BRITISH ISLES

Great Britain is not just for choirs and cathedrals! Enthusiastic audiences await your instrumental groups in diverse locations throughout the United Kingdom and Ireland. Perform in Jazz clubs and community theatres in large cities such as Banbury or Berwick-upon-Tweed. Participate in festivals in Bournemouth, Harrogate, or Shrewsberry or march in the St. Patrick's Day parade in Ireland. Ambassador Tours will organize exchanges with school bands or community orchestras or arrange adjudications, clinics, and workshops with professional musicians. The possibilities are unlimited!

Highlights of this concert tour are Windsor, a tour of London's most significant sights with a professional Blue Badge guide, Stratford-Upon-Avon, the Cotswolds, a walking tour of medieval York, a guided tour of Edinburgh, including Edinburgh Castle, a Scottish evening featuring traditional music and food, the lovely Lake District, the walled city of Chester, Conwy Castle in Wales, crossing of the Irish Sea, guided tour of Dublin, including Trinity College and the Book of Kells, authentic Celtic performance featuring traditional Irish music and dance, Galway, the Knock Shrine, and the incomparable Ring of Kerry.

Performances will be planned in each city, in appropriate locations, based on your group's interests and repertoire. Venues may include Westminster Abbey, the York Guildhall, St. Giles Cathedral, St. Mary's Church, the Knock Shrine, and local festivals, depending upon your travel dates.

This concert tour includes planning and promotion of goodwill concert performances in each city, guided sightseeing tours and excursions, most meals, excellent hotel accommodations, round trip air transportation, deluxe motor coach transportation, and professional tour escort.

Consider one of our European Special Interest Tours!

Tracing the Steps of John and Charles Wesley (United Kingdom)

Methodism began as a religious movement, led by John and Charles Wesley in the early eighteenth century. John, the elder brother, traveled some 250,000 miles throughout Britain, mainly on horseback, preaching thousands of sermons in towns, villages, and the countryside. He and his followers created an organization of classes, societies, and circuits that became the Methodist Church. This tour, presented by Ambassador Tours, highlights the principal centers of English Methodist history.

Perform in the great cathedrals and churches in Britain, while you trace the life of John Wesley. Beginning in London, see the Wesley Chapel, the crypt with the Museum of World Methodism and Wesley's grave. Visit Epworth and tour the Old Rectory where Wesley was born in 1703. See Susanna's kitchen and enjoy tea and scones in the beautiful garden. Tour medieval York and perhaps perform at York Minster. Admire the view over Edinburgh from Carlton Hill, where Wesley preached. Join a Methodist congregation in the scenic Lake District, for a joint concert and tea party, and visit Oxford University where Wesley studied. In Bristol, there will be an opportunity to sing in "The New Room," the first Methodist Church in the world.

We also arrange tours for Presbyterian (United Reformed in England and Wales) churches with concerts in St. Giles (the High Kirk of Scotland) and with local U.R. congregations. Episcopalian groups sing at Canterbury Cathedral, and in York Minster.

Bell Ringing (United Kingdom)

Bell Ringing and Change Ringing originated in England and a tour focused on Bell Towers and Bells can be a fascinating experience. Visits to foundries and a bell foundry museum are combined with tours of bell towers as you tour England and Scotland. Your tour can focus on the history of bell ringing or on performance - or both!

Literary Tour (The United Kingdom)

The United Kingdom has a vast wealth of famous authors and literary heritage. As you travel around the country you can explore the areas where many of these authors lived and visit the places where their stories were set and their characters came to life. Born in Edinburgh, Sir Walter Scott made his home in the border country. Scotland's best loved poet, Robert Burns was born in a tiny cottage in Alloway, where there is a museum and a visitors center. You may visit the Lake District of Northern England which was home to William Wordsworth, who lived at Dove Cottage in Grasmere, and Beatrix Potter whose home was in Near Sawrey and whose galleries were in Hawkshead and Bowness-on-Windermere. The Bronte sisters spent most of their lives in Haworth and based their novels and poems in the high, wild, surrounding moorlands. The Yorkshire Dales town of Thirsk was the backdrop of James Herriot's All Creatures Great and Small. The mining communities of Bath, Lyme Regis, and Chawton are Jane Austen's homes and settings of her many novels. Probably the most famous literary town in the world is Stratford-Upon-Avon, and no literary tour is complete without a visit to Shakespeare's birthplace.

Gardens and Manor Houses (The United Kingdom)

The temperate climate of the British Isles is exceptionally fine for flowers and shrubs, and English gardens are renowned throughout the world for their beauty. In London, a visit to the Museum of Garden History can be followed by a visit to Kew Gardens, Kensington Palace, and St. James Park - or come in May to the Chelsea Flower Show. With castles, manor houses and parks in every country, there will always be a garden to enjoy.