Escorted City Breaks in Britain and Europe
A city break with Airedale means three to eight days in one place, a hotel you unpack in once, and someone else handling the driving, the parking and the ticket queues. Some of these tours travel by private coach through the Channel Tunnel or by ferry. Others fly, with transfers at both ends and a tour manager waiting when you land.
The cities include York and Edinburgh, Glasgow, Cologne and Bruges, Prague, Budapest, Rome, Madrid and Valencia. Each tour page lists the guided visits and entrance fees that are paid for, so you know what is covered before you book.
Frequently Asked Questions About Our City Breaks Tours
Because the arranging is the tiring part. Flights or the coach crossing, transfers at both ends, the hotel, the guided tours and the entrance fees are booked as one thing, and someone is with the group to sort out whatever comes up. On the flying tours that is a tour manager; on the coach tours it is an experienced driver who stays with you throughout. You also skip the ticket queues at places like the Vatican Museums.
More than on a touring holiday, because cities are walked rather than driven. Expect a couple of hours on your feet during a guided walk, often on cobbles, with hills in Edinburgh, Prague and Toledo. Nothing is rushed and there are stops to sit down, but you should be comfortable walking twenty minutes at a time and standing in galleries. If you have concerns about a particular tour, ring us and we will talk you through the day.
It varies by tour and the tour page is the place to check. Several coach breaks, including Cologne and Edinburgh, are dinner, bed and breakfast. Prague includes four breakfasts and four evening meals. The Bruges tour is bed and breakfast only, which many people prefer in a city with that many restaurants. Where dinner is not included, you eat where you like and at your own cost.
Both, depending on the tour. Cologne, Bruges, York, Edinburgh and Glasgow travel by private coach, with Eurotunnel or ferry crossings for the continental ones. Rome, Prague, Budapest, Berlin, Madrid and Valencia include return flights and transfers in the UK and at the destination. If flying is not for you, the coach breaks give you Germany and Belgium without an airport.
Yes, and solo travellers are common on these tours. Prices are quoted per person sharing a twin or double, so a single room usually carries a supplement, though the Glasgow Art tour has six singles with no supplement. Supplements differ by hotel and departure, so ask us for the figure on the tour you are considering before you commit.
Most run between three and five days in a single hotel, which is the point of a city break: you unpack once. The Historic York tour is three days, Edinburgh, Cologne and Berlin four, Prague, Rome, Budapest and Bruges around five. The Madrid and Toledo tour is longer at eight days and uses two hotels, one in Alcalá and one in Toledo.
City breaks by coach from Britain
Coach city breaks suit anyone who would rather not fly. The Cologne tour crosses by Eurotunnel or ferry and puts you at the Leonardo Hotel Köln for three nights on a dinner, bed and breakfast basis, with the coach and driver with you throughout. Cologne is a good city for a short stay: the cathedral was begun in 1248, abandoned for three centuries and finished only in 1880, and the Museum Ludwig next door holds one of Europe's better Picasso collections.
The Secrets of Belgium is based for four nights at the Academie Hotel in Bruges on bed and breakfast, which leaves your evenings free to choose where to eat. Bruges rewards slow walking. The Stadhuis has one of the finest civic halls in the country, with murals by the Devriendt brothers in the Gothic Hall, and the canals are quietest early in the morning before the day visitors arrive.
European cities by air with a tour manager
The flying tours go further afield and carry more guiding. The Prague holiday stays four nights at Hotel Duo with four breakfasts and four evening meals, walking tours of the Old Town, a cruise on the Vltava, and days out to the spa town of Karlovy Vary and the Moser glassworks, which has been blowing crystal since the 1850s.
Elsewhere: Rome with guided Roman and Classical tours, the Vatican Museums and St Peter's, staying four nights at a central four-star hotel. Budapest with entrance to the Parliament building, the Royal Palace at Gödöllő that Empress Elisabeth favoured, and a dinner cruise on the Danube. Madrid and Toledo over eight days, with official guided tours of the Royal Palace and El Escorial. Valencia, based on the coast at Gandia, taking in the fifteenth-century Silk Exchange, the ceramics town of Manises and a tasting of orxata.
British cities worth three or four days
You do not have to leave the country for a proper city break. The Historic York tour runs over three days, which is about right for the two miles of city walls, the Shambles and a slow look at the Minster's Great East Window, the largest single expanse of medieval stained glass in England.
Edinburgh is a four-day tour staying three nights at the Leonardo Royal on a dinner, bed and breakfast basis, with private coach travel and a driver throughout. Both the Old Town and the Georgian New Town hold UNESCO World Heritage status, and the walk between them is short but steep in places.
The Glasgow Art tour is built around the collections: the Hunterian and Mackintosh House, Kelvingrove, the Gallery of Modern Art, the House for an Art Lover and the Burrell Collection. It is based at the Stirling Highland Hotel, with the coach doing the travelling each day.
Private group city breaks for clubs and societies
City breaks work particularly well as private group tours. An art society can take the Glasgow galleries at its own pace, a church group can have Rome to itself, and a U3A branch can build a Bruges or Cologne trip around its own interests.
Pricing on several of the coach tours is calculated on a group of thirty sharing twin or double rooms, and on the Glasgow tour six single rooms carry no supplement. Those figures change with the departure and the season, so tell us roughly how many you are and we will price it properly.
Private groups can usually adjust pick-up points, the length of the stay and which excursions are included. What we will not do is promise a change we have not checked with the hotel and the guides first, so ask early if there is something specific you want.
