Special Interest Tours & Activity Tours

Do you belong to a family, club or society who share an interest. Why not make a specialised interest tour? Together we can create a tour based on your choice(s) of subject. The number of days is up to you ... Or how about a little adventure? See the activity tours: Golf, Hiking and Biking.

PRICING YOUR TOUR:

It's simple! You pay just £440 per day, to cover the cost of your Minivan, your driver-guide and all miles driven. The fee also includes the driver-guides hotel/subsistence expenses, but not your own. We can arrange bed and breakfast/guest house/inn/hotel accommodations from £70 per twin or double room, £90 a family room per night including breakfast. You can see that this is the best way to go for a group on a budget, as the cost of the vehicle and guide is shared by your group (which can be up to 8 persons), and you pay what you wish to pay for accommodations and meals.

Please note: your entry fees to the sites visited are not included, and gratuities are at your discretion.

OR: Some of our away tours also offer a luxury fully-inclusive option, see the individual tours for more details.

ARCHITECTURE: There’s a host of interesting structures to see in Britain. From 10th Century Saxon, thru’ the Norman (Romanesque) period to the full flowering of English Perpendicular Gothic, to Classical Renaissance, Georgian Baroque, Victorian Gothic Revival, Neo-classical, Art-Nouveau, Art-Deco, Modernist, Brutalist, Post-Modernist, High-tech ... thousands of fine examples await your appraisal.

We'll see many of the best examples of the works of Inigo JONES, Sir Christopher WREN, Nicholas HAWKSMOOR, Sir John VANBRUGH, Robert ADAM, John NASH, Sir John SOANE, William BUTTERFIELD, Sir George Gilbert SCOTT, Norman SHAW, Charles VOYSEY, Charles Rennie MACKINTOSH, Sir Edwin LUTYENS, Sir Giles Gilbert SCOTT, Sir Denys LASDUN, Lord Norman FOSTER, Lord Richard ROGERS, Terry FARRELL, Nicholas GRIMSHAW, ....

Tell us your preferences/objectives/number of days available and we’ll plan as comprehensive an itinerary as possible...

BIKE TOURS: For group sizes up to 8 persons with 6 tours to choose from. Novices should go for the easy GREEN TOURS, which involve only two to three hours gentle riding each day; more experienced riders can take the more ambitious BROWN TOURS, with three to four hours cycling each day, and include some strenuous bits which will leave you out of breath and red in the face! Our most demanding rides are the RED TOURS*, designed for those with experience of long-distance cycling over varied terrains. Red tours will include some challenging hill climbs, occasional off-road riding, and cover much greater distances - up to five hours in the saddle each day. * To be announced August 2005.

Difficulty level code:

1 - Very easy. Anyone, of any age who can ride a bike and is reasonably healthy can do it

2 - Easy. With occasional small hills

3 - Harder. Some hill climbing and longer distances

4 - Quite strenuous in places. Fairly good bike-riding ability required

5 - For experienced riders only. Very strenuous in places, with some steep hills which require caution

GREEN TOUR A - Difficulty level 1:

A satisfying three-day tour of old villages, pleasant countryside, and the historic University city of Cambridge.

GREEN TOUR B - Difficulty Level 2/3:

A great four-day tour of Oxfordshire, the Cotswolds, many hidden treasures and some more famous sights

BROWN TOUR A - Difficulty level - 3/4

A lovely 3-day tour of the Countryside, Gardens, Castles and Sea shores of Sussex and Kent's '1066 Country'

BROWN TOUR B - Difficulty level - 4

A fabulous tour of Yorkshire's Wolds, Moors and Dales, plus Castle Howard and historic York City

RED TOUR A - Difficulty level 5:

The English Lake District Grand Tour - to be announced later this year

RED TOUR B - Difficulty level 5:

The West of England Coastal Tour - to be announced later this year

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COUNTRY HOUSES? Literally thousands of fine country houses can be visited. The choice is just huge. To get a feel for what's available take the time to look more closely at some of those we've listed on our links page. Some are popular and famous, many are delightfully quieter, whose owners are often much more appreciative of our visit and interest. Some of them can be toured privately. If you appreciate and admire beautiful interiors, furniture and art, why not think about a tour which focuses on country houses?

Some are grand, some are quite modest, but all will delight!

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EDUCATIONAL: Why not take this opportunity of not only enjoying a good vacation in Britain, but also assisting with educational projects, too? Whilst history is an obvious subject, the group can also learn something about architecture, literature, customs, language, traditions, science, art, crafts, manufacturing and so on.

(Please request the relevant free factsheets when booking).

Oh, and tell the kids not to worry - there won’t be a test at the end, unless it’s requested!

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FAMILY HISTORY: Doing your genealogical thing? We can assist you to maximise the research/visit time available to you over here by planning your route, assiting with accommodation bookings, research facility appointments, and ensuring that you get to the various locations in the easiest, most practical route but also combining any places of interest along the way ...

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GARDENS: There are simply thousands of wonderful gardens to visit in Britain. For garden historians we’ll be covering examples of work by many of the great names in gardening. Not only have some of the greatest designers in history worked here, but our climate and the efforts of some of our plant hunters have made Britain virtually a Botanical Garden of the World.

From those gardens surrounding stately homes, castles, and historic buildings to grand planting schemes in city parks and municipal locations. Another real delight is to visit and have a tour with the owner of some of the smaller but simply delightful cottage gardens which may only cover an acre or less.

Let us plan a tour for your group...tell us how many days (3 to 10) you would like to tour and we’ll plan a tour which will include more beautiful gardens than you’d ever thought could exist in one small country. Or, take a look at our Special Garden Tours: 

The 2-day Garden Tour     -     The 3-day Garden Tour      -       The 4-day Garden Tour

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GASTRONOMY: It surprises many people visiting these Islands that the cuisine served in many hotels, restaurants and brasserie’s/cafes now ranks up there with the very best. Did you know that there are more Michelin starred restaurants in Britain than most European countries? Indeed, if cost is no barrier, we can plan you a tour which will include some of the finest accommodations and tables in the world.

After all, travelling is thirsty/hungry work, isn’t it...?

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GOLF: Did you know that Britain has more golf courses than any other country except the USA and that many are ranked amongst the finest in the world? Not only Scotland, the home of Golf, but England and Wales, boast some superb venues. We can devise a multi-day tour incorporating some fine courses, hotels and sights, whilst arranging start times for the players, and shopping trips/sightseeing outings for non-golfers in the group.

That way, every member of the group is happy and the golfers can concentrate on their game ...

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HIKES AROUND ENGLAND: Coming soon! We're putting the finishing touches to a new range of drive 'n hike tours which will combine some regular sightseeing with the advdenture of hiking through some of England's best countryside. Commencing 2008. Group organisers contact us for more information.

LITERATURE AND ART: If you love to read, or are studying some of the works of the great literary or art world figures, it can be very satisfying to visit their homes, gardens and studios, or the colleges and other places where they were often inspired to creativity, and of course, their graves. Here are some, but certainly not all of the contenders:

Authors, playwrights and poets :

Jane AUSTEN, Francis BACON, Hilaire BELOC, Sir John BETJEMAN, William BLAKE, Enid BLYTON, Anne, Emily and Charlotte BRONTE, Robert BROWNING, John BUCHAN, John BUNYAN, Lord BYRON, Lewis CARROLL, Geoffrey CHAUCER, G. K. CHESTERTON, Dame Agatha CHRISTIE, Samuel Taylor COLERIDGE, William Wilkie COLLINS, William CONGREVE, Joseph CONRAD, Charles DARWIN, Daniel DEFOE, Charles DICKENS, John DONNE, Sir Arthur Conan DOYLE, John DRYDEN, George ELIOT, T. S. ELIOT, John EVELYN, Ian FLEMING, John GALSWORTHY, Mrs GASKELL, John GAY, Edward GIBBON, Oliver GOLDSMITH, Kenneth GRAHAME, Thomas GRAY, Thomas HARDY, William HAZLITT, A. E. HOUSMAN, Ted HUGHES, Aldous HUXLEY, Henry JAMES, Jerome K JEROME, Samuel JOHNSON, Ben JONSON, John KEATS, Charles KINGSLEY, Rudyard KIPLING, Charles LAMB, D.H. LAWRENCE, T. E. LAWRENCE, Cecil Day LEWIS, Christopher MARLOWE, John MASEFIELD, W. Somerset MAUGHAM, Daphne DU MAURIER, John MILTON, Nancy MITFORD, Thomas MOORE, George ORWELL, Samuel PEPYS, Sylvia PLATH, Alexander POPE, Beatrix POTTER, J. B. PRIESTLEY, 'Q' (Sir Arthur Quiller-Couch), John RUSKIN, Vita SACKVILLE-WEST, Siegfried SASSOON, Sir Walter SCOTT, William SHAKESPEARE, George Bernard SHAW, Mary SHELLEY, Percy B. SHELLEY, Richard Brinsley SHERIDAN, Dame Edith SITWELL, Robert SOUTHEY, Edmund SPENSER, John STOW, Alfred Lord TENNYSON, William M. THACKERAY, Dylan THOMAS, Anthony TROLLOPE, Edgar WALLACE, Izaak WALTON, Evelyn WAUGH, H.G. WELLS, Dennis WHEATLEY, Virginia WOOLF, William WORDSWORTH. "

Artists, Musicians, Composers and Sculptors :

Johann Christian BACH, Benjamin BRITTEN, Eric COATES, Frederick DELIUS, Sir Edward ELGAR, Thomas GAINSBOROUGH, Sir Anthony VAN DYCK, Sir Joshua REYNOLDS, J. M. W. TURNER, Giovanni CANALETTO, Sir Peter LELY, Sir James THORNHILL, George HANDEL, Grinling GIBBONS, Antonio VERRIO, Louis LAGUERRE, Wm. HOGARTH, John CONSTABLE, Sir Edwin LANDSEER, Frederick LEIGHTON, Sir John MILLAIS, Ivor NOVELLO, Henry PURCELL, George ROMNEY, Dante Gabriel ROSSETTI, Ralph VAUGHAN WILLIAMS, James WHISTLER, Stanley SPENCER, Grinling GIBBONS, Henry MOORE, Sir Jacob EPSTEIN.....

Want to try a tour which has a literary or art theme? Give us a list of your favourites and/or the number of days available and we’ll do the rest...

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MYTHS AND LEGENDS? Whether its King Arthur and his Knights of the Round Table, ancient stories and myths, ‘modern’ day follies or ancient stone circles and structures or just the odd, strange and unexplained, this little country of ours offers lots of scope - probably more than anywhere else. Perhaps that’s why people on the continent of Europe have rightly described us as a little ‘eccentric’.

Combine a feast of the unusual with some old fashioned regular sightseeing if that’s your whim.... and if it is, who knows, you just may have some British ancestry!

Stretch your imagination with a tour which raises some questions and theories which still puzzle ‘modern man’....

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ROYAL HERITAGE? With the world’s highest profile monarchy, you’d expect us to find something for the Royal watchers, wouldn’t you? From the counties of London, Kent, Sussex, Berkshire, the Isle of Wight, Gloucestershire, Norfolk, Northamptonshire, Yorkshire, Aberdeenshire, up and down the length and breadth of the country there are many Royal links.

There is something very special about the British Monarchy and its history, and we will try to show you why the marriage between the Crown and the People is much stronger than many in the contemporary media would have you believe.

This is the theme tour for history lovers too - the history of Kings and Queens is the history of Great Britain...

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SHOPPING? There are tens of thousands of shops in the UK but if you want to know where to find the best porcelain - lace - china - art - sculpture - equestrian accessories - cottage crafts - knitwear - forgework - pottery - malt whisky, etc., and make sure its ‘on-route’.

Tell us your interests and we’ll plan in the best places to look ...

©2005 Ruddick Tours April 4, 2008