Downton Abbey and English Castles
Fancy-Free Holidays, a TAP member, first offered its Downton Abbey and English Castles itinerary in 2013 when it was lucky enough to score tickets to tour Highclere Castle, the Crawley estate from the wildly popular PBS show “Downton Abbey” and the real-life home of the Earl and Countess of Carnarvon.
The company had four departures this year and has another four scheduled for 2016. The trips, which include several other castles, estates and historic sites, sell out a year in advance, said president Sandi Pufahl.
Highclere Castle is open for public tours only in summer, making tickets difficult to come by.
“We have to reserve and pay for tickets a year and a half in advance,” Pufahl said. “To do the August 2016 tours, we got our tickets in January 2015.”
Unlike some companies that advertise Downton Abbey tours and then only drive by the castle, Fancy-Free guests tour the inside of Highclere Castle, including the kitchens and servants’ quarters, and can explore the grounds, Pufahl said. Guests also travel to Waddesdon Manor, which they may recognize as the fictional Haxby Park from season two, and to the village of Bampton, where many of the series’ outdoor village scenes are filmed.
During the eight-day trip, the group will visit Westminster Abbey, Windsor Castle, Stonehenge, the British Museum and King George III’s Kew Palace and gardens. Another highlight is a tour of Buckingham Palace, which is open to the public only during August and early September, Pufahl said. Guests stay in Hendon Hall, a 1756 manor house in north London that was converted into a boutique hotel.
Seattle to Portland: A Pacific Northwest Adventure
“There’s a definite feel to the Pacific Northwest,” said Shawn Horman, senior vice president of TAP partner Western Leisure. The big cities of Seattle and Portland, Oregon, have their own vibe, just like Chicago or New York, but “the rugged Pacific Coast of Washington and Oregon, that’s what everyone really comes for,” he said.
Western Leisure first offered its Seattle-to-Portland itinerary as a guaranteed departure in 2015 and will run the six-night trip again in July 2016. The tour bookends experiences along the rocky, windy coast with stays in chic, cosmopolitan cities. Seattle includes the Space Needle, Chihuly Garden and Glass, and the Future of Flight Aviation Center and Boeing Tour.
The group tours the Tillamook Cheese Factory before
heading to the beach town of Newport, Oregon, where guests visit the Oregon Coast Aquarium. At the Elizabeth Street Inn, a seaside hotel, guests enjoy a beach bonfire and s’mores after dinner. Near Florence, travelers ride dune buggies in the Oregon Dunes National Recreation Area, where some dunes reach 500 feet tall. The large buggies each hold about 20 people, so they’re fun and bumpy but not as crazy as the smaller buggies’ “white-knuckle, fly-off-the-end-of-a-sand-cliff ride,” Horman said.
Travelers will visit the International Rose Test Garden in Portland before exploring downtown on their own that night. The Columbia River Gorge is the highlight of the last full day of the trip. Visitors will stop at Multnomah Falls, the largest of 11 waterfalls on the drive up. The group will also visit Bonneville Dam, where they can take a self-guided tour and watch salmon swimming upstream through viewing windows.
Colorado Scenic Byways and Fall Colors
TAP partner Leisure West has always run a Colorado fall colors tour, but when co-owners Lee Dahl and Joan Fields launched their Colorado scenic byways trip, the natural beauty of the two tours naturally merged into one itinerary.
“You get the best not only of the scenic byways but also the best of the fall colors,” Dahl said.
The six-day itinerary loops through western Colorado, leaving from Denver and heading up the Poudre Canyon to Steamboat Springs, then to Carbondale, near Aspen. From there, the group travels over McClure Pass to Montrose, road trips to Silverton and traverses the heart-stopping Million Dollar Highway to Ignacio. The trip wraps up with a jaunt over Slumgullion Pass from Creede to Gunnison.
Altogether, travelers will journey over five of Colorado’s scenic byways, and because each one is different, “we’re always getting fall colors in different stages,” Dahl said. “Some places are just beginning, and over the next pass, they’ll be prime.”
The trip also aims to take travelers to lesser-known sites. In Carbondale, the group will visit the sister peaks of Maroon Bells before heading to Ashcroft, an 1880s mining ghost town the Aspen Historical Society preserves in an arrested state of decay. Travelers can explore the site, read plaques about its history and, of course, take as many photographs as possible.
“Really, the whole tour is great for photographers because there’s so much color and beauty,” Dahl said.
The group also visits Black Canyon of the Gunnison National Park, stops at North Clear Creek Falls and drives over Grand Mesa, which delivers views from 10,000 feet looking down into Grand Valley.
