Itinerary basics and tips
All about the ReidsEngland.com itineraries: How they work, how to schedule your days, when to book things, tips, hints, and foolish assumptions we have made
A few basic assumptions that help these itineraries fit most (but certainly not all) needs and styles
What makes ReidsEngland.com patented "Perfect Itineraries" different from others
- Viator.com - Offers a multitude of multi-day trips, from two days exploring beyond London, to three days of Welsh Castles, to five days of Cornwall or a week in the Scottish Highlands and Orkney Islands.Partner
- Cietours.com - Specialist in British Isles Tours—Ireland, Scotland, England, and Wales.
- Bmit.com - Specialist in British Isles Tours—Ireland, Scotland, England, and Wales.
- Gate1travel.com - Good generalist tour company.
- Realadventures.com - Several dozen tours from multiple companies and on various themes across the U.K.Partner
- Ricksteves.com - PBS superstar Rick Steves runs a highly successful tour company that really tries to highlight all the best of the independent travel style espoused in his books and TV show in a group format. I've bumped into several of his tour groups in Europe over the years, and the participants always gush about what a great time they're having. He also keeps his groups smaller than most (24 to 28 travelers versus the 40 to 60 many big companies cram onto the bus), and the smaller the group, the more authentic the experiences each member is going to have (to say nothing of more room on the bus). (Disclosure: I know Rick, but have recommended his product long before that, even if we were once guidebook competitors!)
- Sceptrevacations.com - Escorted and custom group tours of England, Scotland, Wales, and Ireland, plus many great vacation packages.
- Roadscholar.org - The travel company formerly known as Elderhostels (and, briefly, Exploritas) is devoted to "Adventures in lifelong learning," and aimed at travelers 50 and over. These are educational trips, often coordinated by universities, with nearly 70 trips in or including England, Scotland, and Wales. Your days are packed with seminars, lectures, field trips, and sightseeing, all led by academics or expert tour guides. Programs range from one to four weeks. They also offer cruises, intergenerational trips (i.e.: bring the grand kids), and outdoors adventures.
- Abercrombiekent.com - One of the best tour companies in the world—with prices to match! If you can afford it, you will love it.
- Oattravel.com - Small group adventures, with a focus on mature solo travelers.
- Contiki.com - Tours of England, Scotland, and beyond, aimed at younger travelers.Partner
- STA Travel - Tours of England and Scotland aimed at students and other young travelers.Partner
- Goway.com - Good generalist tour and package company.
- Tripmasters.com - Another good generalist tour and package company.
- Smartours.com - Good, basic tour company with a smaller roster of carefully crafted tours at decent prices.
- Brendanvacations.com - Specialists in Ireland and Scotland.
- intrepidtravel.com -
Though rarely do they have U.K. offerings, Intrepid Travel is well worth checking out. it is one of only two only major tour outfits I know (along with G Adventures) of that makes a concerted effort to travel like real independent travelers—small groups (max of 12 people), staying in mom-and-pop accommodations and getting around by public transport rather than a big tour bus.
This fantastic Australian company marries an independent travel style with the expertise of truly knowledgeable guides and a focus on the cultural experience of travel.
Intrepid really does run a different breed of group tour. Let me put it this way: When my parents—who travel widely and on their own and normally would never have even considered taking a group tour—suddenly found themselves with airfare to Japan but no time to plan a trip, I suggested they try booking with Intrepid. They did—and they have raved about it every since. Nearly seven years later, they were still in touch with their guide via email.
Partner - Gadventures.com - G Adventures is an excellent small-group adventurous tour operator. Not much on the U.K. at present—save for a small ship adventure sailing the Scottish islands and Norway coast—but worth checking out.Partner
- Backroadstouring.com - British-based tour company devoted to getting off the beaten path and avoiding the highways.
- Viator.com -
This clearinghouse for activities and day tours also offers longer, multi-day trips—and, since it is essentially a middleman site liking you to local outfitters, it is often among the cheapest (Viator only tacks on a modest fee).
From London:
- 3-Day Edinburgh Weekend Break by Rail from London
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3-Day Rail Trip to Edinburgh, Loch Ness and the Highlands from London
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Private 2-Day Cotswolds and Villages Tour by Luxury Car from London
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5-Day Heart of England Tour from London: North Wales, Stratford-upon-Avon, Buxton and York
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5-Day Best of Britain Tour: Edinburgh, Stonehenge, York, Bath, and Cardiff from London
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5-Day Best of England Small-Group Tour: Oxford, the Cotswolds and Bath
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4-Day England and North Wales Tour: Stratford-upon-Avon, Snowdonia and Cambridge
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4-Day Independent London to Dublin by Virgin Train and Irish Ferries
- 3-Day Paris and Versailles Tour from London
- Sceptrevacations.com - Long the price champ on self-drive vacations in the British Isles (they provide airfare, rental car, and vouchers for hotels and/or B&Bs, all at a discount; your trip is your own), Sceptre now also offers rail journeys, chauffeur trips, and escorted tours ("Journeys"). Though it covers much of Europe now, Sceptre started with Ireland and Scotland, and still offers a wider range of British Isles itineraries than most, including plenty in England and Wales.
- City-discovery.com - Chief rival to Viator (though with a less spiffy interface and often sub-par text descriptions), representing many of the same tours (at the same prices). However, it also seems to cover more destinations, especially secondary ones. When it comes down to it, City-Discovery and Viator have maybe 70% the same inventory, but then 30% will be completely different (some Viator has City-Discovery does not, other vice-versa) so it pays to check through the offerings from both.Partner
- Viator.com -
This clearinghouse for activities and day tours also offers longer, multi-day trips—and, since it is essentially a middleman site liking you to local outfitters, it is often among the cheapest (Viator only tacks on a modest fee).
From Edinburgh:
- 5-Day Best of Scotland Experience from Edinburgh
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2-Day Loch Ness and Inverness Small Group Tour from Edinburgh
- 3-Day Isle of Skye Small-Group Tour from Edinburgh
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3-Day Isle of Skye and Scottish Highlands Tour from Edinburgh Including 'Hogwarts Express' Ride
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3-Day Cairngorms National Park Tour from Edinburgh: Royal Deeside, Speyside Whisky and St Andrews
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3-Day Isle of Skye and Scottish Highlands Tour from Edinburgh Including Eilean Donan Castle
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4-Day Tour of the West Highlands and Isle of Skye from Edinburgh
- 5-Day Orkney Islands Tour from Edinburgh Including the Scottish Highlands
- 5-Day Iona, Mull and the Isle of Skye Small Group Tour from Edinburgh
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5-Day Highland Explorer and Isle of Skye Small Group Tour from Edinburgh
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5-Day Isle of Skye, Loch Ness and the Jacobite Steam Train from Edinburgh
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5-Day Tour from Edinburgh: York, Yorkshire Dales, Lake District and Hadrian's Wall
- Viator.com - Best one-stop shopping site for all sorts of activities, walking tours, bus tours, escorted day trips, and other excursions. It is actually a clearinghouse for many local tour companies and outfitters, and since it gets a bulk-rate deal on pricing (and takes only a token fee for itself), you can actually sometimes book an activity through Viator for less than it would cost to buy the same exact tour from the tour company itself. (I once booked a Dublin pub crawl via Viator and later discovered that I saved about $1.50; also, the tour turned out to be sold-out, and they were turning away the folks in front of me in line, but since I had a pre-booked voucher I got in.)Partner
- Londonwalks.com - Since the 1970s, the gold standard in city walking tours and museum tours—and cheap, to boot. Just meet your guide at the appointed time and place (usually a Tube stop), pay your £10 (students or over 65s are £8; under 15 free), and prepare for a good two hours of amazing cultural insight and historic anecdotes. If you plan on taking three or more walks, buy a "Frequent London Walker" card for £2 from your first guide, then each subsequent walk costs £8. They also run popular excursions outside London for £18. Note that the fee just covers the guided tour; you pay for any admissions (or, for excursions, travel expenses) yourself.
- Contexttravel.com - This bespoke walking tour company doesn't even call its 200 tour leaders "guides." It calls them "docents"—perhaps because most guides are academics and specialists in their fields: history professors, archeologists, PhDs, art historians, artists, etc. Groups are miniscule (often six people maximum), and most docents can be booked for private guiding sessions as well. They aren't always the cheapest tours, but they are invariably the best. People rave about Context.Partner
- City-discovery.com - Chief rival to Viator (though with a less spiffy interface and often sub-par text descriptions), representing many of the same tours (at the same prices). However, it also seems to cover more destinations, especially secondary ones. When it comes down to it, City-Discovery and Viator have maybe 70% the same inventory, but then 30% will be completely different (some Viator has City-Discovery does not, other vice-versa) so it pays to check through the offerings from both.Partner
