Information about Ruddick Tours

Information

Hi! My name is Ray Ruddick and I'd like to welcome you and your family or friends to the UK.

I started Ruddick Tours in 1989 offering driver-guided sightseeing trips around London, the UK and Ireland. I later added City Walks and Countryside Hikes. These tours normally commence and terminate at your hotel and are personally conducted by me. In other words, I am not an agency, if you book with me, you get me.

Holding both the London Blue Badge and the City of London Badge plus many years of ongoing study adequately equip me for the work I do, but there is no substitute for enthusiasm and energy and I hope to have the opportunity to demonstrate this to your group! I'm always delighted when I hear that my tours have been educational, but I get just as much satisfaction from seeing from the reactions and comments that they are entertaining too. I believe the best tours should combine information, experiences (and serendipity) in an entertaining way. Summing up, my aim is to give you a really great tour with plenty of facts and figures, but lots of Fun too!

My tours are either on foot, or by 9-seater VW people-carrier or if you're a larger group, by big coach. On average the day tours commence at 9am, shorter tours can start later, but tours like The Big One (14 hours!) require a much earlier start: 7am. Please go to the individual tour descriptions via the menu at the head of each page. You will find that full tour details, destinations, the duration in hours and the tour cost are all clearly shown. Please note all tour prices shown are for the group, NOT per person.

The tours are conducted in English, but if another language is required, my fellow London Guides speak almost 40 languages between them - so I'll refer your enquiry in the right direction.

My driver-guiding work consists of taking small groups of up to 8 persons in my mini-van, a long wheelbase air-conditioned VW Transporter, with lots of luggage space for those staying away trips - see the pic below.

Occasionally I work with larger groups and will hire a coach and driver for us. These can be single deckers up to 55 seats or double deckers which can seat up to 72. I only use companies who are well-established and offer late model, air-conditioned vehicles driven by the best drivers. On these tours my responsibilities are those of both Tour Director and Guide.

If you like to stretch those legs please check out my walking tours - both City Walks and Country Hikes, they offer excellent value for money and will certainly keep you fit!