kent, the invaders gateway to england tour

KENT
ENGLAND'S OLDEST COUNTY
Includes sites connected with the commemoration of Jamestown, Virginia’s 400th Anniversary
3 days / 2 nights - Sunday to Tuesday

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For what is included/excluded in your tour price, see Tour Inclusions
Contact res@backroadstouring.co.uk, fax 00 44 20 8566 5457

What your tour price includes

Your accommodation for 2 nights while on the tour is included in your tour price, and this includes 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.

This tour departs EVERY SUNDAY 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)

Clients should wait by the concierge desk.
We can collect you from your individual hotel if you are not at one above but this attracts a supplementary cost of £25 (per party) for a central London hotel. Please, ask for prices for collection from non centrally located hotels. info@backroadstouring.co.uk
Return drop-offs are to any central London hotel mentioned above.

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.