Herbert Woods Bewertungen 174

Super-friendly staff. Very good value. Spacious boat, but easy to handle. Lots of great information if you want it, and if you know what you are doing they don't labour the instructions. Big but easy set-up in Potter Heigham. Excellent all round.

We booked Adventuring Light 3 for the Easter weekend—just me, my husband, and Zac, our Westie-and had a wonderful experience from start to finish.
The cruiser itself was delightful and perfectly suited to us as a couple travelling with our dog. In true UK fashion, we encountered a mix of weather, including the tail end of Storm Dave with strong winds, hail, and rain. Thankfully, the sun made an appearance too, giving us the chance to open the canopy roof and relax at the front, soaking up the rays. The changing weather didn't spoil the trip at all.
The boat was exceptionally well equipped, with everything we needed: a microwave, oven, fridge, and two TVs-one in the living area and another above the very comfortable double bed. The heating was excellent, keeping the space warm, cosy, and inviting throughout.
The staff were lovely and friendly, making the whole experience even more enjoyable from the moment we arrived.
All in all, it was an exceptional boating experience and a truly memorable Easter break. Thank you to Herbert Woods for such a fantastic trip.
Booked Adventuring Light again for September so we can have a venture under Ludham Bridge onto Barton Broad side and go back to Ranworth and visit the Maltesers after its refurb.

Hired Adventuring Light for the weekend from Herbert Woods, had a great time. The staff were friendly and informative. This was our first time on a boat, Steve who did our trial run was very thorough and included not just how to operate the boat but also how to moor up and tie up. We were met by the yard staff who showed us where to moor up and took our lines as we came back at the end of our holiday. We will defiantly be back next year & would highly recommend Herbert Woods to our friends & family.

Had two amazing holidays no issues. Third holiday staff rushing to go home crashed into our boat which was safely moored damaging our gear, reported to management no responsibility taken very disappointed.

Lee is a credit to the company. Answered all my questions very knowledgeable and very customer oriantated

Absolutely disgusting customer relations and its out of season so cannot blame being rushed off their feet. Employer on a grinding machine F'in and Blindin at boaters (non Herbert boats) as coming into yard to use services, simply just rude! Then Reception staff equally blunt & rude! Sadly shall not even contemplate booking with them!

Absolutely disgusting, hired a very expensive boat for 3 nights, the boat had the last occupants poo in the toilet for the 1st 24 hours, the sink was fully blocked & the bathroom as unusable due to the bad smell, we returned to their site to pay to use the communal showers & they did not work properly, were freezing cold & again in a dire state.

I did inform the receptionist we had an issue who asked for no further information about the boat & got irritated that she had to refund the shower fee.

This company is fully obsessed about money & have zero interest in hearing about issues or understanding.

This was our 2nd stay, the 1st stay 2 years ago was fine, however all of their boats looked dirty on the outside & tatty, we spoke to plenty of unhappy Herbert Woods customers & we also spoke to lots of happy customers from other companies such as Richardson &, Ferry Marina, do yourself a favour & avoid these sinking clowns.

Extremely Disappointed – No Compassion Shown by Herbert Woods - I’m writing this review with a heavy heart and deep disappointment following a very upsetting experience with Herbert Woods Broads Holiday Adventures. I had booked a day trip on the Starlight for 29th July 2025 for myself, my wife, and my parents. We paid in full and were genuinely looking forward to the trip, especially my dad, who had just bought a motorhome and was excited to holiday around the Norfolk Broads.

Tragically, my father passed away before we were able to go, leaving us utterly devastated. Given the circumstances, I reached out to Herbert Woods by phone and was advised to email them, which I did on 26th June. I received no response. I followed up again on 2nd July and finally heard back on 9th July – nearly two weeks later. This delay in communication, particularly in such a sensitive situation, showed a total lack of compassion or urgency.

Their eventual response, while polite, was cold and inflexible. Despite me explaining the loss of my father and giving them ample notice (over a month in advance), they refused any form of refund. Instead, they offered to transfer the booking to a later date (this year or 2026) — but with a £35 administration fee. Frankly, I found this completely unacceptable and insulting under the circumstances.

It’s highly likely they will re-book the boat for that day without issue, so a partial refund would have been the least I expected. To be told that we would have to pay more money just to move the date — after losing a loved one — left a bitter taste and demonstrated a shocking lack of empathy.

I urge anyone considering booking with Herbert Woods to think carefully. Emergencies and tragedies can happen, and sadly, this company has made it clear that they are not interested in supporting or helping customers through them. They follow their policies rigidly, with little room for humanity or understanding.

Book with caution — their customer service ends the moment they take your money.

Absolutely disgusting behaviour from the so called yard manager we hired a boat for 2 weeks after5 days it was leaking oil from the bilge pump and there was 8 inch of water in the engine bay to be told it was rain water we had not had a drop of rain , my husband was told he didn’t know what he was on about when he mentioned the oil , environmental issues we told them and he said it’s common for oil t leak into the water we said we wasn’t going to help contaminate the water we asked for another boat to be told there wasn’t any until the Monday which in there words would be to big , but low and behold they relet our boat out 3 hrs later to someone else how could they have possibly sorted the problem out in that time , they are now saying that we cannot have any money back because we refuse to drive the one we had oil or no oil , absolutely ridiculous behaviour and rude beyond words save your money and go with a different company.

40% off sale, many people have now paid a lot of money for pre booking to see they should have waited. If you call you are told cancel, lose your deposit. I would say it's all downhill for these guys from here, monumental marketing failure.

We have just had a Monday - Friday rental on Royale Light 1 and had an amazing holiday. I was most impressed by the staff, every single member of staff that we met was friendly and helpful. I found the whole experience of arrival and departure very easy, I do not have any comparisons but feel I would struggle to find a better service elsewhere. The boat was very clean and in good working order. The kitchen was spotless with new utensils, etc. We called maintenance the first evening as the heating was not working but they came to where we were moored up to sort it out. I must have had interactions with at least 10 members of staff and they were all friendly and helpful.

Royal Light II

‘Boat was serviced and cleaned before you left’.

It wasn’t. It smelled of smoking despite being a non smoking boat (we had to buy air fresheners to mask it), we had to pump out within 24 hours and fill water within 48.

1st toilet stopped working within 24 hours, the second within 72 hours (the boat smelled as a consequence). An engineer was called out to us to fix the first toilet, we gave up on the second.

Staff at the centre seem disinterested and fed up with tourists despite being reliant on it.

On the whole, therefore, it’s a miss and if we were to do it again we’d use a different company.

We recommend you do too.

If we could give a minus * we most definitely would . We Booked a winter cruise on the basis that the brochure said " These boats all have warm air heating systems to ensure you won't be cold on board" . Well that might have been the case during the day, but we were told not to have the heating on when we went to bed for risk of carbon monoxide poisoning, I don't feel the cold normally BUT it was unbelievably cold in the bedrooms and toilet, there was no way would we have a shower it was freezing. The blown air heating didn't even reach the said rooms during the day, so it never even got warm in the first place, all the bedding and clothes felt damp.
The windscreen didn't have any form of demister so we couldn't clear the screen , which was a real pain when motoring and it snowed.
We only found out from a fellow boater at 10.20am that the environment agency were going to shut the barrier to the Marina at 11.am ... If we didn't get out by then we could be stuck inside it for days, NO ONE from the marina told us that...
Very disappointed as to the short distance we could travel due to bridge restrictions and high tide, Wroxham and Acle were as far as we could go , and that's it. The freezing temperature at night forced us to cut short our holiday from10 nights to 7 nights.. honestly it was that cold especially with no heating. My advice if you want to book up in the winter, only do so if you are an Eskimo. We left the fridge door open to warm us up.
Another thing to look out for is the fuel gauge was OFF the full symbol when we left , so it wasn't a full tank of fuel yet we were charged £140 when they topped it up ( allegedly)... All in all it was one of the worst holidays we have had, would we recommend it.. NOT A HOPE IN HELL...
The plus side was the ladies in reception were kind and understanding, the " main man" who showed us the boat was bl**dy rude , horrible and patronising...

We are experienced Broads boaters, and this was our 4th time with Herbert Woods. The last time was six years ago, and sadly this time the standard has dropped considerably.
The main issue is the boats. Not just tired and old, but very dirty. We had dogs with us, and paid over £100 for extra cleaning. I have to say we returned the boat a darn sight cleaner than when we picked it up. They can’t say that you get what you pay for, as other companies are offering far more modern, cleaner boats for a similar price. The boat cleaners should spend less time being surly and actually down right rude to customers and more time doing their job..!! The reception staff were ok, apart from the fact that I called about some lost property and was promised a call back when they were “Less busy” A week later I’m still waiting. The boat proficiency check was ok, but no mention was made about the risks due to the tidal differential, and the effects on mooring warps. which regular boaters will know is important.
I’m sorry, but there is plenty of competition on the Broads and I won’t be coming back.

We had Bright Light 2 - AVOID! DO NOT BOOK this boat!!! The boat had not been pumped out so as we got moving both toilets stank and there was no disinfectant in the tanks, the boat had not been filled with water, roof does not fully retract, sharp edges on window trim, water pump leaks, severe rain leaks so one of the beds and the seating area were soaked, sliding door (entrance to boat) sticks, have to open sliding door to get in cutlery drawer, toilet pedals stick, lights not working or flickering, front shower had to hold pump out button all the time or it flooded, back panel outside boat kept falling off-would not stay on, no caps on pump out pipes. We had to get Richardsons to do a proper pump out and they found a cloth that had blocked the front toilet that had been in there years, engineer had to come out because the 2nd toilet could not be unblocked due to faulty pipe work, engineer could not fix as boat needed taking apart to find the fault. None of the boat was clean inside or out. We had to ring the boatyard practically every day and all they said was bring it back in - using our fuel to go backwards and forwards and spoiling the holiday even more was not helpful advice! The boat needs scrapping.
The broads themselves are beautiful and the places we stayed were fab, fortunately we had great weather otherwise we would have all come home because of the boat.

We booked our family boat holiday with Herbert Woods in April. It coincided with a friend’s holiday also booked with HW and we were all excited at being on holiday together. This week, three weeks before the holiday, Herbert Woods phoned me to say my holiday has been cancelled. The explanation was that the boat we had booked was taken out of service due to an accident and offered a full refund. Bear in mind this is three weeks before we were due to travel; so I asked what other boat they could offer as an alternative. They said they had nothing for the same dates but would look for availability at other boat yards. When they got back to me they offered several boats but I would have to pay extra above what I had already paid for our holiday. We were on a tight budget and couldn’t afford the £683 for the equivalent specification boat offered. We had no alternative but to have the refund as Herbert Woods had no compassion or intension of helping us achieve a holiday for the same week.
Herbert Woods’ terms and conditions clearly state that if I cancelled within 56 days of the holiday, not refund would be made. They have sewn up their own cancellation terms to get out of any liability if they cancel.
I would sue them for breaking their contractual obligations and unfair terms and condition but don’t have the financial resources to pursue a claim.
Shame on you Herbert Woods for leaving a family high and dry without a much anticipated holiday.

Just got back from a weeks holiday with herbert woods it us the first time we have done any boating but i have to say it was the best holiday i have ever had all of the staff are amazing so helpful and polite nothing is too much trouble the boat was great well equipped very clean and everything in working order thank you to all staff we have booked to come back next year we enjoyed it so much

Another wonderful 3 weeks on Summer Light 1 can't fault it it was wonderful all at check in are wonderful jennie Rob Shirley Sharon evie and john are all so helpful even spoil poppy the dog she knows where they keep the dog treats every thing went well there and when we went to where the boat was tied up and we got on it was absolutely spotlessly clean and the hand over was just so smooth and all the hand over staff are so friendly nothing is a bother to them Graham Phil stevie and wee dave are just so friendly keep up the great work guys see yous all next year take care stay safe all at herbert woods from Arthur rosemarie and poppy

I have to say that our experience was much better than some of the others that I have read. . We had saved to celebrate my daughter’s 50th birthday and chose Platinum Light 1 which was only one year old. The boat was very impressive. We were given an intensive training tutorial. We were very lucky with the weather. We did have a few issues with the control panel but the Engineer came out on the Sunday and got it going again. The customer service we received from Herbert Woods was really good and their communication is very professional. We did fill in a feedback form and we were offered a management discount to use against another trip. We have booked with them again for 2025 and hope that we experience another enjoyable trip.

Boat was filthy and covered in cobwebs and bugs; the toilets didn’t work and were leaking foul water, surrounded in pee and poo. The shower didn’t drain so we couldn’t wash it away nor could we wash ourselves. Waited for an engineer to fix it, hours lost on our holiday, on for it not to be fixed!
Boat was leaking, dripping, the smell of the toilets ran through the boat making it unbearable, only for them not to sort it.

Sent in a “feedback” form which is a complaint apparently but after reading reviews I am not hopeful of any sort of outcome.