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City & Village Tours: 0845 812 5000 info@cityandvillagetours.com
At 4.00pm we board our cruiser for the Beechwood
Beauty Boat Trip. There is a bar on board where you
can buy hot and cold drinks (to have with that bun
you invested in at Marlow?) This really is one of the
most attractive stretches of the Upper Thames so sit
back and enjoy. If you come in August or September
you’ll get to enjoy the wonderful light and colours of
late summer evenings. The boats have big open
decks (as well as enclosed rain-proof cabins) and to
really enjoy the river we recommend being out in the
open, engaging with the beauty and nature of the
Thames - so remember to remind your folk to bring
warm cardies to enable them to do this in comfort.
And you really will want to be out in the open when
we make our way upstream where the Thames cuts
its way through beech woods that tower above us.
This is the stretch of river famous for Swan Upping,
The Wind in the Willows and Three Men in a Boat.
There are truly breathtaking views of the hanging
woodlands of Cliveden as we pass through a canyon
of woodland with glimpses of the house itself .
On the riverbank we pass the grand old water steps
where guests of the Astors and the Cliveden Set
once arrived. It is a very evocative spot and you can
almost hear the strains of the Charleston and other
gramophone hits of the Twenties and the laughter of
the Bright Young Things tripping in and out of
mirror varnished slipper launches, champagne
glasses tinkling. Indeed do look out for today’s
Bright Young Things in vintage wooden river craft
for Cliveden House, now owned by the National
Trust is let as a hotel and they keep a beautiful fleet of
boats for the entertainment of their guests. Here, they
say, the Swinging Sixties reached the very top strata of
society with the with political and social intrigue of the
infamous “Profumo Affair”. You’ll see Spring Lodge,
rented from the Astors by Stephen Ward that would
become the epicentre of the scandal in plain view from
the river. In December 2013 a new Andrew Lloyd
Webber & Don Black musical Profumo opens at the
Aldwych Theatre.
This is a really beautiful cruise with so much to see
and enjoy and before you know it two and a quarter
hours will have flown by and we’ll have passed
through Marlow Lock with painterly views upstream to
the suspension bridge that has a big brother crossing
the Danube between Buda and Pest. We step ashore
in Higginson Park opposite the Compleat Angler at
Marlow and return to the coach waiting for us here
ready to head for home at 6.30pm having blissfully
missed the local rush hour.
This tour is available daily from April to the end of
September. The walking is quite slight today and the
coach mileage is 25 miles. Until the end of September
2013 you can book this tour for groups of 35 or more
people for £20.95 per person (adults and seniors).
We will hold this price for bookings for April 2014
but from 1 May 2014 it will rise to £21.95 per person.
To Book for 2013 or 2014
Call us on 0845 812 5000