London takes three days. England takes the rest of the fortnight.
Which Stonehenge coach stops in Bath and which one drives past it. What a black cab costs against the open-top bus. Whether the studio tour is worth a whole day off the itinerary. Reviews of every tour you can book in England.
Four bookings a first trip to England hangs off.
The stones and the Georgian crescent in one long day, the Crown Jewels before the queue thickens, four hundred years of pub, and the Beatles in the city that made them.
01The big day outStonehenge, Windsor Castle, and Bath from LondonStonehenge, Windsor and Bath in one coach day. Long, and the only way to get all three without a hire car.
02The first morningTower of London and Crown Jewels Exhibition TicketThe Crown Jewels and the White Tower on a timed ticket. Take the earliest slot: by eleven the jewels are viewed from a moving walkway.
03The eveningLondon Small Group Tour of Historical PubsFour old London pubs in a small group, with the history of each one poured alongside it.
04The northern dayBeatles Magical Mystery TourPenny Lane, Strawberry Field and both childhood homes, on the bus that does the whole Beatles round.
England is a walking country with the weather to prove it.
Cities here were laid out for feet and are hostile to everything else. Four kinds of walk, what each costs to join, and the hour of the day it belongs to.
London on footWestminster, the City and the bits between them.
After darkWhitechapel lanes, gas-lamp light, a body at every corner.
Film locationsAlleys that stood in for Diagon Alley, plus the studio run.
At your own paceA route on your phone, no group, start when you like.
All 108 walks in England →
★★★★★★★★★★ 5.0 · Tour for Muggles The Ultimate Harry Potter Walking Tour in London
The coach leaves at eight and England starts an hour later.
Chalk downs, a stone circle older than the pyramids, a Georgian spa town and two university cities, all inside a return day from Victoria. The three below carry more travellers than anything else outside the capital.
Six English cities worth unpacking in.
A capital that needs three days on its own, two university towns an hour apart, Roman water under Georgian stone, city walls you can walk the whole way round, and the docks that sent the Beatles out.
The days out England books before anything else.
Every English tour we have reviewed →More travellers take these than any other booking in the country, and each one earns the slot for a different reason.
1
Stonehenge, Windsor Castle, and Bath from London
See Windsor Castle, Stonehenge, and Bath in one long London day, with coach travel, expert commentary, and optional admissions.
From · $111
Read our review →
2
London Big Bus Hop-On Hop-Off Tour with Optional River Cruise
from $39
3
London Small Group Tour of Historical Pubs
from $40
4
Beatles Magical Mystery Tour
from $30
5
“Blue Route” – City & Beatles Tour
from $27
6
Stonehenge, Windsor Castle and Bath with Pub Lunch in Lacock
from $123
7
Oxford University Walking Tour With University Alumni Guide
from $41
8
Tower of London and Crown Jewels Exhibition Ticket
from $49
Three things that only happen in England.
Guided walks and old buildings turn up everywhere. A flat-bottomed boat punted down a college river, a household cavalry changeover on a timetable, and a Merseyside bus tour of four childhood addresses do not.
Punting the college rivers
A punt is a flat-bottomed boat pushed along with a pole off the riverbed, and both university cities have been doing it for a century. In Cambridge you go down the Backs, under the Mathematical Bridge and past the lawns of King’s and Trinity. Oxford punts from Magdalen Bridge instead. Chauffeured trips come with a student doing the pushing and the talking; hire it yourself and you will spend the first ten minutes going sideways.
- 1Punting Tour in Cambridge★★★★★★★★★★ 4.5 · 1,690 reviews
- 2Guided River Cam Punting Tour★★★★★★★★★★ 4.7 · 1,469 reviews
- 3Shared Guided Punting Tour of Cambridge★★★★★★★★★★ 5.0 · 787 reviews
Watching the Guard change
The King’s Guard hands over in the palace forecourt with a band, and it is free to watch. The catch is the calendar: the ceremony does not run every day, the schedule changes with the season and heavy rain can cancel it outright. Guided groups earn their fee by getting you to a spot on the Victoria Memorial or the railings an hour early, and by explaining what is happening while it happens.
- 1Changing of the Guard Guided Walking Tour in London★★★★★★★★★★ 5.0 · 1,793 reviews
- 2Buckingham Palace Entrance Ticket & Changing of the Guard Tour★★★★★★★★★★ 4.0 · 1,720 reviews
- 3Changing of the Guard Guided Tour at Buckingham Palace★★★★★★★★★★ 4.5 · 941 reviews
The Beatles, at the addresses
Liverpool sells the only Beatles tour that visits the actual places: Penny Lane, the Strawberry Field gates, the barber shop, and the two small terraced houses where the songs were written. The Magical Mystery bus does the full round in two hours and finishes at the Cavern Club. It is the one music pilgrimage in England where the geography is genuinely the point.
- 1Beatles Magical Mystery Tour★★★★★★★★★★ 5.0 · 9,266 reviews
- 2“Blue Route” – City & Beatles Tour★★★★★★★★★★ 5.0 · 8,562 reviews
- 3Liverpool City Sights Hop On Hop Off City Tour – 24hr Ticket★★★★★★★★★★ 4.5 · 2,555 reviews
What a day out in England actually costs.
Every tour on the site, grouped by price. Plenty of the best English days come in under the cost of a theatre ticket.
Walking tours, pub crawls, cathedral entry, the hop-on bus and most river boats.
The full-day coach runs west, the studio tour with transport, guided castles and cruise-port days.
Private drivers, black-cab days built around your own list, and the tours that take the whole family.
Four English bookings that will not wait until you land.
Most of this country can be sorted from a pub table the night before. These four run on timed slots, printed calendars and a ceremony that takes no interest in your itinerary.
- 01Harry Potter Warner Bros. Studio Tour with Transport from LondonThe studio tour sells only pre-booked timed tickets and busy dates go weeks out. There is no turning up on the day.
- 02Tower of London and Crown Jewels Exhibition TicketEntry is a timed slot and the Jewel House puts you on a moving walkway once it fills. The first slot of the day is the one worth having.
- 03Stonehenge, Windsor Castle, and Bath from LondonThe stones are ticketed by half-hour slot and the car park fills in summer. Coach days from London hold their own allocation, which is why they sell out first.
- 04Changing of the Guard Guided Walking Tour in LondonThe handover does not happen every day and the schedule shifts through the year. Check the date before you build a morning around it.
It will rain. England has spent centuries arranging things indoors.
Two days in three bring some rain somewhere in England, and from November the light is gone by four. Neither ruins a trip here. The country keeps its best rooms under a roof: galleries with no entry charge, a theatre district you can walk between in the wet, a proper tea, and a cab with a driver who talks.
Heathrow to your hotel is the first English hour you will remember.
The Piccadilly line takes an hour with a suitcase on your knees. A fixed-price car meets the flight and tracks the delay. Cruise passengers have the same problem in reverse, eighty miles down the M3 to Southampton.
By place, capital to coast
By kind of day, stones to stage door
London, the stones, the colleges, the north: the run most people do first.
The newest English tour reviews.
The other new arrivals →
Time Traveller’s Walking Tour of York – Morning Tour
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Warner Bros. Studio Tour London The Making of Harry Potter with return transfers
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Epic 60 Minute Free-Roam Virtual Reality Experience at Navrtar
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London Afternoon Tea Bus and Panoramic Tour on Lower Deck
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2-Hour Jack the Ripper Small Group Walking Tour in London
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Bombay Sapphire Gin Cocktail Masterclass and Tour
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Ultimate Full-Day Lake District Tour: 10 Lakes, Amazing Scenery & Lake Cruise
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Old Royal Naval College – home to the Painted Hall, Greenwich
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