By Paull Tickner

One of the mistakes many travel planners make with UK cathedral based tours is that they tend to pack far too much into too short a timeframe.  This often results in huge distances being covered with more time on the bus than in the attractions they so wanted to see.  This is good news for the coach operator but hopeless for your customers who will have flown between 3-6,000 miles for a trip that could have been better paced and then packed with interesting things to see and do.

My suggestion is to plan something that travels less, so that the church choir/congregation can see a whole lot more.  With fewer hours on the bus, your clients will be able to switch the emphasis from travelling, to doing and experiencing more of what our country has to offer.

If you check some of the cathedral websites, you will be amazed at the extent and variety of what they have to offer and then begin to wonder why so little of it is ever included in a tour itinerary.  Because you have to keep up with the schedule, most of this wonderful 'stuff' is completely ignored.
At this point, I'd like you to get hold of a good map of the UK and to start plotting on it the cathedral cities I'm going to take you to.

Assuming a LHR/LGW arrival/departure, consider a routing which over an 8 night period starts with a visit to Southwark Cathedral and a tour of the area that was the theatre, bull baiting and red light district in Shakespeare's time. Then follow a trail that fairly closely parallels the route taken by Chaucer's Pilgrims through Rochester, where Charles Dickens lived for much of his life, to the cathedral city of Canterbury.  Time it so that you're in there on Sunday for either Choral Matins or Choral Eucharist in the Mother Church of the Anglican Communion.

In the south of England your cathedral tour should be centred on Chichester, famous for its contemporary art collections, Winchester where their Medieval Times tour includes a viewing of the 12th century Winchester Bible and Salisbury where you can listen to the choir in rehearsal before Choral Evensong.  And then, before reaching London, you can add in HMS Victory in Portsmouth, Jane Austen's House at Chawton, Downton Abbey aka Highclere Castle, Old Sarum and Stonehenge.

Continuing further westwards and into the Land of Living Legends your itinerary should include a tour of the underground passages in Exeter and then after Choral Evensong, a private evening tour of the cathedral plus a visit to the treasure filled Library.  The Truro Cathedral visit can be given a Victorian Gothic twist.  Also included in this West Country programme will be the Pilgrim Fathers, tales of King Arthur and the Knights of the Round Table, a Birthplace of America tour of Bristol, a couple of Cornish Cream Teas and at least one Somerset Cider tasting.

Moving up country, you can devise a shorter tour centred on Christ Church Cathedral, Oxford and a visit to the important art collection in their Picture Gallery.  The university city is also where the focus begins to sharpen on Alice in Wonderland, C S Lewis, Sir Winston Churchill, and William Shakespeare.  From a base in Stratford upon Avon, Coventry Cathedral is a must see in 2012 as they will be enthusiastically celebrating their 50th anniversary.

Another attractive combination brings together the cathedrals in Gloucester, Worcester and their love themed tour and Hereford with a private tour of their Chained Library.  Make this a two country programme by adding a visit to Llandaff Cathedral, just west of Cardiff, the capital city of Wales.  By reducing the mileage, you can build in more time in the Cotswolds, include inspirational Tintern Abbey and feature an evening with a Welsh Male Voice Choir.

In the east of England, another circuit emerges when you link together St Albans, Peterborough (making time to take a tour of the Dean's private garden), Kings College Cambridge, stunning Ely Cathedral and its Stained Glass Museum, the shrine at Walsingham, Norwich and Bury St Edmunds.  Taking a closer look at this area of England enables you to include John Bunyan's birthplace, Her Majesty the Queen's country retreat at Sandringham, Jamestown connections at Otley Hall and some renditions of 'Amazing Grace' as you travel through Olney, home of its composer, the Reverend John Newton.

With one eye still on the map, check out the non-stop flights into Manchester in the north of England from Atlanta, Chicago, Philadelphia, Las Vegas, Orlando, JFK, and Newark.  The airside/kerbside service is much faster than London or Gatwick so you're quickly on your way to see the 12th century castles in North Wales, the Beatles in Liverpool and Beatrix Potter in the Lake District.  The overnight accommodations will be in the cathedral cities of Chester, Carlisle, Durham and York, where to be different they have a spectacular Minster.

Looking ahead, why not use the annual Southern Cathedrals Festival (July) or the Three Choirs Festival (August) as the main attraction for a tour.  Later in 2012 and into 2013, the cathedrals in Gloucester, Chester and York will be re-enacting their Mystery Plays, a form of medieval street theatre that was used to teach the Gospel to the largely illiterate populace.

Cathedrals tell the living history of England and as it is often a story we share with you, allow more time for your clients to discover it for themselves.

Paull Tickner, creator of Special Interest Britain, is affiliated with the Greatdays Travel Group. For over 30 years, he has been developing and operating customized niche travel programs for the United Kingdom and Ireland. For more information, visit his Web site at www.greatdays.co.uk and E-mail him at pjtickner@yahoo.co.uk

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