Tudor and Stuart London

The trip narrows London down to the Tudor and Stuart period. Shakespeare's Globe is a working reconstruction close to where the original stood, and covers theatre, literacy and popular culture. The Tower of London deals with the monarchy, treason and the machinery of Tudor power, and Hampton Court is Henry VIII's palace. The National Portrait Gallery holds the faces students have only met in textbooks. Between them the visits support the development of the monarchy and parliament, the Protestant Reformation, and the expansion of the English state through overseas trade and colonialism.

The buildings are still standing, which is the point. Students can walk into a reconstruction of the theatre Shakespeare wrote for, stand where the executions took place at the Tower, and see the palace Henry VIII actually lived in. For a department teaching a period that can feel remote on the page, that physical evidence does a lot of work. It suits Key Stage 3 through to A level, and a guided historical tour can be weighted towards whichever part of the period your syllabus covers.

Every trip is built around your group rather than sold as a fixed package. A typical London trip covers return coach travel from your school, accommodation, transport during the trip, entrance to the visits you choose, and any guide or workshop fees. Trips are half board, with breakfast at your accommodation and evening meals usually at pre-booked restaurants rather than at the hotel. The itinerary shown on this page is a suggestion, so you can swap visits, add an evening activity such as a West End show, or extend the trip. Travel insurance is available as an optional supplement rather than being built into the price.

We arrange overnight school trips to London rather than day trips. A two day, one night trip is the most common shape, which gives you two full days of visits with an evening in between for a group meal, a West End show or a flight on the London Eye. Longer trips are available if you want to fit more in, and the itinerary can be extended to three or four days.

The autumn and spring terms usually work best. The major museums are considerably quieter between September and March than in the summer, which makes a real difference to what a group gets out of a gallery, and guided tours and school sessions are easier to secure. Theatre availability for West End shows is generally better midweek and outside the school holidays. Hampton Court and other outdoor sites are more comfortable earlier in the autumn term or later in the spring.

Groups stay in central or well connected London accommodation so that travel time between visits stays reasonable. We work with a range of group-friendly hotels and hostels rather than one fixed property, so what we put forward depends on your dates, group size and budget. Rooms are multi-bedded for students with separate rooms for staff, and breakfast is taken at your accommodation. Evening meals are usually at pre-booked restaurants rather than at the hotel, which suits a trip built around visits across the city. London availability moves quickly, particularly around events and school holidays, so we confirm the specific options with you at quote stage rather than listing them in advance.

The considerations are those of any large city: public transport, busy streets, crowded museums and keeping a group together. Meeting points and head counts matter more than close supervision, particularly in the larger galleries where groups naturally spread out. Guided tours and site visits are supervised by their own staff, who are used to school groups. Every supplier we use is audited through TourTrust, our own safety management system, and you receive a risk assessment handbook and supplier safety information in one pack, along with a 24 hour support line while your group is away.

Senior leadership will usually want the curriculum rationale, the safety arrangements and the financial protection. Every supplier is audited through TourTrust and you receive a risk assessment handbook and supplier safety information in one pack, so most of what gets asked is already documented. Adaptable Travel is an ABTA member, membership number Y1241, and we have been arranging educational trips since 1994. A UK trip also avoids the passport and flight questions that come up on overseas travel. If your school needs something specific, ask and we will provide it.