Excursions in the U.K.
Daytrips links- Viator.com -
From London:
- Stonehenge, Windsor Castle, Bath, Including Pub Lunch in Medieval Village of Lacock
- Luxury Paris Day Trip with Champagne Lunch on the Eiffel Tower
- Stonehenge Inner Circle Access Day Trip from London Including Oxford and Windsor Castle
- Stonehenge, Windsor Castle and Bath Day Trip from London
- Fully Escorted Day Trip to Paris from London Including River Cruise
- Oxford, Cotswolds, Stratford-upon-Avon and Warwick Castle Day Trip from London
- Small Group Tour: Downton Abbey and Village Tour of Locations from London
- Leeds Castle, Cliffs of Dover and Canterbury Day Trip from London with Guided Cathedral Tour
- England in One Day: Stonehenge, Bath, the Cotswolds and Stratford-upon-Avon Day Trip from London
- Private Viewing of Stonehenge including Bath and Lacock
- Lunch in the Cotswolds from London
- Windsor Castle, Stonehenge, and Oxford Custom Day Trip
- Windsor Castle and Hampton Court Palace Day Trip from London
- Beatles and Liverpool Rail Day Trip from London
- Warner Bros. Studio Tour London - The Making of Harry Potter and Oxford Day Trip from London
- Oxford, Stratford Upon Avon and Cotswolds Tour from London
- Leeds Castle, Canterbury Cathedral, Dover and Greenwich with Thames River Cruise Tour from London
Partner - ContextTravel.com -
From London:
Partner - Walks.com -
Departures from London are infrequent (usually once a week in summer, less frequently or not at all off season) to popular spots like:
- City-discovery.com -
From London:
- Bath, Stonehenge, and Salisbury Day Tour from London
- Leeds Castle, Canterbury, White Cliffs of Dover, and Greenwich Full Day Tour with Lunch
- Oxford, Stratford-Upon-Avon, the Cotswolds, and Warwick Castle Day Trip from London
- Windsor Castle, Bath, and Stonehenge Custom Day Trip from London
- Simply Windsor Castle Admission with Transport from London
- Legoland Windsor with Return Transportation
- Paris Rail Day Trip from London including Versailles Admission Ticket
- Independent Day Trip to Paris from London by Eurostar and 1 Day Open Bus Tour
- Free and Easy Edinburgh Rail Day Trip from London
- Free and Easy Lake District Rail Day Trip from London
- York Rail Day Trip from London
Partner
Multi-day excursions links- 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
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- 3-Day Paris and Versailles Tour from London
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Partner - 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
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- 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
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Partner
Excursions links
- 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
- Viator.com -
From London:
- Stonehenge, Windsor Castle, Bath, Including Pub Lunch in Medieval Village of Lacock
- Luxury Paris Day Trip with Champagne Lunch on the Eiffel Tower
- Stonehenge Inner Circle Access Day Trip from London Including Oxford and Windsor Castle
- Stonehenge, Windsor Castle and Bath Day Trip from London
- Fully Escorted Day Trip to Paris from London Including River Cruise
- Oxford, Cotswolds, Stratford-upon-Avon and Warwick Castle Day Trip from London
- Small Group Tour: Downton Abbey and Village Tour of Locations from London
- Leeds Castle, Cliffs of Dover and Canterbury Day Trip from London with Guided Cathedral Tour
- England in One Day: Stonehenge, Bath, the Cotswolds and Stratford-upon-Avon Day Trip from London
- Private Viewing of Stonehenge including Bath and Lacock
- Lunch in the Cotswolds from London
- Windsor Castle, Stonehenge, and Oxford Custom Day Trip
- Windsor Castle and Hampton Court Palace Day Trip from London
- Beatles and Liverpool Rail Day Trip from London
- Warner Bros. Studio Tour London - The Making of Harry Potter and Oxford Day Trip from London
- Oxford, Stratford Upon Avon and Cotswolds Tour from London
- Leeds Castle, Canterbury Cathedral, Dover and Greenwich with Thames River Cruise Tour from London
- ContextTravel.com -
From London:
Partner - Walks.com -
Departures from London are infrequent (usually once a week in summer, less frequently or not at all off season) to popular spots like:
- City-discovery.com -
From London:
- Bath, Stonehenge, and Salisbury Day Tour from London
- Leeds Castle, Canterbury, White Cliffs of Dover, and Greenwich Full Day Tour with Lunch
- Oxford, Stratford-Upon-Avon, the Cotswolds, and Warwick Castle Day Trip from London
- Windsor Castle, Bath, and Stonehenge Custom Day Trip from London
- Simply Windsor Castle Admission with Transport from London
- Legoland Windsor with Return Transportation
- Paris Rail Day Trip from London including Versailles Admission Ticket
- Independent Day Trip to Paris from London by Eurostar and 1 Day Open Bus Tour
- Free and Easy Edinburgh Rail Day Trip from London
- Free and Easy Lake District Rail Day Trip from London
- York Rail Day Trip from London
- 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
-
3-Day Rail Trip to Edinburgh, Loch Ness and the Highlands from London
-
Private 2-Day Cotswolds and Villages Tour by Luxury Car from London
-
5-Day Heart of England Tour from London: North Wales, Stratford-upon-Avon, Buxton and York
-
5-Day Best of Britain Tour: Edinburgh, Stonehenge, York, Bath, and Cardiff from London
-
5-Day Best of England Small-Group Tour: Oxford, the Cotswolds and Bath
-
4-Day England and North Wales Tour: Stratford-upon-Avon, Snowdonia and Cambridge
-
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
-
2-Day Loch Ness and Inverness Small Group Tour from Edinburgh
- 3-Day Isle of Skye Small-Group Tour from Edinburgh
-
3-Day Isle of Skye and Scottish Highlands Tour from Edinburgh Including 'Hogwarts Express' Ride
-
3-Day Cairngorms National Park Tour from Edinburgh: Royal Deeside, Speyside Whisky and St Andrews
-
3-Day Isle of Skye and Scottish Highlands Tour from Edinburgh Including Eilean Donan Castle
-
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
-
5-Day Highland Explorer and Isle of Skye Small Group Tour from Edinburgh
-
5-Day Isle of Skye, Loch Ness and the Jacobite Steam Train from Edinburgh
-
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