Optional Pre-tour Extension 1 :  Two nights in Salisbury, Sunday touring

(Friday 8 June) - Arrive Salisbury

If you decide to add two nights in Salisbury before the tour, you would arrive into Salisbury on Friday 8 June.

This gives you the balance of Friday and then all day Saturday in the Salisbury area.

You would probably fly from home on Thursday 7 June and take an overnight flight to the UK (maybe to London) and then a quick 1.5 hour train ride to Salisbury.

Most likely you would arrive into Salisbury some time in the afternoon.

You can make your way to our lovely hotel with a great location, close to the center of the medieval market town of Salisbury, and home of glorious Salisbury Cathedral, made famous in Constable's pictures.

Salisbury Cathedral has the tallest spire of any church in Britain and is home to the best preserved copy of the Magna Carta, and is set in lovely grounds.  Definitely a recommended place to visit while you're in Salisbury.

You have the rest of today to explore Salisbury as you wish.

(Saturday 9 June) - Portsmouth and/or Isle of Wight Touring

After breakfast this morning we travel the short distance to Portsmouth (just over an hour's drive) where you have a choice of three activities.

You'll probably be able to fit at least two of the three into your day, maybe even all three.

The first choice is to go over to the Isle of Wight.  You can travel the short distance by fast hovercraft (a 10 minute journey) or slower regular ferry (20 - 40 mins), with both offering regular services throughout the day.

On the Isle of Wight, both Osborne House and Carisbrooke Castle would accept an English Heritage Pass - have us extend your pass to 16 days so you can save on admissions.

The second choice would be to immerse yourself in the splendid Royal Navy Museum in the Portsmouth Dockyard area.  See Lord Nelson's flagship, HMS Victory, the Tudor warship Mary Rose from the sixteenth century, the gripping special feature on the Battle of Jutland, a WW2 submarine, and so much more.

And the third choice?  To simply enjoy Portsmouth as you wish, strolling around, enjoying the harbor sights, smells and sounds, the views from Spinnaker Tower, and the museums, including Charles Dickens' Birthplace Museum.

However you spend the day, you're sure to have a wonderful time.

Included Meals: Breakfast

(Sunday 10 June) - Main Tour starts today

Please now skip down to the green bordered section for the main tour.

Of course, if you realize now that you would like more than one day in Salisbury, please keep reading the next blue bordered section where we talk about how you could spend another day in and around Salisbury, too.

And, yes, there's even one more blue bordered section if you want to add still more days in Salisbury.  We've spent up to a week in and around Salisbury ourselves - it is very easy to fill in the time!

Included Meals: Breakfast, Dinner

Optional Pre-tour Extension 2 :  A third day and night in Salisbury, Friday touring to Stonehenge and other (pre)historic mysteries.

(Thursday 7 June) - Arrive Salisbury

Maybe you decide to arrive into Salisbury three days before the tour starts, ie on Thursday 7 June.

That's a great idea, because it gives you more time to 'recharge' after your flight, and allows you to see and do considerably more.

In such a case, you'd fly from home to the UK on or before Wednesday 6 June.

You'd plan to arrive into Salisbury on Thursday, giving you the rest of Thursday free to walk around the city, perhaps spending time in an antique shop or two, or visiting the cathedral or one of the many museums and other places of interest around the town.

(Friday 8 June) - Stonehenge, Avebury, White Horses, and More

After breakfast this morning we will go touring around the Wiltshire countryside.

We plan to beat the crush of crowds by heading first to Stonehenge.

The site is very well managed with lots of explanatory material to help 'bring the stones to life'.  Admission is normally very expensive, but not for us, because we will have English Heritage passes.  Effectively free admission makes Stonehenge into a 'must see' activity.

Probably everyone knows Stonehenge.  But many fewer people know of the assorted other mysteries around Wiltshire, even though some of them, like the white horses, are clearly visible for miles around.

We'll go by at least two of the white horses on our travels.

From Stonehenge we continue north towards Avebury, stopping on the way to see three mysterious ancient things that are clustered close to each other - the West Kennet Long Barrow, Silbury Hill, and The Sanctuary.

We'll visit Avebury, which can be thought of as 'Stonehenge on steroids' - it has Europe's largest stone circle, plus assorted other mysterious stone arrangements.

We then go to the ancient market town of Devizes for lunch, and make a tiny detour to see an extraordinary flight of 16 locks on the Kennet and Avon Canal.

After lunch, we go to Old Wardour castle - mainly ruined, but perhaps even looking all the much better for it.  It also has a fascinating 'grotto' in the grounds.

Then one more strange thing - the Fovant Badges to complete a day of touring around the unusual, and its back to Salisbury mid/late afternoon.

Included Meals: Breakfast

(Saturday 9 June) - Portsmouth/Isle of Wight - see Option 1, above

On Saturday we will travel to Portsmouth and optionally on to the Isle of Wight with the people who chose only the Option 1 package, then spend Saturday night in Salisbury again.

Please see above for details of this in the blue box Option 1 section, above.

Included Meals: Breakfast

Optional Pre-tour Extension 3 - More time in Salisbury
(Wednesday 6 June and earlier)

If you wish to spend still more time in and around Salisbury, then by all means arrive into the city earlier.

As you can see from the two blue panels above, you can definitely fill in two or three days in Salisbury - Friday touring around, and Saturday going to Portsmouth, so perhaps, if you have still more free time, arrive into Salisbury on Wednesday, giving you some of Wednesday and all of Thursday before the two days of organized touring.

Let us know if we can offer suggestions or assist in any way.

Main Tour Itinerary

Day 1 (Sunday 10 June)  :  Tour starts in Salisbury, to Exeter via Glastonbury

Welcome to the start of the tour!

Most people will join us in Salisbury this morning (or the days previously).  We'll start off heading west, on our way to Exeter in Devon.

We go first to the lovely cathedral city of Wells, where we'll stop for lunch and a suggested walking tour around the ancient heart of the city.

A particular highlight would be the Bishop's Palace, surrounded by a moat in the heart of the city, and of course close to the cathedral.

From Wells, it is only a short distance to mysterious Glastonbury, where it is believed King Arthur and Queen Guinevere are buried in the ruins of Glastonbury Abbey.

If you're feeling energetic, you might also wish to walk up to the enigmatic Glastonbury Tor, a place where some people believe there's an unusual convergence of ley lines.

From Glastonbury, we then proceed on into Devon and to Exeter, the region's capital and another classic English cathedral city.

Some more people might possibly join us in Exeter this evening rather than in Salisbury this morning, it is of course entirely your choice.

We'll enjoy a welcome dinner tonight so we can get to know each other.

Included meals - Breakfast Dinner

Day 2 (Monday 11 June) :  To Penzance via Plymouth

After breakfast, we spend some time in Exeter.  There's a street market you might wish to visit, and the city's impressive cathedral, too.

We also include a tour of a fascinating series of medieval underground passages in which the water pipes were originally housed (optional if you don't like the thought of fairly narrow underground passageways!).

We then travel on to Torquay, a town located in the Devon region referred to as the 'English Riviera' due to its comparatively warm climate, and made famous as the supposed location of Fawlty Towers.

We'll ride the steep Babbacombe Cliff Railway down to the beach and back again, and stay long enough for lunch.  Maybe you might like to walk along some of the 'Agatha Christie Mile'.

Then we continue on to Plymouth, where there are many things to do, with a special option being a tour of Britain's HMS Courageous nuclear attack submarine, the only nuclear submarine in Britain open to the public.

Plymouth of course has an American significance, it being where the pilgrims set sail from, and there's the Mayflower museum in Plymouth telling the story of the English side of that great adventure that you could visit.

As soon as we leave Plymouth, we enter the magical world of Cornwall, a region of England quite unlike anywhere else, indeed, so different that it was formerly an independent country and has its own language, Cornish.

The region is currently seeking semi-independence, much like is experienced in Wales and Scotland.

The region has a different feel to it; we feel it is best experienced on a 'soft' day - perhaps with some distant mist and overcast skies, so as to accentuate its other-worldliness.

We arrive into Penzance late afternoon, where we'll stay two nights.

Included Meals: Breakfast

Day 3 (Tuesday 12 June) :  Land's End, touring around Cornwall

Now, for one of the two major bookend experiences of our Expedition - a visit to Land's End.

Land's End itself is often decried as a tourist trap, and that might be true, but it is unavoidably so because of all the people who go there to start or finish their journey between there and John O'Groats.

Similarly, we too go not so much to marvel at any sights (although the waters of the Atlantic crashing into the cliffs below and the out-at-sea lighthouse are both impressive) as to formally start our expedition.

Having done so, we continue touring through Cornwall.  We visit an old tin mine at Geevor, before continuing on to the seaside town of St Ives on the other side of the peninsular, fronting onto the Celtic Sea (rather than the English Channel on the Penzance side).

St Ives is known for its arts and culture, and regularly wins awards as being Britain's best sea-side town.  Whether that is true or not, it is certainly very popular, even though it is far removed from the country's main population centers.

We'll see the occasional stone circle and other prehistoric structure such as Lanyon Quoit, illustrated above under yesterday's entry, and the Merry Maidens.

There are some other possible stones and structures that may or may not be visible depending on vegetation/tree growth.

Then we head back across to the Penzance side of Cornwall again, to visit St Michael's Mount.  We might vary when we go there, so as to try and fit into the day to work with the tides.  It is fun to walk across the causeway from the mainland to the island, only a couple of hundred yards off-shore.

Included Meals: Breakfast

Day 4 (Wednesday 13 June) :  To Bristol via Tintagel

Our first stop this morning is the beautiful little fishing village of Port Isaac.  If you enjoy British tv comedy/drama shows, you'll recognize Port Isaac as the setting for the long running series Doc Martin.

After the (hopefully) sunny and lighthearted feeling of Port Isaac, we go somewhere much more brooding - Tintagel and the remains of its castle, and a place closely associated with the stories of Merlin, Camelot, and King Arthur - some say he was born here.

We include time for lunch in Tintagel (perhaps have a local specialty - a 'Cornish Pasty') and then continue our journey northeast, passing out of Cornwall not long after.

We proceed through and out of Devon, and end up in Bristol on the mouth of the River Avon (a common river name, for example, there are Avon rivers in Salisbury and Stratford too).

In Bristol you'll have a chance to see Britain's version of the Leaning Tower of Pisa, the Bristol Temple Church.  The name 'Temple' records its reputed Knights Templar origins.

We also see the Clifton Suspension Bridge, originally designed by Isambard Kingdom Brunel, who also designed the SS Great Britain, the longest passenger ship in the world when launched in 1845, and now preserved on display in Bristol.

Included Meals: Breakfast

Day 5 (Thursday 14 June) :  To the Cotswolds via Oxford

Now for a real problem in preparing this 'photo itinerary'.  Today we travel into an area of so many 'picture postcard' beautiful villages and gorgeous rural scenes it is hard to know which images to select to illustrate the next several days with.

In other words, we are going to the area known as the Cotswolds, where we'll spend the next two nights.

This morning we first head up to Castle Combe, often featured in movies and on television shows as varied as Dr Doolittle and War Horse, Poirot and Stardust.

We then continue to Bibury and one of England's most photographed scenes (the cottages on Arlington Row, dating back to 1380).  Some people (particularly those in Bibury, one suspects!) claims this to be the most beautiful village in the world.  Come see for yourself, and be the judge.

Next, we continue to Oxford, only an hour from London but in terms of 'feeling', truly a world away.

There's every chance you've been to Oxford before, but there's equally every chance there's still a lot more to this city you've yet to see and do.

We spend a full four hours in Oxford - time for you to do many different things (as well as have lunch).  Maybe visit one or two of the colleges.  Perhaps go to some of the museums.  If Oxford is less familiar, why not start off with one of the scenic sightseeing buses that take you on a circuit around the town.

Oxford is a regular star in many movies.  Perhaps you might want to do a themed walk around Oxford - an Inspector Morse/Lewis/Endeavour walk, for example.  Or a Harry Potter or an Alice in Wonderland walk.  Oh - there are also themed pub walks, too, if you'd prefer a more adult theme to your afternoon's pleasures!

Then we head to our Cotswolds hotel for the next two nights in the lovely town of Burford.

Included Meals: Breakfast

Day 6 (Friday 15 June) :  Touring around the Cotswolds

After breakfast this morning we give you a chance to 'walk it off' with an English 'ramble' - an easy walk through the fields between the two tiny villages of Upper and Lower Slaughter.

It is an unchallenging mainly level ground one mile walk, but of course, if you prefer, the coach will be pleased to take you instead.

We'll make our way around the Cotswolds today, taking it easy, and stopping in a few of my favorite villages.  They're all fairly close to each other.

The plan is to travel from Lower Slaughter to Bourton on the Water - indeed, if you wish, you could continue walking on to there from Lower Slaughter -  it is another easy and slightly downhilll walk.

Bourton on the Water is noted for its five bridges that cross the River Windrush that flows gently through the middle of this town, the oldest having been constructed in 1654.

Then we continue on to Stow on the Wold, and on to Broadway where we'll stop for lunch.

After lunch we visit the Rollright Stones and two other adjacent similar ancient things, and then head back to Burford after a lovely lazy day of touring around the beautiful Cotswolds.

You'll have some remaining time in Burford to stroll around town as you wish.  There are a number of interesting things to see.

Included Meals: Breakfast

Day 7 (Saturday 16 June) :  To Wales and Wrexham

We leave the Cotswolds this morning and continue making our way generally north.

Our first official stop is Stratford on Avon - famous for its association with Shakespeare and its half-timbered buildings.  We'll do a quick drive around Stratford, and discuss the controversy surrounding if Shakespeare really existed or not, then after a stop in the town, continue on.

We arrive into Shrewsbury in time for lunch.  If people wished, we could detour to Wroxeter and its Roman ruins on the way in to Shrewsbury, although like most Roman ruins in Britain, there is very little remaining today.

Shrewsbury itself, the county town of Shropshire, is a nice market town, with over 660 listed buildings (due to their historic/architectural importance) within it.  It has been the site of many conflicts between the Welsh and English, with the modern day border just nine miles to the west.

After lunch we hop over the border (no longer subject to armed dispute!) into Wales, where we travel through some towns with totally unpronounceable names and visit two of Thomas Telford's extraordinary engineering feats - the Chirk and Pontcysyllte Aqueducts, now a designated World Heritage Site.

We'll see Telford's work pretty much everywhere we travel in Britain, he truly was an extraordinary and prolific engineer.

From there, we it is a short drive on to Wrexham, a major town in Wales, where we spend the night.

Included Meals: Breakfast

Day 8 (Sunday 17 June) :  To the Lake District via Liverpool

We saw two amazing aqueducts yesterday.  This morning we will go to the National Waterways Museum, traveling through the lovely walled city of Chester on the way, to learn more about the history of canals in Britain.

Due to the largely flat nature of the country and its relatively small size, canals were common and a practical (essential) means of bulk haulage until superseded first by rail in the 1800s and then by road in the 1900s.

They are now enjoying a resurgence as a leisure resource, and there are about 2,200 miles of canals still navigable.

Next is a visit through Port Sunlight, the idealistic model town built by Lord Leverhulme in the Arts and Crafts style for workers at his nearby soap factory, and named after his famous Sunlight soap.  There are over 900 historically listed buildings in this township.

If you've been on our Scotland's Islands and Highlands tour you might remember his troubled association with Lewis (which he owned in its entirety) and Harris.

Then we take a tunnel under the River Mersey and emerge in Liverpool, another World Heritage area, and birthplace of the Beatles.

For some of the nineteenth century Liverpool was Britain's most important city, with a larger economy even than London, due primarily to its shipping and related industries.  Traces of Liverpool's former stately, imperial and Victorian glory can still be seen.

We'll spend some time in Liverpool, and have lunch there, before proceeding on north again.

We have another choice (well, we have choices every day and you're welcome to suggest itinerary changes) - would you like us to swing through Blackpool on the way up to the Lake District, or would you prefer we spend more time in the Lake District itself?

Either which way, we'll spend tonight in the Windermere part of the beautiful Lake District National Park.

Included Meals: Breakfast

Day 9 : Please now go to the second page of the itinerary for the rest of the daily itinerary information.