Back-Roads Touring Co. Ltd's traditionally strong links with the world of UK education, and our 18 years experience of handling a wide range of student groups from across the globe, enable us to offer a valuable learning service to student groups and their teachers.

These tours are designed for groups accompanied by their teachers and professors but are run with the assistance of one of Back-Roads Touring Co's own university educated guides (many being retired professors and teachers themselves).

The tours you'll find summarised below are designed to complement the school or college curriculum. The objective is to provide participants with memorable experiences that combine learning with fun. The itineraries are designed to stimulate, excite and motivate the student in the relevant subject area. Further, each itinerary includes an optional visit to a major UK university allowing the tour participant both the opportunity of seeing UK education practice at first hand, and also to be able to better consider whether overseas education might be an option for them personally (at either graduate or postgraduate level).

All of these itineraries may be amended and adapted to the specific needs of the syllabus. The itineraries are presumed to be 8 days/7 nights in length but can be lengthened/shortened should this be required.

Upgraded 2 star hotel accommodation is available on request.

European continental breakfasts (bread, coffee/tea, cereals) and dinners are provided. Lunch is not included. Eastern vegetarian meals may be arranged for groups from the Indian sub-continent, or Chinese-style meals for groups from the Far East.

Typical tour inclusions:

Prehistoric temples and circles (Stonehenge & Avebury), castles and fortresses (from Iron Age fortresses and 12th century Norman castles to 18th century coastal fortifications), cathedrals and churches, stately homes, palaces and the great State buildings of the classical period of neo-classicism, Victorian industrial architecture, the art noveaux period (including the restored Eltham Palace), and British architecture of the late 20th and 21st centuries (e.g. the Lloyds building, London's Docklands etc.).

The work of the following architects will, amongst others, be included: Inigo Jones, Christopher Wren, Hawksmore, Vanburgh, Adams, Sir Charles Barry, Burton, Butterfield, Sir Edwin Lutyens and C.F.A.Voysey, as well as prominent contemporaries such as Norman Foster and Richard Rogers.

The tour includes a visit to the Royal Institute of British Architects to see the world's largest library of architecture with 2,000 journals, 135,000 books, 800,000 photographs and over a million historic drawings, manuscripts and portraits.

Indicative cost (based on 15 paying participants and one free): US$465 per person.

Typical tour inclusions:

While in, or from London: gallery visits and guided tours to those selected as appropriate to the study area of interest from general collections to the specific; interest (from Old Masters, through Impressionists to the cutting-edge modern). Galleries possible include the National Gallery, Tate Modern, Turner at the Tate, the Wallace Collection, Apsley House, Courtaulds Institute, the Royal Academy of Art, the Victoria & Albert, the Queen's collection at Buckingham Palace and other smaller, less well-known ones.

Also included are day tours to Oxford to see the Christchurch College university collection, and to nearby Blenheim Palace. Also included are tours to Windsor Castle (the Queens collection), and to Wilton House (a Stately Home) in Salisbury.

There will be visits to historic artists home and studios according to the group interest which can include Gainsborough, Stanley Spencer, Turner, Alfred Munning, Winston Churchill, William Morris (arts & crafts movement) and Vanessa Bell (Bloomsbury Group).

The tour also includes an opportunity for students to paint a famous site or recreate a famed picture at the original site, and to visit a well-known UK art college for the day (including a lecture or lesson).

Indicative cost (based on 15 paying participants and one free): US$525 per person.

Typical tour inclusions:

Visits to museums and sites associated with famed designers such as William Morris, the Bath costume museum, Norwich costume and textile study centre, or Manchester costume museum, the Victoria and Albert Museum, London, London Fashion Week, if appropriate, The Design Museum, Kensington Palace to view the Royal Ceremonial dress collection (including Princess Diana's collection), the studios of a fashion design house, a visit to the offices of a fashion magazine, a day studying fashion retail with visits to retail ranging from exclusive outlets, through high-street multiples to street markets. Visit to an UK fashion college such as the Kent Institute of Art & Design (and Zandra Rhodes Gallery), Birmingham or Manchester colleges.

The tour is based in London with day tours out to relevant sites when not touring in London, or alternative itinerary available as a tour starting in Manchester and finishing in London (open-jaw ticketing required).

Indicative cost (based on 15 paying participants and one free): US$475 per person.

Typical tour inclusions:

London's museums housing notable connections (Victoria & Albert, Wallace collection, British Museum) from ancient art forms to the more recent. Also included, the London Silver Vaults, the Hatton Garden retail area. There will be visits to contemporary galleries and workshops. Subject to the time of year the tour is taken, the following may also be included: jewellery auctions or viewing at the top auction houses, end-of-year exhibitions of student works, and a major sale at Goldsmith Hall. Excellent lectures offered at the V&A on jewellery making & design.

The tour also includes a visit to Oxford's Ashmolean's museum to view the famed Saxon 'Alfred's Jewel' (and other Oxford sites including the university).

Also included, Birmingham's historic jewellery quarter, unique in Europe. The Quarter is home to a huge number of jewellery businesses operating in historic surroundings, which date back over 250 years. Today's Jewellery Quarter is home to over 500 businesses involved in the jewellery trade.

The opportunity will be taken of including a visit or talk (when available) from a British/Indian designer.

A half-day will be spent visiting an UK College specialising in contemporary jewellery design.

Indicative cost (based on 15 paying participants and one free): US$485 per person.

Typical tour inclusions:

In London, Charles Dickens house and book locations (also Rochester), Shakespeare's Globe Theatre, Keat's House, Alexander Pope's grave and suburb of Twickenham, Poet's Corner, Westminster Abbey, British Library, John Milton's Cottage, Thomas Grey's monument and 'Elegy' churchyard.

Day tour to Oxford to follow the Alice in Wonderland trail and visit to Christchurch University College. Day tour to Hampshire, touring Jane Austen country and her house museum, and then to her tomb and memorial in Winchester Cathedral.

From our Stratford base, Shakespeare sites in Stratford upon Avon, and to Nottingham for D H Lawrence house and museum and Lord Byron's stately home.

Indicative cost (based on 15 paying participants and one free): US$475 per person.

Typical tour inclusions:

Prehistoric England (Stonehenge and Avebury), Celtic Wales, Roman Britain (Bath & South Wales), Saxon Britain (Oxford and Cotswolds), Norman Britain (Chepstow and accommodation in a castle), Tudor England, Industrial Revolution (Iron Bridge), Victorian Britain and the legacy of the British Empire. The London portion will feature a range of iconic historic attractions covering all periods of UK history with visits to, for example, the Tower of London, Parliament, the British Museum, Imperial War Museum, maritime Greenwich, and Hampton Court Palace.

* Two day extension is available to cover the World War One battle-sites of Northern France and Belgium and view battles and memorials involving Indian and other Commonwealth combatants. For visiting USA students the D Day Beaches or Normandy can be added.

Indicative cost (based on 15 paying participants and one free): US$485 per person.

Typical tour inclusions:

In and from London, National History and National Geology Museums, Thames River exploration, Kent Weald (Chalk Downs).

From Bournemouth, Britain's Jurassic Park and Lulworth Cove (the best example in Europe of the interaction of marine erosion on an alternating sequence of hard and soft rocks. For this reason alone, it is visited by more school children and students than any other locality in Britain. The rocks form an unbroken sequence from Jurassic limestones to the Cretaceous Chalk, exposed in cliffs up to 150 metres high. They provide a continuous record of about 80 million years of the Earth's past geography and climates.
http://www.bgs.ac.uk/education/holidayguides/lulworth/LUL1/Lul1.htm

In South Wales, visits include Bath and bath-stone quarry, coal mine tour, Brecon Becons (Cambrian mountain range) and heritage coastline.

Indicative cost (based on 15 paying participants and one free): US$465 per person.

Typical tour inclusions:

Tours of City of London institutions including the Stock Exchange, Metals Exchange, Bank of England, Lloyds of London, Bramah Museum of Tea and Coffee as an industry case study. Visits to examine UK retailing environment from supermarkets (including on-line shopping developments) and local manufacturing plants. Includes lecture on marketing and visit to a historic London tourist attraction (eg. Hampton Court Palace or Tower of London).

Out of London visit to The Museum of Advertising and Packaging in Gloucester during a day in the Cotswolds.

The week also includes special lectures (relevant to the area of study) at major London universities and at selected management consultancies and/or advertising agencies.

Indicative cost (based on 15 paying participants and one free): US$455 per person.

Typical tour inclusions:

This tour visits a number of different attractions and regions that have associations with Britain's musical traditions and offers a novel way of seeing the country and its musical heritage. While in and from London, historic musical instruments collections in the British Museum and St Bartholomew's, Handle's house, a tour of London's Beatle-related and rock music related sites (Abbey Road, Paul McCartney's, Jimi Hendrix and Elton John's houses etc.) a selection of concerts and performances according to interest (from Opera to West End Musical, from classical concerts to 'pop' concerts).

Other inclusions are Oxford University instruments collection, a collection housed in a Stately Home, the museum homes for Gustav Holst (in the Cotswolds) and Edward Elgar (on the Wales borders), great cathedral organs and mechanical musical instrument collections.

Musical entertainment out of London includes hearing a Welsh Male Voice Choir, attending a traditional evening folk club, hearing a military band, attending a cathedral choir concert, seeing country Morris Dancers and other performances as available at the time the tour is planned.

The tour also includes a visit to one of London's top musical colleges and for visting choirs we can arrange perfomances in atmospheric settings including cathedrals, churches and historic buildings such as an Oxford College chapel or castle grounds.

Indicative cost (based on 15 paying participants and one free): US$525 per person (includes evening concert performances).

Typical tour inclusions:

While in and around London, the Wellcome Library for the History and Understanding of Medicine, Hunterian Museum of the Royal College of Surgeons, the Imperial War Museum for war time medicine, St Bartholomews Hospital, the Old Operating Theatre Museum, Chelsea Royal Hospital, the British Museum.

While touring out of London, The Edward Jenner Museum (pioneer of vaccination), the Oxford Museum of Science (early medical instrumentation), Claydon House (Florence Nightingale collection), Army Medical Service Museum, the laboratory of the experimental scientist, Joseph Priestley, at Bowood House. It was here on 1st August 1774 that Priestley isolated the gas subsequently recognised as oxygen. Gonville & Caius College at Cambridge University and Adenbrook's hospital.

The tour also includes a visit to a modern hospital trust, nursing college and lecture on the UK National Health Service.

Indicative cost (based on 15 paying participants and one free): US$495 per person.

Typical tour inclusions:

In London, Globe Theatre visit and acting workshop, backstage tours of prominent theatres, the Theatre Museum, Covent Garden street performers, visit to the recording of a BBC TV show or radio production (as available). Visit to a local youth theatre group.

Theatre performances are booked according to budget but West End musical, drama and/or comedy are all available. Visit to fringe theatre and Victorian Music Hall style.

In Stratford, Shakespeare sites and performance at the Royal Shakespeare Theatre.

In addition, a unique opportunity exists for tour participants to perform in front of a live audience while in the UK. Back-Roads Touring Co. arranges venue and promotion (past venues include cathedrals, ancient churches, hospitals and historic local theatres). The incoming group notify us of their repertoire (please note, sets will be limited in scope and costumes have to be brought by the group themselves).

Indicative cost (based on 15 paying participants and one free): US$485 per person (inc. one theatre performance at Stratford and one in London).

Typical tour inclusions:

Manchester United Old Trafford, 'Theatre of Dreams' Museum, Lancashire Cricket Club museum, Liverpool FC. In London, Arsenal FC Museum, FA Museum, Lords Cricket (MCC) Museum, Wimbledon Lawn Tennis Museum, and Tudor Tennis Courts at Hampton Court Palace, Henley Rowing Museum, Twickenham Stadium visit and Rugby Museum.

UK Sports and Leisure Management College at Leicester and Sports Academy. We also visit a famous health club and gym chain, and the group receive a lecture on the sports/leisure industry in the UK.

Matches and games against local UK schools and colleges can be arranged. Tours dedicated to a single sports theme are also possible.

Indicative cost (based on 15 paying participants and one free): US$465 per person.