Tour Code

Arrive London

Depart London

SPA

Your choice

Your choice

Price for groups on application

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TENTATIVE ITINERARY

NIGHTSTOP

Day One - Sunday

You arrive in London where you're met by your Back-Roads Touring Co. Ltd guide, and are transferred to our hotel base. Today you'll be free to explore the pretty neighbourhood in which our hotel is situated.

Day Two - Monday

We depart early for England's west country, and Bath, perhaps our best-known spa town. From Celtic times people have been coming here to take the restorative waters. The Romans built their baths here (you'll see the pump room) and then in the 18th century Bath was rediscovered by the Georgian elite and the city took on its current elegance.

A highlight of our afternoon will be actually taking the waters here in the fabulous new spa centre.

Day Three - Tuesday

Leaving Bath, we cross the Severn Bridge to Wales and this morning experience one of the most scenic drives in the UK. We follow the Wye Valley to Monmouth, thence across the Brecon Beacon mountain range to Llandridnod Wells in central Wales.

This is a pretty, traditional market town that suddenly rose to prominence in the mid 1800s with the establishment of the old medicinal baths and treatment rooms. We'll spend the afternoon here exploring the town at leisure and taking the opportunity of drinking the fresh saline waters from one of the town's four springs.

Day Four - Wednesday

Another splendid scenic drive awaits this morning as we turn east, driving through the border regions of Powys, Herefordshire and Worcester. This area is famed for its black-and-white cottage villages.

By lunch we'll be in Malvern, often described as one of the loveliest resorts in England. It is source of the famous Malvern Water, first bottled in 1622 but appreciated long before this date. In the 19th century both Charles Dickens and Florence Nightingale took the Malvern 'cold water cure'.

Day Five - Thursday

We'll stay here a day to relax and enjoy the town. You'll have a choice of walking miles of footpaths, many incorporating the sixty springs and fountains to be found around the hills, or join your guide in a day tour through the Cotswolds to Cheltenham Spa.

Cheltenham was another town made fashionable by George III in the 18th century. In addition to trying the waters here, we'll also be enjoying the town's colourful parks and gardens, its Regency architecture and the shopping. There are some fine museums here too, for those who might like to explore the town's history.

The northern honey-coloured villages of the Cotswolds will also delight and we'll perhaps have time to visit Snowshill Manor or Sudley Castle.

Day Six - Friday

Our first call this morning will be at the city of Worcester. Dominated by a stunning cathedral, this city on the river Severn is also home to the Royal Worcester Pottery and a fine English Civil War Museum.

Our afternoon will be spent in the Midland spa town of Droitwich. This is a unique brine spa. Here we'll not be drinking the waters but enjoying an incomparable bathing experience. Imagine the pleasure of floating, perfectly relaxed in a warm pool of natural salt water, no intrusions, no pressures, simply weighlessness and warmth. The salt content makes this water ten times stronger than sea water and is only rivalled by the Dead Sea!

Day Seven - Saturday

The Heart of England is the focus of day's explorations. Mediaeval Warwick, Kennilworth castle and the elegant town Royal Leamington Spa will all be visited.

Leamington was Queen Victoria's favourite town and Nathaniel Hawthorn writer of 'The Scarlet Letter' lived here. We'll enjoy the magnificent Jephson Gardens at the heart of the town and also visit the historic Pump and Assembly rooms.

Day Eight - Sunday

Two spa towns today set in breathtaking beauty of the Peaks District. First Buxton. The Romans, who discovered the curative waters, called the town 'Aquae Arnemetiae', meaning 'the Spa of the Goddess of the Grove', and over succeeding centuries this has been a popular inland resort.

At Matlock Bath, set in the spectacular Derbyshire Dales, visitors can still 'take the waters' from an ornate Victorian pump, and bath in natural spring spa pools. There's a promenade, the Derwent gardens and even a cable car to the surrounding peaks.

The poet, Lord Byron, called the area 'Little Switzerland'.

This is a super day is our evening which offers either an optional musical performance at the theatre or Opera House, or a stroll along the riverbanks to see the illuminations.

Day Nine - Monday

Travelling along the Pennines, backbone of England, we continue north through the Peaks to the Yorkshire Dales and ultimately to the town of Harrowgate, nothern England's most elegant town. It was as long ago as 1571 that the magical restorative waters of the Harrowgate Trewit Well were first discovered. You'll visit the Royal Pump Room Museum which houses the original sulphur well, the Valley Gardens and the Spa Promenade room. If there's a show on at the Victorian theatre then that will provide for or optional evening's entertainment.

Harrowgate also provide the opportunity of experiencing an original, functioning Victorian Turkish bath!

Day Ten - Tuesday

We'll enjoy a day's general touring today. The Yorkshire Dales region offers a great variety of sightseeing opportunities including the ancient romantic ruins of monastaries dissolved in the time of Henry VIII, castles and fortified towns from the years spanning the Wars of the Roses. There are historic stately homes, quaint villages and towns with bustling markets and the stunning Yorkshire dales scenery. Our exact touring schedule can be decided upon according to weather, local festivals and group interests.

Of course, you may simply elect to spend a day of 'organised independence' in Harrowgate itself and pamper yourself at the spa.

Day Eleven - Wednesday

Lincolnshire is a little-visited county of England, yet the Lincolnshire 'wolds' are a designated 'area of outstanding natural beauty' and the city of Lincoln itself, with its magnificent gothic cathedral, is one of England's finest mediaeval cities.

You'll have an opportunity to judge what others are missing for yourself as we head for our last great spa - Woodhall Spa. In many ways, this is the most intriguing of all our visits. It's a village rather than a town, whose waters, containing more sodium, calcium, bromine and iodine, than any other in the UK, were discovered by accident when a coal-mining shaft was sunk here in 1811.

Though the spa itself is no longer operational, the village offers some very interesting and unusual attractions including the Victorian 'Kimema in the Woods', a memorial to the men of the famed WW2 'Dambusters' of the RAF bombing squadron and some truly delightful craft shops and tea rooms.

Day Twelve - Thursday

Alas, our last day, and we motor south towards London. In keeping with our overall theme of enjoying some of the UK's less-known natural attractions, we'll spend our morning discovering the 'fens'. This flat land, covered by drainage ditches and dykes, was virtually completely flooded until the 17th century. Many of the villages we'll visit were effectively islands in the middle of a great marsh. Today, it reminds one of Holland, complete with windmills and flower-filled fields.

Also on today's itinerary will be visiting the lovely Georgian town of Stamford and Burghley Stately Home.

Day Thirteen - Friday

Home time, unless extending your stay. You'll be transferred to your airport of departure. There's one thing, however, we can guarantee. After taking the medicinal waters of England, having relaxed in Turkish baths and spas, having floated in pure salt waters, having pampered and spoilt yourself with a variety of treatments, and having enjoyed the serene of the English countryside, you'll be going home in a finer condition than when you arrived!

© As we publish full tour descriptions, you may find others offering our unique itineraries.  But, just as you find when others sing the songs of Paul McCartney, they're often not quite as good as when sung by the original composer!