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City & Village Tours: 0845 812 5000 info@cityandvillagetours.com
If starting a tour at 10.30am doesn’t suit you consider
booking a trip a
Later Start Option.
Instead of arriving at 10.30am you can meet the tour
guide at 11.45am/noon and start your day out with an
early lunch. This is the best option for groups who don't
want to set out during the rush hour and it is also a good
idea to solve the thorny problem of drivers hours for
many groups. Call and ask for us to explain why.
The Later Start Option
is available across the
board, including our Together Tour itineraries where,
instead of starting with morning coffee as on a standard
timing day, you arrive for an early lunch at midday and
a cup of coffee is still included in the tour fee but is
served after your lunch.
Later Start Days cover all the core itinerary points as
described in the tour description. The order of events
may differ but not the tour content and you don't head
home much later than on a standard tour. Usually it’s a
matter of heading for home about 30 minutes later than
an ordinary start day.
Our Blue Badge Guides
Our guides have the Blue Badge – the highest guiding
qualification in the UK. The Blue Badge course is always
over-subscribed and is very demanding, with a terrifying
range of written and practical examinations.
Not everyone passes, not by a long chalk.
And not everyone who passes has the right blend of
skills to be a guide with City & Village Tours.
Beyond and above the knowledge we also require
kindness, patience, warmth, a sense of humour and the
ability to be heard clearly, especially by older folk.
It’s a critical mix of skills that our regular groups
recognise instantly. And it is an award-winning mix –
we have received ten awards for the best guided tours
in the country.
There are over 1500 holders of the Blue Badge in the UK
but there are only 30 guides in the City & Village Tours
team. It’s no lottery when you book a day out with City
& Village Tours.
Later Start Days
For people who don't want to start their day out too early
The Viewing Gallery at The Shard
opens to the public in February 2013.
Published rates are £25 a pop to ride
up in the kaleidoscopic lift and enjoy
the views from the 69th floor
viewing gallery.
We will bring further news of
The Shard in next month’s
issue of
The Kettle.