BI 01 - THE LONDON EXPERIENCE
8 DAYS

You Will Always Have Your Own Private Tour
(Year-round) On Guaranteed Dates

Register For Costs From Your Nearest Gateway



Admission Costs Included to Listed Sights Below.

WINDSOR:
Castle
State Apartments
St. George's Chapel
LONDON:
Whitehall Walking Tour
Westminster Abbey (Royal Chapels & Poets’ Corner)
River Thames Cruise
Tower of London (Crown Jewels Exhibit)
Piccadilly Circus
Leicester Square
British Museum
St. Paul's Cathedral (Dome Ascent)
London Street Market
Sherlock Holmes Mystery Trail (The Beatles Magical Mystery Tour or The Shakespeare and Dickens Walk can be substituted)
HEVER CASTLE
HAMPTON COURT
Palace
Gardens
Baroque Maze
STONEHENGE

SALISBURY:
Cathedral
Magna Carta
BATH:
Roman Baths
OR
STRATFORD:
Shakespeare Center
Shakespeare’s Birthplace
Anne Hathaway’s Cottage
Holy Trinity Church
OXFORD:
Walking Tour
Christ Church

 

1. Round-trip airfare with a major carrier on scheduled flights and guaranteed dates

2. All airport taxes

3. Accommodation in three star (occasional 4 star or superior 2 star) tourist class hotels with private facilities guaranteed throughout

4. Continental Breakfast and Dinners throughout your touring program

5. A Casterbridge Tour Manager/Guide to accompany your group 24 hours a day from arrival to departure

6. All excursions, cultural activities and (several pre-booked) admissions, per your itinerary

7. Transportation by private coach

8. One Free Place for Group Leaders with every ten full-paying participants

9. All taxes

10. All of the venue arrangement fees and promotional costs for your performances, as stated in the itinerary.



WHAT IS NOT INCLUDED?

1. Lunches and beverages with meals

2. Visas (if required)

3. Travel Insurance

4. Transportation of equipment by land and/or air or hiring of instruments

5. Any fees imposed by the airline for a second piece of checked baggage

 

 

DAY    1            DEPARTURE FROM NORTH AMERICA
Enjoy full meal service on your scheduled wide-bodied flight to London.

DAY    2            ARRIVE LONDON (6 NIGHTS) - WINDSOR
We will be met at the airport by our tour manager/guide where we will board our own private coach and transfer to nearby Windsor Castle, the largest inhabited castle in the world with over 1,000 rooms and the Queen's favorite home. Our visit will include the richly decorated State Apartments (unless the Queen is in residence) and St. George's Chapel, a pantheon of English monarchs.   After free time to explore Windsor, we continue on to London the historic capital of Britain.   Upon our arrival we can take you on a leisurely Walking Tour of Westminster and Whitehall including Trafalgar Square, Horseguards, Parade Parliament Square, Downing Street, St James’s Park and Buckingham Palace.

DAY    3            LONDON (KINGS AND QUEENS OF ENGLAND)
We will take a Blue-badge tour of Westminster Abbey where English kings and queens have been crowned since 1066. We will visit the Royal Chapels, which hold the tombs of monarchs from past centuries including Henry VII, Elizabeth I and Mary Queen of Scots.  We will also visit Poets' Corner to see the memorials to famous literary figures.  We will walk past the Houses of Parliament and Big Ben before taking a River Trip through the heart of London to the Tower of London.  You will have the opportunity to discover William the Conqueror’s magnificent bastion, which displays almost a thousand years of English history.  During our visit, we will see the Crown Jewels Exhibit.

· Your First Concert Performance will be today

DAY    4            DAY TRIP TO HEVER CASTLE - HAMPTON COURT
This morning we will visit Hever Castle and Gardens, the childhood home of Anne Boleyn. Henry VIII wooed Anne at Hever Castle, and he later gave the castle to his fourth wife, Anne of Cleves. Highlights of our tour will include: the Anne Boleyn Prayer Books, the Six Wives of Henry VIII, and the Model Houses exhibit. This afternoon we will visit the grandiose Hampton Court Palace, a stately residence once rented by Cardinal Wolsey and given to Henry VIII. Our tour will include: the Queen's Apartments, the Tudor Chapel Royal and the Great Hall. Our visit will also include a stroll through the amazing fountain Gardens, the pond gardens and Baroque Maze. We return to London for the night.

DAY    5            LONDON (FROM THE ROMANS TO THE BLITZ)
Our morning begins with a visit to the British Museum where we will see the Egyptian Collection, the Rosetta Stone, the Elgin Marbles and the Anglo-Saxon Sutton Hoo treasure. After lunch we continue with a visit to St. Paul’s Cathedral, Sir Christopher Wren’s Renaissance-style masterpiece.  Our visit will include an ascent to the Whispering Gallery, an acoustic marvel in which the faintest whisper can be heard clearly on the opposite side, as well as the American Memorial Chapel, honoring the 28,000 U.S. service personnel who lost their lives while stationed in Britain during World War II.

· Your Second Concert Performance will be today

DAY    6            DAY TRIP TO STONEHENGE, SALISBURY & BATH
This morning we visit mysterious Stonehenge, a huge circle of lintels and megalithic pillars, and one of the most impressive prehistoric monuments in Britain.   We continue on to Salisbury, where we will visit Salisbury Cathedral.  Our visit will include the cathedral's 13th-century octagonal Chapter House, which displays one of the four surviving original texts of the Magna Carta.  This afternoon we explore the ancient Roman city of Bath.  We begin with a visit to the Roman Baths, first associated with the Celtic King Bladud, and later established by the Romans in the 1st

or

DAY    6           DAY TRIP TO OXFORD
This morning we will journey to Oxford, England’s oldest University city dating from 1167 and also associated with many notable literary alumni including such diverse characters as Geoffrey Chaucer, Lewis Carroll, Oscar Wilde, C.S. Lewis and Evelyn Waugh. We will take a Walking Tour to view many of the colleges that make up Oxford, as well as the Sheldonian Theater and the Bodleian Library. We will also visit Christ Church College, Oxford’s biggest and grandest Renaissance College, which was founded in 1525 by Cardinal Wolsey. The college’s Christ Church Cathedral is the smallest in England. After returning to London this evening we will spend time around Piccadilly Circus and Leicester Square, two of London’s most vibrant and lively areas.

DAY    7            LONDON (LONDON TODAY)
We will begin the day with a visit to a London Street Market to look for some bargains and experience a real `taste' of London life. This afternoon we will take a special walking tour on the Sherlock Holmes Mystery Trail (a Beatles Magical Mystery Tour or The Shakespeare and Dickens Walk can be substituted prior to travel).

Your third concert performance will be today

DAY    8            DEPARTURE FROM LONDON
Your enjoyable and rewarding tour will come to an end as your tour manager/guide accompanies you to the airport for the return flight home.