Have you always wanted to visit the UK but maybe the cost made you shy away, or maybe you even began planning but didn't know where to start or what to do, well here's your chance to go to the UK on a budget w/ an experienced guide so you can hit the highlights & many out of the ordinary places on one great trip!Fly to London overnight on Sept 1st and ready to go Sept. 2nd! London is a great city, fun and filled with tons to do, but also very expensive, so we will hit the highlights, spend 1 night there & head out. You can always arrive in London a few days before the group if you want more time to see the city.

Choices for the Trip:

England & Scotland 9/2- 9/12 (Flight in from USA should be booked overnight on Sept. 1st) $1124
Scotland Only 9/5- 9/12 (Flight into Edinburgh on overnight flight Sept. 4th) $840
Want to Go to Ireland instead Click HERE
Scotland & Ireland 9/5- 9/19 $1855
England, Scotland & Ireland 9/2 -9/19 $2399

England & Scotland (Or Scotland Only Trip!)

Day 1 Tour London

Day 2
We will head westwards to 1 of the most famous Univ. towns in the world, Oxford. As soon as you step off the coach you’ll feel more intellectual, elite & on your best behavior! 39 colleges makeup the university, their elegant honey-colored buildings wrapping around winding cobbled streets. The oldest colleges date back 750 years & little has changed inside the hallowed walls since then. The archaic traditions, customs & dress codes live on and the architecture remains largely untouched, allowing you to experience the colleges as countless prime ministers, poets, writers and scientists have done. Aside from the universities the town also boasts world-class museums, historic pubs, trendy bars & exclusive shops. We continue our journey to Stratford Upon Avon. If you didn’t know much about Shakespeare before now you will be full of info about one of the English languages most famous authors by the time you leave. Set on the banks of the River Avon, jam-packed with Tudor architecture you will get a real taste of Ye Olde England! In the afternoon we’ll begin our journey north and time permitting tick another country off the list by popping into Wales for a visit – we may even be able to fit in a pint of Brains (Welsh beer)! The Welsh spirit is the country’s defining feature so one thing you will take away from this short visit is the warmth of the people. Finally we make our way to our overnight destination, Chester, one of English history’s greatest gifts to the contemporary visitor! Its red-sandstone wall giftwraps a tidy collection of Tudor and Victorian buildings originally built during Roman times when it was Castra Devana, the largest Roman fortress in Britain. It’s hard to believe it today, but throughout the Middle Ages Chester made its money as the most important port in the northwest, but the River Dee silted up over time and Chester fell behind Liverpool in importance.

Day 3:
This morning we only have a short drive to Liverpool, 2008's European Capital of Culture. Handsome old buildings have had facials & brand-new ones shine spotlessly on the skyline. The once boarded-up warehouses of the city centre have been transformed into new shops & cafés. The city’s store of superb museums and top-class art galleries – all free – have put paid to the scurrilous rumour that Liverpool peaked with the Beatles: in 2004 the whole of the waterfront and docks was declared a Unesco World Heritage Site because there are more listed buildings here than in any other city in England except London. For lunch we’ll buy some picnic food and head to the north end of the Peak District National Park. This was Britain’s first National Park & is a stunning area of expansive moorland, rolling hills & fascinating geology. In the afternoon we head to York, the kind of place that makes you wish – if only for an instant – that the Industrial Revolution never happened, and reminds us of a world before the machines. A city of extraordinary cultural and historical wealth, its medieval spider’s web of narrow streets is enclosed by a magnificent circuit of 13th-century walls. At its heart lies the immense, awe-inspiring minster, one of the most beautiful Gothic cathedrals in the world. The city’s long history and rich heritage is woven into virtually every brick and beam; modern, tourist-oriented York – w/ its myriad museums, restaurants, cafés & traditional pubs – is a carefully maintained heir to that heritage.

Day 4:
What exactly have the Romans ever done for us? The aqueducts. Law and order. And this enormous wall, built in AD 122 to keep ‘them’ (Romans, subdued Anglo-Saxons) in and hairy barbarians from Scotland out. Or so the story goes. Hadrian’s Wall, a spectacular 73-mile testament to ambition & the practical Roman mind. Even today, almost 2k yrs after the first stone was laid, the sections that are still standing remain an awe-inspiring sight. We then head to Alnwick Castle, the 2nd largest inhabited castle in England which has been the home of the Percys, Earls and Dukes of Northumberland since 1309, making it over 700 years old! This glorious medieval castle has a history that lacks nothing in drama & intrigue. Some of you may recognize it as a film location, for everything from Harry Potter to Elizabeth to Becket to Blackadder. In the afternoon we stop in Berwick-upon-Tweed, a salt-crusted fortress town and England’s northernmost city. It’s the holder of 2 unique honors: its the most fought-over settlement in European history & its football team. Although it has been firmly English since the 15th century, it retains its own peculiar identity, as though the vagaries of its seesaw history have forced it to look inwards and not trust anyone but its own – you need only walk its massive ramparts, built during Elizabethan times and still virtually complete, to understand the town’s insularity. We then begin our final leg of the journey to Scotland’s Capital. Edinburgh is one of Europe's most beautiful cities, draped across a series of rocky hills overlooking the sea. Its a town intimately entwined with its landscape, with buildings & monuments perched atop crags & overshadowed by cliffs - in the words of Robert Louis Stevenson, 'a dream in masonry and living rock'.

Day 4 Continues... Arrive in Edinburgh, Scotland and stay over 1 night (Flights from USA arrive for Scotland Only or Scotland & Ireland Trips)

Day 5:
North of Edinburgh, we pass the Forth Bridges, through Perthshire - surrounded by mountains, forests & salmon packed rivers. We will stop at Dunkeld to visit the beautiful Cathedral hear the gruesome tale of the Wolf of Badenoch who was buried there. We then head north to the Pass of Killicrankie where you will hear the story of the Jacobites and Bonnie Dundee. Lunch is in the small village of Kingussie, made famous by the 'Monarch of the Glen' TV show. We pass Dalwhinnie Distillery, Strathmashie, Loch Laggan Dam and Spean Bridge. There is time for a quick photo stop at the Commando Memorial passing through the Great Glen before arriving at Fort Augustus on the banks of Loch Ness.

Day 6:
Today we will travel the full length of Loch Ness w/ a quick photo stop at Urquhart Castle. We drive through Inverness and onto lonely Culloden Battlefield, scene of the last major battle in Britain, over the Kessock bridge w/ views to the Black Isle. We will make a stop at Glen Ord Distillery before a lunch stop at Beauly & a walk at Glen Affric, home to one of the largest remnants of the ancient Caledonian Pine Forest, before passing thru Drumnadrochit & back to Ft. Augustus for the night.

Day 7:
This morning we drive thru Invermorriston, hearing tales about Roderick MacKenzie & his memorial. We then take the road to the Isles, past Loch Cluanie through Glen Shiel before stopping at stunning Eilean Donan Castle. We then cross over the bridge to Skye where you will see the ruins of Castle Moil & hear the story of Saucy Mary. We will pass through Broadford and stop at Sligachan Bridge – hear faerie stories with fantastic views of the Black and Red Cuillin. We will stop in the small village of Portree for lunch & then head to the Old Man of Storr the Quiraing & Kilt Rock before arriving in Kyleakin.

Day 8:
Today we will see Scotland Lochs, The Well of the 7 Heads and hear the story of the Battle of the Shirts. We drive through the Great Glen & past the Glenfinnan Viaduct (Harry Potter Train Bridge). Fort William, Loch Linnhe drive past Castle Stalker & the only sea waterfall, the Falls of Lora & to Oban w/ spectacular views over to the Isle of Mull.

Day 9: Leaving Oban we will travel to Glencoe & onto Rannoch Moor & the Black Mt. We will then hear the story behind the pile of stones at Ben Lawers & pass Glen Ogle & Loch Lubnaig before hearing tales about Rob Roy & stopping in the Trossachs at Kilmahog to say hi to Hamish the Hairy coo. Our journey back will take in views of Stirling Castle &the Wallace Monument

Tour of Edinburgh/flights

Includes: Hostel Accommodation, Transportation bus & ferry, Guides, Tour, Breakfasts, Fuel, Taxes Entrance to Whiskey Distillery tour, Loch Ness Boat Cruise & Eilean Donan Castle
Does Not Include: Airfare, other meals & drinks, Entrance Fees not listed (So you can choose what you want to see & spend), tips

Deposit $200 due by May 1st,
2nd Payment due 7/1 - 1/2 remainder
Final balance 8/1