In planning my trip to England, the Lake District was high up on my list of places to visit, and was supposed to be one of, if not the highlight of my trip. Did a day trip from Manchester. As an avid photographer, I thought this would be a photographer's paradise with loads of breathtaking photo opportunities...however the weather that day clearly had other ideas.
It absolutely rained cats and dogs the entire day. This made it not only difficult to enjoy the scenery from the windows of the van but also made it nearly impossible to get out at the stops and enjoy oneself and take pictures. At our handful of stops, I braved the gnarly winds and pouring rain to get whatever photos I could get.
To Mountain Goat: I realize that the weather is 100 percent beyond your control, and that at the end of the day you guys are a business and in it for the money...however some more transparency on your end would've been much appreciated. A couple days before my tour when I saw the forecast for heavy rain, I emailed you guys asking if the tour would still run and about my concerns that I wouldn't get much out of my day trip if the weather absolutely didnt cooperate. I was told that the tour does run in heavy rain and that it rains frequently in the Lake District, but my concerns over the weather hindering my experience weren't addressed, perhaps so as to not discourage me from cancelling last minute for a refund. I had trusted that either the rain wouldn't hinder me from enjoying myself and getting something out of my experience, or that if the weather was absolutely terrible that Mountain Goat would be prepared to deal with it given their high reviews as well as the fact that rain in this part of England is not uncommon.
However, what I was not told was that a huge storm happened to be passing through Northern England right when I came to visit, and that it was rare for the weather in the Lake District to be as bad as it was when I went. I was not told this until my driver mentioned it at the start of our tour. As a result, it was impossible to experience the true beauty of the Lake District, and I only had a couple of the photo opportunities I was so much looking forward to. I truly wish Mountain Goat had either warned me of this or at least addressed my concerns about the weather when I had emailed them.
The tour itself was decent...a good way to see a little bit of everything in a day. However, there were few chances to go outside and walk around and admire the scenery (not sure whether this was due to the rain). Our driver was ok...he explained things but didnt bother using a microphone so it was difficult to hear him from the middle of the bus.
Additionally, I had also contacted Mountain Goat before my tour asking when it would start and end, so I could book trains to and from Manchester (my base for the weekend I came on the tour) accordingly. I was told that the tour would end at around 4:30, and I purposely booked a late train back to give myself a large buffer in case the tour ran late. However, in reality the tour ended at 3:45. To me this was unacceptable, because it not only meant that I wasn't getting the true value of the tour for my money if it was indeed supposed to run later, but also meant that I was stuck in Windermere much longer that I wanted to. I was unable to switch to an earlier train back to Manchester, and I was stuck in cold and rainy Windermere for nearly three hours.
Overall utterly disappointing...and what should've been the highlight of my trip turned into the biggest letdown. Again I realize that Mountain Goat cant control the weather, but they surely couldve handled it better.