CREAM TEAS AND PASTIES

Dorset, Devon & Cornwall

8 days including arrival/departure

This well-balanced tour features the best of the UK's southwestern region. It's a cliché to write that there's something for everyone here but sometimes the cliché is the most accurate word or phrase to use. For lovers of countryside there are rolling downs, rugged seascapes, atmospheric moorlands and the lush, green country that is so representative of England. For those who enjoy history there are castles aplenty, the King Arthur connections, the prehistoric and Roman sites, the more recent war time remains and everywhere the mighty maritime past.

Literature lovers will be thrilled to see the lands of Thomas Hardy and Daphne Du Maurier. Gourmets will die for the cream teas, real Cornish pasties and farmhouse cooking.

DEPARTURE DATES & PRICES FOR YEAR 2003

Price: US$1,299.00 Single Supplement: US$345.00
 

DAY ONE - SATURDAY

Arrival in London where you'll be met transferred to our tour hotel. You have the day free to enjoy the attractive local neighbourhood at leisure.

DAY TWO - SUNDAY

Our first day's touring takes us into England oldest county, Wiltshire. The purpose of our visit is to see King Arthur's Round Table at the Great Hall in Winchester, before continuing through the timeless landscape of Thomas Hardy's Dorset to Honiton in Devon. En route, we'll stop at Cadbury castle, an iron-age, hilltop fortress and one of the possible sites of Camelot. A further highlight of our day will be a local stately home such as Montacute House or Stowe.

DAY THREE- MONDAY

Our routing for the day will offer us great choice. There's the maritime Exeter, the English Rivera, be at Plymouth, and here we'll see the harbour from which the Mayflower set sail. Next, we follow the Cornish coast through delightful fishing villages and harbours stopping en route, perhaps, to visit the pirate museum at Looe or the shipwreck centre at St Austell. Readers of Daphne Du Maurier will also enjoy our time at Fowey and discovering the real Jamaica Inn.

DAY FOUR - TUESDAY

There's so much to see in this region. There are the wonderful harbours of St Ives and Penzance, the coastal walks along cliff tops and beaches, the prehistoric village at Chysauster, the famous open-air Minack theatre, some of the most beautiful gardens in Britain, including the new Eden Project. There are old lead mining museums, castles and Land's End itself. And then, of course, we've afternoon cream teas to take and Cornish pasties to eat! Our flexible touring concept will allow tour participants to decide on the day's priorities in consultation with their guide.

DAY FIVE - WEDNESDAY

DAY SIX - THURSDAY

We turn north, following the north Cornwall and Devon coasts. Our itinerary today will include Padstow, King Arthur's Tintagel, the impossibly pretty village of Clovelly (where donkeys are still used to haul goods and people up and down the narrow cobbled street to the sea) and the Devon countryside north of Dartmoor and Dartmoor.

DAY SEVEN - FRIDAY

We tour today through Somerset. This is a county famed for its cider apples and so we must, of course, visit a cider farm and sample the wares! There are also the mystic town of Glastonbury where Arthur is said to have been buried, and the magnificent Wells cathedral. If time permits, perhaps we can also visit the massive gorge and caves at Cheddar. And we'll want to spend some time in the Roman/Georgian elegance of Bath. It's yet another day when we're spoilt for choice

DAY EIGHT - SATURDAY

The civic centre of Cardiff is magnificent and will be the showpiece of a panoramic city tour (which will also feature the Millennium Stadium, formally known as the Arms Park, Mecca for the millions of Rugby Football fans worldwide). You'll also enjoy some free time this morning to shop and to visit the magnificent Cardiff castle.

This afternoon, you board your train or coach for an unaccompanied transfer back to London.