Tour Options In The Heart Of England
Cambridge To York
Routes 1,2 and 3 on the map.
Cambridge To Oxford
Route 4 on the map.
Stratford to Oxford
Route 5 on the map.
Stratford To Bath
Route 8 on the map.
Bath to Salisbury
Route 9 on the map.
Salisbury to Bath
Route 9 on the map
Chester to Stratford
Route 10 on the map
Oxford to London
Route 6 on the map
Oxford to Salisbury
Route 7 on the map
Oxford to Stratford
Route 5 on the map
From the “Dreaming Spires” of Oxford, to the great cathedral city of York, Stratford-upon-Avon with all its Shakespearean connections to the Regency elegance of Bath, it is an area that promises a broad range of experiences for the touring motorist.
York is one of the most historically important cities in England. The Dukes of York have for many centuries been major players in Britain’s politics.
You could take our Sherwood Forest touring option, in which case you are probably chasing a myth, the legend of Robin Hood. Idolised and stylised in various movie and tv productions, he has now acquired a patina of respectability. He robbed the rich to give to the poor . . . right? Probably because there’s no point in robbing the poor.
In the region around Oxford there aren’t great Norman or mediaeval castles – mainly because it was so far inland it was considered safe from marauding invaders and other rabble rousers – but there are some outstanding examples of architecture, notably 18th century Woburn Abbey and almost all of central Oxford.
More recent history centres on the highly, highly secret wartime goings-on at a place called Bletchley Park. It is the birth-places of modern programmable computers and some of the most successful code-cracking operations were carried out here – so it was also the birth-place of what today we would call hacking.
A trip between Stratford-on-Avon and Oxford will take you through one of England’s most popular attractions, the picture-perfect chocolate-box-top villages of the Cotswold Hills. Mellow, honey-coloured stone buildings are the enduring image of the villages in this famous region. William Morris described the Cotswolds village of Bibury as the most beautiful in England but it is only one of a number like it.
Bath is a city so beautiful and special that it has been designated a UNESCO World Heritage site. It is the only place in the UK where you can bathe in naturally hot spa water and original Roman Baths, making it the ultimate spa break destination for thousands of years.
The spa became popular in the Georgian era when fashion leader Richard, Beau Nash presided over the city’s social life in the early 18th century. It was however, a wild lifestyle for the rich, famous and titled who came here to gamble, drink, and have affairs. A BBC doco called Outstanding Britain used a phrase that captured that lifestyle perfectly – they said the city had a “fur coat and no knickers personality”.
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