gail

Considering trip with my 14 year old daughter, my healthy and very well-traveled 75 year old mother and me. Limited to 1 week April school vacation. Grandmother wants the certainty of packaged tour (Globus, Cosmos, etc.) and I think we could certainly do this on our own. Anyone know of any compromise positions - like part tour/part on our own? Thanks.

astein12

How about avoiding the package but using commericial day trips on some of the days (London Walks, minibus tour to Stonehenge, etc)?

mclaurie

Would help to know what sort of "certainty" she's looking for and how well travelled she is. Has she been to London before? Have you? Has she ever done a non tour trip? Is she worried about finding your way around? Seeing all the sights? Getting the best deal? Maybe worried about disagreements on "what to do today" and thinks a tour will solve that problem?

Bottom line, I think there are actually very few tours of just London now. Because of no language barrier and ease of getting around etc., you may find tours that include other cities in England/UK, but would be surprised to find a London only "tour" per se.


If there is a tour she wants to do, I'd put together a "tour" of your own (ie you pick airline, hotel, day trips etc.) and hopefully it will be better. Also, I think 3 in a room is not terribly economical through a tour package.

radiofanatic

We went this past march and used GO-Today for the flight, hotel and breakfast. Then one day we took the on/off bus for London and then another we took a most AMAZING day trip to Stonehenge, Salisbury, Sacrum Castle from Astral Tours - they have many, many options in tours, only 10-15 people on a tour and they pick you up from your hotel. I would look at their website if I was you. That's my recommendation - it's a great compromise.

gail

My mother usually travels on tours - from Elderhostel to one of many tour companies. Sometimes she travels with a friend and they have done non-tour trips. When she has no traveling companion, she always goes on packaged tour - likes the companionship of having others around.

The certainty she seeks is both "what are we going to do on this day"but more the within-country travel - how to get from site A to site B. She hates asking directions and getting lost.

As far as how well traveled - mainly US (about 40 states) and most of Western Europe several times. She currently travels about 6 weeks out of the year - and is off tomorrow on trip to Memphis and Nashville.

I like the idea of researching various day trips ahead of time. I imagine if I could present her with our own "itinerary" she might accept that.

Thanks for your replies.

mclaurie

Funny, I just posted on your other thread about hotels for 3 and hadn't put 2 and 2 together that this was also your thread. So...I guess the confusion is your title says "London" but you answer by saying she doesn't like gettting lost going from a to b. Use tours for daytrips out of London if you must. Getting around in London is pretty straightforward. Here's the URL for the tube map

http://www.tfl.gov.uk/tfl/pdfdocs/colormap.pdf

People like staying near a tube station that has several (2-3) lines. Staying near the South Kensington and Gloucester Road stops is popular.

taggie

In one week in London you won't have too much time for outside trips.
I've just spent 10 days there - 1 day we went to Sissinghurst via train. Another day we went to the Cotswolds on a London Walks excursion day. I highly recommend London Walks - in this case we took a train, were met by a coach in the area, and we saw a lot, much more than I've seen in past packaged day trips. The walking part was not too strenuous so if your mother is in good shape I'd bet that she'd be fine on many of their choices.
I checked out what they offered on www.walks.com and also sent them quite a few emails to get specific details on the walks I was interested in. The info I got was right on the money and they gave lots of advice.

FainaAgain

Use a little trick. There are "tour" companies which make plane/hotel reservations, and for the daytime activities you are on your own. And your mom doesn't have to know the details, just the dates and the "tour" company name.

I don't think your daughter at her age will be happy on an escorted tour.

suze

I think an air/hotel package deal, if you then added a few 1/2-day organized or formal tours of some sort would be a good compromise.

Flyboy

A packaged tour doesn't seem to match up with the needs and desires of two thirds of the group. It could also be a more costly way to go, if you're paying for services that you and your daughter don't want to begin with. You are absolutely right about being able to do this on your own and I think it would be a more enjoyable experience.