OxfordwalkingtoursofoxfordReviews of oxfordwalkingtoursofoxford.com

Avoid this Tour. Matthew is the " tour guìde". He speaks a lot , makes jokes, but very little tour. Half way through the tour there is a 10 minute break where he pressures everyone to pay at least seven pound by card or cash. On questioning him, he becomes demanding and says nothing is for free and says he needs to charge now because people leave the "tour" without paying. The website looks convincing but the actual "free tour" is questionable as is the money he tries to charge.

The tour is a scam. Advertised as free, on the website it's written multiple times and accentuated that it's a free tour with only optional donations at the end. A guy (likely indian descent) with likely fake name told us some bullshit stories and a couple lame jokes. Basically, showed us to a nearby pub and asked us to pay or leave. Even though the tour is advertised as absolutely free everywhere on their website, multiple times in multiple places. They even stressed it as free during the phone call. When we arrived at the spot, i noticed a group of people, all of similar ethnicities, likely indians, with fake smiles and enthusiasm. I suspect our group was the only tourist group there. It's a typical scam scheme you see a lot of on the London bridge, for example.

Had same experience as Mae Wong. Website advertising FREE tour with a choice of donation. I don't mind donating if it's worthwhile however, after 30mins of tour and 'joking around' Matthew (if that is his real name btw) insisted us paying 7 ppp, otherwise we can leave. We have left purely due to uncomfortable insisting on paying. Not trying to be racist or anything but the rest of the people on the tour were all Indian-background and were 'over the top' of the excitement of this. Not to mention everyone was eyeing us over when Matthew was asking for a payment. This seemed a lot like a 'cup and ball' scam popular in London where every single person around are involved.

It’s a scam. We have made a formal complaint to Oxfordshire Trading Standards and reported the matter to the relevant authorities.

This is not a free tour it is a scam. An Indian guy dressed casually who calls himself Matthew will suddenly turn up late and talk alot of nonsense. He will first make you walk past buildings then take your money and then continues to make you walk past buildings and talk nonsense. You will not go inside any of the colleges, the only building you will go inside is some church. If you complain he will just dismiss you. Do not use this company.

I joined this “free” walking tour in Oxford today. I expected a genuine free walking tour, perhaps led by a local Oxford student or someone with a connection to the city, where you tip voluntarily at the end. Instead, the guide, a South-East Asian man called Matthew, with strong accent, arrived about 15 minutes late. After visiting only two places, he started going around with a card machine asking everyone to pay. He repeatedly said the tour was “worth £30” and that the minimum payment was £7. When several of us said we preferred to pay at the end, he insisted that we pay immediately or leave. When we mentioned that the website advertised it as free, his response was: “I’m not the website.” Several of us therefore left. I have joined free walking tours in many countries, and normally you decide yourself how much to tip at the end. I have never experienced this kind of pressure to pay almost immediately. The guide also did not appear to have any obvious local Oxford connection, which was not what I expected from an Oxford walking tour. In my opinion, the advertising is very misleading. Please be aware of this before joining and don’t waste your time. We had no chance to get into any building, he just talk a lot from the outside.

Scam! Not free, and not as advertised. Normally you pay what you wish after the tour, but this man nearly forced you to pay after only 20 minutes. You do not get to enter any buildings, other than a church. Total scam.

The tour is a scam as many reviews say. It’s not free, the guide, named ”Matthew”, talked about the payment and showed us suggested prices right in the beginning, saying that ”other companies charge 30£ for the same tour”. He said that we could pay according to our happiness, but then he started collecting the money from each person just 30 minutes in to the tour. A couple (wise) participants really had to insist that they will pay at the end of the tour and the guide was very persuasive saying that ”everyone just leaves so fast without paying”. Of course it’s customary to tip the guide on a free tour, but normally at the end and the guides aren’t persisting you to pay. The guide also didn’t seem like an Oxford student/alumni, he just told us jokes and random facts that you could probably read online if they are even true. We didn’t go inside any buildings, as promised on the tour description, except a free cathedral. At the end we could go see a cathedral and a dining hall in a small college if we went inside a couple people at a time, so that we didn’t seem like a tour group. He just told us that we could go see the buildings with entrance fees after the tour. There also seems to be at least two different webpages for the same tour.