Sample Itinerary Your Hotel London s New Year s Day Parade and Festival prides itself in providing only superior first class hotels, located in the very heart of London, and within walking distance of many of the places you may wish to visit. Your accommodations will have en-suite facilities, including bath and/or shower and W.C. and all of the usual amenities associated with a first class hotel, including full housekeeping services with linen and towel change, room service, direct dial telephone, flat screen TV with freeview, WIFI (charges may apply), personal safes etc.
Day 1 27th December Depart on your flights to Europe. Dinner and breakfast will be served on your transatlantic flight. Day 2 28th December On your arrival in London you will be taken by luxury motor coach to your hotel, where you will be able to check in and freshen up. Your resource person will inform you of the time and place for an orientation meeting. At your orientation meeting you will receive your itinerary book and all the other information that you will need for your week in London, as well as your own personal MP3 player, loaded with 5 educational walks and 3 fun speciality walks. Your resource assistant will also take you on walk around the area to point out nearby supermarkets, cash machines and the train station nearest your hotel that you can use for travelling by tube around London. This afternoon there may be time for you to take the first of enjoy the first of your educational walks, which follows the spectacular processional route of the New Year s Day parade through the heart of London. It features The Ritz Hotel, Piccadilly, Piccadilly Circus, Trafalgar Square, Whitehall and Parliament Square. Learn about the rich history of the area and the buildings along the route, with the added flavour of the pomp and ceremony of the Parade. 7.00pm Dinner this evening will be served in your hotel. The rest of the evening is free for you to acclimatise to European time. Day 3 29th December A substantial buffet breakfast will be served each morning in your hotel. 9.00am This morning we will whisk you away on a spectacular half day tour of London s most famous landmarks and
areas of London, including the Houses of Parliament, Big Ben, Buckingham Palace, Westminster Abbey, St. Paul s Cathedral, Piccadilly and Trafalgar Square. Soak up the atmosphere as your guide introduces you to over 1,000 years of history. This is also your opportunity to look out for the places you would like to visit during your unstructured time. You will have the opportunity to stop a number of times on the tour to take photographs. Lunch at leisure 2.00pm 6.00pm This afternoon you will be taken by coach to the Tower of London, another of London s most famous landmarks. This historic landmark has served as a royal palace, fortress, prison, place of execution, arsenal, mint, menagerie and jewel house during its 900 year history. Your guide will take you on a tour of the Tower and you will then have time to explore on your own. Attractions include the Bloody Tower, Traitors Gate, the Chapel of St. John, the Jewel House, where the crown jewels of England are on show, and the Fusiliers Museum. You will meet the resident Beefeaters, who guard the Tower for the Queen, and also the ravens, who have lived within the walls for hundreds of years. This evening you will enjoy your fun speciality walk Murder, Mystery and Mayhem in Old London walk, featuring Jack the Ripper and other gory stories of London. Dinner at leisure using the vouchers provided. This evening you may choose where you would like to have dinner using the vouchers provided. These are accepted at many restaurants in London. Check the eating out section of your itinerary book for more details. Day 4 8.00am 30th December This morning you will be taken to the historic country town of Windsor, famous for its cobbled lanes and picturesque houses. At the heart of the town is the castle, which has for 900 years, been residence and fortress to the Royal Monarch. Entrance included a view inside the Royal Apartments. Lunch at leisure.
1.00pm 2.00pm 3.00pm This afternoon depart by coach for a rehearsal at Cadogan Hall in preparation for your concert this evening. Rehearsal begins. This afternoon is the time to tune into your MP3 players for the Art-rageous London! walk, taking you through theatreland, Soho, musicals and museums. Dinner at leisure using the vouchers provided. 6.45pm Travel from the hotel by coach to Cadogan Hall, the venue for your performance at this evening s Music for London Gala Concert. Cadogan Hall is a 900-seat venue on Sloane Terrace in Chelsea. Built as a church, it was completed in 1907 to designs by the architect Robert Fellowes Chisholm and is now a Grade II listed building noted for its stained glass windows. Since 2001 it has been a concert hall of some renown, and the home of the Royal Philharmonic Orchestra. It has also been used by Sir John Eliot Gardiner and the English Baroque Soloists as a recording venue for the Mozart symphonies. 7.30pm 10.00pm Day 5 8.30am 10.00am The concert begins. Return by coach to your hotel. 31st December Depart by coach for Westminster Pier, where you will board a Thames cruise boat for the 50 minute ride to Greenwich. Your guides will provide a historic commentary en-route. Greenwich in south-east London is famous the world over as the home of time (Greenwich Mean Time), and because zero longitude, the place where Eastern and Western hemispheres meet, runs through the town. You will have the chance to visit the Royal Observatory, the oldest scientific institution in Britain and home to some of the most important timepieces ever made. You will also be taken to see the Maritime Museum and the 2012 London Olympic Village. Lunch at leisure.
1.00pm This afternoon learn about Palaces and our Royals by following the Princes, Palaces and Power walk on your MP3 player. The walk covers London from Big Ben to Buckingham Palace, Prince William to parliament and is a powerful mixture of Majesty and Might. This afternoon you will also listen to your UK-USA-250 walk. A special 35th Anniversary tour celebrating 250 years of the special relationship between America and London. 7.00pm 9.00pm 00.30am Day 6 9.00am Dinner this evening will be served in your hotel. A specially arranged New Year s Eve party will be held in your hotel. 1st January New Year s Day Board your motor coaches. Depart by luxury motor coach for Millbank, where your resource person will lead you to the location of your official group photograph adjacent the Palace of Westminster. Return to your coach and continue to the assembly area in Berkeley Square. Please leave instrument boxes on the coach. The team of stewards will have clearly marked where you need to line up. Depending on your position in the Parade, you will be waiting here for a maximum of two hours. Catering facilities are not available so we have arranged for you to have a special pre-packed sack lunch to eat in the assembly area. Warm up s will be collected before the Parade starts and delivered back to your hotel. 12.00pm London s New Year s Day Parade. At exactly midday the parade starts and you will march two miles down the most spectacular route in the world, before an expected audience of half a million people and many more watching the live satellite broadcast. As you reach the end of Whitehall, you will line up for the waiting cameras that will be beaming your performance around the World. Tell your friends at home to look out for you and don t forget to tell them about the time difference! Enjoy this unique experience! At Parliament Square your dedicated coaches will be on hand to take you back to your hotel. 7.00pm Dinner this evening will be served in your hotel.
Day 7 2nd January Today is a fun packed day with two of our speciality walking tours. First tune in to the Harry Potter s London walk taking you to all the sights and sounds of the world s most famous fictional boy wizard. And afterwards listen to London Rock and Roll Capital of the World telling you all about The Beatles, The Rolling Stones, The Swinging Sixties, Glam Rock, Punk Rock, Brit Pop and more. Now that you know London like the back of your hand test yourself with the Guide and Seek Treasure Trail walk this afternoon, made up of nuggets of history, mystery, movies and music hidden throughout London and waiting for you to discover it to move onto the next clue. Dinner at leisure using the vouchers provided. Day 8 3rd January Depart by motor coach for the airport to check in for your flight home. We wish you a safe journey home and hope very much that we will see you again in London!