London to Edinburgh
8 DAYS
London 2 • Stratford-upon-Avon 1 • York 1 • Edinburgh 2
Basic Inclusions
Accommodations
Accommodations in centrally-located three-star or four-star hotels. Rooming on a triple basis. Double rooms: $50 per night, per person.
Meals
All breakfasts. All dinners.
Transportation
Round-trip transportation on scheduled airline. Deluxe touring motorcoach. All public transportation tickets included where applicable.
Guide
Services of a specially-trained passports Tour Director throughout. All tips are included in the Program Cost. Whisper headsets included.
Travel Protection
Passports provides and pays for a Post Departure Travel Protection Plan that includes coverage for Trip Interruption, Trip Delay, Medical Expense and Evacuation and more.
Tour Summary
Itinerary Includes
Unlimited public transportation
Days 1-2: Arrival London
Arrival transfer
Day 3: London
London City Sightseeing: Local guide
Optional Excursion to Windsor Castle
Day 4: London - Stratford-upon-Avon
Visit to Oxford University and one of the colleges
Royal Shakespeare Theatre performance
Day 5: Stratford-upon-Avon - York
Visits to Shakespeare's Birthplace and Anne Hathaway's Cottage: Visit to Stratford's Holy Trinity Parish Church
Guided Ghost Walking Tour
Day 6: York - Edinburgh
Tour director-led walking tour: Visit to York Minster
Day 7: Edinburgh
Half-day city sightseeing: Local Guide, Visit to Edinburgh Castle
Visit to the Palace of Holyroodhouse
Optional Excursion to Roslin: Visit to Rosslyn Chapel
Day 8: Departure
Departure transfer
UNPARALLELED STANDARD OF EXCELLENCE
Detailed Itinerary
Days 1-2: Arrival
You head east, into a short night, and suddenly it's morning, and you're in England. Londontown: the hub and focus for theatergoers worldwide!
Settle into your hotel, then venture into your surroundings. Red, double-decker buses groan along the "wrong" side of the road, escorted by innumerable black taxicabs with engines that sound like sewing machines.
Overnight: London
Day 3: London City Sightseeing, London, Optional Excursion to Windsor Castle
Enjoy a tour of the sights and sounds of the British capital. See such sights as St. Paul's Cathedral, Westminster Abbey, the Houses of Parliament, Big Ben, Kensington, and Trafalgar Square.
A certified local guide will accompany your group today.
The afternoon is unscheduled.
Consider a visit to the Tower of London to view Traitors' Gate, the Bloody Tower, the Block (where two of Henry VIII's ill-fated wives lost their heads), the White Tower and the Crown Jewels. If you choose to follow one of the Beefeaters, you'll also be able to visit the Royal Chapel.
Head to the town of Windsor, the location of royal residences for almost one thousand years, ever since William the Conqueror settled there in 1070.
A visit to Windsor Castle includes the State Apartments, Queen Mary's Dolls' House (a palace-within-a-palace with functioning lights, running water and Lilliputian-size books written by famous authors of the 1920s) and St. George's Chapel, one of the country's finest churches in the typically English style known as Perpendicular Gothic.
If you have some free time, make your way to the Admissions Centre, or the Courtyard, to check whether you may join (at no extra cost) a thirty-minute guided tour of the Castle Precincts, which goes as far as Henry VIII's North Terrace.
Overnight: London
Day 4: Oxford, Stratford-upon-Avon, RSC Performance
Travel to the seat of one of the world's greatest universities, Oxford.
Images of ornate Gothic spires and professors on bicycles will etch your memory and camera film. A visit is included to one of the colleges, such as Christ Church, where visitors can see the stained-glass window depicting Alice in Wonderland, the charming creation of one of Christ Church's most famous professors, Lewis Carroll.
Travel on to the hometown of the most famous playwright of the Western World.
Enjoy a play by the Royal Shakespeare Company. Hear it the way he wrote it! Thrills and chills up and down your spine, here in Merry Old England.
Overnight: Stratford-upon-Avon
Day 5: Shakespeare's Birthplace and Anne Hathaway's Cottage, Travel to York, Guided Ghost Walk
Visit the main landmarks in Stratford-upon-Avon: Shakespeare's Birthplace, on Henley Street, and Anne Hathaway's Cottage, the romantic thatched-roof dwelling on the outskirts of town where Shakespeare courted Anne before their marriage in 1582.
Find Shakespeare's grave in the parish church, inscribed with the date of April 23, 1616, and a few lines with a curse:
Blest be the man that spares these stones
And curst be he that moves my bones.
Travel to the old Roman fort city of York, a living museum of medieval times.
Along with a costumed guide, enjoy a "Ghost Tour" this evening! Discover the hidden magic of York through the real art of storytelling taken from the legends and folklore of days gone by.
Overnight: York
Day 6: York Walking Tour, Cheviot Hills, Edinburgh
On a walking tour with your tour director, you will see landmarks such as the medieval city walls, the remnants of York Castle, the Old Town's lanes known as The Snickelways and The Shambles.
You will also see the Multangular Tower and its well-preserved section of Roman stonework. York was founded by the Romans in AD 71 as Eboracum, which became a major city chosen as a home base by the emperor Hadrian in AD 122. A statue of Constantine the Great marks the spot where he was proclaimed "Augustus" (emperor) in AD 306.
Today's highlight is a visit to the largest Gothic church north of the Alps: York Minster. From 1154, it took 250 years to build this amazing structure. Admire the cathedral's richly-decorated west front and its splendid nave (one of Britain's finest examples of the Decorated style), as well as the 120 stained glass windows, by far the largest collection of medieval stained glass in Britain.
Follow ancient trading routes through the Cheviot Hills to the city of Edinburgh, called the "Athens of the North" because of its rich literary and academic life.
Welcome to Scotland. There'll be time to start exploring Edinburgh, birthplace of Sir Walter Scott, Alexander Graham Bell, David Hume, James Boswell, Robert Louis Stevenson, and Scottish national poet Robert Burns, who called it home for several years.
Overnight: Edinburgh
Day 7: Edinburgh City Sightseeing, Palace of Holyroodhouse, Edinburgh, Optional Excursion to Roslin
Enjoy a coach tour along the ancient Royal Mile, through the narrow alleys of the city's medieval Old Town and into the 18th-century New Town. See the extinct volcano, Arthur's Seat, which looms over the city.
A half-day local guide, well-educated and specially-trained on the history and culture of Edinburgh, will accompany your group.
Visit the fortress which defines Edinburgh's skyline from its high-perched location on the granite core of an extinct volcano. This castle shelters the Scottish Crown and Regalia, and the Stone of Destiny, returned to Scotland in 1996 after a 700-year stay at Westminster Abbey. Within its walls stand several buildings, including the Palace where Mary, Queen of Scots, gave birth to King James I of England in 1566 and St. Margaret's Chapel, built in 1130 to honor the pious wife of King Malcolm III.
You will visit the Palace of Holyroodhouse, the monarch's official residence in Scotland.
As you tour the Royal Apartments, rebuilt in the 17th century, you will hear about Mary Queen of Scots, who resided in the palace in the 16th century, as did Bonnie Prince Charlie in 1745.
If visiting the Palace between April and October, you may join a free guided tour of Holyrood Abbey, an Augustinian Abbey now in ruins which was founded in 1128 and named after a relic of the True Cross (Holy Cross) also called Holy Rood, or Black Rood.
Holyrood Palace and Abbey are located near Holyrood Park, the largest park in Edinburgh, which includes meadows, a lake and rocky crags, notably the ancient volcano known as Arthur's Seat.
The afternoon is unscheduled.
Museums include the Royal Museum of Scotland and the National Gallery of Scotland.
Stop in a small town on the outskirts of Edinburgh that has two claims to fame: its unique Chapel and the National Institute of Bioscience where the first cloned mammal, Dolly the sheep, was born in 1996.
Enter the enigmatic sanctuary that figures prominently in Dan Brown's 2003 best-seller, The Da Vinci Code, and the 2006 blockbuster film inspired by the novel. Officially called the Collegiate Church of St. Matthew, the chapel dates back to 1446 and is regarded as an outstanding example of stone carving. Mysteries and legends represented in its stones attract a large number of visitors since the site has been linked to the Holy Grail, the Holyrood relic, buried treasures, ley lines, earth energy, medieval Knights Templar, Freemasonry, and more!
Overnight: Edinburgh
Day 8: Departure
Most good things must come to an end. Your suitcase full of memorabilia and of photos ready to be processed, you'll arrive home later today, eager to share your discoveries with family and friends.
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London City Sightseeing
London, England
Oxford University
Anne Hathaway's Cottage
York Castle
Edinburgh City Sightseeing
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