OUR HOSTS & GUIDES
We provide a tour host that travels with all our tours to ensure the tour flows and can provide assistance to all travellers. We have been to Badminton Horse Trials and CHIO Aachen and many of the events many times before. We know the best places to sit, good value shops, wonderful places to dine and the best places to visit.
On our walking tours of local towns and cities we provide local tour guides. Nothing beats local knowledge, and the guides all speak English and are chosen for their expertise, passion, and genuine love of their country. Some sights provide an audio head piece so you can explore at your leisure.
On some of our tours we include an equestrian expert to compliment the tour.
We can arrange cross country course walks or VIP tickets if not already included. For those wanting to dine as a group on evenings where dinner is not included the host will arrange a group dinner for those wanting to join.
Your tour host will be there to answer any questions and help if you have any problems. Our tours are hosted and not guided and we must obey by local laws of the country when escorting tours and employ local guides for special sights and walking tours.
ACCOMMODATION
Accommodation can make or break a tour, so we take choosing our tour hotels very seriously.
We choose hotels that offer all the amenities and normally always include breakfast. The majority of our hotels are 4 star and include a restaurant and a bar and plenty of in room amenities.
If we are attending an equestrian event, we try to find hotels that are close by or are centrally located so you can walk out the door and find a restaurant, go shopping or explore the sights.
Our hotel in Aachen is opposite the shuttle service so the group can just walk out the door and within two minutes, be travelling to CHIO Aachen and be sitting in the Grandstand watching your favourite riders in under 25 minutes.
Some of the bigger events do not have many hotels nearby, so we always try to be no more than 30-40 minutes away from the event.
We also like to mix it up a bit on some of our speciality tours in Italy and Spain with lovely Paradors, Castles and Monasteries depending on the tour.
However, rather than focusing on star ratings we use the following criteria: cleanliness, great service, atmosphere, and location, location, location.
MEALS ON TOUR
Our tours include many meals, while still giving you the opportunity to get out and try the local cuisine on your own.
Breakfast is included daily along with group welcome and farewell dinners. We’ll also include some special dining experiences along the way and meals where it might otherwise be tricky to get it for yourself. We purposefully don’t include all meals to allow you the opportunity to eat outside a hotel setting and really experience life as a local. And if you’re looking for tips on where to eat, check with your host! They’ll always be able to recommend a good local restaurant.
On the majority of our tours the breakfast is usually buffet-style with local and western-style dishes. In some European countries breakfast is continental-style consisting of breads, cheeses, jams and lots of coffee!
When we include a dinner this is usually a set meal of 2-3 courses and sometimes you may need to pre-order the meal before arrival.
If you have any special meal requests please let us know. Vegetarians will normally find sufficient choices but please let us know so that we can inform the restaurant. We understand many people now have food allergies and we have catered for lactose, gluten intolerant, fodmap, pescatarian, vegan, vegetarian and many special diets.
Drinks are not normally included and will need to be paid for separately at lunches and dinners.
All our tour itineraries include a legend (B: Breakfast, L: Lunch & D: Dinner) to indicate which meals are included. Check out our tour pages for further details.
TRANSPORT
On our tours that provide touring, Snaffle Travel provides modern, clean, comfortable, air-conditioned coaches and vehicles.
Since 2015 we have limited our group size whilst still using full size coaches. Our small group policy means there are always plenty of free seats on the coach, giving you space to spread out and making it easier to take in the incredible views. It also assists us with appropriately distancing ourselves throughout the vehicle, a newfound necessity of the times.
Most of our UK tours provide a 29 – 49 seater coach for transfers and touring.
In Europe we may include a train transfer and sometimes if the hotel is near an event we will walk, catch a local bus, or take a cab.
On our CHIO Aachen tour depending on flights we may use a train, taxi or a coach transfer from the airport to Aachen. We use the CHIO Aachen shuttle to the event.
As well as the standard coaches, we like to mix it up because we believe it makes for a better holiday experience. After all, anybody can give you a coach tour, for us it’s all about the experience! On some of our tours we may travel on traditional boats, take scenic train journeys, glide up mountains in cable cars, or go on thrilling game drives in 4WDs.
And then there are times we don’t provide any transport at all! We leave the coach behind and wander through local villages and towns, exploring hidden corners of the big cities and discover the magic of mother nature. For us the love of travel means getting out and actually experiencing the places we visit.
