The Driver-Guides Association is The National professional association of blue badge tourist guides as driver-guides
The National Professional Association of Blue Badge Driver-Guides

Individual Guided Tours of London and the UK by Private Car Driven by Blue Badge Guides

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Tour Suggestions - From London

Touring Suggestions - in London
Touring Suggestions - Other Areas

Map showing London as a centre
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If you are staying in or near London, there are many wonderful places to visit within easy reach. We’ll tailor a private tour to the Queen’s home at Windsor Castle, Henry VIII’s palace at Hampton Court, the dreaming spires of Oxford, the rolling hills and quaint villages of The Cotswolds.

See below for more tour information and ideas…

Half Day Tours

Windsor Castle
Up to 4 hours

Home of Queen Elizabeth II. It has been the home of English kings and queens since the 11th century. Inside the sumptuous State Apartments are Old Master paintings, furniture, tapestries and armour. Queen Mary’s Doll’s House, one twelfth normal size, has furniture, books, paintings by contemporary artists. Visit 15th century St. George’s Chapel housing tombs of Kings and Queens, ancient stained glass and carved oak choir stalls where banners of the Knights of the Order of the Garter flutter. Windsor town has excellent shopping and cross the bridge over the river Thames to see Eton College and browse amongst antique shops.

Rates Up to 4 people £310 Up to 7 people £340
Windsor Castle
Hampton Court Palace
Up to 4 hours

One of Henry VIII’s 64 palaces. Walk through the centuries admiring Tudor and Classical architectural styles and you may sense the ghost of Queen Katharine Howard. Visit the magnificent chapel, still in daily use, wonder at the 16th century astronomical clock, or wander through gardens full of flowers and get lost in the Maze. Imagine preparing food for hundreds of people twice daily in the most complete Tudor kitchens ever.

Rates Up to 4 people £310 Up to 7 people £340
Hampton Court Palace

Full Day Tours


Windsor Castle, Eton, Hampton Court Palace
Up to 8 hours

A fine combination of royal palaces with gardens to explore and shops to visit.

Rates
Up to 4 people £440
Up to 7 people £480
Post box in Windsor Castle


Chartwell and Hever Castle
Up to 8 hours

Chartwell was the home of Sir Winston Churchill who designed the gently rolling gardens edging onto the beautiful Kent countryside. Inside, rooms are kept as he would have known them with his many paintings and memorabilia of his life. Nearby is moated Hever Castle, where Henry VIII courted Anne Boleyn. Cross the drawbridge to see interiors restored by William Waldorf Astor, who also laid out Tudor and Italianate gardens. Lose yourself in the hedge maze or dodge about in the water maze.

Rates
Up to 4 people £440
Up to 7 people £480
Chartwell

Cambridge and Ely
Up to 9 hours

Cambridge, one of England’s most prestigious universities, dates from the 13th century. Walk along the Backs, next to the river Cam for one of the best views of Mediaeval to modern architecture of the colleges, or meander through medieval streets, browse in shops and bars like world-renowned scholars have done for centuries and cutting edge scientists do today. A short drive through picturesque countryside to Ely and its Mediaeval Cathedral. The interior is lit by an octagonal lantern tower and the Lady Chapel has the widest Mediaeval vault in England.

Rates
Up to 4 people £540
Up to 7 people £580
Kings College, Cambridge

Kent and Sussex Gardens
Up to 9 hours

Almo
st spoilt for choice, start with Vita Sackville-West’s Sissinghurst garden built on Tudor castle foundations and divided into “rooms”. Continue through rolling Kent countryside to Great Dixter medieval house and garden, the lifetime’s work of garden designer Christopher Lloyd. Chartwell or Hever Castle make excellent substitutes.

Rates
Up to 4 people £515
Up to 7 people £555
Sissinghurst Gardens

Canterbury, Leeds Castle and Dover
Up to 9 hours

Canterbury Cathedral, the Cradle of Christianity for 900 years, houses the Shrine of St. Thomas Becket, stunning 14th-20th century stained glass windows and varied architectural styles. Nearby Dover Castle on the coast, a 13th century stronghold against invaders, has secret Mediaeval tunnels used during World War II as a hospital and during the Cold War as the nerve centre against nuclear attack. Leeds Castle surrounded by a moat, originally a fortress 800 years ago, has chic early 20th century decorated interiors. Visit the Dog Collar Museum, aviary, maze and Culpepper’s garden.

Rates
Up to 4 people £540
Up to 7 people £580
Canterbury Cathedral

Brighton and Arundel Castle
Up to 9 hours

Prince Regent, later George IV, changed Brighton for ever from a small fishing village to a fashionable seaside resort with his onion domed Pavilion, sumptuously furnished in Chinoiserie and Indian styles. Browse among ‘the Lanes’, once the haunt of thieves, now a maze of antique shops, cafes and restaurants. A few miles away is Arundel Castle, home of the Dukes of Norfolk. Reassuringly solid, its medieval, turreted walls protect a lavishly refurbished interior. Souvenirs of Mary Queen of Scots are side by side with Van Dycks and other Old Master paintings. Arundel town has excellent antique shops.

Rates
Up to 4 people £515
Up to 7 people £555
Royal Pavilion, Brighton

Oxford and Blenheim Palace
Up to 9 hours

That sweet city with her dreaming spires’ - Oxford is dominated by its historic university buildings, bustling with today’s students, inextricably linked with the great men and women who were educated here and have influenced all walks of life. You can visit Christ Church, Oxford’s largest College founded by Henry VIII, which incorporates the Cathedral, or one of the other Colleges. Nearby is Blenheim, home of the Dukes of Marlborough. This splendid palace was given to the first Duke by a grateful nation after a resounding victory at Blenheim in 1704. Designed by Vanburgh under the watchful eye of the first duchess, friend of Queen Anne, it is set in imposing grounds. Birthplace of Sir Winston Churchill, he is buried at nearby Bladon.

Rates
Up to 4 people £515
Up to 7 people £555
Christ Church, Oxford.

The Cotswolds
Up to 9 hours

Count
ryside of unbelievable beauty with sleepy villages, such as Great Tew or Lower Slaughter, charming little market towns, like Stow-on-the-Wold and Chipping Camden, splendid churches and graceful manor houses, built and embellished by mediaeval cloth traders, this is quintessential England, which the modern world passed by. The area has many fine antique shops.

Rates
Up to 4 people £570
Up to 7 people £610
Castle Combe in the Cotswolds

Cotswolds, Stratford and Warwick
Up to 10 hours

Travel through the countryside taking in some of the places described above, but also go to Stratford upon Avon, the birthplace of William Shakespeare. Claimed to be the greatest playwright in the English language, see the house where he was born, the church where he was buried and many other places associated with his family. The prestigious Royal Shakespeare Company performs regularly at the theatre. Then on to fantastic Warwick Castle with its battlements, instruments of torture, ghosts, towers and turrets. It has excellent exhibitions, which show how life within its walls would have been, for the nobility and for the servants.

Rates
Up to 4 people £600
Up to 7 people £640
Anne Hathaway's Cottage

Stonehenge and Bath
Up to 10 hours

For over 5000 years there has been evidence of man’s activity around Stonehenge in this remote part of Wiltshire – How? Why? This stone Circle fascinates and mystifies – let us take you there and explain the whys and wherefores of this World Heritage Site. Continue to Bath, and visit the 2000-year-old Roman Baths, still filled by gushing hot springs, at a constant 46.5 degrees centigrade. Admire the fifteenth century abbey, and glorious Georgian crescents built in the eighteenth century of mellow stone, sample a Bath bun and the hot water in the Pump Room.


Rates
Up to 4 people £600
Up to 7 people £640
Roman Baths and Bath Abbey

Touring Suggestions - London
Touring Suggestions - Other Areas


The Driver-Guides Association is the National Professional Assocation for Blue Badge Driver-Guides
With members in London and throughout the United Kingdom

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Site by Peter Jamieson