Christmas & Winter

We’ve spent a lot of time over the past two decades developing and polishing up days out that are ideal for Winter and Christmas. We have been putting together creative and original itineraries for groups for more than 20 years. You book your own coach locally and concentrate on organising your club members while we do the rest of the planning for a trip that your folk will talk about for a long time to come. On the day our first class Blue Badge guide joins your coach for an exciting outing where your members will see a lot without having to walk too far.

Our Winter Warmers are available at any time of the year but are particularly good for keeping your folk warm and entertained during the winter months.

A key factor to the success of our Christmas trips is that you don’t get home too late – on most “evening” trips we make an early start when it is getting dark so that you can be heading home not much later than 6-30pm or 7-00pm. 


We offer quite a variety of trips, which one will appeal most to your group?

A traditional tour of the Christmas Lights with a pub supper? Then the London Christmas Supper Club is the one for you. Our entertaining guided tour of the London Christmas Lights & Sights includes a stop to see elegant Somerset House all dressed and lit for Christmas with a huge tree and ice rink and ends with a traditional fish & chip or chicken & chip supper. A tour of the Christmas Lights with a twist? Sing for your supper on our unique Christmas London in Song. We’ll show you the lights and sights and invite you to join in with traditional London songs and Christmas carols. Whet your whistle with a pub drinks stop midway, finish with a fish & chip or chicken & chip supper and watch your folk doze off with smiles on their faces on the drive home! 

"My folk like a concert.”
Book the Mighty Wurlitzer Christmas Concert. Watch the Mighty Wurlitzer rise from the orchestra pit, marvel at the dexterity of Wurlitzer supremo Len Rawles, be amazed by the skill of Richard Coles on the peculiar Theremin and household-familiar, but seldom heard, house saw and join in an old fashioned sing-a-long. After the concert there’s sherry and a mince pie before enjoying a whirl around the London Christmas Lights on your coach with one of our top class Blue Badge guides.  A lovely afternoon and early evening of entertainment this Christmas.

 “My group really like a boat trip.”
Cruising into Christmas is our unique after dark Thames Cruise and Lights & Sights coach tour combined. The boat trip lasts 90 minutes and takes you all the way from the old Millennium Dome (The O2) to the Palace of Westminster. Our boat is lovely and warm with a fully licensed bar selling hot & cold drinks (hot chocolate and Baileys anyone?). Sit back and enjoy the Skipper’s commentary and the magic of the River Thames after dark. Back on your coach our Blue Badge guide will show you the best of the Christmas Lights in our beautifully illuminated capital city.

The Olympics, The Lights & Ten Miles of Liquid History is an exciting new cruise option which combines an overview of the London Olympic developments at Stratford with a Christmas Lights mini tour and the perennially popular Christmas Cruise. For more details see our main brochure. 

We like lunch together and quite enjoy Christmas Shopping
A City & Village Christmas Market Together Tour offers so much more than just a shopping trip. Each day begins at 10-30/10-45am with morning coffee and biscuits all laid out and waiting for you at a lovely pub before heading off for a morning of exploration and discovery with  a first class Blue Badge Guide keeping your folk warm and entertained before returning to the pub for a hot lunch enjoyed together as a group. On all tours we have selected attractive and traditional pubs tucked away from but nearby the busy market area itself – makes great sense doesn’t it? After lunch together your members can opt to shop and browse all afternoon by themselves or enjoy an hour in the market before joining the tour guide for an interesting mini-tour to take you up to tea time. Each day is designed to finish at 4-45pm enabling you to begin the journey home ahead of the local rush hour – but it’s your day and if you want to stay longer that’s fine.

All Christmas Market Together Tours are £18.95 per person including morning coffee with biscuits and a hot main course lunch. Once you’ve added the cost of your coach hire, driver’s tip and other ancillaries we are confident that you can offer your group a day out with morning refreshments and lunch included for under £30.00. We’ve gone for real winter warmer lunch choices in some rather lovely pubs that we think will appeal to your group members. There’s bacon and leek pudding with mashed potatoes and gravy in Kent & Cirencester, a roast turkey dinner in the Test Valley on the Winchester Market day, a traditional carvery in Bradford-on-Avon before visiting the Bath Christmas Market or a very British fish & chips in Birmingham.  At all destinations a vegetarian option is available. We think our Christmas Market Together Tours offer your folk a perfect balance of variety and value for money for a great day out this Christmas. 

Christmas Markets were very popular in England until Oliver Cromwell banned Christmas and they died out overnight. Over in Germany the centuries old markets continued to spring up in the weeks before Christmas - joyful occasions for year-weary villagers adding a bit of light to the long winter nights and signalling the beginning of Advent. Today German style Christmas Markets which rekindle the spirit of our own old English Markets can be enjoyed in a growing number of beautiful English towns and cities. The markets offer a romantic and traditional antidote to commercialism with mass-production banned. Instead there is craftwork of real quality and you can buy all kinds of Christmas merchandise and gifts, especially traditional things such as crib figurines, toys, wood carvings, marionettes and candles. The ambience is further enhanced by the aromas of hot chestnuts, grilled sausages and mulled wine. At many of the markets our home grown craftsmen are also given a platform to sell their wares.  

In Kent this year the Rochester Dickens Christmas Market will be an authentic German style Christmas Market together with local craft stalls all set against the dramatic backdrop of the castle. 

The Birmingham Frankfurt Christmas Market is a stone’s throw from the wonderful Museum & Art Gallery allowing an easy mix of shopping and culture.

Winchester’s Christmas Market snuggles against the walls of the ancient cathedral and features an ice rink and a nativity scene with life size figures.

The Cirencester Christmas Market is in its second year– it is being run by the lady who previously organised the Winchester Christmas Market so you know it’ll be top notch. 

And finally there’s Beautiful Bath where the market stalls are flanked by the Abbey and the Roman Baths. If you come to Bath with us this Christmas we will pay your coach parking fees which can be a whopping £50 on a full coach!

Christmas Brochure 2011

Christmas Eye Spy The pick of the crop of the 2011 London Christmas Lights followed by a dark flight on the London Eye. Lovely Jubbly.           Click on the picture

Christmas in the Royal Landscape We explore Windsor and the Great Park with a stop for tea & cake at the Queen’s farm shop.     Click on the picture

Christmas London in Song   A fully guided tour of London with some musical merriment to smile on your faces this Christmas.             Click on the picture

Christmas Past & Present See the period Christmas decorations at the beautiful Geffrye Museum and enjoy a coach tour of Christmas London or our Christmas Cruise.           Click on the picture

Cruising into Christmas   A really popular night out including a ten mile cruise on the River Thames after dark on a warm and cosy pleasure cruiser with a full bar service.     Click on the picture

Food Glorious Food - A Dickensian Christmas   This year would have been Dickens 200th birthday. Come and celebrate the great man as well as that great focus of Christmas past & present - food! With morning coffee and a carvery lunch included to be enjoyed together this is something a bit different for your group this Christmas. Only available with the refreshments during weekdays in November, it could be just the ticket for organisers looking for an early Christmas event before their members' diaries fill up with other festive events. Click on the picture

The London Christmas Lights & Sights. London is a dandy at night. This popular trip is now in its 24th year!             Click on the picture

The Mighty Wurlitzer Christmas Concert An entertaining matinee concert in West London with sherry and mince pies followed by a tour of the London Christmas Lights & Sights.   Click on the picture

The Olympics & The Lights   Take a trip down memory lane at the V&A Museum of Childhood, see the progress on the London Olympic Park at Stratford during daylight and enjoy a tour of London Christmas Lights and Sights after dark.   Click on the picture

Olympics, the Lights & Ten Miles of Liquid History Join us for an entertaining and unusual tour for Christmas. See the progress made on the London Olympic Park at Stratford during daylight, enjoy a guided coach tour of the London Christmas Lights & Sights as the sun goes down and sit back and relax for our unique ten mile Thames Cruise after dark with a traditional Cockney Skipper’s Commentary.   Click on the picture

Christmas in Faversham & Canterbury    Mentioned in the Doomsday Book, Faversham is one of England's most historic market towns nestling between the rolling hills of the North Downs and the North Kent marshes. The world famous Cathedral city of Canterbury is just ten miles away. Today we visit both with coffee and lunch at an historic old pub in Faversham before an afternoon of shopping and sightseeing in the heart of Canterbury.   Click on the picture

A Kentish Christmas   A really Christmassy day out with morning coffee and lunch included. We tour the wintery landscapes of the Hoo Peninsula, stop at a Dickens’ church and spend the afternoon in Rochester. Book from the beginning of November and steal a march on other groups or to visit the Rochester Christmas Market nearer to Christmas.   Click on the picture

South West

Christmas in Beautiful Bath   A festive and popular day trip to keep your folk warm and entertained includes a morning visit to handsome Bradford-on-Avon, a tour of Bath and a visit to the Bath Christmas Market. Includes morning coffee and a carvery lunch.       Click on the picture

Christmas in the Test Valley    Come at 10-30am or at noon for an early lunch. We visit Lord Mountbatten's Romsey, the wonderful winter landscapes of the Test Valley andWinchester where the German style Christmas Market nestles against the walls fo the ancient cathedral.      Click on the picture

East Anglia

An East Anglian Christmas    Explore the beautiful estuary of The Stour, where Essex meets Suffolk. With a top notch entertaining guide you’ll journey from England’s smallest town to the sea by the Ha’Penny Pier in Old Harwich (but all warm and toasty in your coach!) and then a scenic country drive with wonderful winter views across the Naze. Morning coffee and a roast turkey lunch is enjoyed together as a group. In the afternoon Christmas shopping and sightseeing in either Colchester or Ipswich. This day is a real festive tonic.     Click on the picture

The Essex Highlands Christmas Special   Join us today to explore a little known and beautiful part of Essex that’s anything but flat! Discover the story of the man who saved Christmas and enjoy a Christmas lunch with all the trimmings, an afternoon of card and board games by the fire and tea and coffee and mince pies before heading home to doze on the coach! How's that for a group Christmas lunch with a difference?    Click on the picture

Essex Winter Warmer   An entertaining country coach tour, lunch at Saffron Walden and an afternoon with the Chocolate Lady in her farm house workshop.           Click on the picture

Midlands

A Brummie Christmas   Combining culture with Christmas shopping we visit the German Christmas Market and the world famous Birmingham Museum and Art Gallery. Includes morning coffee and a fish & chip lunch at a canal side where Bill Clinton once enjoyed a pint!       Click on the picture

Christmas in the Cotswolds   This is a day to be bowled over by the beauty of England and kick off your group's Christmas celebrations. With a guided tour around the Cotswolds and the two Christmas markets to choose from (or even both if you time it right) this day is a real treat.     Click on the picture