A private guided tour of the British Museum is one of many options
When I say the word “tour” many clients shudder in horror – “I don’t want to be part of a big group”, “I want to do my own exploring”, “I can never hear the guide”…
But there are alternatives to being in a group tour. In fact, Private Guided tours are becoming increasingly popular in London, and all over Europe. These tours allow you and your fellow travelers “front row seats” to many aspects of London that you may otherwise miss when trying to navigate around a busy city on your own. Its sorta like traveling on your own – but with your own private expert!
Private tours are higher in cost but that is because you are also getting one-on-one attention by experts in their fields (art, architecture, history, etc). This allows you to ask your guide questions and get real answers without having to raise your hand or fight your way to the front (My Disclaimer: Not all group tours are this bad!).
Here is a selection of private guided tours that may be available during your stay in London. If you are interested in finding out more about any of these options, please just email me or fill out a Travel Request Form.
Foody London – Borough Market Private Walking Tour
Visit one of the most charming and authentic fine food destinations in London, Borough Market, for the perfect journey of touch, taste and smell!
Visit Borough Market, one of England’s most charming and authentic fine food destinations – on a private, intimate walking and tasting tour. A firm favourite with London’s chefs, amateur cooks and urban sophisticates, Borough Market is packed with tantalising foody gems waiting to be discovered. ‘Foody London’ is a private experience aimed at solo visitors, couples or friends looking to move beyond the tourist trail. Join your personal insider guide, a London based foody, on a fabulous journey of touch, taste and smell. From award winning olives and cheeses to super health foods and delicate pastries: discover and hear the tales of an extraordinary mix of artisan foods. Your last stop is the famous Maria’s Cafe where if you wish you can taste a quintessential English dish from yesteryear, bubble (mashed potato) and squeak (usually cabbage), the perfect way to close your London market experience!
Duration: 2 hours. Available Thu/Fri/Sat at either 11am or 1pm. Between $125-150 per person
Gay London – Private Walking Tour
As one of the world’s most exciting gay visitor destinations, Gay Capital is a fabulous three hour private walking tour of London’s gay neighbourhoods. Your expert gay insider guide will show you the gay life of central London by combining an intimate look at London’s gay history and personalities (past and present), and today’s gay scene. Discover London’s gay fashion quarter, interior stores, bookshop, cinemas and theatres. Also in the mix if it’s your scene we can also visit a number of specialty gay adult shops. This is the perfect way to get an overview of the London gay scene. You finish your Capital Gay experience with a coffee and cake (calorie counting is not permitted) at one of London’s most popular gay coffee shops.
Duration: 3 hours. Daily at either 11am or 1pm. Between $125-150 per person
Hip London – Uber Cool East End Private Walking Tour
Discover London’s uber cool East End. A private walking tour for solo visitors, couples or friends that want to connect with the beat of London’s hippest neighbourhood. Let your personal insider guide share the extraordinarily hip (but often missed) secret locations. One Europe’s most creative hubs the Hip London tour is aimed at visitors keen to move beyond central London and discover an alternative view of London life. Every ‘in-the-know’ Londoner’s little black book is packed with shops, galleries and spaces drawn from the cutting edge of art, fashion and design in east London. Today the East End it is one of London’s most vibrant and multi-layered enclaves, combining a rich heritage with cutting-edge design, young hip residents and creative chatter. Discover the areas most intriguing shops, galleries and hidden gems with an expert in-the-know guide drawn from a mix of writers, designers and trendspotters. In fact, the type of person that has made the East End their home.
Duration: 3 hours. Daily at 11am or 1pm. Between $125-150 per person.
British Museum with a Scholar – Private Walking Tour
This walk explores how the British Museum came into existence in the mid-eighteenth century during the period of Enlightenment, so called because of people’s desire to re-examine received ideas and explore new ones using different methods of collecting data. We will look at some of the antiquities and languages of ancient Iraq and Iran as material from these areas forms some of the earliest collections in the British Museum. We begin our walk in the Enlightenment Gallery where we will talk about how archaeology evolved from the work of antiquaries; how art history was born with the study of ancient Greek sculpture and vase painting, and how Greek art set the standard for the next 200 years of what was considered the model of fully evolved art. We then move onto discussing how ancient texts came to be deciphered in the first place and we will compare the ways in which hieroglyphs and cuneiform, the two earliest scripts, were cracked. Our discussion will be illustrated by the Rosetta Stone which now lives in the British Museum, along with about 130,000 pieces of cuneiform tablets from ancient Iraq, some of which are on display.
Duration: 3 hours. Daily at 11am or 230pm. Between $150-200 per person.
London Architecture – Private Walking Tour
Constantly changing throughout time, London’s topography and architectural elements are completely different from those of any other big European capital. Spanning from the Norman times till recent years, this walk will offer a general introduction to the main periods and styles of London architecture, all led by a PhD level scholar/historian. Take this walking tour with a difference – led by a Ph.D. level scholar/historian our supplier will provide you with an in-depth alternative to traditional tours, pairing intellectually curious and adventurous travellers with specialists for an in-depth cultural experience. Constantly changing throughout time, London’s topography and architectural elements are completely different from those of any other big European capital. Spanning from the Norman times till recent years, this walk will offer a general introduction to the main periods and styles of London architecture. Walking around the central areas of Holborn and Bloomsbury, we will get to know the main features of London’s buildings through the different ages, the sources of their styles, the building materials and their practical function in the urban environment. The tour starts at Temple church, built by the Knights Templar in the shape of the Holy Sepulchre in Jerusalem, which represents one of the best places to discuss Medieval London and the passage between Norman-Romanesque and Gothic architecture. The walk with also lead you to different style buildings from the Jacobean, Georgian and Victorian eras.
Duration: 3 hours. Available daily except Sunday at 10am or 2pm. Between $150-200 per person.
Portrait of a City – Private Walking Tour
Take this walking tour with a difference – led by a Ph.D. level scholar/historian our supplier will provide you with an in-depth alternative to traditional tours, pairing intellectually curious and adventurous travellers with specialists for an in-depth cultural experience. London has a rich 2000 year old history, but much of it is hidden and hard to perceive by the uninitiated. This walk seeks to bring to light much of this history, looking broadly at the story of the city in a three hour walk. For the purposes of this walk we will focus on the City itself and see how London developed from a Roman town to the bustling financial centre of an empire. We will begin at the Museum of London, where we will walk through a timeline of the history of the capital. As we leave the museum we will pass some of the remainders of the Roman wall and fort that was situated in this area. We shall then proceed to the Guildhall, the medieval town hall and the only pre-1666 secular building that survived the fire and the WWII Blitz. We will then proceed to walk through the heart of the city through Eastcheap, once part of the area containing London’s medieval market, whose memory only remains in the road names. From here we will walk to the Monument, a large monolith, that commemorates the believed starting-point for the Great Fire of London in 1666, which destroyed most of the Medieval city.
Duration: 3 hours. Available Daily at 10am. Between $150-200 per person.
Tides of Time – Private Walking Tour
Take this walking tour with a difference – led by a Ph.D. level scholar/historian our supplier will provide you with an in-depth alternative to traditional tours, pairing intellectually curious and adventurous travellers with specialists for an in-depth cultural experience. Old Father Thames is the longest and best known river in England. In this walk, we move from Tower Bridge to the Houses of Parliament as we explore how the river and the city have shaped each other. Most of the walk will follow the recently regenerated and pedestrianised South Bank, where we will pass the rebuilt Shakespearean Globe Theatre, ruins of a medieval palace and the former Bankside Power Station, which has been transformed into London’s most recent art museum, the Tate Modern. Royal palaces and modern government buildings will illuminate the river’s role as a power base; old warehouses and wharfs will illustrate the working river and the bridges will tell the story of the development of areas previously divided by the river. In addition, we will chart how London has cleaned up its act, and its river, since the ‘Big Stink’ of 1858, allowing the Thames to once again become a diverse wildlife habitat.
Duration: 2.5 hours. Daily at 10am or 2pm. Between $150-200 per person.
Saturday Markets – Private Walking Tour
Enjoy a stroll through some of the most charming markets in London such as Broadway Market, Borough Market and Camden Passage.
Connect with the heart beat of London and discover the cities wonderful street markets. This private, exclusive Saturday morning experience showcases the best of London’s Saturday morning markets. Saturday Market is a private walking tour for solo visitors, couples or friends looking to move beyond the tourist trail and connect with contemporary, stylish London. If you value private, intimate and authentic experiences then this is for you. Moving around the city on public transport (travel card not included), our day starts in the north east of the city at Broadway Market in Hackney. One of London’s best kept secrets is small, intimate and packed with unique character. Discover artisan food, independent stalls and a fabulous mix of shops. From here it’s onto England’s finest food markets, Borough Market, close to London Bridge, an eye-opening, mouth watering destination. Here you can taste food and drink from across the globe, including award winning olives, cheeses and hams. Your tour closes at one of London’s much loved hidden gems, Camden Passage. An antique and flea market packed with over 50 established and younger dealers it is a haven for style-conscious Londoners. Camden Passage has a charm and atmosphere that is uniquely London.
Duration: 3 hours. Saturdays at 11am or 1pm. Between $150-200 per person.
Style Capital – Private Shopping and Fashion Tour
On the Style Capital shopping and fashion tour you will fast-track to the inside knowledge across London’s style scene. There is no better shopping destination in the world than London, but London’s sheer size and scale can often leave visitors overwhelmed and even worse, lost. Your in-the-know insider guide, a London based style journalist or designer, will introduce you to the hottest neighbourhoods, boutiques and one-off shops in London. This is an engaging, relaxed walking tour for the style conscious and curious. The tour will thrill serious shoppers and casual browsers. Get the inside track on locations known only to native Londoners, urban sybarites and fashion insiders. The Capital Style tour focuses on the upmarket enclaves of Bond Street and Marylebone. Packed with interesting treasures on every corner, we take you to slick department stores, world renowned designers, intimate boutiques, and independent shops. From the established to the up-and-coming, we look forward to showing you London’s best.
Duration: 3 hours. Daily at 11am or 1pm. Between $150-200 per person.
Please note that not all of these tours are available year-round. To find out if any of these options are available for your dates, please just email me or fill out a Travel Request Form.
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