet for lunch an additional 15 per person and that every guest had to pay him 83 in cash to cover the cost of all these things. He then put out his hand and said I owed him 332 in cash for my group. I explained that I didn't have cash with me, I was planning on using my credit card to pay for the tickets when we got to the site. He said that was not how it worked, and then pulled the entire bus over to a bank so I could go to an ATM, I explained I didn't have an ATM card with me, I had a credit card. He said I could do a cash withdrawal from the ATM with my credit card. It's certainly not how I would have wanted to do things, but they entire bus was waiting on us and it made it really awkward for my parents, so my husband and I just did it. When we got to the Breakers we had 1 hour, which was not nearly enough time to get through the whole thing. Then we went to the Chinese Buffet for lunch. We had 1 person with a seafood allergy in our party me and they couldn't guarantee no cross contamination. My mother doesn't eat at buffets or anyplace that employs a sneeze guard - she is admittedly a germafobe. There were apparently no other options so for 60 for lunch, only 2 of us actually got to eat a meal. The tour guide asked what we had expected, I told him we had expected to be able to stop and pick up lunch at one of the sites. Nothing more. We got to Plymouth Plantation and had just over an hour, so we didn't get to see the whole thing. It had started to rain which slowed things up no one's fault obviously but then the Grist Mill was closing, so we were given 5 minutes in there and then had to leave. Not really worth having left the Plantation without having been able to see the whole thing for. Certainly not worth the money. Then we went over to Plymouth Rock. It was cool, but again pouring, so no one else in my tour group really wanted to stay and see it. So the 4 of us and 2 others got out to walk Plymouth Harbor and see the rock while the tour bus followed us down the road waiting for us to be finished... I had high hopes for this trip. Maybe too high. I thought we were going down to the Breakers for the morning, to the Plantation for the afternoon and then home. The tour guide was very nice, but that was totally not what I got. Instead we spent the day saying, Well, we can always plan another trip on our own to come back and see this. A more detailed itinerary or break down of expectation of costs and payment methods if they are going to be so specific as to cash paid to driver and include more than what is actually included in the tour would be helpful!

I was very disappointed with my trip because my guide spoke very little english and we could not communicate. The man was very nice and did his best but when I asked if we would see the Mayflower he said today not open when we arrived at Plymouth rock there was no Mayflower in sight. He also collected a 9.00 gratuity from everyone and I thought the gratuity was included not sure The cost of the trip covered a driver who took us from one place to the next and gave no explanation about anything. Entrance fees, gratuity and lunch cost me another 76 over and above the cost of the trip. To be fair, I took a Viator trolley tour in DC which was great and I would recommend it - this trip was not very good at all.