London, Hampshire, Oxford, Warwickshire, Yorkshire
August 19th – 26th 2020
From the regal grandeur of London’s palaces, churches and gardens, to the idyllic atmosphere of rural Yorkshire, join us on an awe-inspiring tour of the history, arts and culture of England.
We invite you to explore the charming neighbourhoods of Great Britain’s capital, following a carefully designed itinerary that promises to educate and enchant seasoned explorers or first-time visitors. We visit some of the must-see attractions, and follow our personal tour guide as they bring you to some of the favourite sites of local Londoners. Furthermore, we embark on a fascinating circuit of England, travelling through four counties that were the homes of England’s most influential authors and poets. The 100% kosher tour and careful selection of the very best hotels permits you to travel comfortably and confidently, and your personal guide is available at all times to make your trip absolutely enjoyable.
England welcomes you – discover it with Deluxe Kosher Tours.
Itinerary
Day 1, Wednesday August 19th
We depart on our overnight flight to the capital city, London. Enjoy kosher meals and in-flight entertainment during your journey, or read some of our suggested books about England (see below).
Day 2, Thursday August 20th London
Meet and greet, Orientation, Globe Theatre, Charles Dickens Museum, Madame Tussauds,
Regents Park, Speaker’s Corner, Buckingham Palace, Westminster Abbey,
Globe Theatre Performance
Upon arrival in London Heathrow Airport we are welcomed to Great Britain by our carefully selected personal Deluxe Kosher Tours tour director. They will bring us to our hotel, the London Holiday Inn Express, and offer an introduction to England and London. We begin with a circuit of some of the enduring highlights and off-the-map charms of London’s centre. The energy, diversity and unique charm of London is undeniable, as we discover with a tour of Shakespeare’s Globe Theatre. Here we learn more about the world-famous playwright and life in 16th century London. Afterwards we cross the River Thames and make our way to the Charles Dickens Museum, and excellent institution that holds over 100,000 Dickens-related items including manuscripts, rare editions, personal items, and paintings.
Afterwards we set off to discover Madame Tussauds, where you can get up close to many famous faces, including One Direction, Prince, Obama, the Royal Family, Jack Sparrow, and many more. If there is time we will see the statue of Peter Pan in Regents Park before making our way down to Westminster, passing the famous Speaker’s Corner of Hyde Park, the most famous location for free speech in the world. We view the magnificent Buckingham Palace in St. James’ Park before returning over the Thames to the Globe Theatre for an evening performance.
Day 3, Friday August 21st Hampshire
Charles Dickens’ Birthplace Museum, Mary Rose Museum, Gilbert White’s House, Jane Austen House Museum, Winchester Cathedral
Early in the morning we set off for our tour of Hampshire – the land of Austen, Dickens, Trollope, Keats and Conan Doyle. We drive along the south coast to our first destination, Portsmouth, where we visit the Charles Dickens’ Birthplace Museum. We visit the overwhelming Mary Rose Museum, where we can view the Tudor ship of the 16th century recovered by archaeologists and conserved in its entirety.
After lunch we make our way to Selborne, the home of the famous 18th century naturalist Gilbert White best known for his Natural History and Antiquities of Selborne. We then drive north to Chawton, where we visit the Jane Austen House Museum, a beautiful house containing fascinating displays about the life of this seminal author. Following this we make our way to Winchester, where we can walk through the atmospheric cathedral. This cathedral is said to have inspired Keats’ ‘Ode to Autumn.’ We then transfer by bus to the legendary university town of Oxford, and check in to the Old Bank Hotel before preparing for the Shabbat.
Day 4, Shabbat August 22nd Oxford
Shabbat services, Seudat Shabbat, Christ Church, Pembroke College, Eagle & Child,
Wolvercote Cemetery, Museum of Natural History, Bodleian Library,
University Church of St Mary the Virgin, Botanic Gardens
After the Shabbat services and lunch with the local community we go on our comprehensive walking tour of Oxford. Oxford is the oldest university in the English-speaking world, and the world’s second-oldest surviving university. We learn about the famous literary figures that have come from Oxford, from the famous Inklings group (composed of JRR Tolkien, CS Lewis, and others) to Lewis Carroll and Phillip Pullman. Our tour begins at Christ Church College, where we learn about Lewis Carroll and Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland. We continue to Pembroke College, where Tolkien was a professor of Anglo-Saxon between 1925 and 1945. After viewing the pretty chapel there, we move on to the Eagle & Child pub where the Inklings group met – one can still sit in the same seats that Tolkien and Lewis once occupied! If there is enough interest the tour continues to Wolvercote Cemetery where Tolkien is buried. Otherwise, we make our way to the excellent Museum of Natural History, which contains the world’s best remains of a dodo bird – encountered by Alice during her visit to Wonderland.
Next, we make our way to Bodleian Library, full of atmosphere with antique tomes chained to sturdy wooden bookcases hidden in the semi-gloom. We go on to the beautiful University Church of St Mary the Virgin. C.S. Lewis was a tutor at the nearby Magdalen College, and we view the iconic “Narnia Door” which is said to have inspired the wardrobe door in his The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe. We finish the day with a leisurely walk through the gorgeous Botanic Gardens, a key location in Phillip Pullman’s trilogy His Dark Materials. After dinner you are free to continue exploring the sights and sounds of the local neighbourhood.
Day 5, Sunday August 23rd Warwickshire
Polesworth, Arbury Hall, Astley Book Farm, Stratford-upon-Avon, Anne Hathaway’s Cottage, Compton Verney
After breakfast we say goodbye to Oxfordshire and continue our journey to Warwickshire. Our first stop is Polesworth, a town that has over the centuries seen impressive gatherings of literati, including poets Michael Drayton, Ben Jonson, John Donne and possibly even William Shakespeare. We visit Arbury Hall on the Arbury Estate where George Eliot (born Mary Ann Evans) was born in 1819, and which heavily influenced her work. Afterwards we make our way to the nearby Astley Book Farm, one of the country’s largest second-hand bookshops and surely one of the most atmospheric. Here you have free time to explore the shop’s massive selection of books, pick out a few, and enjoy a relaxed read in the gardens.
Afterwards we continue to Stratford-upon-Avon, the hometown of William Shakespeare. We visit the Shakespeare Houses and the headquarters of the Royal Shakespeare Company, where we can learn more about the playwright’s life and the vibrant culture of Shakespeare appreciation that still exists today. Our next stop is Anne Hathaway’s thatched cottage in nearby Shottery, where we can receive a guided tour of the home of the wife of Shakespeare. The Georgian mansion-turned gallery of Compton Verney is our next stop. We can explore the extensive collections of British art, including the UK’s largest British folk art, contained within. We continue to Birmingham where we check in to the Radisson Blu Hotel before dinner.
Day 6, Monday August 24th Yorkshire
D.H. Lawrence Birthplace Museum, Newstead Abbey, Keighley and Worth Valley railway tour, Castle Howard
We embark early for Eastwood in Yorkshire, the home of D.H. Lawrence. Here we visit the D.H. Lawrence Birthplace Museum to learn more about the author’s life and the life of Victorian coal miners’ families in the late 19th century. We continue to Newstead Abbey. Originally built in 1170 as an Augustinian priory, this became the ancestral home of the poet Lord Byron. Here we can delight in the exquisite gardens and furnishings within the house, before returning to the bus. We carry on to Haworth, the hometown of the Brontë sisters famous for Jane Eyre and Wuthering Heights. Deluxe Kosher Tours invite you on an excellent railway tour through the Keighley and Worth Valley, where we learn more about the Brontë sisters. The train was used in the film version of Edith Nesbit’s Railway Children.
Later we drive to Castle Howard, a stately home used as the setting of “Brideshead” in Granada Television’s excellent 1981 adaptation of Evelyn Waugh’s Brideshead Revisited. Here we learn more about life within the British gentry at the beginning of the last century, before the country was transformed by the World Wars. We then return to London via Cambridge if there is time, to allow us stretch our legs in this wonderful university town. In London we check in to the Holiday Inn Express before dinner.
Day 7, Tuesday August 25th London
King’s Cross Station, Rochester, Canterbury, Charing Cross Road Bookshops, Bloomsbury Gardens, Sherlock Holmes Museum, British Library
After breakfast we make our way to King’s Cross Station, where you can run through the wall of Platform 9¾ and visit the Harry Potter Shop. We continue to Rochester, a town with many associations with Charles Dickens, before carrying on to Canterbury. This was the home of Geoffrey Chaucer, the so-called “Father of English literature”, who is best known for his Canterbury Tales. We visit Canterbury Cathedral, and learn more about this acclaimed author before returning to London.
After lunch we go to Charing Cross Road, a street loved by local Londoners for its numerous fantastic bookshops. After browsing through a few, and possibly purchasing books by some of the authors we have learned about so far, we go on a leisurely walk through the gardens of Bloomsbury on our way to the Sherlock Holmes Museum. Here we learn more about Sir Arthur Conan Doyle and his legendary books. Following this we receive a guided tour of the British Library, which holds over 170 million items in its collection, including around 14 million books. You have the rest of the day free to explore London – we recommend visiting the British Museum, or if you wish to do some shopping make your way to Seven Dials in Covent Gardens.
Day 8, Wednesday August 26th
After breakfast we transfer to Heathrow Airport for our return flights home.
Suggested Films and Books
- Bleak House – Charles Dickons
- Hamlet or King Lear – William Shakespeare
- Persuasion – Jane Austen
- JRR Tolkien: A Biography or The Inklings – Humphrey Carpenter
- The Hobbit or The Lord of the Rings – JRR Tolkien
- The Lion, the Witch, and the Wardrobe – CS Lewis
- Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland – Lewis Carroll
- His Dark Materials – Philip Pullman
- Middlemarch – George Eliot
- The Rainbow – DH Lawrence
- Jane Eyre – Charlotte Brontë
- Wuthering Heights – Emily Brontë
- Brideshead Revisited – Evelyn Waugh
- Canterbury Tales – Geoffrey Chaucer
Details
COST PER PERSON
$4995 based on double occupancy (two to a room)*
Single Supplement — $ 1,295
This fantastic tour has been carefully crafted to minimise the cost of attendance. This price includes:
- Round-trip airfare from New York or Tel Aviv – call for airfare from other cities
- All transport within England
- An English-speaking, experienced tour guide/chauffeur
- Full board accommodation in deluxe hotels for entire trip
- 3 Kosher meals daily
- All admissions as per itinerary
ADDITIONAL COSTS
- Visa fees as required
- Health and Travel Insurance
- International airport fees
- Budget for extra snacks, gifts, or other expenses of a personal nature
- Any other services not specified
HOTELS
| London | Holiday Inn Express |
| Oxford | Old Bank Hotel |
| Birmingham | Radisson Blu Hotel |
ITINERARY AND HOTELS SUBJECT TO CHANGE WITHOUT NOTICE
RATES MAY BE ADJUSTED IF THERE’S A FLUCTUATION IN CURRENCY OF MORE THAN 4% FROM AUGUST 20th 2016
RATES MAY BE ADJUSTED IN THE EVENT OF AN INCREASE IN AIRLINE FUEL CHARGES
