Where does this tour go?
This trip will cover a large amount of England. Beginning and ending in London, we will travel to Kent, known as the “Garden of England,” the beautiful Lake District in the north of the country, the university town of Oxford, the Cotswolds, and Bath.
Which Literary Sites will We Be Visiting?
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The Dickensian town of Rochester, where Dickens based many of his novels.
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Rudyard Kipling’s house and gardens
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AA Milne’s Winnie-the-Pooh’s Enchanted Forest
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The moors of Charlotte Brontë‘s Wuthering Heights
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Beatrix Potter’s home
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Oxford, the university town of C.S. Lewis and J.R.R. Tolkien
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The Cotswolds & Bath, home to Jane Austen, where we will attend the Jane Austen Festival, including the Regency Ball
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Shakespeare’s Globe Theater, where we’ll see his work live
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Stratford-Upon-Avon, the birthplace of Shakespeare
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Charles Dickens’ London home
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Poet’s Corner at Westminster Abbey in London
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Many famous bookshops and pubs in England
who is this trip for?
The British Book Club Tour is for likeminded women* who have a deep appreciation for British literature. There will be a fun and interactive book club leading up to the trip where we can all get to know each other and get to know the authors before we walk in their footsteps together. This trip is meant to be educational, relaxing, communal, and fun!
*Because this trip is geared toward women and we will be sharing accommodations, we will not be allowing male guests.
How many people will be in our group?
We will only be allowing only 6 participants on the British Book Club Tour, plus your guides, Vanessa and Tamara, for a total of 8. We want to keep this group small, so that we will be able to take private tours, enjoy dining together, and bond over our love of literature. You’re sure to make friends for life on this trip!
Who will be leading this tour?
vanessa
When she was a little girl, Vanessa lived in Scotland with her grandmother, who was working on her PhD in British Literature. This experience, touring historic English manors, gardens, and abbeys as a child sparked a lifelong love of Brit Lit and turned her into a tea drinking, scone eating Anglophile for life.
Vanessa has been making pilgrimages back to “The Motherland” ever since! And when she’s not walking the moors or exploring London’s alleyways, you can find her with a cup of tea and a good book. She also runs Wanderlust Crew and loves to help people find their passion through travel. She has 4 children who she loves to read with and drag around the world. Vanessa’s favorite book on this tour is Jane Eyre.
Tamara
Tamara has always been a bookworm, finding childhood kindred spirits in Matilda, Anne Shirley, and Ramona. Her love affair with books continued through college years spent working as a bookseller, a literary study abroad in the UK, and habitually starting book clubs (five at last count). She has worn many hats, most notably as a National Park ranger in Alaska and an elementary school teacher. These days you will find her helping run an online business with her husband and homeschooling her two children in Tennessee. She is very excited to team up with Vanessa for Book Club Tours, which combines her favorite things; books, travel, and friends. Her favorite book from this tour is Pride and Prejudice.
What happens before the trip?
Because this trip is essentially a Book Club taken to the next level, we will be preparing for our literary adventure by reading books and discussing them before we leave. There will be a good mix of classic and modern books, as well as novels and biographies.
You will be invited to a private Facebook group and receive emails about specific books with thought prompts, discussion topics, and more! We really want to deep dive into these works so that we will be prepared to walk in the footsteps of the authors. This is meant to be fun.
