For many, making a transatlantic crossing or flying to the UK to pick up a Southampton, Dover or Harwich sailing, London will have considerable pulling power especially among first-, second- and third-time visitors, and the cruise lines offer some great deals. However, quite a few of your clients may well want to enjoy close encounters with privately owned castles, stately homes and gardens, take private tours of great cathedrals followed by Choral Evensong, enjoy English Afternoon Tea in different and unusual locations and chatting to the locals while sinking the odd pint or two of Speckled Hen, Woodfordes Wherry or Old Dairy Blue Top.
For those wanting to experience our great castles, manor houses and gardens, take a closer look at some of the winners of the fiercely contested competition that's sponsored by the Historic Houses Association and Christies, the international auction house. It started in 1984 and has generated an impressive list of 31 of the very best stately homes and gardens in Britain.
On closer inspection five of them are very close to Southampton and five more work brilliantly for Dover with four more coming together for Harwich arrivals and departures. The tricky bit is putting them all together with the right mix of hotels, pubs and tea rooms, but help is at hand!
For those who like to turn the pages of English literature as part of their UK visit, Alice in Wonderland, Harry Potter and Inspector Morse play important roles in a visit to Oxford (easily accessible for Southampton) as does Sir Winston Churchill at Blenheim Palace where they're celebrating a number of important anniversaries in 2015. Jane Austen's home at Chawton, her burial place in Winchester Cathedral and treasure filled Waddesdon Manor also add something very special to the program.
If time is short, the cathedral city of Guildford between London Heathrow and Southampton provides the base for a visit to an Artists Village, at least two classic pubs, a traditional English Afternoon Tea, a privately owned stately home and 3-4 hours at Wisley, the flagship for the Royal Horticultural Society.
The great waterfront city of Portsmouth makes another great base for a four-night tour which peers through the mists of time at prehistoric Stonehenge before a series of interesting visits to HMS Victory in the Historic Dockyard, the remains of the small village of Bosham and the great castle at Arundel. The cathedral city also offers close looks at the life and times of Jane Austen, Charles Dickens and Sir Arthur Conan Doyle.
If you want a genuinely close living history encounter with Old England and you're cruising in and out of the east coast port of Harwich, a four-nighter based largely in the county of Suffolk will tick all the boxes. It includes leisurely paced visits to stately homes, stunning gardens both large and small, two cathedrals, the smallest pub in England, tearooms, American connections and some of the prettiest villages in England.
Traveler's Tip
From May 2015 onwards you'll be able to provide your valued clients with an alternative to LHR by taking flying United, American and Icelandair from EWR and JFK into Birmingham in the very heart of England. Airside kerbside is around 30 minutes and with Broadway, Chipping Campden and the northern Cotswolds another 30 minutes away you can make the going a whole lot more enjoyable by offering them a tailor made Cotswold Experience that they will not be able to create for themselves.
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