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Let us take you to another time and place
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Exclusive program itineraries and schedules
Explore yesterday and today
Thrill to the excitment of histories great events
Let us take you to another time and place
Exclusive program itineraries and schedules
Thrill to the excitment of histories great events
The name of William Shakespeare resonates with all lovers of English culture and history. The career of this Bard-of-Avon spanned the transition of Royal Power from Elizabeth I, the last of the Tudors, to James I, the first English king from the Stuart dynasty. With Shakespeare as our touchstone, this tour takes you through two remarkable centuries of change. Through art, architecture and theatre, we will explore the reigns of famous monarchs, and historic landmarks of sixteenth and seventeenth century England. This is a country that has left behind the medieval and is caught in momentous transition – religious Reformation, Civil War and the struggle for the soul of a nation. In London, we visit iconic sites such as Westminster Abbey and Hampton Court, and take a walking tour along the route taken by Charles I towards his own execution. We'll see dazzling Tudor portraits and watch a play at the wonderful Shakespeare Globe Theatre.
Next, we head for the limestone uplands of the Derbyshire Peaks and the English-Renaissance homes of Burghley, Chatsworth House and Haddon Hall – three of the most glorious and idyllic of all English Country Houses. Our journey culminates in Stratford-upon-Avon – quintessential English town, birthplace and home to William Shakespeare. Here we immerse ourselves further in the culture of a golden age that shaped modern England and, on banks of the Avon, witness a performance of Coriolanus, one of the Bard’s greatest tragedies.
From the thrill of London to the peace and dramatic beauty of the Derbyshire Peaks, and from glorious country houses to thriving market towns, this tour reveals the pleasures of life in England today alongside the dramatic sweep of our rich historic tale.
The Globe
The Bard
The Tower
Tudor Period
Day 1: On arrival at London airports, a private transfer will take you to our selected 4-star hotel, your central London location for the next three nights. In the evening, we enjoy a welcome drink together, followed by dinner and an audience with our eminent guest speaker. Lunch N | Dinner Y
Day 2. Accompanied by our expert guide we visit Westminster Abbey, architectural masterpiece and setting for both coronations and burials of monarchs since 1066. This is followed by a walking tour of the historic Parliament Square. After lunch, we encounter exquisite Elizabethan portraits at the National Portrait Gallery, and learn how to decode their hidden meanings. Our day continues with a dramatic, scene-setting walking tour that follows the route taken by Charles I to his own public execution. The evening is left free for you to explore, and to make your own choice of dining arrangements. 3 Breakfast Y | Lunch Y | Dinner N
Day 3. In the morning, we visit majestic Hampton Court. Seized from Cardinal Wolsey by his master King Henry VIII, this building remained a royal residence and country retreat throughout the tumultuous events of our story. In the afternoon, we return to central London, where you are free to explore. Reconvening at the hotel in the early evening, we head to Shakespeare's Globe - a stunning reconstruction of the playwright's original theatre. Here we enjoy pre-theatre drinks and dinner before attending a performance of Shakespeare's much-loved comedy Much Ado about Nothing. We return to the hotel for overnight. Breakfast Y | Lunch N | Dinner Y
Day 4. We leave London and head north. Our first port of call is Burghley House, the fantastically grand home of William Cecil Lord Burghley, chief advisor to Queen Elizabeth I. After lunch, we travel on to Derbyshire, taking in historic sites along the way, before arriving at the Peak Edge Hotel, our four-star location for the next three nights. Breakfast Y | Morning tea Y | Lunch N | Dinner Y
Day 5. Our day starts with a visit to the traditional Derbyshire market town of Bakewell, where you are at leisure to explore the sights, shops and cafés, or stroll along the lovely banks of the River Wye. After lunch, we visit Haddon Hall, set deep in the heart of the beautiful Peak District National Park. This fortified manor house is a favourite with film makers and a rare survivor from the Middle Ages. Atmospheric and romantic, highlights at Haddon include the great Tudor Hall and elegant Elizabethan Gardens. That evening we enjoy drinks and dinner at The Peacock at Rowsley, one of England’s most splendid country inns. We return to our hotel – in good spirits! – for overnight. Breakfast Y | Lunch N | Dinner Y
Day 6. We begin the day at Chatsworth, one of England’s truly great country houses. Its Elizabethan heart buried beneath later Baroque splendour, Chatsworth is where many of our themes converge. You’ll encounter philosophers, scientists and statesmen, and the hall's founder, Bess of Hardwick. We also tackle England’s ‘Glorious Revolution’ when Chatsworth’s William Cavendish helped overthrow King James II, instead inviting James’ sister Mary and her husband, William of Orange to rule the now United Kingdom of England, Wales, Scotland and Ireland. There is a choice of good options for lunch at Chatsworth, and the afternoon is free for you to explore the stunning grounds and gardens. Returning to our hotel there’s time to rest and freshen up, before we travel to Tissington Hall. Here we are received and guided round this splendid and intimate Jacobean country house by the owner, 9th Baronet Sir Richard FitzHerbert. Sir Richard is also our host for a very special Tudor-inspired evening meal in the dining room at Tissington. After drinks in the ‘Withdrawing Room’ we return to our hotel. Breakfast Y | Lunch N | Dinner Y
Day 7. We leave Derbyshire for the historic English market town, Shakespeare’s birthplace and home, Stratford-upon-Avon. Arriving late morning we visit Mary Arden’s Farm where Shakespeare’s mother lived. This is a working Tudor farm, that is brought to life with costumed characters, rare breed animals and falconry displays. After a light lunch at the farm’s café, we head to the picturesque childhood home of Shakespeare’s wife, Anne Hathaway’s Cottage before checking into our hotel for the next two nights, the Arden. The evening is yours to explore Stratford and its excellent eateries. Breakfast Y | Lunch Y | Dinner N
Day 8. After a guided walking tour of historic Stratford, you're free to explore the streets and riverside walks of this attractive town. We have also arranged entrance for you to one of three further Shakespeare properties – Shakespeare’s Birthplace, New Place or Hall Croft. In the early evening, we walk from our hotel through Bancroft Gardens and meet at the Rooftop Restaurant of the Royal Shakespeare Theatre beside the River Avon. After dinner and drinks, we attend a performance of one of Shakespeare’s great tragedies, Coriolanus. Afterwards we return to our hotel to share a final nightcap. Breakfast Y | Lunch N | Dinner Y
Day 9. We return you to your London airport for your flight home. If you wish to extend your vacation we will be pleased to help with suggestions or arrangements. Breakfast Y
Hampton Court
The Globe Theatre
Burghley House
Haddon Hall
Check into your London Hotel and join us at your welcoming dinner where a special guest speaker will be featured who will preview the theme and your upcoming travel experience.
A fascinating and enjoyable introduction to a time of change - religious Reformation, civil war and the transition from the Medieval to the modern ‘United Kingdom’.
A fascinating and enjoyable introduction to a time of change - religious Reformation, civil war and the transition from the Medieval to the modern ‘United Kingdom’.
Our journey will immerse you in the rich worlds of Tudor and Stuart England through paintings, historic buildings and parklands.
We glimpse England’s Golden Age through the eyes of the great playwright, William Shakespeare, and see performances of two of his plays by leading theatre companies.
Includes a private evening banquet in a Jacobean Country House, hosted by the owner.
Its Elizabethan heart buried beneath later Baroque splendour, Chatsworth is where many of our themes converge. You’ll encounter philosophers, scientists and statesmen, and the hall's founder, Bess of Hardwick.
From the thrill of central London to the glorious beauty of the Peak District of Derbyshire and the pleasures of two quintessential English market towns, Bakewell and Stratford-upon-Avon.
Expert and experienced Tour Director, to look after the group, helping shape and share the story
Transfer services upon your arrival at the airport to your hotel
3 nights in London at the Grange White hall Hotel
3 nights in the Derbyshire Peak District at Peak Edge Hotel and Red Lion
2 nights at Stratford-upon-Avon at the Arden Hotel
Full English breakfast each day, 2 lunch and 6 evening meals.
Travel to and from all excursions
All entrance costs
Porterage
Welcome dinner – customised to our theme, with engaging after-dinner speakers
Pre-theatre meal and drinks in London and Stratford
Private and exclusive tour and dinner at the historic Tissington Hall, warmly hosted by Sir Richard Fitzherbert, 9th Baronet, in this, his ancestral home
Theatre entry to Much Ado About Nothing at the Shakespeare Globe Theatre, London
Theatre entry to Coriolanus at the Royal Shakespeare Theatre, Stratford
A special dinner at one of England’s most elegant country inns
Guided Tours of key London attractions
Guided tour of Haddon Hall
Guided tour of Chatsworth House
Guided walking tour of Stratford-upon-Avon
Burghley House
Elizabeth I
This tour starts in London with reception services upon your arrival at the airport or the hotel.
9 Days - 8 Nights
Program pricing is based upon hotel occupancy options
Single: $8,385.00 Canadian plus taxes
Double: $7,299.00 Canadian plus taxes
All Bookings may be made online with either a deposit or full payment if within 60 days of travel. Please click on the Book Now menu Tab and you will be taken to the booking form. Choose the tour options you prefer and follow the reservations instructions. When you arrive on the checkout page, you will be required to agree to the Cancellation Terms, fill in your personal information and enter Credit Card information. Your credit card information is not stored or retained in the system in any manner, and is only used to transaction the deposit or final tour payment. Upon successful payment, you will be directed to your confirmation page and a confirmation email will be sent to the email address you have entered on the check out page. Travel documents will be sent to you 4-6 weeks before travel as an e-document unless printed documentation is requested.
Our tours are primarily developed for adults, so you and your travelling companions are sure to share interests and foster a congenial atmosphere of fun and learning. You need to be in good health, free of infectious or contagious illness, and have a level of fitness which would not spoil other participants’ enjoyment of the holiday – see our tour descriptions and activity level to help you decide the tour’s appropriateness for you. Coaches, some hotels that we may use and some historic buildings we may visit are not always easy to use or access if you have certain disabilities. Should any member of your party suffer from any disability or medical condition which may affect their or other people's holidays you must provide full written details at the time you book the holiday, including any specific requirements that person has. Additionally, at the time you book the holiday you must provide written confirmation that you will provide all assistance the disabled person requires. However, given the nature of our tours, Pelago Travel reserves the right to accept or reject any person as a tour participant. If during the tour it transpires you are not able to cope adequately, or are ill, you may be asked to opt out of certain visits, or be asked to leave the tour altogether. This would be at your own expense.
Access Heritage Tours tours do not include the cost of travel insurance. It is a condition of booking that you have adequate holiday insurance. Cover for medical treatment, repatriation, loss of property and cancellation charges must be included. If you are making your own flight/travel arrangements, please ensure you have insurance in place that protects you in the unlikely event of Access or our partners cancelling the tour.
Your passport needs to be valid for six months beyond the date of the tour. You should ascertain whether visas are required, and obtain them if they are. Your consular office or travel agent will be able to help with this.
PRICES, QUOTES, DEPOSITS & PAYMENTS: All prices on this website are per person and based on double occupancy, unless otherwise indicated. and are quoted in Canadian Dollars. Single rates apply as stipulated. Rates are subject to change without notice. If a hotel included in a program is not available at the time of the reservation, we will substitute it for a hotel of similar category. Most programs can be customized. All itineraries are subject to change without notice. To receive a quote for any additional dates for this tour or a customzation, please contact us Toll Free at 1 855 900-9249 us or send an email to us. Once your deposit is received, the land portion of your vacation price is guaranteed with the exception of potential fuel related surcharges as charged by our vendors. Access Heritage Travel will always pass on these charges at cost in order to minimize the impact on the consumer.
Deposits must be received at time of booking. Most Programs require a $700 per person deposit. If a program requires a different deposit amount it will be specified on the Program page. For full coverage, Travel Insurance should be purchased at the same time as your deposit.
Final payment must be received in our offices at least 60 days prior to tour departure. There will instances (due to conditions from our suppliers) where a final payment or an additional partial payment will be due outside of the 60 days terms. You will be notified of these special conditions upon booking your tour. Bookings may be cancelled if deposit or final payment is not received by due dates. Reservations made within 60 days of departure require full payment. Tour documents are issued after final payment and sent approximately 3-4 weeks prior to departure. Please note that E-Documents are becoming commonplace. We will be sending E-Documents unless a request for Paper Documents is made.
All programs are based on the participation of at least 2 travelers (unless specified as otherwise in the tour description). Single traveler departures can be arranged if available. Some tours do have minimum age restrictions for children which will be disclosed with all reservation requests.
We refers to Pelago Travel Ltd, a company registered in England with company number10069848. Registered office: Diamond Court, Water Street, Bakewell, Derbyshire DE45 1EW.
We provide full financial protection for our package holidays. We do not provide flights as part of our package. We are members of Protected Travel Services. Any monies paid in advance of your holiday are held in a secure trust account, which is fully compliant with UK 1992 Package Travel Regulations. This means that you will be fully refunded for any monies you have paid to us in the unlikely event of our insolvency. It also means that if such an event happens whilst you are on holiday you will not be stranded abroad or in the UK and will be transferred back to the tour start point. Many of the services which make up our tours are provided by independent suppliers, often in accordance with their own terms and conditions. Some of these terms and conditions may limit or exclude the supplier's liability to you, usually in accordance with applicable international conventions. Where applicable, copies of relevant terms and conditions are available on request from ourselves or the supplier concerned.
The purchase of a Travel Protection Plan is highly recommended. Ask your Reservation Specialist for details.
RESERVATION CHANGES A $50 per person fee will be assessed for each change to any booking made after final payment is received plus any additional fees that may be charged by our suppliers. Changes in departure date, itineraries or passengers are considered a cancellation and a new booking. No change will be made unless permitted under the terms of our cancellation policy, even if you transfer to another date.
We might decide to cancel a tour if at any time up to 57 days before departure there were insufficient bookings for it to be viable. We would refund everything you had paid to us. We may also cancel a tour if hostilities, civil unrest, natural disaster or other circumstances amounting to force majeure affect the region to which the tour was due to go. If we cancel the whole of the tour we will do our best to rearrange the tour on a mutually convenient date, or provide a refund to you of the cost to us of the tour if within 56 days of departure date. Save as above we shall be under no further liability to you for cancellation of the tour or any part of it.
You may cancel your booking up to 57 days before the tour is due to start and you will only forfeit the deposit of $700.00 per person. If you cancel 56 days or less from the start of the tour you will forfeit 100% of the tour cost. If you cancel your booking in a double or twin room but are travelling with a companion who chooses to continue to participate on the tour, the companion will be liable to pay the stipulated single supplement.
The best city to visit within easy striking distance of London is Bath — just a 1.5-hour train ride away. If ever a city enjoyed looking in the mirror, Bath's the one. Its streets a series of architectural chorus lines, Bath has more protected historic buildings per capita than any other town in England. Built of the creamy warm-tone limestone called "Bath stone," it beams in its cover-girl complexion. Proud locals remind visitors that the town is routinely banned from the "Britain in Bloom" contest to give other towns a chance to win. Bath's narcissism is justified. Even with its mobs of tourists and greedy prices, Bath is a joy to visit.
London is the L.A., D.C., and N.Y.C. of Britain — a living, breathing, thriving organism…a coral reef of humanity. Blow through the city on a double-decker bus, and take a pinch-me-I'm-in-London walk through the West End. Ogle the crown jewels at the Tower of London, hear the chimes of Big Ben, and see the Houses of Parliament in action. Cruise the Thames River, and take a spin on the London Eye. Hobnob with the tombstones in Westminster Abbey, visit with Leonardo, Botticelli, and Rembrandt in the National Gallery, and explore Harry Potter's stomping grounds at the film studio in Leavesden. Enjoy Shakespeare in a replica of the Globe Theatre and marvel at a glitzy, fun musical at a modern-day theater. Whisper across the dome of St. Paul's Cathedral, then rummage through our civilization's attic at the British Museum.
Visit world famous Stonehenge and nearby Salisbury. The countryside surrounding Bath holds two of England's most goose-pimply prehistoric sites, Stonehenge and Avebury. As old as the pyramids, and older than the Acropolis and the Colosseum, Stonehenge amazed medieval Europeans, who figured it was built by a race of giants. Today, it still retains an air of mystery and majesty (partly because cordons, which keep hordes of tourists from trampling all over it, foster the illusion that it stands alone in a field). Nearby Avebury is a prehistoric open-air museum, with a complex of fascinating Neolithic sites all gathered around a great stone circle that's likely even older — and for many, more enjoyable — than Stonehenge.
Ever since the first homework was assigned in 1167, the University of Oxford’s stellar graduates have influenced Western civilization; its alumni include 26 British prime ministers, more than 60 Nobel Prize winners, and even 11 saints. But that doesn't mean that Oxford is stodgy. Although you may see professors in their traditional black robes, this is a fun, young college town, filled with shopping streets, cheap eats, and rowdy, rollicking pubs. Step off the busy, urban-feeling High Street into the hushed sanctuary of a grassy college quad. See the dining hall that inspired the one where Harry Potter eats his meals, or the pub where J. R. R. Tolkien first spoke about hobbits. Just outside town is the magnificent Blenheim Palace, England's finest countryside estate.
TRAVEL & HEALTH DOCUMENTS: Passport and visa requirements, as well as vaccination certificates and other health requirements for travel between your home city and your tour destinations, may change from time to time. It is the sole responsibility of the passenger to determine if any visas and vaccinations are needed. Passengers who do not have proper documentation may be prevented from boarding a flight and will consequently lose 100% of total package price.
Single Suppliments and Currency
All prices on this website are per person and based on double occupancy, unless otherwise indicated. and are quoted in Canadian Dollars. Single rates apply as stipulated. Rates are subject to change without notice. Tour prices are subject to change depending upon currency exchange rates. Final tour payment price may therefore change between th etime a deposit is made and when the final payment is due.
To Be Listed
If you any questions about this or any of tours, please contact one of our travel experts at Toll Free 1 855 900-9249 or
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