British Isles

Few people think of Scotland as an island archipelago. These islands all have one thing in common – they all contain living history. The people who dwell on them, for the most part, live their daily lives now as they did centuries ago. These isles are among the world’s great repositories of archaeological treasures including villages preserved almost in their entirety.

The world’s largest arts festival, and is made up of almost an entire months’ worth of theatre, cabaret, children’s shows, experimental performance art, circus, comedy, and dance. On this program, we experience nine days of the Fringe in all its glory, taking in a wide range of shows and performances. We also explore Edinburgh itself, with city tours and sightseeing scheduled in to our program.

This program examines human occupation in Britain some 500,000 years before the Romans arrived. It begins in Shetland, the northern extremity of Britain and works its way south to Stonehenge, exploring the landscapes that represent some of the most important prehistoric sites in Britain. Most of the focus of this program will be experiencing these megalithic and earthen structures constructed between the Stone Age and Iron Age.

Explore the stunning scenery and the remarkable history of Scotland. This tour focussed on the history of the Jacobites commences in Edinburgh. During the 19 days you visit 19 locations as you travel from Edinburgh as far north as Inverness to finish in Glasgow. You stay in 8 locations. Learn from 10 specialist guides about the Jacobites visiting 28 places and experiences during the tour.

Nowhere else are these historic trials, tribulations and triumphs such a part of contemporary events and so integrated via song and words into daily life. In Ireland the past is the present and the present is the past. In this tour we step out into this evocative island of Ireland and quite simply absorb the most poignant place on Earth.

The Industrial Revolution brought great change to Britain with the linking of major rivers with canals and the development of railways. During our program we learn how engineers overcame geographical obstacles through the use of viaducts, bridges, aqueducts, tunnels and locks. Fortunately for us many of these impressive structures have been restored and now carry recreational boating with branch railways through spectacular landscapes.

This is a round–the-world, 23 day program that visits two continents, staying in the major arts centres of Vienna, Paris, London and New York. For Odyssey Travellers, we have sought to assemble entry and show tickets to what many will consider the best arts experiences available in those cities during each program.

Queen Victoria’s Great Britain

An era of enormous change, change which occurred in almost all areas of life. Developments in technology, science, medicine, politics, art and architecture. Enjoy  talks and short lectures from a collection of knowledgable guides on Victorian Britain in a small group

This fully escorted, small group walking tour, takes the active senior on a journey of discovery through the fascinating small Channel Islands of Jersey, Guernsey, Alderney, Sark and Herm.

Reserve your tickets to Odyssey’s 9 day Discover Shakespeare tour. Be entertained by the Royal Shakespeare Company, viewing performances in Stratford-upon-Avon.

From medieval Knot Gardens to the English landscapes of Capability Brown, to the modern incarnations of Sackville-West and the Duchess of Northumberland, our 22-night tour traces and explores garden styles through the ages. We explore the gardens of Kent, England’s South West, Oxfordshire, Wales, The Borders and Edinburgh, Northumbria and the Peak and Lake Districts.

This is an upgraded walking program with new paths including the Brecon-Monmouthshire canal walk and tracks on Arran in Scotland. The program is designed for participants who enjoy seeing the countryside on foot and is appropriate for active walkers. We stay at comfortable hotels with two days of walks followed by a day of travel to the next site.

Explore 3,000 years of life on the mainland and on three of the islands. Only have time to examine segments of the country’s long and varied past. We will, delve deeply into a number of the events that shaped Scotland.

This programs gives participants a chance more to learn about this fascinating operatic duo, experiencing live performances and hearing from Gilbert and Sullivan experts. The tour also includes visits to several important museums, including the Black Country Living Museum, the Haymarket Theatre, and the Royal Academy of Music. The tour promises to be an unforgettable introduction to the world of Gilbert and Sullivan.

This tour is designed to allow the active traveller the chance to explore a number of Welsh beauty spots on foot. On this 11 night tour travel by coach across the length of Wales with the chance to walk for up to 15 kilometres each day through some of the most spectacular scenery in the country. Our tour takes us from Betwys-y-Coed in the north to St Davids in the south though mountain passes and along coastal trails.

Our 18 night program takes us on a journey through England’s timeless countryside and picturesque villages. A visitor to England’s villages is a time-traveller encircling the semi-tropical fishing villages of Cornwall, then across Dartmoor, now more desolate than ever. Then to the Cotswolds, the storybook villages now busier than ever. On the English-Welsh border the villages and towns have found new importance as repositories and exchanges for the artefacts of England’s past.

Continental invaders brought with them many components that added to the mix of what makes Britain today, including their genetic characteristics, the roots of the English language, various spiritual and religious beliefs, models of land ownership, place names and technologies that began with the Stone Age Celts. We explore the places and events that created this mélange.

Ireland is a lush green island full of thatched cottages, friendly pubs, music, poetry, ebullient people and dramatically diverse rugged countryside. It is also a land of diverse and rich gardens from the dramatic Powerscourt to the impressive kitchen Garden of Kylemore Abbey and the secretive Anne’s Grove. Our program ranges from the bustling capital of Dublin with its historic Botanic Garden to the greenness of Killarney with its rugged Kerry peninsula and charming Muckross House as well as to the natural beauty of the Connemara.

This tour allows us to explore the life and times of the royal families responsible for making England and Spain so significant in the 16th century. We spend 10 days in England visiting sites made famous by Henry VIII and his daughters Mary and his Elizabeth. From there we fly to Spain to spend the final 10 days looking at towns and palaces established by the Catholic monarchs, Ferdinand and Isabella, and their Habsburg descendants.

This small group tour allows the traveller to come to a greater appreciation of the long history of art and literature in England. We visit many of the places which inspired the great English writers and painters through the ages. With such an enormous field to choose from, our tour concentrates on the period before the Second World War and concentrates on just some of the many people significant in these fields. H

A program that explores some of the visual stunning scenic landscapes of Northern Ireland and the Lake district of Britain that have inspired painters and writers over the centuries. The program spends 9 days in each country enjoying a daily walking program through these historic landscape accompanied by local guides all with stories to tell and share. The walks require a good level of fitness. We typically stay at comfortable small hotels of character in both locations in village or small towns.