Beamish Avis 

As always, I've just had a lovely day out at Beamish! It was very busy as it is a Bank Holiday but that is to be expected, its great to see so many people out and enjoying Beamish.
Daveys fish and chips were amazing and well worth the wait! To hear everyone complaining about the wait was rather funny, you don't see a long queue up the hill and expect to be served in 10 minutes unless you're disillusioned.

The place it’s self is historic !!
However there is not enough transport to get you from a to b edited 1hour and 20 minutes from the start to get a tram when the third came along full we had to walk our two three year olds to the town
The queues were horrendous for every thing it’s school holidays they should cater for that! avoid stool holidays at all cost or beamish get your act together and put more staff on

Where do you start with this truly wonderful, wonderful place. The moment you enter you are great with a warm and friendly welcome. However the real experience begins when you meet the folk from the different attractions. They just captivate you with their dedication and knowledge of days of old. You really just feel like you are transported back in time. The attractions like the old mine, school and homes just bring to life the past and the town is just something else. You cannot have a bad day here, it really is a magical day out.

My visit yesterday with my husband, sister and
brother-in-law was excellent, informative and welcoming.
We all enjoyed our visit and found all the staff were friendly and professional with special thanks to Alex Cronin, in the Masonic Hall and Cornish Jules, in the Pit cottages, who were particularly interesting and knowledgeable.

Was a lovely place staff was nice but the downfall was the wheelchair access couldn't get in places

At least the last reviewer got there. We visited Newcastle for the week and planned to spend a day at Beamish museum only to find that we had to pre-book.
Their website is a nightmare and, short of a blood sample, they want every other detail about you.
I'm on holiday, why do I need to plan what day I'm going, surely that is weather dependent, and then what time I'm arriving! It all depends on the traffic in an unknown area.
I hope that locals enjoy the place but as a tourist fotget it. Hence the one star (trust pilot don't accept no stars)

had a lovely day out have not been to Beamish in over 30 years a lot of changes.....but....I need to use a mobility scooter...my battery was becoming flat....and there was no help ....I was not the only one.....maybe some form of transport would help the disabled withour scooters....apart from that did enjoy our visit.....

Very disappointed, just too busy, like a tacky theme park not enough staff, who generally were not interested very expensive, could not get into many of the buildings, houses etc and no information especially for children. Been before won't be back.

Well I never went I attempted to register on the website but you can only log in I saw no prompts to register and when I clicked on buy tickets I just got a picture of the entrance ,I emailed a complaint and the receptionist sent me a link so I could get a yearly entrance pass but still could not book just a single visit before 1 pm but she did say if I contacted her she would organise tickets for me but it does not look as if the website is going to be fixed any time soon

This incredible living museum has always made me feel as if I have gone back in time. It really brings history alive in a most engaging way. No stale information boards to read just knowledgeable and friendly staff who reel off information about the property and the time period as if we were really there.
So good to see schoolchildren excited about learning. The schooltrips where they dress in period costume and have projects on for example the suffragettes not only an interesting learning experience for them but entertaining for other visitors too.
Great variety of exhibits from industrial to the town. Fabulous restored Trams and busses give access all round the site but it is also a lovely walk.
The Dentist surgery complete with gruesome yet amusing anecdotes about early tooth care is a personal favourite.
On my two visits so far this year I have also enjoyed the new 1950s exhibition. As a child in the 1960s much of it was familiar so it was almost as if I was visiting my own childhood.
The year pass is great value for money especially if you are more local to the museum but as a regular visitor to the area I have managed to get good use out of it too.
Thanks to all the staff and volunteers you do a great job
Recommend

We've been a number of years in the past and the tickets for the xmas events have always been super difficult to purchase and rightly so, the museum was great to visit before the pandemic and within reason the tickets for the event sold out really quick and some years, we missed out but last year 2021 was a big mistake.

Previous years even during the first lockdown of 2020 the site was still somewhat worth the money but the queuing was just dismal and on occasions we’ve missed out on food on the site whilst standing in a queue, wasting time on the site is something you’re going to do when waiting for food. Our visit in 2020 we waited a couple of hours to be told the fish shop had run out of food. This wasn’t ideal but we spent the rest of the night seeing what was left open but we did waste some hours for nothing.

We decided to gamble the evening again in 2021 being lucky to get tickets again and see the rest of the park which we had missed the following year, to no surprise the fish shop queue took us closer to 3 hours to wait for food, again diabolical waiting to the point where we did in fact get food but only had 1 hour to see the rest of the festivities, which unfortunately compared to 2020 were lacking greatly. So much was not on and nothing to do or see apart from 2 reindeer locked in a stable, nothing worth the money we paid, no actors in or around the town, they had all left and wrapped up for the night even though they don’t close the park till 9pm we spent most of the last hour just wandering around an empty town with nothing happening,

I reached out to the customer service team as I wasn’t willing to let another experience go ruined given the price we paid didn’t cover us for the annual passes we pay for every year, this didn’t cover us which is where they’re making another £30 on top for your annual ticket per person to attend the Christmas nights and both years have been drastically different even years prior to this where similar to one another.

My complaint was picked up by Ana who I advised that I was completely unhappy with the evening and that the night was just not what was advertised and given previous years’ experience even during the most strict lockdown had way more going on and what seemed like a way increased budget but with the funding this park received over the past year they certainly haven’t invested much into the Christmas evenings and have spent it else where which is why you would assume the ticket pricing would reflect the change in what type of event is on offer here but they kept it the same and Ana confirmed this over the phone that the have scaled back some of the things on offer over the Christmas evenings.

Ana did try and compensate me with food vouchers and a free return ticket to come back to the park but they outright refused to entertain a refund, which is what I wanted as I felt robbed of £60 for an evening that certainly didn’t comply with what was advertised. Management have outright refused to give me my money back, I certainly won’t be going back nor will I be recommending anyone to visit this place. Management needs to realise that as a largely funded business and complaints like this which I don’t seem to be the only one, will eventually have an impact on their business.

A great shame!

The 4 stars is for the museum experience as a whole. The cafe experience would warrant one star.
My first visit to Beamish was over 30 years ago when it was much, much quieter, and you really sensed what it was like during the period the houses/farm/mines were set in.
My recent visits during these Covid times have been extremely busy with little social distancing, even though it’s pre-booked tickets and supposedly limited numbers allowed. If you plan to visit more than once, the yearly cost isn’t too bad.
However, I would strongly advise you take a packed lunch though as you will end up queuing for food in the cafe…for some considerable time. The reason for the long queue (on both recent visits) was due to a lack of staff - one member of staff plating up food as it’s ordered at the counter and another on the till (while serving cakes). Drinks seem to be made by both members of staff - no dedicated barista - which makes for a long wait in all. If you order hot food it will not be so by the time you get to sit down. There are other staff members clearing the tables and replenishing the empty sandwich shelves but this doesn’t help in the wait for hot food/drinks or paying.

Just went to the Christmas event. Won’t hurry back. Absolutely nothing on, I don’t understand the payment, seriously. We went into the town and a jobs worth wouldn’t let you get a mulled wine and short bread as my ticket was for the pit village. Unbelievable.. so we went and they had nothing left. No hot orange only diluted orange and a small mulled wine, no shortbread as they had allowed anyone with a ticket. Was a total farce. Santa 🎅 booked for 8.15 got in around 9.20pm everything seemed overbooked. Very disappointing I won’t be doing it again

Beamish itself is great but our experience of getting around with a wheelchair was dreadful.They have an adapted bus which you can use to stop / start around most of the museum which was brilliant and a lifeline .The 2 guys operating it were wonderful. Really pleasant and the only happy faces we saw all day. A little thought for wheelchair users would have made a big difference as each time we got off the bus it was hard to negotiate the pavements. If they had just dropped the ends to get off or a wooden walkway at the edges then it would have helped enormously. I appreciate wanting to keep the traditional feel of the museum but some little touches would have gone a long way to enhance our experience. We felt our wheelchair took a lot of pressure. ( as other people with wheelchairs commented). As soon as we used it the next day the front wheel broke off which spoilt the rest of the day out we had paid for and we had to hire one. Beamish was understaffed with only one person serving at most places with long queues and expensive food. It was a disappointing day and a costly one too.

We visited Beamish last week coming up from Manchester. We had a great day but it wasnt as good as we had expected. There were no staff interacting with people and explaining things like we thought (photos online show lots of staff dressed up around the park). When we first got there we didnt have a clue where to go or what to do. You enter the museum to a big empty space, paper maps or more signs would have been useful. The main thing i had an issue with were people walking around smoking! Surely it should be a smoke free place? Following behind groups of people all smoking like chimneys wasnt exactly enjoyable especially with children. It has the potential to be amazing but they need more staff and more talks/interaction

The signs to the site from the A1 are so faded you cannot see them, we had time slots for entry so believed, mistakenly, that there would be easy entry, we joined the queue and waited 30 minutes, no buses running, no staff, queues for everything, no staff anywhere. The single worst visit we have made to Beamish in 4 visits.

Beamish has lost its magic through covid. Short staffed huge queues for everything.Ive been before and would go again when it returns to normal after pandemic.

Our visit was enjoyable,(two adults three children)however I was disappointed to find that there was no staff in the houses,Drs and dentists etc.to talk the children .
There was nothing apart from scones being baked in the bakery and nothing for sale.The que for the sweet shop was so long covid safety reasons, amusingly the gift shop on leaving was a free for all no social distancing there.
I would advise anyone visiting to pack a picnic because where Beamish really falls down is on the catering.Hoping for a nice lunch ,after half an hour in the que the menu offered jacket potatoes and pie of the day cheese onions and potato which we sent back and were given a chicken breast (not on the menu).
I also thought the children’s lunch bag was very poor value.
My other advice would be avoid the funfair again poor value.
Aside from the above the children enjoyed looking round the farm the pit village and the various houses and I particularly loved St.Helens church.

Not been here in years so was lovely to visit again. All be it different with COVID restrictions but everything was well managed. Didn’t take away from the day at all, could still see/do most things. So much to learn about and see. Great value for money too considering you get a years free pass. Will 100% be going back To make the most of it 🙂

Always love it, living history. Need good weather though.