Private Group Holidays for Clubs and Societies
A private tour is one your group has to itself. One person, the organiser, books the whole holiday on behalf of the club, society or family, picks dates that suit the diary, and everyone travels together with nobody else on the coach.
The holidays below are ones we currently run this way, from three nights in Cambridge looking at art to a week between Seville and Granada. We have arranged group travel for a long time for gardening clubs, U3A branches, church groups and families marking a big birthday, and the organising side of it is our job rather than yours.
Explore Our Private Group Tours
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Destinations
- Amsterdam
- Austria
- Barcelona
- Belgium
- Champagne
- Cornwall
- Cotswolds
- Croatia
- Cyprus
- Czech Republic
- Devon
- Dorset
- England
- France
- Georgia
- Germany
- Giants Causeway
- Greece
- Hungary
- Isle of Man
- Isle of Wight
- Istanbul
- Italy
- Kent
- Krakow
- Lake District
- Lake Garda
- Lanzarote
- Lisbon
- Madeira
- Madrid
- Malta
- Netherlands
- Norfolk
- Normandy
- Northern Ireland
- Northumberland
- Portugal
- Prague
- Puglia
- Romania
- Scotland
- Slovenia
- Snowdonia
- Somerset
- Spain
- Switzerland
- Umbria
- Vienna
- Wales
- Wiltshire
- Yorkshire
Frequently Asked Questions About Our Private Group Tours
Ask us, because it depends on the tour. Prices on these itineraries are worked out on a stated number of passengers, commonly twenty-five or thirty, and that assumption is printed with the price. A smaller party is often still possible, but the cost per person changes. Give us the number you expect to fill and we will quote honestly on that basis rather than a hopeful one.
Yes — that is the main reason clubs book privately. You tell us the window that works for your members and we build the departure around it, subject to hotel and coach availability and to any timed entry at the places you want to see. Highgrove, Blenheim and theatre or opera tickets in particular are booked well in advance, so the earlier you come to us with a date, the more likely we can hold it.
Often, yes. On many of our British tours the visits are described as suggested excursions, which means the shape of the week is a starting point rather than a fixture. Groups regularly ask to swap a house for a garden, add a free afternoon or slow the pace down. What is possible depends on opening days, distances and the hotel you are based at, so put the request to us and we will tell you plainly.
Several of our tours are quoted with a number of single rooms at no supplement, and a supplement applies for any beyond that number. The allocation and the amount differ from tour to tour and both are shown on the individual tour page. Because you are booking the whole party, it helps to tell us early how many singles you need — the sooner we know, the better the chance of securing them within the included allocation.
That is arranged with you rather than fixed in advance. On private tours the coach is yours, so joining arrangements are part of the conversation when we put the holiday together. Tell us where your members live and where they would find it easiest to gather, and we will let you know what is workable for the route and the driver's hours. Ask us before you circulate anything to your group.
On a private tour your club or family takes the whole holiday, chooses the dates and travels with no other passengers. On a scheduled open group departure you book individual places and travel alongside others who have done the same, on dates we have already set. The hotels, excursions and driver-guide are of the same kind either way. If there are only two or three of you, the scheduled departures are usually the better value and the friendlier option.
How it works
One person acts as organiser and books the tour on behalf of the whole party. In practice it usually starts with an email or a phone call: you tell us the tour that has caught your group's eye, roughly when you would like to go and roughly how many are likely to come. We check hotel and coach availability for your dates and come back with a price worked out on that number of passengers.
From there you have a quotation you can take to your committee or circulate to members. The coach, the hotel and the excursions are all yours — no other passengers join you. Sensible questions about numbers, single rooms, joining points and how payment is collected are all part of that first conversation, and the answers depend on your particular group. Send us the tour that has caught the group's eye and a rough date, and we will come back with those answers and a price you can put to your members.
Who it is for
This is the way to book if you already have a group. Gardening clubs, U3A branches, church groups, WI groups, local history and art societies, choirs, retired staff associations, extended families marking an anniversary and long-standing groups of friends all travel with us this way. It suits organisers who want a holiday shaped around a shared interest, and members who like the ease of knowing everybody on the coach.
It is not the right page if you are travelling as a couple or on your own. Two or three people booking privately would carry the cost of the whole coach, and you would miss the company that makes a group holiday worthwhile — our scheduled open group departures are the better answer, and there is no snobbery about it. If your numbers are uncertain, tell us and we will advise.
What is included
What a private tour covers varies by holiday, but the pattern is consistent. On British tours you can expect private coach travel throughout, the services of an experienced driver, hotel accommodation with breakfast and evening meals, the listed excursions and, on many of them, porterage and cancellation protection. Entrance to National Trust properties is frequently included on the basis that members show their cards.
Overseas, the equivalent usually means return flights or Eurostar, transfers in the UK and at the destination, hotels with breakfast and most evening meals, coach transport for the itinerary, entrance fees for the visits named, and an English-speaking tour manager or local guide.
The individual tour page carries the definitive list for that holiday, including what falls outside it. Read that before you circulate anything to your members.
Where private groups travel with us
A good deal of our private group work stays in Britain and Ireland, because a coach from the doorstep still suits most clubs best. Groups base themselves at the Metropole in Llandrindod Wells for mid Wales, at the Cedar Court in Harrogate for the North Yorkshire gardens, at the Imperial in Blackpool, or in Grantham for Lincoln and the airfields of the old Bomber County.
Further afield, the pattern changes to flights or rail with a coach waiting at the other end. Groups fly to Albi for the Musée Toulouse-Lautrec, to Barcelona for Gaudí and Miró, to Bordeaux for Saint-Émilion and the Dune du Pilat, to Belfast for the Giants Causeway and Bushmills. Amsterdam is reached by Eurostar from St Pancras. Budapest, Berlin, Verona and Andalucía all appear in the same programme.
Tours built around a shared interest
Most groups come to us with a subject in mind, and the itineraries reflect that rather than trying to please everybody at once.
- Gardens — RHS Harlow Carr, the Himalayan Garden and Sculpture Park, Littlethorpe Manor, and a guided tour of Highgrove followed by lunch in the Orchard Room.
- Art and architecture — Kettle's Yard, the Fitzwilliam and the David Parr House in Cambridge; the Picasso Museum and the Gala Dalí Castle at Púbol from Barcelona.
- Food and drink — the Cheddar Gorge Cheese Company, Somerset Cider and Brandy, Sheppy's, and a pintxos evening in Bilbao.
- Military and social history — Lincoln Castle, the International Bomber Command Centre and the Lincolnshire Aviation Heritage Centre.
- Music and events — Carmen and La Bohème in the Roman arena at Verona.
If your society has a particular enthusiasm, say so when you first get in touch.
Notes for the group organiser
Two things are worth knowing before you circulate a price to your members. First, quotes for private tours are worked out on a stated number of passengers — often twenty-five or thirty on these itineraries — so the figure per person moves if the party grows or shrinks. Tell us the number you realistically expect and we will be straight with you about how it affects the cost.
Second, single rooms. Several of our British tours are quoted with a set number of singles at no supplement, with a supplement for any beyond that, and the figure varies from tour to tour. Where excursions are listed as suggested, there is usually room for discussion about the order and the emphasis. Entry to National Trust properties is often covered on the basis that members show their cards, so it helps to know how many of your group are members.
Choosing when to travel
Having your own departure means you can pick the moment rather than take what is offered. That matters more than people expect. Rhododendrons and azaleas at a garden like the Himalayan Garden near Ripon peak in late spring, while Sudeley and the Cotswolds are at their best when the beech turns in October. Bristol's Christmas market and the Amsterdam Light Festival belong to December and nothing else will do.
Opera in the arena at Verona runs through the summer, when performances start after dark and the stone still holds the day's heat. For the big houses — Chatsworth, Blenheim, Waddesdon — a midweek date outside the school holidays makes for a calmer visit and an easier coach park. Ask us early if your date is fixed by a club calendar; popular houses and theatres take bookings a long way ahead.
