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Day Tours from London: What to Expect on an tour with The English Bus · UK Travel Planning

• 0:00
  SPEAKER_03: Stonehenge, the Cotswolds, Bath, the White Cliffs of Dover, Stratford upon Avon, Oxford, Canterbury.
• 0:06
  SPEAKER_03: What if you could experience all of that from London without booking a single train, hiring a car or figuring out a single route?
• 0:13
  SPEAKER_03: Stay with me, this episode is going to change how you think about day trips from London.
• 0:18
  SPEAKER_00: Welcome to the UK Travel Planning Podcast.
• 0:20
  SPEAKER_00: Your host is the founder of the UK travel planning website, Tracy Collins.
• 0:24
  SPEAKER_00: Each week, Tracy shares destination guides, travel tips and itinerary ideas, as well as interviews with a variety of guests who share their knowledge and experience of UK travel to help you plan your perfect UK vacation.
• 0:37
  SPEAKER_00: Join us as we explore the UK from cosmopolitan cities to quaint villages, from historic castles to beautiful islands, and from the picturesque countryside to seaside towns.
• 0:48
  SPEAKER_03: Before we get started, we'd like to thank our sponsor, Walks and Devour Tours.
• 0:53
  SPEAKER_03: If you're planning a trip to London, you'll already know the challenge.
• 0:56
  SPEAKER_03: There's a lot you want to do and only a limited amount of time to fit it all in.
• 1:00
  SPEAKER_03: That's where the right tour makes all the difference because you want experiences that are the best use of your time with more access, less waiting, and a deeper sense of the city.
• 1:09
  SPEAKER_03: That's why we recommend Walks and Devour Tours.
• 1:12
  SPEAKER_03: They offer walk-in tours and food tours designed to make your time count, often with early or after hours entry.
• 1:18
  SPEAKER_03: You'll also be with exceptional local guides who add the stories and context so you leave with a richer understanding of what you're seeing and a trip that feels genuinely memorable.
• 1:28
  SPEAKER_03: If you're visiting London as a couple with family or you simply prefer a more intimate experience, walks and devour tours also offer private tour options.
• 1:36
  SPEAKER_03: To learn more, you'll find the link in the show notes.
• 1:39
  SPEAKER_03: Now let's get into this week's episode.
• 1:43
  SPEAKER_03: Hi everybody, and welcome to this week's edition of the UK Travel Planner Podcast.
• 1:47
  SPEAKER_03: I'm your host, Tracy Collins.
• 1:49
  SPEAKER_03: Now, this week we're going to be talking about something that I encourage all of you to do if you are going to be visiting London, and that is to take a day trip out of the city.
• 1:58
  SPEAKER_03: Now I know logistically it can feel a bit overwhelming, you're not sure about taking the train, you want to start planning, there's quite a few places that you want to go and visit.
• 2:07
  SPEAKER_03: You've got on your list, and you're thinking, How am I going to do all of this?
• 2:09
  SPEAKER_03: How am I going to go and visit these places?
• 2:12
  SPEAKER_03: So this week I am invited two lovely guests on the show from the English Bus.
• 2:17
  SPEAKER_03: I'm going to be chatting in a minute to Chris Horsey, who owns the English Bus.
• 2:22
  SPEAKER_03: And also I'm going to be talking with Lucy, who was I'm very happy to say, and very lucky to have had the lovely Lucy as our tour guide for two of the recent trips that I've just taken with the English Bus out of London.
• 2:35
  SPEAKER_03: I'm going to talk about what those trips were and where we went in this episode.
• 2:39
  SPEAKER_03: So Lucy is a great come on and chat all about those tours that I took.
• 2:44
  SPEAKER_03: And also Chris is going to talk to you a little bit about the company and about the logistics and what you know what you can do with English Bus, the tours that they offer.
• 2:53
  SPEAKER_03: Now, as you know, with us at UK Travel Planning, we work with the best companies.
• 2:59
  SPEAKER_03: We want you to have the best experience when you're in London and in the UK.
• 3:04
  SPEAKER_03: And so I'm very, very excited today to be able to chat once again with Chris, actually, because Chris was on episode 109, so it's a little bit uh 90 episodes ago, can you believe it?
• 3:15
  SPEAKER_03: Um, so it's fantastic uh to welcome Chris back onto the show.
• 3:18
  SPEAKER_03: So I'm gonna have a quick chat with Chris and then we're gonna talk uh through some of the tours with Lucy, and then Chris will be back on the end just to chat a little bit more about the logistics if you want wish to book a uh tour with English bus.
• 3:30
  SPEAKER_03: Um but without further ado, let's welcome Chris onto the podcast again.
• 3:36
  SPEAKER_03: Okay, Chris, it's great to have you back on the episode.
• 3:40
  SPEAKER_03: And in the introduction that I've done before before actually uh we jumped online to chat, I did mention the fact that you were on episode 109, which is bizarrely, this is episode 199, so that's 90 episodes ago, so it's far too long in between episodes since you've been on Chris.
• 3:56
  SPEAKER_03: Wow.
• 3:56
  SPEAKER_03: But if anybody um hasn't listened to episode 109, I know we've got a lot of fans out there who've listened to every episode multiple times, but if you're new to the podcast and you haven't met Chris before, uh Chris, would you like to introduce yourself um and chat a little bit about the English bus?
• 4:12
  SPEAKER_01: Absolutely.
• 4:12
  SPEAKER_01: Uh well, first of all, thank you very much for having me back, Tracy.
• 4:15
  SPEAKER_01: What an absolute honour.
• 4:17
  SPEAKER_01: Um, my name is Chris.
• 4:19
  SPEAKER_01: Uh I am the founder and uh co-director of the English Bus.
• 4:24
  SPEAKER_01: Um we run day tours, small group day tours out of London, visiting locations such as Stonehenge, the Cotswolds, Oxford, Kent, uh, Canterbury, Stratford upon Avon.
• 4:36
  SPEAKER_01: Um, I founded the business back in 2009.
• 4:39
  SPEAKER_01: Uh I had a uh a background in uh teaching English as a foreign language.
• 4:44
  SPEAKER_01: I used to take my students out on tours.
• 4:48
  SPEAKER_01: Um the business originally started um supplying tours to that industry, however, uh I swiftly pivoted it towards the tourism industry.
• 4:59
  SPEAKER_01: And um we initially it was just me.
• 5:03
  SPEAKER_01: Uh I was the tour guide, I was the driver, I was the sales and marketing manager, I was the cleaner, I did everything.
• 5:11
  SPEAKER_01: Uh but a few years into the English bus, um we uh we started growing.
• 5:16
  SPEAKER_01: Uh I was joined by my now wife, Jen, who uh was my partner at the time.
• 5:22
  SPEAKER_01: Uh she had left her career in design, and she said uh she'd like to come and uh do some work with me.
• 5:29
  SPEAKER_01: I said, okay, let's let's let's do six months and see how we go.
• 5:32
  SPEAKER_01: That was uh about 14 years ago, and Jen is still my co-director um and partner in crime and mother of our children, and uh Jen generally runs the office and tells us what to do and how to do it, uh, whereas I run the operational side, um, liaising the tour guides and face-to-face with customers.
• 5:55
  SPEAKER_01: So we uh yeah, we we have a small fleet of uh 16-seat uh luxury Mercedes-Benz Sprinter minibuses, and we have a small group of tour guides, and every day we have tours going out from central London to locations that I mentioned previously, plus a few more.
• 6:16
  SPEAKER_01: And um we love what we do, and we love giving our guests the very best experiences possible.
• 6:23
  SPEAKER_01: Uh, we really want to show off our amazing country.
• 6:27
  SPEAKER_01: Uh, we love taking the back roads, we love telling the stories that perhaps others do not.
• 6:33
  SPEAKER_01: Uh, we love getting to know our guests, and we what we really want is to create uh an atmosphere and environment on our tours where it feels like you're going out with a group of friends that you may have only met two minutes previously when you hopped on the bus.
• 6:48
  SPEAKER_01: But um, we like to create a relaxed, quite casual environment so that people are comfortable to ask questions, people are comfortable to interact with one another.
• 7:00
  SPEAKER_01: Um, and uh we're not hugely formal, we just we we want to have fun, we want to make tours fun, enjoyable, informative, and uh uh we want to show the best of our country in the best way possible.
• 7:16
  SPEAKER_03: And I have to say, Chris, I think that you guys do an amazing job at what you do, and um, I've been very lucky to have been out on three of your tours, um, two very recently.
• 7:26
  SPEAKER_03: So um Lucy, one of your tour guides, is coming on in a second to kind of go through um some of the the tours that I did, um, which was was brilliant.
• 7:35
  SPEAKER_03: We absolutely I I went with a friend of mine and um she's just she loved it as well.
• 7:39
  SPEAKER_03: We had an absolute wonderful time.
• 7:41
  SPEAKER_03: Um, we really did, and we went to some fantastic places.
• 7:45
  SPEAKER_03: Um, so as I say, I've done three out of the four tours.
• 7:48
  SPEAKER_03: Do you want to just talk a little bit briefly?
• 7:49
  SPEAKER_03: Because I know Lucy's going to go into more detail about what we did on the tours, but just want to cover briefly what are the the four tours.
• 7:56
  SPEAKER_03: I feel like now I've done three, I should be doing the fourth one, you know, Chris.
• 8:00
  SPEAKER_03: We'll talk about what your four tours are briefly.
• 8:02
  SPEAKER_01: Certainly, certainly, certainly.
• 8:03
  SPEAKER_01: So we're we're best known for our Stonehenge tours, and our Stonehenge tours make up the vast majority, actually, of all the tours that we deliver.
• 8:12
  SPEAKER_01: Um, and we have two varieties of Stonehenge tours.
• 8:16
  SPEAKER_01: Um, the first one is the classic, the one that we are best known for, the the tour that we've won lots of awards for, which is Stonehenge, Bath, and a Secret Place.
• 8:26
  SPEAKER_01: Um, the other Stonehenge tour that we do is very, very similar.
• 8:29
  SPEAKER_01: In fact, it runs to the same itinerary as that tour.
• 8:33
  SPEAKER_01: Uh, it is uh, well, the same itinerary until the the last part of the tour, that is Stonehenge Bath and a Cotswold Village.
• 8:40
  SPEAKER_01: Cotswolds village in question is the incredible village of Castle Coon.
• 8:45
  SPEAKER_01: Um, so the first tour, the Stonehenge Bath Secret Place tour.
• 8:49
  SPEAKER_01: Uh, first of all, we pick up in London, we head down to Stonehenge.
• 8:52
  SPEAKER_01: Stonehenge is about two hours 15 minutes from central London, nestled deep in the Wiltshire countryside.
• 8:59
  SPEAKER_01: Um, we take a uh slightly scenic route to Stonehenge to show our guests some sites before we get to Stonehenge to help them understand the fact that Stonehenge is actually part of a huge prehistoric landscape and it's not just one site stood on its own.
• 9:14
  SPEAKER_01: Um, from Stonehenge, where we will have spent an hour and 45 minutes or thereabouts, we head over to Bath through some very beautiful countryside across the Salisbury Plain.
• 9:25
  SPEAKER_01: It's about an hour to Bath.
• 9:27
  SPEAKER_01: When we're in Bath, we have about two hours and 15 minutes on the ground, including an optional walking tour that our guides deliver that tends to last 20-30 minutes.
• 9:37
  SPEAKER_01: Um we pick people up, pick our guests up in the afternoon.
• 9:43
  SPEAKER_01: Um, we we then take people on a little driving tour.
• 9:47
  SPEAKER_01: We go up to the beautiful Royal Crescent, the most famous street in Bath, possibly the most famous street in England, uh outside of London.
• 9:55
  SPEAKER_01: And then we head back towards London.
• 9:57
  SPEAKER_01: So, in the case of the secret place tour, we're very lucky in England.
• 10:02
  SPEAKER_01: Let me explain.
• 10:03
  SPEAKER_01: We're very lucky because we've got so much beautiful countryside.
• 10:06
  SPEAKER_01: Um, but a lot of our visitors they've heard about the big name places, they're not sure, they don't know about you know the places down the back roads, and the premise is that it would be such a shame to drive from Bath all the way back to London, essentially from one side of the country all the way to the other, without showing off some of the amazing views and scenery in between uh Bath and London.
• 10:28
  SPEAKER_01: So uh our guides have essentially free reign to uh choose a site of their choice, perhaps depending on the weather, perhaps depending on the group and the group's interests, a site to stop at on the route back to London, which uh is what we we refer to as our secret place.
• 10:45
  SPEAKER_01: And we have a few different secret places to choose from.
• 10:48
  SPEAKER_01: And for anyone standing or feeling rather skeptical, I don't blame you.
• 10:52
  SPEAKER_01: Uh who are these people and why are they taking me somewhere that I I don't even know where we're going or might not have ever heard of.
• 10:58
  SPEAKER_01: But we've been doing this for many, many years, and um we know our guests and we know what they like, and we guarantee that wherever, whichever secret place we visit, our guests will uh will will love wherever we go.
• 11:10
  SPEAKER_01: And indeed, Tracy, you have been on that tour, yes, and you were taken to the secret place that you went to.
• 11:17
  SPEAKER_03: I'm not saying I will not no, I will not reveal, don't worry, Chris.
• 11:20
  SPEAKER_03: I will not reveal.
• 11:21
  SPEAKER_03: Um but yes, I've done that tour and done the secret place, and I was delighted with where we went.
• 11:26
  SPEAKER_03: Good.
• 11:26
  SPEAKER_03: Delighted.
• 11:27
  SPEAKER_01: Good, good, good.
• 11:28
  SPEAKER_03: Um so yeah.
• 11:29
  SPEAKER_01: So that that and then and then post the secret place, we go back to London.
• 11:33
  SPEAKER_01: The other Stonehenge tour that we do, um, as I mentioned, it visits a Cotswolds village.
• 11:38
  SPEAKER_01: So, in place of the secret place, we go actually to a beautiful Cotwells village called Castle Coombe, which is often voted the most beautiful village in England, certainly the most beautiful village in the Cotswolds.
• 11:49
  SPEAKER_01: I'll leave that for your listeners to decide.
• 11:52
  SPEAKER_01: Um, but it is absolutely spectacular, and it's like a fairy tale village.
• 11:57
  SPEAKER_01: Um and we spend a half an hour in there, it's a very small little village population, just a couple of hundred people.
• 12:03
  SPEAKER_01: Uh, wander the streets, soak up the uh the the beautiful Cotswolds views in the the wonderful, peaceful atmosphere, and then we head back to London.
• 12:11
  SPEAKER_01: So those are our two Stonehenge tours.
• 12:14
  SPEAKER_03: And I'm I'm just gonna interrupt as well, Chris, that and say that um one of the major fantastic advantages of going with you guys in the end, because you've got a small, very comfortable bus, I will say, very, very comfortable, um, is that you can go to places like Castle Coombe.
• 12:32
  SPEAKER_03: And you know, if you're if it if you're thinking about you know driving to these places yourself, believe me, trying to get parked in Castle Coombe is not very easy.
• 12:40
  SPEAKER_03: Um, but when you go out with a um English bus tour, you don't have to worry about any of those logistics whatsoever.
• 12:46
  SPEAKER_03: You sit back in the very comfortable coach and just enjoy enjoy the ride without having to worry about any of those logistics.
• 12:54
  SPEAKER_01: Absolutely, yeah.
• 12:55
  SPEAKER_01: I mean, we get lots of emails from people saying, Oh, but after they booked, saying, Oh, how do we do this?
• 13:00
  SPEAKER_01: How do we do that?
• 13:01
  SPEAKER_01: This is for the day of the tour.
• 13:02
  SPEAKER_01: What happens here?
• 13:03
  SPEAKER_01: What happens here?
• 13:04
  SPEAKER_01: And obviously, we are happy to answer all questions, but essentially, one thing we say is don't worry, we'll just take care of all of it.
• 13:11
  SPEAKER_01: You you get on, we'll give you a great time.
• 13:13
  SPEAKER_01: We do this every day.
• 13:15
  SPEAKER_01: This is this is my life's work, this is what we are passionate about.
• 13:19
  SPEAKER_01: You don't need to worry, we've we've we've we've seen it all, and we know how to make our guests' days uh uh as as good as possible and as easy as possible, and simple and and as enjoyable as possible.
• 13:31
  SPEAKER_01: Take all that stress away, giving recommendations to do once they're on the ground or showing them where the toilets are, simple stuff.
• 13:39
  SPEAKER_01: Um so yeah, we like to take the the stress out of travel and uh make sure people can just focus on the the sites that we visit.
• 13:47
  SPEAKER_03: Absolutely, and I say that experience of um if yourself and your guides haven't done that, is just say it's it's the small questions about things that you you you know you need to know when you arrive at a place.
• 13:57
  SPEAKER_03: For example, where's the best pub?
• 14:01
  SPEAKER_03: Where are the toilets, that sort of thing.
• 14:02
  SPEAKER_03: But those, you know, it's that where should I go and eat?
• 14:04
  SPEAKER_03: That sort of um, you know, you you your your guides know that information, so and they they share that.
• 14:10
  SPEAKER_03: So you know when you arrive in a place, it's like okay, I have these options, which makes things amazing.
• 14:15
  SPEAKER_03: So those are your two two kind of stone edge tours, and you've got tell me about your other two.
• 14:20
  SPEAKER_01: Sure.
• 14:20
  SPEAKER_01: Um, so two other tours.
• 14:22
  SPEAKER_01: One is to uh the Cotswolds again, but different parts of the Cotswolds, Oxford and Stratford.
• 14:27
  SPEAKER_01: So that's the Cotswolds, Oxford and Stratford in one day, Stratford being Stratford upon Avon.
• 14:32
  SPEAKER_01: Um, and the other tour takes us down southeast of London down to Kent, the Garden of England, as they call it, the beautiful county of Kent, uh, where we visit uh the beautiful city of Canterbury, where Christianity began in Britain.
• 14:47
  SPEAKER_01: Uh Dover, specifically the White Cliffs of Dover, and also the amazing Dover Castle, one of Britain's greatest castles.
• 14:56
  SPEAKER_01: Um, and on the way out down to Kent, we make a quick stop in Greenwich.
• 15:01
  SPEAKER_01: We also head into the Kent Countryside and we visit an amazing little village nestled in the Kent Countryside called Chillam.
• 15:10
  SPEAKER_01: Uh, little medieval village with an old village square, lovely country pub, big country house, uh, lovely uh Kentish tea room as well.
• 15:21
  SPEAKER_01: It does a great cream tea scone, clotted cream, strawberry jam, yum, yum.
• 15:27
  SPEAKER_03: Very nice.
• 15:27
  SPEAKER_01: Um so yeah, so the Cotles, Stratford and Oxford, and Kent, those are our other two tours.
• 15:33
  SPEAKER_03: And those are the two that I've just recently been on.
• 15:35
  SPEAKER_03: So I'm gonna be chatting in a little bit with uh Lucy.
• 15:38
  SPEAKER_03: Now at the end of the podcast, I'm gonna get you back on Chris, and you're gonna share a little bit about um, you know, how to choose a tour, because obviously a lot of people are kind of thinking, oh, I want to go here, I want to go there, I want to go.
• 15:50
  SPEAKER_03: So we can have a chat about kind of um, you know, can people fit in two of the tours?
• 15:56
  SPEAKER_03: What do you recommend?
• 15:56
  SPEAKER_03: So we'll talk about that and we'll talk a little bit about logistics.
• 15:59
  SPEAKER_03: Um, we'll also share, because um we and we have an exclusive um discount from you guys.
• 16:05
  SPEAKER_03: We have a discount of uh do you want me to say discount, Chris, because I can take that out if you want.
• 16:09
  SPEAKER_03: Um yeah, okay, that's right.
• 16:10
  SPEAKER_03: I'll just say that.
• 16:11
  SPEAKER_03: So um yeah, so listen to the end as well because we do have an exclusive um discount with the English bus.
• 16:16
  SPEAKER_03: And we're the only, it is exclusive.
• 16:18
  SPEAKER_03: We are the only um the only people that that Chris gives this code to.
• 16:22
  SPEAKER_03: So you guys are really privileged to have uh have this.
• 16:25
  SPEAKER_03: So listen to the end, and we're gonna share that.
• 16:27
  SPEAKER_03: Um, as I say at the end of the podcast, so that when you go to book your English bus tour, um you can uh you can use that and get that uh that very kind discount from you, Chris.
• 16:38
  SPEAKER_03: But um would you like to introduce um Lucy?
• 16:41
  SPEAKER_03: Because I'm gonna chat with her in a second, and then uh and then we'll we'll chat and a little bit uh to get all that logistical information to everybody.
• 16:49
  SPEAKER_01: Absolutely.
• 16:50
  SPEAKER_01: Um Lucy is one of seven guys who work with us, seven fantastic, amazing guys who are incredibly talented and far better at talk writing than I ever was.
• 17:00
  SPEAKER_01: Um Lucy uh has some particularly uh unique and special attributes.
• 17:06
  SPEAKER_01: She used to be an archaeologist, a professional archaeologist.
• 17:09
  SPEAKER_01: So when she talks about the history of Stonehenge and prehistory, uh you need to listen because she knows everything that there is to know.
• 17:17
  SPEAKER_01: Um she's a wonderful communicator and an absolutely lovely person and a very, very, very well-valued member of our small little team.
• 17:26
  SPEAKER_01: So um, Lucy, take it away.
• 17:29
  SPEAKER_03: Thanks, Chris, for giving that lovely introduction to Lucy.
• 17:33
  SPEAKER_03: I now have Lucy here, um, who I am very excited to talk to because I've spent um two entire days with Lucy over the over the last week.
• 17:41
  SPEAKER_03: So poor Lucy gets me on it up for a third day.
• 17:45
  SPEAKER_03: But I am so so happy that you agreed to come and chat because we loved you.
• 17:51
  SPEAKER_03: We absolutely loved you.
• 17:52
  SPEAKER_03: You were absolutely on there uh one of the best, if not the best, tour guides that I have been out with.
• 17:59
  SPEAKER_03: We we just thought you were fantastic.
• 18:02
  SPEAKER_03: So, and I know our listeners are going to love you too.
• 18:06
  SPEAKER_03: So, who better to talk through these tows but the tour guide that we went out with?
• 18:10
  SPEAKER_03: Um, so Lucy, before because I'm gonna I could talk wax lyrical about how amazing you are, but I want you to introduce yourself and tell us a little bit about your background.
• 18:18
  SPEAKER_03: Um, and obviously you've been working with the English bus for a few years now.
• 18:22
  SPEAKER_04: Yep, I have.
• 18:22
  SPEAKER_04: Well, thank you.
• 18:23
  SPEAKER_04: I'm really pleased to be um that you asked me to come on.
• 18:27
  SPEAKER_04: I'm really glad you had a good time.
• 18:28
  SPEAKER_04: That's what's really most important for me.
• 18:31
  SPEAKER_04: Um, and uh yeah, I've been working for the English bus for a couple of years.
• 18:36
  SPEAKER_04: Um, I love history and uh kind of came into this through um having an archaeology and anthropology degree, um, which I did at university many, many years ago.
• 18:49
  SPEAKER_04: Um but uh wanted to continue using that in some way.
• 18:54
  SPEAKER_04: Um and before I did uh tour guiding with the English bus, I used to drive around the country in my own car with it filled with animal skins and bows and arrows and flint tools and stuff like that, and teach kids about living life in the Stone Age.
• 19:11
  SPEAKER_04: Um because for me, I think history is uh it is such you can touch it, you can smell it, you can feel it, you know, it all really happened, and just as long as it's portrayed in that way, it's really, really exciting and really interesting.
• 19:28
  SPEAKER_04: So I've swapped 120 children for 16 adults, and uh I really enjoy it.
• 19:35
  SPEAKER_04: Really enjoy it.
• 19:36
  SPEAKER_03: Oh brilliant.
• 19:36
  SPEAKER_03: Well, that that honestly comes across, and your um storytelling is amazing and obviously sharing of your your knowledge.
• 19:43
  SPEAKER_03: And uh I I know actually I'm just gonna kind of anecdotally mention, but um on the last trip I did with you, you mentioned I'm not actually I'm not gonna get you to share this story because this is a story that people will have to go on the English bus and if they're with you that you can share about about the uh the fact that you used to work for a company that kind of looked for unexploded uh World War II bombs, uh, which was amazing, absolutely amazing.
• 20:08
  SPEAKER_03: I think everybody on the bus was absolutely enthralled when you were telling this story.
• 20:12
  SPEAKER_03: Um, but yeah, so you've got a kind of you've got a very interesting background as well as your degrees as well, in terms of your experience, and you bring all of that onto your onto the tours with you.
• 20:22
  SPEAKER_03: Well, thank you.
• 20:23
  SPEAKER_04: I mean, I think it's all kind of led me in this direction, really.
• 20:27
  SPEAKER_04: And it is really, yeah, it's nice to be able to take all of that and and talk about it.
• 20:31
  SPEAKER_04: I think one of the nice things about um the English bus and the kind of ethos of the guides is how we are encouraged to make them our own.
• 20:43
  SPEAKER_04: And you know, there's no we don't have a it doesn't, we don't we're not provided with a script per se.
• 20:48
  SPEAKER_04: It's it's you choose what you think that Christella trusts us to make our own, add our own little bits to it.
• 20:56
  SPEAKER_04: And um yeah, I've had a few exciting jobs, um, and this one has uh takes all the good bits of what I like about doing work and kind of at the moment is a really good job for me.
• 21:08
  SPEAKER_03: Puts it all into one.
• 21:09
  SPEAKER_03: So let's let's talk about some of the tours.
• 21:11
  SPEAKER_03: So I um the first uh so I I I have done previously, and we'll talk about that last.
• 21:16
  SPEAKER_03: Um I have done the Stonehenge Bath and a Secret Place.
• 21:20
  SPEAKER_03: Obviously, we will not discuss the secret place because it's a secret.
• 21:24
  SPEAKER_03: Um, but I haven't done that tour with you.
• 21:26
  SPEAKER_03: I have been out with the English bus, but you weren't my tour guide.
• 21:28
  SPEAKER_03: But we'll talk a little bit briefly at the end on that one.
• 21:31
  SPEAKER_03: Um, but the the first one I did with you was um was the Kent Villages, Dover and Canterbury tour, which um was very interesting for me because it's a long time since I've seen the White Cliffs of Dover.
• 21:41
  SPEAKER_03: Um, and I'd not never actually been to Dover Castle, so that was incredibly interesting.
• 21:46
  SPEAKER_03: Um, but also just driving through the Kent countryside was just beautiful.
• 21:50
  SPEAKER_03: I'm from Northumberland, I'm from the opposite part of the country.
• 21:53
  SPEAKER_03: Um, so it's not a part of the country that I drive through very often, so that was also a treat.
• 21:57
  SPEAKER_03: So talk us a little bit about how you set the Scene for that day because obviously we got picked up beside the London Eye, uh, and then and then off we went.
• 22:06
  SPEAKER_03: So talk us a little bit about about the day and what's special for that day for you.
• 22:10
  SPEAKER_04: Okay, yeah.
• 22:11
  SPEAKER_04: So um the day is once you get picked up, we head east, southeast out of London, and what I really like about the Kent Tour is that it it follows a sort of there is a storyline in the Kent Tour where you traveling out of London, you are following these routes, these ancient, you know, thousands of years old routes out into Kent on either pilgrimage or trade routes, and I think setting the scene, it really helps then to be kind of on that, literally physically on the way out, um, just like the Romans did, the Celts did, the Anglo-Saxons, the Normans going after that.
• 22:58
  SPEAKER_04: Um, I think something we often describe the uh Kent itself as a county as is like the petri dish of English history, in that anyone who's anyone has been involved in Kent.
• 23:11
  SPEAKER_04: All the big game changes of English history, a lot of it has taken place in Kent.
• 23:16
  SPEAKER_04: Um, even the old Kent Road, which cheapest spot on the Monopoly board, which we drive down, you know, that had Charles I fleeing along it um in the English Civil War, and then well, Charles II coming back up it triumphantly at the end, you know.
• 23:34
  SPEAKER_04: So, like I think the way out of London, it's an interesting part of the city that most people don't get to see um because it isn't really on the tourist track, but it marries up so nicely with the rest of the things that we do over the day, and then we come off the main road and we go into the Kentish countryside.
• 23:54
  SPEAKER_04: Another thing that is uh is nice about Kent is it's called the Garden of England.
• 23:59
  SPEAKER_04: So it's really important that we can come off that main road and be able to break up the day on our way to the beach by just trundling along the English countryside and seeing what it is about Kent that makes it different, how the history and the things that people have been using the land for for centuries has shaped the way it looks, how the buildings look.
• 24:22
  SPEAKER_04: Um and I I really like how paced the the Kent tour is.
• 24:28
  SPEAKER_03: Yeah, it's nice because the first we get well, we had a short stop as we were leaving London, which was really useful because we could have a stock up on coffee and tea and and have a short rest break.
• 24:39
  SPEAKER_03: But um then the the first Kent village that that we're stopped at, I had never been there, so that was it was it was lovely.
• 24:45
  SPEAKER_03: Um, and also just the reception from the guy and I've forgotten his name that runs the tea room.
• 24:51
  SPEAKER_03: Alex Barry, Barry.
• 24:54
  SPEAKER_03: Barry, Barry.
• 24:55
  SPEAKER_03: Actually, I should actually now you've brought them Alex's neighbor, I should actually mention because not only did we have Lucy on the tour, but we had Alex who was training to Brutto Guide.
• 25:03
  SPEAKER_03: So hi Alex, you are also fantastic.
• 25:05
  SPEAKER_03: Um so loved that.
• 25:06
  SPEAKER_03: But yes, we went in the into the tea room and and ordered a little um I actually had a cheese gone, which was lovely, delicious to take away as well.
• 25:14
  SPEAKER_03: So that was really nice, and had a lovely little walk around the village, but even just the getting there because the blossoms out of the minute, and it was just just seeing how much um that the as you say, the garden of England really is you could see everything that was growing, and it was it was amazing.
• 25:29
  SPEAKER_03: So there's gonna be the cherries.
• 25:30
  SPEAKER_03: I was like, oh, I wish I was here for cherry season because they're my favourite.
• 25:34
  SPEAKER_03: Um, so that was really good, and having a nice stroll around before we headed down to to see the White Cliffs, which were I think everybody was very excited to see the White Cliffs because they are so famous.
• 25:45
  SPEAKER_03: And what made it really special for me um is the fact that you played Vera Lynn as we were driving to.
• 25:52
  SPEAKER_03: I thought that was fantastic.
• 25:53
  SPEAKER_03: That's such a lovely touch.
• 25:55
  SPEAKER_04: Yeah, it's made people cry before on the bus.
• 25:58
  SPEAKER_04: Yeah, yeah, definitely.
• 25:59
  SPEAKER_04: I because I think um for me, again, it's so much about having there being some personal connection to these tours that you go on, like each person feeling in some way connected to it.
• 26:12
  SPEAKER_04: And for me many people, you know, will have a connection to World War II, and it is a huge part of Kent.
• 26:21
  SPEAKER_04: I mean the country, of course, and country's history, but Kent itself being really important base for uh the military in World War II, and that's you know, again, you'd learn about it on the tour, but that's what a lot of the white cliffs mean to Brits and where that where it started, um, and all of these little things, you know, the things you see, but also the stuff you hear.
• 26:44
  SPEAKER_04: I I play music every now and again on other tours to just again kind of add that little extra bit of context or meaning.
• 26:51
  SPEAKER_04: Every now and again I'll hop off the bus and pick a bit of wild garlic for everyone to chew on, you know.
• 26:58
  SPEAKER_04: So you get all the kind of holistic experience of of being in these places.
• 27:02
  SPEAKER_03: Absolutely, actually, I will mention as well as is yes, is also pointing out the the architecture, the housing.
• 27:08
  SPEAKER_03: So the Oost houses in Kent, which are fabulous to see.
• 27:12
  SPEAKER_03: I mean, probably cost uh I don't even want to think how much they cost, but they're beautiful.
• 27:18
  SPEAKER_03: And I think um for a lot of visitors, if they're just gonna go to London, they're not gonna experience that.
• 27:24
  SPEAKER_03: So that was amazing as well, being able to see you know the different architecture and explain what an Oast House was and and and how it was used, and um, you know, be very jealous of those people that managed to have to live in one these days or have an Oast.
• 27:38
  SPEAKER_04: Yeah, they are really nice and um I would imagine probably quite valuable uh property, so I'm quite jealous of them too.
• 27:46
  SPEAKER_04: But I think that's what it is about these sort of day trips, and I'm sure maybe Chris had said something similar, is that um when you are in London, it is so easy to uh leave London and come back at the end of the day and fit so much in because it's a small country, and you know, there's a lot of places you can get to.
• 28:07
  SPEAKER_04: Um, and I think it's a really important thing to do when you are travelling to England, you've got to stay in London.
• 28:14
  SPEAKER_04: There's so much to do, and you could spend weeks in London and still feel like you haven't done everything.
• 28:22
  SPEAKER_04: Um, but I do think that London, it's a little bit like um comparing, I guess, New Orleans to Louisiana, you know, the it is its own thing, it is its own beast, and seeing the England outside of London is uh a very valuable way to kind of understand the country more, to kind of get a feel for it.
• 28:45
  SPEAKER_04: And the Kentor, again, when you go down to Chillam, you'll hang out and chat with Barry and um he'll make you a cup of tea, be very happy to see you.
• 28:53
  SPEAKER_04: It's nice to get a feel of you know England outside of London and uh English people outside of London, locals and that kind of thing.
• 29:01
  SPEAKER_03: Oh, absolutely, absolutely.
• 29:02
  SPEAKER_03: And that's what I I always say to people if you're gonna be in London, great, because everybody goes to London, but do get out of London, do go and visit some of these amazing places because you have that opportunity, and you know, really it's uh like I say, it's staying in the city is fantastic, there's a lot to do in London.
• 29:17
  SPEAKER_03: But if you truly want to have a rounded experience, you need to get out of the capital and go and see a bit more.
• 29:23
  SPEAKER_03: Um now, Dover Castle, talk to us a little bit about Dover Castle.
• 29:26
  SPEAKER_03: Now I had never been there before, so I found it it was very interesting.
• 29:30
  SPEAKER_03: And I I'm gonna go back because I want to see a bit more, I want to see the World War II tunnels.
• 29:34
  SPEAKER_03: So this time I didn't do that, I went and explored a bit more of the castle itself.
• 29:38
  SPEAKER_03: Um, but but there are options there of what you can do.
• 29:41
  SPEAKER_04: Yeah, definitely.
• 29:42
  SPEAKER_04: I think Dover Castle is it's huge.
• 29:46
  SPEAKER_04: Um, it argues that it's the largest castle in the UK, but uh Windsor Castle also says it's the biggest, and I think in terms of like beastiness, Windsor might be bigger.
• 29:58
  SPEAKER_04: There's a bit more kind of building there.
• 30:01
  SPEAKER_04: But um the grounds of the castle are huge, and Dover, the key to England, um, it being so close to France, and with our kind of embittered rivalry with France over you know milli of millions, over you know, centuries.
• 30:17
  SPEAKER_04: It feels like millions of millions of years.
• 30:20
  SPEAKER_04: Millennia at least.
• 30:23
  SPEAKER_04: Um, we have it's a really important, strategically important building.
• 30:28
  SPEAKER_04: And I think the thing about Dover Castle that is really interesting is that it's been consistently occupied for well, the in the Iron Age there was a hill fort there, the Romans then built a lighthouse and a fortified um base and outpost there, then after that it was built on and used, and then right up until the World War II, it was being actively used, so it fits kind of any interest level, you know.
• 31:00
  SPEAKER_04: If you're like there because you're actually far more interested in World War II, then it has loads of options with the different types of tools that you can go on.
• 31:09
  SPEAKER_04: Um the medieval history for me personally is the more um the bigger draw because it's all around this incredibly exciting time in history, um and you know, the all the battles between church and state, between power-hungry, paranoid medieval kings, um, and you know, just showing that strength and power and that kind of thing.
• 31:37
  SPEAKER_04: So again, it's all about like encapsulating English history, what was like made us who we are.
• 31:43
  SPEAKER_04: Um and you could spend, uh, like you said, you could spend all day there.
• 31:48
  SPEAKER_04: Um, there's so much to do.
• 31:49
  SPEAKER_04: There's stuff that uh even I'm yet to do, because they've only recently reopened some medieval tunnels.
• 31:57
  SPEAKER_04: Um and that's something that I need to go on a sort of training day and go and have and check it out because I've yet to do it.
• 32:05
  SPEAKER_04: Um so you could go there and spend an entire day, and but in the time that we have, it is it is quite um possible to go and do the World War II bit and explore the medieval castle, grab something from the the cafe and you know have a little walk around.
• 32:24
  SPEAKER_04: Um and well worth doing.
• 32:27
  SPEAKER_03: Absolutely, and I would I would also recommend go the top of the castle because the views are just amazing.
• 32:33
  SPEAKER_03: Yes.
• 32:33
  SPEAKER_03: Actually, I've already said I'm gonna put some other pictures I took in the show notes because I was like, we were like, wow, this is really lovely.
• 32:39
  SPEAKER_03: Um so you do get fantastic views from there as well.
• 32:42
  SPEAKER_03: But an interesting castle.
• 32:43
  SPEAKER_03: Could you see France?
• 32:44
  SPEAKER_03: Yes, I was actually talking to Chris about that because he was like going, he did say we can't guarantee that you're gonna see France somewhere.
• 32:50
  SPEAKER_03: We just were very lucky, it was a very it was a beautiful day, uh, clear day.
• 32:54
  SPEAKER_03: Um, because yeah, I mean we've had some funny weather the last week or so, but it was a beautiful day that we were there.
• 33:00
  SPEAKER_03: Um, so from Dover Castle, we then head up to Canterbury.
• 33:03
  SPEAKER_03: Now is it these are quite long days, um, so you know you're you're out of London for quite a long time.
• 33:08
  SPEAKER_03: So uh by the time you get to Canterbury, so how do you at that point kind of um get people interested and excited about being in Canterbury and what to do and see?
• 33:18
  SPEAKER_04: Um I think the again with the Kent tour, there's a it is they are all very long days, but they're paced quite nicely in the sense that once you get to Canterbury, you have at least two hours of your own time.
• 33:32
  SPEAKER_04: So it's a short drive from Dover to Canterbury, it's only about half an hour.
• 33:37
  SPEAKER_04: Um me personally, I will probably talk a lot about um going back to that kind of how Canterbury and Dover are linked together between Henry II, Thomas Beckett, big history stuff.
• 33:50
  SPEAKER_04: It's all quite um sort of it's all very dramatic.
• 33:55
  SPEAKER_04: Um and it was after that point that became such an important sort of pilgrimage point.
• 34:02
  SPEAKER_04: Um, so you know, once you arrive, you kind of understand the big deal about Canterbury being the heart of the church since day one and how it kind of all marries up to what you've been learning about on the day, anyway.
• 34:14
  SPEAKER_04: And then once you're there, um you've got time to kind of charge up and sit down and feel as if you've got time to actually sit down and have something to eat, just slow it down, charge up a little bit.
• 34:27
  SPEAKER_04: You can check out Canterbury Cathedral and um don't have to worry too much about having to see this the city um because we will take people back to the bus on a walking tour.
• 34:40
  SPEAKER_04: So you've got loads of time to just relax, and then you know that we're gonna take you around the the town to see it anyway.
• 34:49
  SPEAKER_03: Yeah, take take us around, show us uh the important things and explain about the history because can I say Canterbury is absolutely uh fascinating city to visit.
• 34:57
  SPEAKER_03: Um and you've got time as to say to go into the cathedral and then time to do the the walk and turn, discover a bit more of actually Canterbury is I think it's a bit of a um underappreciated city to be honest, because when I do talk to a lot of people about where they're gonna visit, Canterbury occasionally comes up, but I kind of think it really deserves to be visited because it's a fascinating city to go and see.
• 35:19
  SPEAKER_04: Yeah, definitely, and there's some really beautiful bits of it as well, because it's got canals and um because it has this sort of church uh being the sort of stronghold of the church for so long, there are some really lovely little priories, little gardens that would have or priories, friaries, whatever you call them, but where monks would relax or grow vegetables and grow plants that have been opened up into little parks.
• 35:45
  SPEAKER_04: Um and it is still, you know, it you can feel the age of a lot of these buildings, and uh yeah, it's it is underrated, I know what you mean.
• 35:55
  SPEAKER_04: Um, but it's it's easy to get to, and uh there's loads to see.
• 36:01
  SPEAKER_03: And it's uh it's a perfect end to the day on that tour before heading back into London.
• 36:05
  SPEAKER_03: So that was the first tour that did it, and then next one I did we had a day off, and then we went out together on the on last Sunday actually, and we did the Stratford Cotswold Village as an Oxford tour.
• 36:17
  SPEAKER_03: So um, so talk us about that.
• 36:18
  SPEAKER_03: So again, that was a pickup at um the London Eye, but that one also you can do you do the pickup as well at Victoria for that one, don't you?
• 36:25
  SPEAKER_03: Before we head out.
• 36:26
  SPEAKER_04: Yeah, so we'll do two pickup points for that one because because of the route that we take.
• 36:33
  SPEAKER_04: So the London Eye as usual, uh, and then we swing round to Victoria to collect the rest of our guests.
• 36:40
  SPEAKER_04: Um then once everyone's on the bus, we will head west or northwest out of the city, depending on traffic.
• 36:47
  SPEAKER_04: So we um we may go through Kensington and Chelsea and be able to talk about that sort of thing, or um head up along Park Lane um and and Mayfair and head out of the city that way, depends on traffic road closures, you know.
• 37:05
  SPEAKER_03: Yep.
• 37:06
  SPEAKER_04: Um once we're out, you'll have a little bit of time to just relax.
• 37:10
  SPEAKER_04: I'll tell people about what we're going to experience.
• 37:13
  SPEAKER_04: Um, and our first stop of the day is Stratford upon Avon.
• 37:17
  SPEAKER_04: So our first stop is the town where Shakespeare was born, where he um classed his hometown all the time, never forgot where he was from, always remembered he was a towny through and through.
• 37:29
  SPEAKER_04: And um it's a really good way to do it because that's the longest journey of the day from London to Stratford upon Avon.
• 37:36
  SPEAKER_04: You're pretty much getting to Birmingham, so yeah, it's a big drive.
• 37:40
  SPEAKER_04: Um, but again, these smaller groups, if people need to take a break, that's something that we can we can facilitate.
• 37:47
  SPEAKER_04: People need to commune with nature, that's not their fault, that can happen.
• 37:51
  SPEAKER_04: And that's totally fine.
• 37:52
  SPEAKER_04: We factor all of that stuff in.
• 37:54
  SPEAKER_04: Um but what that means is once you're out, we can then trundle our way down closer to London as the day goes on before we finish up in Oxford.
• 38:04
  SPEAKER_04: You're a little close to London, so yeah, the drives get sort of more once start of the day, you've got long legs, you're charged up and fresh for it, so you can do a nice big drive, and then you get close and close as we go.
• 38:17
  SPEAKER_03: Um absolutely, and I think Stratford's a it's a great place to visit.
• 38:21
  SPEAKER_03: Again, Stratford does actually come up quite often, and I think the logistics of getting to Stratford can throw people a little bit because it's a little bit trickier to get to.
• 38:29
  SPEAKER_03: Um, so it's a great place to head um first.
• 38:32
  SPEAKER_03: Um, and it says the it's where uh Shakespeare was born, married, where he's done where he was where he died.
• 38:38
  SPEAKER_03: Um is actually buried in Stratford.
• 38:41
  SPEAKER_03: Um so talk us a little bit about what you kind of recommend people do in Stratford.
• 38:45
  SPEAKER_04: Um I think for me, the best and the probably the main thing to do is to visit uh Shakespeare's birthplace, the house where he grew up.
• 38:58
  SPEAKER_04: It is amazing that we the house he grew up in is still standing.
• 39:04
  SPEAKER_04: That is amazing.
• 39:05
  SPEAKER_04: Shakespeare's house, not just any random Tudor house, Shakespeare's childhood home still stands, and then not only that, it's open to the public.
• 39:14
  SPEAKER_04: It's just that doesn't, you know, the chances of that happening after four hundred years, it is amazing.
• 39:22
  SPEAKER_03: So it is fantastic, yeah.
• 39:24
  SPEAKER_04: Absolutely.
• 39:25
  SPEAKER_04: Um, and that means you know, that being able to go and do that, I think, is the main thing to do.
• 39:32
  SPEAKER_04: Um there is it does have a lovely little high street, there's lots of cute cafes, you can always head out for a walk down towards the uh River Avon.
• 39:41
  SPEAKER_04: There's enough lovely park, um, and it is a medieval town, so there's a lot to sort of see, but the majority of the time that you have, what time that you do have, um, I think should you prioritize seeing Shakespeare's birthplace and then um see see what you can do uh outside of that.
• 40:00
  SPEAKER_03: Absolutely.
• 40:00
  SPEAKER_03: Well, every way that you walk in Stratford, and I love the fact that um I've been good at Stratford for a long time where it used to be um it wasn't pedestrianized that main street, now it's pedestrianised, so you can kind of relax as you walk down there and really enjoy it, uh, which is amazing.
• 40:14
  SPEAKER_03: And I also loved the story that you shared about um where Shakespeare died actually, uh and and what happened there, because that's actually fascinating, because you do see where where that house was that Shakespeare um actually lived in, and and find out again.
• 40:28
  SPEAKER_03: I'm not gonna spoil it because you have to go on a channel and find all this out about what happened to the house that Shakespeare actually died in.
• 40:36
  SPEAKER_03: Um, because that's also very interesting.
• 40:38
  SPEAKER_03: Uh, but just walking around, you actually see Shakespeare's daughter's um eldest daughter's house as well.
• 40:44
  SPEAKER_03: You can see that.
• 40:45
  SPEAKER_03: Um, I was actually very excited to go.
• 40:47
  SPEAKER_03: I've just recently not long ago saw um went to see Hamnet at the cinema.
• 40:51
  SPEAKER_03: I don't know if you've been to see that, Lucy.
• 40:53
  SPEAKER_03: Um ah, you need to go and see it.
• 40:55
  SPEAKER_03: Lucy's shaking her head.
• 40:56
  SPEAKER_03: Lucy, you need to go and see it.
• 40:58
  SPEAKER_03: Um, I cried, so just be prepared, you will cry.
• 41:00
  SPEAKER_03: And it's about Shakespeare's son.
• 41:02
  SPEAKER_02: Yes.
• 41:03
  SPEAKER_03: Um, I'm not gonna spoil it, but I actually did ask where the grave was.
• 41:07
  SPEAKER_03: They're not quite sure, but they do there are because uh he was he had a twin sister, Judith, and there are um trees in the graveyard to kind of mark where they think they were they were buried because obviously it's quite a few years ago, so that was that was right really touching for me because I saw the film and I kind of brought that into we we kind of all know about Shakespeare, but also learning a bit about his family was just fascinating.
• 41:30
  SPEAKER_03: Um so that was wonderful, yeah.
• 41:33
  SPEAKER_04: And I think that's that's sort of so much what Stratford-upon Avon is about.
• 41:35
  SPEAKER_04: I mean, that's partly why I haven't seen the film because I'm not prepared for a massive cry.
• 41:40
  SPEAKER_03: You will cry, you will cry, yeah.
• 41:43
  SPEAKER_04: So I need to kind of like prepare myself for it.
• 41:46
  SPEAKER_04: Um, and that is what Stratford is about, you know, that that what Hamlet does so well is to sort of paint Shakespeare as just a real person, and that's like what you can get here is no, you know, where he grew up, the house where he had he raised his family, and the work well, yeah, um the area where he raised his family.
• 42:08
  SPEAKER_04: But we went to the floor.
• 42:09
  SPEAKER_03: And I think you I think you feel that though.
• 42:11
  SPEAKER_03: I think you feel that because you feel that connection because we all you know, we all studied Shakespeare at school at uni, and but I think it's that it's like you when you go to Stratford you realise that you know he was a genuine normal person that you know uh was born and grew up in a as you say in a kind of in a in a small town in the middle of kind of nowhere, really, and you think London was the kind of centre of the universe.
• 42:33
  SPEAKER_03: Um so yeah, it it it is fantastic and it kind of puts that into perspective.
• 42:37
  SPEAKER_03: So exciting.
• 42:38
  SPEAKER_03: Um and I have to I've been to Stratford many, many times, and I loved this trip, but I loved it.
• 42:43
  SPEAKER_03: It was really good to go and just kind of put that into so if you're gonna go watch Hamnet as well, I think it will it'll be really cool.
• 42:50
  SPEAKER_03: But just enjoy Stratford because it is a lovely, lovely um town to walk around.
• 42:55
  SPEAKER_03: Now, after Stratford, we we popped back onto the bus and we headed into the Cox Worlds.
• 42:59
  SPEAKER_03: And this isn't something else I was talking to Chris about because the advantage of being on a small, very comfortable bus, I should say, it is very, very comfortable.
• 43:06
  SPEAKER_03: Um, is that you can you can go into these places that these bigger coach companies can't get into.
• 43:13
  SPEAKER_03: Yes.
• 43:13
  SPEAKER_03: Um so where did we go?
• 43:15
  SPEAKER_04: Are you gonna share that?
• 43:16
  SPEAKER_04: So yes, after Stratford, um we leave the town behind and we jump onto the Foss Way.
• 43:24
  SPEAKER_04: So you you start driving down an old Roman road, learning and heading into this place that we call the Cotsworlds.
• 43:32
  SPEAKER_04: Learn about what it is about the Cotsworlds that um makes it so famous, and along that Foss Way, we will stop.
• 43:42
  SPEAKER_04: Our first stop before we really get into the Cotswolds properly, is a town called Stow on the World.
• 43:47
  SPEAKER_04: Stow on the World means town on the hills, the highest point um in the Cotsworlds, and it is a archetypal Cotswolds town with this sort of yellow limestone buildings, these old Old uh slate stone roofs and um a beautiful church that has a a Tolkien Lord of the Rings link.
• 44:08
  SPEAKER_03: Everybody has to have the photo taken at that particular place.
• 44:12
  SPEAKER_04: Yes, definitely.
• 44:14
  SPEAKER_04: So that's the kind of main sort of landmark to see.
• 44:17
  SPEAKER_04: But the town itself is really sweet.
• 44:18
  SPEAKER_04: There's lots of little tea rooms, some antique stores, and we'll have you have at least half an hour to um just explore it.
• 44:26
  SPEAKER_04: And then once we are back on the bus, that's when uh we really get into the um the thicket of the Cotswolds, if you will, because we will leave that main road, we'll leave the Fossway, and we can take this little bus down some tight country lanes, uh, and on our route to a village called Bybury, we drive through a handful of Cotswolds villages, um so that guests can kind of understand that like there is this distinctive look and feel of the Cotswolds, there is an aesthetic that is highly valued and also heavily protected, and it's not just one town that you know you should visit that looks like this, it's the whole place, and that's what this drive really does.
• 45:16
  SPEAKER_04: It's kind of shows that uh what it is that it is about the Cotswolds that's so recognizable, but also it feels like you're stepping back in time, it feels like you're going back to a completely different era, going over these little stone bridges where you might as well be a pack horse with a horse and car, and um it's at times it feels sort of fairy tale.
• 45:40
  SPEAKER_04: Um, you know, there is it's revoltingly quaint, is what I like to say sometimes.
• 45:46
  SPEAKER_03: Beautiful, really beautiful.
• 45:47
  SPEAKER_03: The cotwalls are beautiful, and actually, I've just thinking back actually just to both the tours that we did, uh, that was the uh reactions to quite a lot of the um visitors on the bus who could not believe that the road we were driving down was a two-way road.
• 46:03
  SPEAKER_04: Yeah, yeah, that's it, exactly.
• 46:05
  SPEAKER_04: That's why the coaches can't haven't got a hope in the hell of going down them.
• 46:09
  SPEAKER_04: Yeah, because they are all all designed for horse and car, they're never designed for the cars.
• 46:14
  SPEAKER_04: Um, but our little mini-bus, I say that you know, size wins on those roads.
• 46:19
  SPEAKER_04: So when you've got an oncoming one, if they're smaller, they'll have to get out of my way.
• 46:24
  SPEAKER_03: Absolutely, absolutely.
• 46:26
  SPEAKER_03: And um, just going to Byberry because I I personally love Byeberry.
• 46:29
  SPEAKER_03: I think Arlington Road is beautiful.
• 46:32
  SPEAKER_03: I would like to stay it in one of those cottages, it's on my kind of wish list uh to do um because it is so stunning.
• 46:38
  SPEAKER_03: But the nice thing is you've got enough time that you can actually do the loop round and actually enjoy.
• 46:44
  SPEAKER_03: Um I had a uh bought an ice cream on the way back, which I had time to to enjoy.
• 46:49
  SPEAKER_03: Sit on the wall and look at the beautiful um, just look at the the the the houses and just beautiful Bible.
• 46:55
  SPEAKER_03: Is it's a small, small village, and that's actually somewhere that you will very much struggle to park in if you are trying to do this only stuff because Biberry, I have the last time I actually uh was in the Cotswolds with a friend and we're staying in the Cotswolds, and I said we need she hadn't been to Bible.
• 47:10
  SPEAKER_03: We need to go to Bible Sunday morning.
• 47:11
  SPEAKER_03: We could not get parked.
• 47:12
  SPEAKER_03: I think we drove up about four times and she gave up in the end.
• 47:15
  SPEAKER_03: Um, so that's the beauty.
• 47:17
  SPEAKER_03: You get dropped off and you guys go and then you come back and pick us up at a uh and and it is very much policed the uh the parking in the in the in the barbery for sure.
• 47:27
  SPEAKER_03: Um so it is just the easiest way to just go and really soak up um the beautiful cotswolds and that particular village as well.
• 47:35
  SPEAKER_04: Yeah, that's it.
• 47:36
  SPEAKER_04: You can just sit back and let me do all the dealing with the traffic and parking people.
• 47:44
  SPEAKER_04: Um and it's a really nice way to sort of finish it off that little trip in the cotswalls, starting at Stowe in the World and getting out and having a walk around, then dropping off in Biberry at the end to um go for a lovely little walk.
• 47:58
  SPEAKER_04: I mean, I swear, even the river flows more slowly.
• 48:01
  SPEAKER_04: It's all just yeah, and there's a cute little gift shop there and a cafe as well.
• 48:06
  SPEAKER_04: Um, and there's the lovely man with the ice cream.
• 48:09
  SPEAKER_03: Yes, absolutely the must must see, absolutely beautiful place to visit, and also just appreciating the fact that we did do that kind of back roads and seeing some of those tiny little villages that you you know you wouldn't you wouldn't necessarily discover or see or know anything about.
• 48:25
  SPEAKER_03: And actually, what I did learn from you, which I did not know, uh, is that Thatch Cottage is isn't something that is kind of an something you sh would associate normally with the Cotswolds.
• 48:35
  SPEAKER_03: And first in my head I had that, so I was like, I did not realize that it was stone roofs.
• 48:39
  SPEAKER_03: So that was really interesting.
• 48:41
  SPEAKER_04: That's it, exactly.
• 48:42
  SPEAKER_04: And it's like it's all to do with it's all to do with the fact that the Cotswolds had a lot of money from the world trade.
• 48:47
  SPEAKER_04: So when you are now driving through it, you see that every single village has these stone roofs.
• 48:53
  SPEAKER_04: So, you know, everywhere was wealthy enough to have a roof made of stone, and anyone you see that's got a thatch is probably a more modern thing where they've been like, oh, wouldn't it be nice if we had a thatched roof?
• 49:06
  SPEAKER_04: And I think the that's Bibury and Stowe on the world, both by Stowe being a town and Bybury being quite well known, means that it can be, like you said about parking, can be quite busy.
• 49:19
  SPEAKER_04: Um, and so that little drive that we do kind of shows a little side of that sort of serenity because there's very few people.
• 49:26
  SPEAKER_04: I think the whole time you drive down there, you might see one or two people out and about, and the rest is just horses and sheep and ducks and swans.
• 49:33
  SPEAKER_03: Yes, we got held up by by by uh a horse, didn't we a couple of horses?
• 49:36
  SPEAKER_03: Yeah, we did which is lovely, and again, it's that just that lovely countryside feel.
• 49:41
  SPEAKER_03: Um, again, it's a place that if I if I ever win the lottery out, I would love to live because the cotswolds are another very expensive area of of the UK to live in.
• 49:50
  SPEAKER_03: Um but the Cotswolds are incredibly, incredibly popular.
• 49:54
  SPEAKER_03: Um it's just a great way if you're staying in London and you want to go and and and experience the Cotwords.
• 49:58
  SPEAKER_03: Definitely, definitely to go and do less.
• 50:00
  SPEAKER_04: Yeah, especially as a break from London.
• 50:02
  SPEAKER_04: Because London's so intense and there's so much to do, and the whole point of the Cotswolds is do less.
• 50:09
  SPEAKER_04: Yes, it's all about you know, just sit down and just enjoy the bird song, the quiet spaces, and these you know, how houses that are just so full of history.
• 50:21
  SPEAKER_03: Oh, absolutely beautiful, and then from there we headed to um Oxford, um, which is another lovely city, um uh and and high on people's wish lists of places to go and visit.
• 50:32
  SPEAKER_03: Um now there's a lot to do and see in Oxford, so how do you kind of tackle that?
• 50:37
  SPEAKER_04: Yeah, so um we again, Oxford, just like in the Kent uh tour, when we get to Oxford, you've got a good couple of hours of time.
• 50:46
  SPEAKER_04: So um, you know, a nice long stint there.
• 50:49
  SPEAKER_04: Um, but because there's so much to do, it can feel like it goes really quickly.
• 50:53
  SPEAKER_04: And um what you can do is uh join me, uh one of the other guides for a walking tour.
• 51:02
  SPEAKER_04: So Oxford is a working city, um, it does have this ancient university in it, but it is also a city in its own right with you know more than just students and more than just a university campus.
• 51:15
  SPEAKER_04: So the centre of the city can feel busy.
• 51:19
  SPEAKER_04: Um, there's a lot of people there.
• 51:21
  SPEAKER_04: And the university part of it though, it almost instantly gets quieter.
• 51:27
  SPEAKER_04: So joining me on a walking tour, I can take you from this slap bang in the middle of the city, then heading into this much quieter part of the uni and being able to actually learn, you know, why the university looks the way it is, why it works differently to other universities as well, what it is about how Oxford, the offer, the educational offer that Oxford has, that has been built out of something they started when it was Benedictine monks nearly a thousand years ago, that um makes it such a high standard today.
• 52:02
  SPEAKER_04: And um what we like to do is find when we do the walking tour, I'll always keep my eye out for an open door.
• 52:10
  SPEAKER_04: Um, and if there is one, because it's a it's a working uni.
• 52:14
  SPEAKER_04: So, you know, you you you can't just walk straight into a college and have a little walk around, you can't walk straight into the Bodleian library.
• 52:22
  SPEAKER_04: All of these places are for our working places for people to study.
• 52:26
  SPEAKER_04: So sometimes though they will open the doors so that people can have actually have a look inside the you know main entrance kind of quad of uh of the university colleges.
• 52:36
  SPEAKER_04: And I'll always keep my eye on it.
• 52:38
  SPEAKER_04: If I see one, I will beeline for it so people can have a get a look inside.
• 52:43
  SPEAKER_04: Um, so yeah, joining me for a tour, you can actually know where you're going and see these big, uh, beautiful university buildings.
• 52:51
  SPEAKER_03: I think actually those um those walk-in tours that the you know I did the one in Canterbury and then one in Oxford, which is the kind of the last stop on on those tours of the day, that's a perfect way to end it because it's a great way to have that time to learn about the city.
• 53:05
  SPEAKER_03: Um, and then you walk back and then you you walk back to the bus, and then that's it.
• 53:10
  SPEAKER_03: So it's a it's a great um it's a great way to kind of end.
• 53:13
  SPEAKER_03: Um and again, you don't have to worry when you're there about trying to find everything because you're gonna go and you're gonna talk through that the history and show all of the main places that are are worth going to.
• 53:24
  SPEAKER_04: Yeah, and in Oxford we'll always aim to finish our walking tours with um at least an hour of your own time after that.
• 53:32
  SPEAKER_04: Um, and you know, by this point it's uh could be around sort of five, five thirty, and you know, people feeling maybe a little bit weary, you've seen a big chunk of Oxford University, you've you've kind of really got um to see and get a good idea of of the university that you've mainly come here to experience.
• 53:53
  SPEAKER_04: And you can head off to one of the handful of old historic pubs in Oxford, sit down, rest your feet, grab a bite to eat.
• 54:04
  SPEAKER_04: There is even one um on the opposite side of the road from where I pick you up.
• 54:09
  SPEAKER_03: So, yeah, I was actually gonna mention that one, uh Lucy, because that's where that's why I went with uh Terry who came with me on the tour.
• 54:15
  SPEAKER_03: And I can't remember the name of it, you'll know.
• 54:17
  SPEAKER_03: Um The Checker's Pub.
• 54:18
  SPEAKER_03: The Checkers Pub.
• 54:19
  SPEAKER_03: I'd highly recommend that.
• 54:21
  SPEAKER_03: We went in, we we didn't have unfortunately the Sunday roast by that point was was finished.
• 54:27
  SPEAKER_04: Hey, I did one.
• 54:28
  SPEAKER_03: Yes, and that's what happens.
• 54:30
  SPEAKER_03: Actually, I'm gonna actually do a whole podcast about Sunday roast because it's like because I say like you really need to book it because it's one of those things if you they run out uh the later on in the afternoon because it's kind of more lunchtime thing rather than a later on in the day thing.
• 54:44
  SPEAKER_03: Uh, but it was wonderful, a really cool atmosphere in that pub.
• 54:47
  SPEAKER_03: It's old pub.
• 54:49
  SPEAKER_03: Um, there was the sport on at one part, and then we we just sat and had a had a drink and had I think we had some chips or something at that point just to just keep the energy levels up.
• 54:58
  SPEAKER_03: But it would have great day.
• 54:59
  SPEAKER_03: And I did see other people from the tour who'd also joined us in that pub, which was amazing because again, um just having the experience of you know, you're in Oxford and you're one of those fantastic pubs.
• 55:10
  SPEAKER_03: Uh, there's a lot of history around there, not in the in the university, but also an integral part of British culture is to go to the yeah, exactly.
• 55:18
  SPEAKER_04: You know, you could be sitting um at you know, round a little table in the checkers pub where Tolkien, C.S.
• 55:25
  SPEAKER_04: Lewis, and Lewis Carroll would be sharing, having a Guinness and chatting about, you know, fantasy and all that kind of stuff.
• 55:32
  SPEAKER_04: It is and would have been for centuries somewhere where scholars of all kinds would have, you know, chilled out and you can really feel it in the checkers.
• 55:41
  SPEAKER_04: It's a beautiful historic pub.
• 55:43
  SPEAKER_04: Yeah, no, we we loved that, we thoroughly enjoyed that.
• 55:46
  SPEAKER_04: Yeah, and it's right next to the pickup point, so you can roll out of the pump and I'll be there waiting for you to take you home.
• 55:54
  SPEAKER_03: And that's what we did.
• 55:55
  SPEAKER_03: We went to the pub and then we went straight onto the bus.
• 55:57
  SPEAKER_03: That was that was brilliant, and then back into London, which was great.
• 56:00
  SPEAKER_03: So another absolutely fantastic day.
• 56:02
  SPEAKER_03: Now, the third tour I haven't I've I've done with English bus, but not not with you as a tour guide.
• 56:07
  SPEAKER_03: I did it actually um a year ago, well over a year ago, in the end of January, and um that was the Stonehenge Bath.
• 56:14
  SPEAKER_03: And I did the secret place, but of course, we will not be divulging what that is.
• 56:18
  SPEAKER_03: Uh oh yeah, lips are sealed.
• 56:20
  SPEAKER_03: Um, but you do you also do that tour as well.
• 56:22
  SPEAKER_03: Um, so so talk me a little bit through that the Stonehenge Bath, and and either I know there's either the secret place or there's the um the Cotswold village of um uh oh it's gone out my head.
• 56:34
  SPEAKER_03: Where do you stop?
• 56:35
  SPEAKER_03: Castle Coombe.
• 56:36
  SPEAKER_03: Castle Coombe.
• 56:37
  SPEAKER_03: I always forget that one for some reason.
• 56:39
  SPEAKER_03: Um yeah, stop buffering Castle Coombe.
• 56:41
  SPEAKER_03: So so talk me a little bit about what you enjoy about that particular tour.
• 56:45
  SPEAKER_04: Yeah, okay.
• 56:46
  SPEAKER_04: So yeah, of course we've got two options for those that tour.
• 56:48
  SPEAKER_04: You can do Bathstone Henge and a Cotswolds village, and you know where you're going at the end, or you do Bathstone Henge, and we'll take you to a mystery place, a secret place after that.
• 56:58
  SPEAKER_04: Um and what I like about these tours, these those tours, is well, actually, you get a massive variety of what you're doing.
• 57:09
  SPEAKER_04: So going to Stonehenge, I mean it's Stonehenge, it is the most famous Stone Circle, one of the most famous archaeological monuments, you know, in the world.
• 57:20
  SPEAKER_04: And it has a right, in my opinion, has a right to be as famous as it is.
• 57:25
  SPEAKER_04: Um, it represents a really important time in our human story.
• 57:30
  SPEAKER_04: Um and it's everyone is related to, owns a bit of Stonehenge.
• 57:37
  SPEAKER_04: It's a human story, if you choose to believe that.
• 57:41
  SPEAKER_04: Um we can talk about the alien in the room as well on the bus.
• 57:46
  SPEAKER_04: But um you also will drive across Salisbury Plain and through Wiltshire.
• 57:52
  SPEAKER_04: So um you get to see a lot of the English countryside in the south, southern, central part of England.
• 57:59
  SPEAKER_04: And after leaving Stonehenge, um you go to Bath.
• 58:03
  SPEAKER_04: So you've got all of this history out in the great outdoors, you know, you really are can't hide from the great forces of nature when you're at Stonehenge.
• 58:13
  SPEAKER_04: If it's sunny, windy, rainy, you'll get the whole, yeah, yeah.
• 58:18
  SPEAKER_03: So so do take um a rain jacket, whatever time of year, to be honest.
• 58:23
  SPEAKER_03: Whatever time of year.
• 58:24
  SPEAKER_03: You never know.
• 58:25
  SPEAKER_04: You never know.
• 58:26
  SPEAKER_04: And you know, if it's windy in if it's windy, then on Stonehenge it's gonna be windy, windy.
• 58:31
  SPEAKER_04: Uh that kind of thing, because it's big and it's exposed.
• 58:34
  SPEAKER_04: That was the whole point, that's why it's there.
• 58:36
  SPEAKER_04: Um, and once we are all back on the bus, we then head further west out towards Bath.
• 58:44
  SPEAKER_04: And I love this, you will see the landscape change.
• 58:47
  SPEAKER_04: As you leave Wiltshire and that chalk behind, you'll enter into a new bedrock of the West Country of Somerset, which is limestone, and it's all valleys, there's loads more woodland.
• 58:59
  SPEAKER_04: Um, so that sort of change as you get out away from London across the Wiltshire and then into the west, you see the land change.
• 59:10
  SPEAKER_04: And we jump forward in time on our way to Bath.
• 59:15
  SPEAKER_04: Um, what I like about this tour is is that Bath is a beautiful city.
• 59:20
  SPEAKER_04: Architecturally, it's amazing, it has a lot of history, but when they are these two really important places to see, and there's a right, you know, they have a right to be uh popular places to go to, um, they're so different.
• 59:34
  SPEAKER_04: So if you're traveling with a group, you know, there might be someone who's much more interested in ancient history, Stonehenge is gonna, you know, satisfy, scratch that itch.
• 59:44
  SPEAKER_04: And then Bath is a beautiful city.
• 59:46
  SPEAKER_04: If you like period dramas, if you're an Austin fan, if you like a bit of Bridgeton, you can walk, you know, down all of these streets and just take yourself back into that space.
• 59:57
  SPEAKER_04: Um and then, of course, after that we leave Bath behind us.
• 1:00:04
  SPEAKER_04: Um and we get to see, you know, either well, with the Cotswolds village, you'll get that extra kind of village feel.
• 1:00:13
  SPEAKER_04: Um, but I can't say what we do after that for the secret place.
• 1:00:17
  SPEAKER_03: No, it's a secret, you could you only you can only find that out if you actually book the trial.
• 1:00:21
  SPEAKER_03: So we are we are sworn to secrecy, a secrecy, absolutely.
• 1:00:25
  SPEAKER_03: But but um I as I said to Chris, I I've I've done and I know there's a few options for that, and I I've done one option I'm very, very pleased with where we happen to go, so I really enjoyed that.
• 1:00:35
  SPEAKER_03: Yeah, um so you can't to be honest, you can't lose on this, whatever which one you do, you're gonna get to explain Stonehenge, yeah.
• 1:00:41
  SPEAKER_03: Which I I am always promoting Stonehenge because quite often it's a lot of British people who go, Oh Stonehenge, whatever, just a pile of rocks, and I went, Oh, you're missing the whole point.
• 1:00:49
  SPEAKER_03: You're missing the whole point.
• 1:00:50
  SPEAKER_03: Exactly.
• 1:00:50
  SPEAKER_04: If you call it just a pile of rocks, I mean you could call Westminster Abbey a pile of rocks if you don't understand the kind of context of it.
• 1:00:58
  SPEAKER_04: And that's the other thing I like about the secret place tour as well, is because we do have, like you said, you went to one of them, we have a handful of options.
• 1:01:06
  SPEAKER_04: So I love the fact that it's it's personal, it's about the people on my bus and what I think they would most enjoy.
• 1:01:15
  SPEAKER_04: Um, so you know, you get I get to know them, I gauge the energy of the group, I'll decide from the conversations from that we've had, from the hints that I've dropped, uh which one I think that they would most enjoy.
• 1:01:28
  SPEAKER_04: Um, so I and I I love being able to have that kind of agency.
• 1:01:33
  SPEAKER_03: Fascinating, that's brilliant, and that's really good that you can as you say you've you've got that choice when it comes to that secret place, which one you're gonna go to.
• 1:01:41
  SPEAKER_03: Oh, okay.
• 1:01:42
  SPEAKER_03: Well, uh maybe I need to do that tour again, maybe I'll go to the other secret place.
• 1:01:46
  SPEAKER_03: Um, that would be really cool.
• 1:01:48
  SPEAKER_03: Um, but I have to say, um, Lucy, it's an absolute joy talking to you.
• 1:01:53
  SPEAKER_03: It really is.
• 1:01:53
  SPEAKER_03: Honestly, you were amazing, you and Alex.
• 1:01:56
  SPEAKER_03: Um, Alex is gonna be fantastic as well.
• 1:01:58
  SPEAKER_03: So hello, another hello to Alex.
• 1:02:00
  SPEAKER_03: Um, you were amazing.
• 1:02:01
  SPEAKER_03: Um, but just just a really fabulous um couple of data out.
• 1:02:07
  SPEAKER_03: Um, really enjoyed it, and uh obviously I know um Chris has got a number of guides, um so not guaranteed that you will get Lucy, but all his guides are amazing.
• 1:02:15
  SPEAKER_03: I will I will assure you of that.
• 1:02:18
  SPEAKER_03: Um but it's been fantastic to talk to you, Lucy, and thank you so much for coming on at the podcast.
• 1:02:23
  SPEAKER_04: Well, thank you.
• 1:02:24
  SPEAKER_04: I really I really enjoyed your company.
• 1:02:26
  SPEAKER_04: I might I enjoy the company of my guests 99.9% of the time, um, because I think that's what Chris has cherry-picked.
• 1:02:37
  SPEAKER_04: We were it's a handful of guys, there's only six of us, and um, you know, we all really, really like what we do, and I think Chris, you know, wants people to have a personal connection to it and enjoy it.
• 1:02:51
  SPEAKER_04: Um, and I will be very excited to be taking.
• 1:02:54
  SPEAKER_04: I will, I would like, I I hope you get on a tour with me to Stonehenge and I'll find out which secret place you went to and I can make maybe see what we could do.
• 1:03:05
  SPEAKER_03: Um the thing is I won't be able to share it with listeners, though that's the only thing.
• 1:03:09
  SPEAKER_03: But I will say, if you're listening to this podcast and you book on my English uh boss, um, and you do get Lucy, say hello to Lucy because she's gonna you're gonna be like, I heard all about you on the podcast.
• 1:03:20
  SPEAKER_03: So uh so expect that this summer you will have some you will have some guests on the English bus who will have heard you and will be like, Well my goodness is Lucy!
• 1:03:28
  SPEAKER_04: I will warn I will warn those listeners then that you will get a very excited and enthusiastic reaction from me.
• 1:03:35
  SPEAKER_03: Oh, so that's amazing.
• 1:03:37
  SPEAKER_03: But yeah, so I hope to see you again, Lucy Burr.
• 1:03:39
  SPEAKER_03: Say thank you so much for coming on to the podcast.
• 1:03:41
  SPEAKER_03: It's been an absolute pleasure, thank you.
• 1:03:44
  SPEAKER_03: Okay, so welcome back, Chris.
• 1:03:45
  SPEAKER_03: We've uh had a great chat with Lucy about the tours.
• 1:03:48
  SPEAKER_03: Um, so now I know what our listeners are going to be thinking is the big question is gonna be I can only do one, maybe maximum two tours.
• 1:03:58
  SPEAKER_03: How do I choose?
• 1:04:00
  SPEAKER_01: Um difficult question, Tracy.
• 1:04:03
  SPEAKER_01: How do you choose?
• 1:04:04
  SPEAKER_01: Well, first of all, you need to think are there any sites uh outside of London uh within a day's reach of London that you specifically would like to visit?
• 1:04:13
  SPEAKER_01: Um and if one of those sites is uh or if that site is on the list of places that we visit on our tours, then you know choose the tour that visits that site.
• 1:04:24
  SPEAKER_01: Okay, you must satisfy your curiosity if you have a particular place that you want to visit.
• 1:04:30
  SPEAKER_01: Um, if you're not sure, and you would like to see some of England outside of London, which I would thoroughly implore everyone to do, obviously I'm biased, but London is an incredible city.
• 1:04:43
  SPEAKER_01: Um, having been brought up there and lived there for so many years.
• 1:04:48
  SPEAKER_01: Uh, but England is a different country outside of London, and the the culture, the views, the the architecture, the history is very, very different.
• 1:04:59
  SPEAKER_01: So a day out of London, at least one day on a trip over to England, is a very, very good idea.
• 1:05:06
  SPEAKER_01: Um, if you're thinking, okay, we're not sure what we want to see, we've got one day, where are we gonna go?
• 1:05:13
  SPEAKER_01: Well, I think the tour that is most popular that we do that uh I think gives the widest impression of England, um uh a wide range of historical sites, a a huge um a huge timeline of England's history is uh our Stonehenge tours, uh, because we're obviously visiting Stonehenge with dates back over 5,000 years.
• 1:05:40
  SPEAKER_01: So for most visitors, it will be the oldest man-made site that they will ever visit in their life.
• 1:05:47
  SPEAKER_01: We then, after Stonehenge, visit Bath, and Bath has history dating back to the Celts 3,000 years ago, the Romans 2,000 years ago, a lot of Georgian and Victorian history from 2, 3, 400.
• 1:06:00
  SPEAKER_01: Years ago, and some amazing architecture.
• 1:06:02
  SPEAKER_01: There's lots of cultural references between those two sites.
• 1:06:07
  SPEAKER_01: Obviously, we see countryside as well, some amazing countryside.
• 1:06:11
  SPEAKER_01: So a Stonehenge tour combined with Bath, and obviously revisit a couple of other places after Bath on our two different Stonehenge tours.
• 1:06:21
  SPEAKER_01: I think that that for those who aren't sure, that gets the best uh the best feedback.
• 1:06:28
  SPEAKER_03: Absolutely.
• 1:06:29
  SPEAKER_01: So that's what I would recommend if you can achieve one.
• 1:06:31
  SPEAKER_03: I I agree.
• 1:06:32
  SPEAKER_03: I think that is a great one because we we get asked a lot a lot about Stonehenge, and um I know Bath is also very popular.
• 1:06:38
  SPEAKER_03: But um if I and I'm gonna recommend this, if if you've booked that and you're going, yep, I want to do that, but I really want to do a second one.
• 1:06:45
  SPEAKER_03: Um the place that we get asked about so often are the White Cliffs of Dover, and you offer that, Chris.
• 1:06:52
  SPEAKER_01: Yes, we do.
• 1:06:53
  SPEAKER_01: Uh the White Cliffs of Dover are amazing, spectacular, historically evocative, particularly from World War II.
• 1:07:01
  SPEAKER_01: Um, we yeah, we visit the White Cliffs.
• 1:07:04
  SPEAKER_01: The White Cliffs is a tricky one because really, and this is what we say to all our guests, and it's important for your listeners to understand that the best view of the White Cliffs that you will ever get is from the sea, is is on a boat or on a ship or on a ferry.
• 1:07:19
  SPEAKER_01: Um sadly, our our vehicles are not amphibious as much as I would like them to be.
• 1:07:26
  SPEAKER_01: Um, so we can't it nobody can without going out on a boat, which we don't do, we can't do logistically, it's just not feasible.
• 1:07:33
  SPEAKER_01: And sometimes the weather, you wouldn't want to go out on a boat.
• 1:07:36
  SPEAKER_01: Um so we we've we spent we spent when we were designing the itinerary of this tour about eight, nine years ago, we spent days, I personally spent days around the Dover area trying to find where to find the best views of the white cliffs.
• 1:07:52
  SPEAKER_01: Uh, different tour companies visit different parts of the cliffs.
• 1:07:55
  SPEAKER_01: Anyway, we we've we've found the place with the very best views.
• 1:08:00
  SPEAKER_01: I found the the place with my own eyes, and I've saw it and I and I know, and that is uh down underneath the cliffs at a place called St.
• 1:08:08
  SPEAKER_01: Margaret's Bay.
• 1:08:10
  SPEAKER_01: Um, and so that gets the best views to stand right underneath the cliffs, and you can see long line of uh white chalk cliffs stretching uh far, far beyond the uh the the the foreground.
• 1:08:23
  SPEAKER_03: And you can see France, and you can see and you can see France in the distance on a clear day, which I did the other day, which is on a clear day.
• 1:08:31
  SPEAKER_01: We can't see it.
• 1:08:34
  SPEAKER_01: I mean, some sometimes yeah, but France is only 19-20 miles from that spot.
• 1:08:39
  SPEAKER_01: Uh sometimes we get down there, you can't see France.
• 1:08:42
  SPEAKER_01: Five minutes later, you look over the sea, and then oh, there is France.
• 1:08:45
  SPEAKER_01: And then if you look at your telephone, the out the clock might have changed, and the time might have changed on your phone because often there the the your phone switches over to a French network, so that always surprises people, and they get they get text messages saying, Welcome to France, and they're like, What?
• 1:09:00
  SPEAKER_01: I didn't think we're going to France on this door.
• 1:09:02
  SPEAKER_01: Um, so yeah, so Wakecliffe Dover is amazing, and of course, that's just under Dover Castle, and Dover Castle, not particularly well known with international travellers, and and to be honest, before um we just started designing this itinerary, I had never been to Dover Castle, but when I went to Dover Castle, I discovered one a spectacular castle in an ame on an amazing site, and two a castle that that offers so much, there's so much history of Dover Castle.
• 1:09:32
  SPEAKER_01: The Romans had a uh a base there, um, much of the castle is medieval, so built six, seven, eight hundred, nine hundred years ago.
• 1:09:41
  SPEAKER_01: Uh, but the castle was used right up until the end of World War II, and there's a lot of World War II history uh intertwined with Dover Castle.
• 1:09:49
  SPEAKER_01: So if you're if you're interested in history, Dover Castle is you you will absolutely love it.
• 1:09:55
  SPEAKER_01: If you're not a huge history fan, uh it offers so much, it's so spectacular, it's very impressive.
• 1:10:02
  SPEAKER_03: The views are the views are amazing.
• 1:10:04
  SPEAKER_03: Actually, I will put some photos of the uh the views that I took the other day because they the views are spectacular, I have to say.
• 1:10:10
  SPEAKER_03: Um, it's the first time that I've been to Dover Castle as well, so I thoroughly enjoyed that.
• 1:10:14
  SPEAKER_03: Um, so those are those are we've we've gone through the tours who've talked a little bit about how how to help people if they're kind of thinking which ones which ones should I book.
• 1:10:22
  SPEAKER_03: Um now what about um thinking, you know, and I know our listeners are going, oh I really I really want to do this, I really want to do these English bus tours, they're amazing, um, fantastic.
• 1:10:32
  SPEAKER_03: Um, but how far ahead should they book?
• 1:10:34
  SPEAKER_03: Because I don't want people to be disappointed, Chris, because this is what happens that sometimes people go, Oh, I didn't book in enough time.
• 1:10:40
  SPEAKER_03: So, how much notice do people need?
• 1:10:43
  SPEAKER_01: Sure.
• 1:10:43
  SPEAKER_01: Um I mean, ideally as as as far ahead as possible, but I obviously I appreciate that that that doesn't always work for people.
• 1:10:51
  SPEAKER_01: Um we we we're a small business, we we've got limited capacity.
• 1:10:55
  SPEAKER_01: Uh between the middle of March and the end of October, we do get very, very busy, and there are dates that we sell out on sometimes two, three, four months in advance.
• 1:11:05
  SPEAKER_01: Uh normally we still have bits of availability on any given week, um sort of two, three, four weeks ahead of time, even in busy season, but uh I can't guarantee that.
• 1:11:17
  SPEAKER_01: Um, so I would always suggest that people book as far ahead as possible.
• 1:11:20
  SPEAKER_01: I'd say really, ideally, at least a month ahead if they want to be sure.
• 1:11:26
  SPEAKER_01: But yeah, it depends what we've got.
• 1:11:28
  SPEAKER_01: Um, so uh yeah, as soon as as soon as possible.
• 1:11:33
  SPEAKER_03: And are your tours open to all ages?
• 1:11:35
  SPEAKER_03: That's something I thought I should ask as well.
• 1:11:37
  SPEAKER_01: Um, certainly, um, we have a no under threes policy.
• 1:11:41
  SPEAKER_01: As a parent myself, uh, the idea of taking uh any very small child on a essentially 11 and a half hour uh bus tour is um the stuff of nightmares, um uh and and obviously really not suitable.
• 1:11:56
  SPEAKER_01: So we say no under threes.
• 1:11:57
  SPEAKER_01: I mean we don't get many young children on our tours who are over three.
• 1:12:03
  SPEAKER_01: We do get a few, they are impeccably behaved, far better behaved than my own children.
• 1:12:08
  SPEAKER_01: Um I I wouldn't suggest really taking children under the age of uh probably eight on our tours because they're such long days, they're designed with adults in mind in particular.
• 1:12:20
  SPEAKER_01: However, we do get a lot of families, and we we you know uh we love to entertain families and we get a lot of great feedback from families about the experience that their children had and that they enjoyed it.
• 1:12:33
  SPEAKER_01: So, um, in terms of lower age limits, that's the explanation there.
• 1:12:37
  SPEAKER_01: Upper age limits, well, no upper age limits.
• 1:12:40
  SPEAKER_01: I mean, mobility is important.
• 1:12:43
  SPEAKER_01: Um none of our tours are physically you know taxing, but at the same time, you know, you do need to be able to get on and off the bus, which involves climbing up three steps, and uh there is a little bit of uh of unavoidable walking uh on each of our tours, yeah, but not huge amounts.
• 1:13:04
  SPEAKER_01: So perfect.
• 1:13:05
  SPEAKER_03: And obviously the other advantage that you guys have is that you depart from the centre of London.
• 1:13:10
  SPEAKER_03: So um which I like just share about that because I think that's important because if you're staying in the centre of London and you want to take a day tour out, then this is your option.
• 1:13:19
  SPEAKER_03: You can because you get picked up by Chris in well not Chris by his guides.
• 1:13:23
  SPEAKER_03: Well, because it could potentially be you, but uh by the uh by your guides in central London.
• 1:13:29
  SPEAKER_01: Yeah, um, yeah, so we have um we have two pickup points.
• 1:13:33
  SPEAKER_01: Uh the first is the London Eye, uh, right by the London Eye, where we pick up at 8.45 for all of our tours.
• 1:13:41
  SPEAKER_01: We pick up there, and for all tours apart from our Kent tour, uh the Kent Tour leaves to the southeast of the London Eye, so it doesn't make sense to go to the next place, but for the other tours, we pack up, we also pick up in Victoria at 10 past nine outside the Double Tree Hilton Hotel, right next to the Victoria Station.
• 1:14:00
  SPEAKER_01: So 10 past nine Victoria, 8 45 the London Eye.
• 1:14:03
  SPEAKER_01: Two very centrally located uh places and two very, very well connected places.
• 1:14:09
  SPEAKER_01: So um wherever anyone's coming from in London, it's not doesn't tend to be tricky for them to to get on.
• 1:14:15
  SPEAKER_03: Yeah, easy to get to, which is which is really helpful.
• 1:14:18
  SPEAKER_03: Um so thank you, Chris.
• 1:14:19
  SPEAKER_03: I'm gonna say this is it this is amazing of Chris to do this, but we have a five percent discount with the um English bus with the discount code UKTP5.
• 1:14:28
  SPEAKER_03: Now we'll put a link to I think that's the right code.
• 1:14:31
  SPEAKER_03: I've just said it now I'm thinking, is that the right code?
• 1:14:34
  SPEAKER_03: I have so many codes, but I think yours is it is UKTP5.
• 1:14:39
  SPEAKER_03: Yeah, UKTP5 is the code.
• 1:14:41
  SPEAKER_03: Um so if you go on, I'll put the link um in the show notes because you have to go through the link that I have to Chris's website to be able to use that code.
• 1:14:51
  SPEAKER_03: Um so if you have any issues with that, are we okay to tell listeners to contact um yourselves via email as well?
• 1:14:59
  SPEAKER_03: So if you have any problems using that discount, please contact um Chris, it'll probably be Jen.
• 1:15:04
  SPEAKER_03: I'll get back to you, um, with uh just to let them know that if you're having any issues using the 5% discount, and I'm sure they will sort that out for you.
• 1:15:13
  SPEAKER_03: Yep.
• 1:15:14
  SPEAKER_03: Yep, Chris will sort that out.
• 1:15:15
  SPEAKER_03: He's nodding his head, which you're not gonna hear.
• 1:15:18
  SPEAKER_01: Sorry, yes, we will sort.
• 1:15:22
  SPEAKER_03: Brilliant.
• 1:15:22
  SPEAKER_03: So uh thanks so much, Chris, for coming back on the episode.
• 1:15:25
  SPEAKER_03: And um I'm excited to hear from our listeners uh about their experiences uh uh when they go out with you guys, and um they're gonna have a fantastic time.
• 1:15:33
  SPEAKER_01: Thank you very much.
• 1:15:34
  SPEAKER_01: Yeah, well we had we did have quite a few of your listeners uh come with us, or we have done in the last year or so, and uh it's it's great to speak to them and to hear how you know they found out that out about us through through you, and we're absolutely honoured and uh we love working with you, Tracy.
• 1:15:50
  SPEAKER_01: So um thank you very much.
• 1:15:52
  SPEAKER_03: So I'd like to say a huge thank you to Chris and of course Lucy for coming onto the podcast to share all about their amazing tours with English Boss.
• 1:16:00
  SPEAKER_03: I will put a link um to Chris's website and the uh discount code for the 5% off in the show notes, which will be uktraveplanning.com forward slash episode 199.
• 1:16:14
  SPEAKER_03: Um, as I said, if you have any issues using the code, I will also put the email so you can contact Chris and Jen via the email if there's any issues using that 5% discount.
• 1:16:24
  SPEAKER_03: But please mention uh the podcast that you heard um all about the English bus uh through UK Travel Planning podcast, that'd be absolutely fantastic.
• 1:16:32
  SPEAKER_03: Um, but yeah, absolutely 100% recommend taking a day trip out of London if you're spending any time in London, it's absolutely worth your time.
• 1:16:42
  SPEAKER_03: And English bus, absolutely fantastic, great company to go and go and see some of these amazing places outside within very very easy reach of London.
• 1:16:51
  SPEAKER_03: Now, okay, as always, um that's gonna that's all I've got for this week.
• 1:16:56
  SPEAKER_03: Um, next week is our 200th episode.
• 1:16:59
  SPEAKER_03: I can't believe it.
• 1:16:59
  SPEAKER_03: So you're gonna hear from myself and Doug next week chatting all about um 200 episodes and uh what we've learned and what you have shared with us throughout the last 200 episodes of the UK Travel Planning Podcast.
• 1:17:13
  SPEAKER_03: But that leaves me to say, as always, until next week, happy UK travel planning.
• 1:17:20
  SPEAKER_03: Thank you for tuning in to this week's episode of the UK Travel Planning Podcast.
• 1:17:24
  SPEAKER_03: As always, show notes can be found at uktravelplanning.com.
• 1:17:28
  SPEAKER_03: If you've enjoyed the show, why not leave us feedback via text or a review on your favourite podcast app?
• 1:17:34
  SPEAKER_03: We love to hear from you, and you never know, you may receive a shout out in a future episode.
• 1:17:40
  SPEAKER_03: But as always, that just leaves me to say until next week, happy UK travel planning.