Protect your Investment with Travel Safe

SGT Advantage

Contact Us

Accommodations

Mini-Coaches

Why our Tours?

Booking Conditions

Before You Travel

Testimonials

Make a Payment

Click link for full info.  Make secure, online credit card payments.  NOTE:Transactions attract a 3.5% fee. Please add the transaction fee to the total amount entered. Thanks.

*Personal checks accepted with no transaction fee.

Tours by Destination:

London City Day Tours

Wales Tours

Ireland Tours

Scotland Tours

England Tours from London

England Tours from Manchester

Continental Europe Tours

Tours by Theme:

Garden Tours

Chelsea Flower Show Tour

 Literary Tours

Art & Wine Lovers Tours

Rock & Roll Tours

Battlefield Tours

Cruise Programs:

European River Cruises

European Sea Cruises

Custom-Design Tours

Self-Guided Europe Programs:

Independent City Packages

Self-Drive

Walking Tours

SGT World Ventures

Africa

Asia/Orient

Latin America

South Pacific

Polar Regions

Travel Links Page

Rock & Roll Links

BEATLERADIO

Special Group Tours

Toll Free: 1 866 725 5250

kate@specialgrouptours.com

Kent: The Invaders Gateway to England

Mini-Tour - Three days / Two nights

Includes Greenwich, Canterbury, Leeds Castle, Dover, Hastings, Churchill's Chartwell, Battle of Britain sites, maritime tradition, scenic countryside AND MUCH, MUCH MORE! Welcome to a region rich in treasures. There's arguably not another area in the country that can boast so deep and varied a range of attractions to entertain, educate, and simply be enjoyed by the holiday-maker.

Naturally, as an area closest to the continent, it has seen many an invader. Some enjoyed more success than others did but all left their mark as the region's castles and defences attest. Not all invasions were military ones. Trade and ideas crossed the channel too, and they too left their mark in harbour towns, great cathedrals and literary homes.

It's also known as the 'garden of England' and not without good reason. The gentle undulating 'Weald' is dotted with hop fields and fat cattle graze in lush green meadows. And in the tiny, picturesque, flower-filled villages, life continues much as it has done for centuries. This is a lovely tour and has always received great plaudits and praise from past participants. You'll be sure to add yours.

We offer another mini-tour of this region concentrating on its fabulous and world-famous homes and gardens such as Sissinghurst, Hever and Great Dixter - Stately Homes & Beautiful Gardens.

2008 dates: every other Sunday, from 20 April through 12 October.

Winter dates available on request, subject to availability.

This GUARANTEED DEPARTURE begins SUNDAYS as above from central London hotels below.
It is your responsibility to be there in plenty of time.

The Royal National, Bedford Way The Corus Hotel, Hyde Park The Grosvenor Thistle, Victoria Station The Holiday Inn Forum The Chiswick Hotel, Chiswick

08.00 (underground Russell Square) 08.20 (underground Lancaster Gate) 08.30 (underground Victoria Station) 08.45 (underground Gloucester Road) 09.00 (underground Turnham Green)

NOTE: Clients should wait by the concierge desk. Return drop-offs are to any central London hotel.

Cost: $779 USD per adult sharing a twin/double room; $809 USD single occupancy

What your tour price includes: Your accommodation for 2 nights while on the tour including both full breakfasts and dinners. Your price also includes all entrance fees to attractions, transportation, services of driver/guide-companion and all taxes and tips other than those you may wish to give your guide.

Airport transfers and accommodation pre and post tour is not included but can be reserved at a specially discounted price. Our London tour base is the Chiswick Hotel so you will be picked-up for your tour here at 09.00 if booking pre-tour accommodation with us.

Want to upgrade your tour package to include international airfare? Click here for info.

TENTATIVE ITINERARY	NIGHTSTOP
DAY ONE - SUNDAY
We leave London, following the Thames towards the North Sea. Our morning sightseeing features a range of fantastic sites, many evoking London's maritime past including Greenwich Meridian Line, and a Thames riverside location with connections to Captain Christopher Jones and 'The Mayflower'. There’ll be an opportunity of seeing the Pocahontas memorial at Gravesend (fitting in this Jamestown anniversary year), and then for lunch the tiny but jewel-like city of Rochester. Rochester is an undiscovered pearl and deservedly on a Back-Roads Touring Co. Ltd itinerary taking you behind the tourist facade. There's an exquisite cathedral, a well-preserved 12th century castle and a medieval shopping street. It also boasts connections with Charles Dickens who lived here and set many of his tales in the city. This afternoon we'll take the first of our tours through this country dubbed 'the garden of England' to Chartwell, home to Winston Churchill. Here you can almost still smell the great man's cigar smoke as we tour the house to discover his life and times.	Kent
DAY TWO - MONDAY
The mighty Canterbury Cathedral, the pretty Leeds Castle and historic Dover are the main features of our day's touring. All are major icons and, being essential must-sees for the visitor to the UK, are often visited as a day tour from London. As we're based in the area, we'll be enjoying a much more leisurely day than the day-trippers will be having! And, in typical Back-Roads style, we'll be able to add one or two other attractions. Depending on group interests and weather there'll be choices from the fishing village of Whitstable, Britain's most haunted village of Pluckley an emotive Battle of Britain memorial and a few real back-road drives where you'll see hop fields and the traditional oast houses of the region. Our Jamestown commemoration theme is explored at Leeds Castle, (connections with Virginia developers the Culpeppers and Faifaxes) and at nearby Maidstone where we’ll find a Washington Memorial and the origins of the ‘Stars and Stripes’.	Kent
DAY THREE - TUESDAY
We'll begin another memorable day's touring with a visit to the fabulous gardens of Sissinghurst. Next we cross the Romney marshes, once a haunt of smugglers, to the old cinque port of Rye. This picturesque town, so loved by the novelist Henry James, always has our tour participants cooing with delight and expending much film! Along the coast you'll see coastal fortresses built to repel the invader, though this time Napoleon. Then to a place all have heard of, Hastings! We'll explore the site of this most famous of battles. 1066 changed the course of the history of the English-speaking peoples and it is a spine-tingling exercise to walk part of the actual battlefield. On our way back towards London we'll see Winnie the Pooh's Ashdown Forest and may even stop for a game of Pooh Sticks! If Pooh holds no attraction then perhaps Rudyard Kipling’s house may? As ever, a back-Roads Touring Co. Ltd tour is sufficiently flexible to be able to make changes to accommodate your travel dreams. Add to these attractions more scenic touring through 'the garden of England' and a few 'serendipity stops' and you have a perfect day! We'll arrive back into London by 6 pm.

Those who are particularly interested in discovering more of the Jamestown connections and other roots of the USA should consider also taking our three-day tour of Lincolnshire and the Peak District that runs from Manchester.

This tour is operated by Back-Roads Touring Co Ltd