<<

ALKI TOURS PRESENTS and English Castles

TOUR PRICE: $3899.00 PER PERSON/DO Single Supplement starting at: $960 April 7th-14th, 2016/ 8 Days Air Taxes & Fees: $232.63 Fuel Surcharge: $TBA If Alki Tours secured coveted tickets to increased by the airline. Highclere Castle (Downton Abbey) downtown hotel, our home for the next 6 nights. You only have to TRIP REGISTRATION April 7th, 2016-Seattle to London unpack once! To register, contact The trip back in time begins as we pick Meals: Dinner Alki Tours at (206)935-6848 you up at your Seattle area castle and or 1(800)895-2554 take you to Seatac Airport. Your tour You may also register on our Host will meet and assist you with web site at your transatlantic flight to London. www.alkitours.com Meals: Meals on own A deposit of $500.00 per person is due within 7 days of booking April 8th, 2016– to confirm your reservation. Full Upon arrival at , we payment is due 90 days prior to the trip’s departure. will be met by our local guide and led to our private coach. We will visit Please make checks payable to: th Windsor Castle, the April 9 , 2016: Abbey- Alki Tours, 6417A Fauntleroy of Her Majesty The Queen. Then enjoy -Buckingham Way SW, Seattle WA 98136 a panoramic tour of the city and see After breakfast, we are off to central some of the historic landmarks before London. Visit , we arrive at Centrally located Follow us on Facebook initially built by Henry III in 1245, it is one of the most important Gothic buildings in . We will see Big Ben, enjoy a walk around . Surrounded by vast parklands and gardens, this grand palace has been the Royal London residence since the time of . We continue our city tour and stop at the Tower of

back in time and explore this intimate and beautiful royal retreat. Palace will always be associated with the ‘madness’ of George III. Then we

It’s Included:  At home pick up in the greater Seattle area London. Tonight enjoy a lovely dinner.  Roundtrip airfare from Seattle Meals: Breakfast, Dinner to London th  All transfers April 10 , 2016- Highclere Castle  Hotel accommodations: After breakfast, we depart for  6 Nights Hotel “Downton Abbey” Home to the Earl continue on to the British . Established in 1753 it’s permanent  Meals: and Lady Carnarvon. Highclere Castle collection, numbering some 8 million  6 Breakfast known as Downton Abbey in the works, is among the largest and most  6 Dinner comprehensive in existence and  Sightseeing: originates from all continents,  Westminster Abbey illustrating and documenting the story  Big Ben of human from its beginnings to  Buckingham Palace the present. Tonight, enjoy a lovely  Highclere Castle dinner.  & Palace Meals: Breakfast, Dinner  Windsor Castle th  Stonehenge Emmy nominated series is well April 12 , 2016- Stonehenge-Roman  Roman Baths recognized. The castle is used for Baths-Jane Austin Visitors Center  Jane Austin Visitors Center interior filming of the series as well as After breakfast, we depart for a full day  Bampton & Waddesdon exterior shots of Downton Abbey. of touring as we visit Stonehenge one Manor Tickets to Highclere Castle are in of the most famous sites in the world.  Fully escorted and narrated so extreme demand as the Castle is only Stonehenge, believed to have been you won’t miss a ! open certain times to visitors. You built in 3,000 BC, is composed of a will have plenty of time to stroll the circular setting of large standing stones grounds as you visualize your favorite set within earthworks. Then we are off character in the series. We depart to Bath to see the Roman Baths dating Cancellation Policy Highclere Castle visualizing scenes in from back to 60 AD. A stroll through our minds of times gone by. historic Bath is like visiting an open-air Cancel before 121 days prior to the museum. Then follow in the footsteps trips departure: $300 penalty pp of Jane Austen with a stop at the 120-91 Days prior to departure: visitor center names in her honor. 75% Refund Tonight we return for Dinner 90-76 Days prior to departure: 50% Refund Meals: Breakfast, Dinner 75 Days prior to departure or less: NO REFUND April 134h, 2016- Bampton & TRAVEL INSURANCE Information regarding a variety of travel insurance policies are avail- Meals: Breakfast, Dinner After Breakfast we head off to the able upon request. We recommend village of Bampton. Also known as that sufficient insurance be pur- April 11th, 2016- Kew Gardens/ Bampton-in-the-Bush this Oxfordshire chased to cover the possibility of lost Palace– village was used to film scenes in or damaged baggage, accidents or Downton Abbey. Home of 12th illness. After breakfast we depart for Kew Gardens and which was century St Mary's Church and the the residence of King George III. Step which served as the entrance to the cottage hospital in the series. we will check into our hotel. Bampton is one of the oldest and Meals: Breakfast prettiest villages in the area and is also used to film many outdoor April 15th, 2016: Reykjavik City scenes. Today it retains its character Tour of a traditional Cotswold village. After Breakfast, we will take a city tour of Reykjavik Weaving our ways through narrow alleys framed with old timber houses, we learn multicoloured pools of water and about the life of the Icelandic mud. Strokkur, the Great Geysir’s from its very beginning to the little brother, is spouting to a height of present day. about 25 metres (82 ft) and erupts at Meals: Breakfast about 5-7 minute intervals. Then we drive on to Skálholt, the site of an April 16th, 2016: Golden Circle ancient bishopric, and for centuries Next we visit Waddesdon Manor in Tour Iceland’s main cultural centre. We Buckinghamshire. Originally built Over a scenic pass the greenhouse town of by Baron Ferdinand de Rothchild in route we reach Hveragerði and continue over the 1874, this is the fictional Haxby Þingvellir mountain pass Hellisheiði, an area Park and the estate that Sir Richard (Thingvellir) with large lava fields and steaming Carlisle intended to buy in National Park valleys. Passing the geothermal power Downton Abbey series 2. The and UNESCO house is set with formal gardens and World Heritage a English landscaped park located Site. We stroll on a hilltop overlooking Waddesdon around the Village. Later we will return to a country’s most lovely dinner. sacred site, home of the oldest Meals: Breakfast, Dinner existing parliament in the world, the Alþingi, and major events in our April 14th, 2016-London to history. Thingvellir is a place of Seattle fascinating natural beauty, one of station Hellisheiðarvirkjun we learn After breakfast we say farewell to the most geologically spectacular, how Icelanders use the energy from the world that we have come to set on a vast plain flanked by large the earth, so called green energy, for know as Downton Abbey and fissures, right on Iceland’s largest heating their homes. transfer to the Heathrow Airport for lake, Thingvallavatn. The Great Meals: Breakfast our return flight to the USA. Atlantic rift is clearly visible; a rift Meals: Breakfast that is slowly pulling Iceland apart April 17th, 2016: Free Day: Optional 4 night 5 day along tectonic plates and you can Enjoy a free day to explore or take Iceland Extension literally walk between the American an Optional Tour: $119 and Eurasian continental plates. We SOUTH SHORE ADVENTURE

drive to the mighty Gullfoss (the We drive over a lava plateau and April 14th, 2016: London to Golden Waterfall), perhaps the most through the Threngsli pass, beautiful in the country. We walk descending onto the southern coastal around Gullfoss Falls, where the lowlands and crossing Ölfusá, river Hvitá tumbles 32 meters (105 Iceland’s most voluminous river. ft) in a double cascade. When the Eyrarbakki is an attractive and sun is shining, you’re likely to see a picturesque coastal village with many rainbow. After an optional lunch old wooden houses. The route passes stop we explore the geothermal through some of the prettiest Iceland active valley of Haukadalur which countryside in Iceland with fields, The fun begins as you board your contains the geysers Geysir and farms and villages towards the flight on Iceland Air, bound for the Strokkur. This otherworldly hot Eyjafjalla and Mýrdalsjökull glaciers land of Ice and Fire. Upon Arrival, spring area is covered with in South Iceland. We reach Westminster Abbey lowlands and crossing Ölfusá, Reynisfjara that is famous for its bird Iceland’s most voluminous river. species including puffins. This location Eyrarbakki is an attractive and offers impressive rock formations and picturesque coastal village with many caves, spectacular high surf of the old wooden houses. The route passes North Atlantic and one of the worlds through some of the prettiest most beautiful black lava beach. From countryside in Iceland with fields, Reynisfjara you can enjoy stunning farms and villages towards the views of picturesque Dyrhólaey Eyjafjalla and Mýrdalsjökull glaciers promontory, a 120m spur of rock and in glaciers in South Iceland. We reach Big Ben Seljalandsfoss, a graceful ribbon-like waterfall, which drops from an overhanging lava cliff. If you step carefully, you can walk behind it, but

cut into a natural arch by Atlantic breakers, that stands in water deep enough to allow boats to pass through. Meals: Breakfast be prepared to get wet. We continue April 18th, 2016: Iceland to Seattle: to the impressive Skógafoss waterfall, In the morning after breakfast, We are that’s more than 60m high (197 ft) off to the Reykjanes peninsula and the Windsor Castle and belongs to the largest waterfalls Blue Lagoon which is 100% powered in Iceland. Then on to the ice-wall of by Iceland’s clean geothermal energy.

Cast of Downton Abbey Sólheimajökull, where we can walk Enjoy bathing and relaxing in The Blue up to the glacier, before we reach the Lagoon geothermal seawater, known beautifully sited village of Vík í for its positive effects on the skin.. Mýrdal, the southernmost village in After a relaxing soak we will transfer to Iceland. After lunch break we reach the airport for your return flight back to the volcanic black sandy beach of Seattle. Upon arrival, airport shuttle Reynisfjara that is famous for its bird will take you back to your Seattle area home. Welcome home Meals: Breakfast Puffins

Extend your trip to Iceland for only $995.00 pp/do Single Supplement: $345