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City & Village Tours: 0845 812 5000 info@cityandvillagetours.com
Chiltern Curios & the Royal Regatta Cruise
An alternative name for this new tour might be
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Beechwood Beauty
as it takes in the next stretch of
river between Marlow where the Beechwood Beauty
boat trip ended and Henley, Queen of the Thames.
We’ve put this very scenic day together because
groups who have enjoyed our Beechwood Beauty
cruise have asked to ‘
do the next bit of river’
. And
what a fine project, year by year to work your way
along the noble Thames! The cruise is two hours of
idyllic Upper Thames scenes travelling downstream
from Henley along the Royal Regatta Course and past
ancient places with ancient names: Bisham, Temple,
Hurley, Medmenham, Hambleden and Fawley. The
coach tour explores the towns and villages of flint and
red brick that nestle in the richly wooded folds of the
Thames Chiltern Hills. It really is rather gorgeous.
The day starts in Marlow at 11.00am with time to buy
morning refreshments and get set for a scenic drive to
Henley. The valley sides that rise steeply from the
Thames are an absolute warren of single track roads -
tunnels through dense woodland and it takes a guide
who really knows this neck of the woods to take a
coach safely through this beautiful countryside and
capture the essence of the landscapes and reveal the
rich history and stories. There’s a lot to enjoy from
grand country estates to houses straight from the
pages of Country Life and the picturesque hamlets
filmed for Morse and Midsomer Murders. Ian
Fleming was the son of the MP for Henley, we’ll pass
the school that the James Bond author attended before
Eton and the church where his sister-in-law Celia
Johnson lies buried. We discover a remarkable and
towering old pottery kiln and, would you believe it a
well donated during the reign of Queen Victoria by
an Indian Maharajah who felt sorry for the locals
who, he had heard, were forced to drink from dirty
puddles in their dry village. We’ll stop to see this
strange reverse-outpost of the long lost British
Empire that was dug through the chalk and sand by
hand - quite a feat when you learn that though it is
never more than four feet wide the well is every inch
as deep as St Paul’s Cathedral is tall. A morning of
beautiful landscapes and curious finds
brings us to
Henley, Queen of the Thames for a good long lunch
break with plenty of time to enjoy this very pleasant
town. You’ll have lots of choice for lunch and you
can opt to wander through the shops, sit by the river
and watch the boats go by, visit the River & Rowing
New Tour