Historic Towns
& Cities

For forty-four years the Royal Yacht Britannia carried the late Queen Elizabeth II and the Royal Family more than a million nautical miles, on state visits, royal honeymoons and family holidays in the Western Isles. She now lies at Leith, restored across five decks and open to visitors, and she is far more affecting than photographs suggest.

The audio tour takes you from the bridge and the wheelhouse down through the state apartments, the Queen's bedroom and the sun lounge, to the engine room and the crew's quarters. Admission and transfers are included. Brunch is served on the way to Edinburgh and a six-course dinner on the way home, with musicians in the carriages.

Your day includes:

• A Champagne reception and a three-course brunch on the outward journey
• Coach transfers to Leith and admission to the Royal Yacht Britannia
• An audio tour across five decks
• A six-course dinner with fine wines on the journey home

Smart day wear. Please avoid jeans and trainers.

Two thousand years of history sit inside York's walls, from the Roman fortress under the Minster to the Viking city beneath Coppergate and the medieval streets above both. The Minster itself holds the largest expanse of medieval stained glass in the country, and the Shambles is the most complete medieval street in Europe.

The walls make a circuit of about two miles and take in most of what you want to see. Beyond them there is the National Railway Museum, the Yorkshire Museum and the ruins of St Mary's Abbey. The day is yours to spend, with brunch on the way and a Champagne reception and six-course dinner waiting when you return to the train.

Your day includes:

• A three-course brunch on the outward journey
• A free afternoon in York
• A Champagne reception on rejoining the train
• A six-course dinner with fine wines on the journey home

Smart day wear and comfortable shoes for walking the city.

The Settle and Carlisle is the most spectacular main line in England and the last great railway built by hand. Seventy-three miles of it were cut through the Pennines by navvies working with picks and black powder, over twenty-two viaducts and through fourteen tunnels, climbing the long drag to Ais Gill at 1,169 feet, the highest point on any main line in the country.

Behind a heritage steam locomotive, with the exhaust drifting past the windows and Ribblehead Viaduct's twenty-four arches curving away beneath you, it is as good as railway travel gets. Brunch is served on the way north, there is free time in Carlisle, and a six-course dinner is served on the run home.

Your day includes:

• A Champagne reception and a three-course brunch on the outward journey
• Steam haulage over the Settle and Carlisle line
• Free time to explore Carlisle
• A six-course dinner with fine wines on the journey home

Smart day wear. Please avoid jeans and trainers.

Edinburgh rewards a day spent on foot more than almost any city in Britain. The castle sits on its volcanic rock at one end of the Royal Mile and Holyroodhouse at the other, with the closes and wynds of the Old Town running off between them, while across the valley the Georgian New Town lays out one of the finest pieces of town planning in Europe.

This journey leaves the day entirely to you. Spend it in the National Gallery, on Princes Street, up Calton Hill for the view, or simply working slowly along the Royal Mile. Brunch is served on the way north and a six-course dinner on the way home, so the only thing you need to plan is what to see.

Your day includes:

• A red carpet welcome and a Champagne reception
• A three-course brunch on the outward journey
• A free afternoon in Edinburgh
• A six-course dinner with fine wines on the journey home

Smart day wear and comfortable shoes for walking the city.

Oxford has been teaching for more than nine hundred years and it shows in every street. The Radcliffe Camera, the Bodleian, the Sheldonian and the great quadrangles of Christ Church and Magdalen are all within a short walk of each other, and the city is small enough to see properly in an afternoon.

There is more than the colleges, of course. The Ashmolean is the oldest public museum in the country, the covered market has been trading since 1774, and the Botanic Garden runs down to the Cherwell. Brunch is served on the way down and dinner runs to six courses on the way home.

Your day includes:

• A three-course brunch on the outward journey
• A free afternoon in Oxford
• A Champagne reception on rejoining the train
• A six-course dinner with fine wines on the journey home

Smart day wear and comfortable shoes for walking the city.

Bath is a UNESCO World Heritage Site twice over and the only place in Britain with naturally hot springs. The Georgian city built around them is remarkably complete, from the Royal Crescent and the Circus to Pulteney Bridge with its shops along both sides, all of it in the same honey-coloured limestone.

The centre is compact and easily walkable, with independent shops and boutiques threaded through the grand streets and small passageways. This version of the day leaves the afternoon entirely free, so you can shop, take tea at the Pump Room, or simply wander.

Your day includes:

• A three-course brunch with a Mimosa cocktail on the outward journey
• A free afternoon in Bath
• A Champagne reception on rejoining the train
• A six-course dinner with fine wines on the journey home

Smart day wear. Please avoid jeans and trainers, and remember that part of your day is spent outdoors.

The Romans built their bathing complex at Aquae Sulis around the only hot spring in Britain, and it is still there, still fed at forty-six degrees by water that fell as rain on the Mendips thousands of years ago. The Great Bath, the temple courtyard and the sacred spring are among the finest Roman remains north of the Alps.

Admission to the Roman Baths and its award-winning museum is included, along with the curse tablets, the gilt bronze head of Sulis Minerva and the reconstructed temple pediment. On some dates an open-top coach tour of the Georgian city is offered as well, taking in the Royal Crescent and the Circus.

Your day includes:

• A three-course brunch with a Mimosa cocktail on the outward journey
• Admission to the Roman Baths and museum
• Time to explore Georgian Bath, with an optional open-top coach tour on selected dates
• A six-course dinner with fine wines on the journey home

Smart day wear. Please avoid jeans and trainers, and remember that part of your day is spent outdoors.

This is the same magnificent route as the steam special, run behind heritage diesel traction. The line still climbs the long drag through the Yorkshire Dales, still crosses Ribblehead Viaduct, and still runs down through the Eden Valley into Carlisle, and the views from the window are exactly as good.

A three-course brunch is served as the train works north, there is time in Carlisle, and dinner runs to six courses on the return through the Dales in the evening light.

Your day includes:

• A Champagne reception and a three-course brunch on the outward journey
• The full Settle and Carlisle route in both directions
• Free time to explore Carlisle
• A six-course dinner with fine wines on the journey home

Smart day wear. Please avoid jeans and trainers.

Llandudno is the grandest of the Welsh seaside towns and the best preserved Victorian resort in Britain. The sweep of the bay runs between the Great Orme and the Little Orme, the promenade is unbroken by amusements, and the pier is the longest in Wales at nearly seven hundred yards.

There is time for the tramway or the cable car up the Great Orme, for the shops under the canopies of Mostyn Street, or simply for a long walk along the front and an ice cream. The train handles the rest, brunch on the way there and six courses on the way back.

Your day includes:

• A three-course brunch on the outward journey
• A free afternoon in Llandudno
• A Champagne reception on rejoining the train
• A six-course dinner with fine wines on the journey home

Smart day wear and comfortable shoes.

Penderyn brought whisky distilling back to Wales in 2000 after a gap of more than a century, and its Llandudno distillery sits in a beautifully converted Victorian building in the middle of the town. The tour covers the unique single copper pot still the company developed with Dr David Faraday, and finishes with a tasting.

The rest of the afternoon is free for Llandudno itself, the promenade, the pier and the Victorian shopping streets beneath the Great Orme. Brunch is served on the outward journey and a Champagne reception and six-course dinner on the way home.

Your day includes:

• A three-course brunch on the outward journey
• A guided tour of Penderyn Distillery with tastings
• Free time in Llandudno
• A Champagne reception and a six-course dinner on the journey home

Smart day wear and comfortable shoes.

Oban calls itself the seafood capital of Scotland and makes a decent case for it. The bay is sheltered by the island of Kerrera, the ferries come and go for Mull, Coll and the Outer Hebrides, and McCaig's Tower stands above the town in a folly modelled on the Colosseum.

The journey out is half the pleasure, running west from Glasgow across Rannoch Moor and down through Glen Lochy. There is time in Oban for the distillery, the harbour and a plate of langoustines, then a Champagne reception and six courses on the way back east.

Your day includes:

• A three-course brunch on the outward journey
• A free afternoon in Oban
• A Champagne reception on rejoining the train
• A six-course dinner with fine wines on the journey home

Smart day wear and comfortable shoes. Dress for changeable west coast weather.

The Dartmouth Steam Railway runs seven miles along the South Devon coast from Paignton to Kingswear, hugging the cliffs above Goodrington Sands, crossing the Greenway Viaduct and dropping down through the woods to the Dart estuary. It is one of the loveliest short lines in Britain and it is worked by Great Western tank engines in chocolate and cream.

Tickets for the steam railway are included, along with time in Paignton itself. Brunch is served on the Northern Belle on the way down from the Midlands, and a six-course dinner with wine on the way home.

Your day includes:

• A three-course brunch on the outward journey
• Tickets for the Dartmouth Steam Railway to Kingswear
• Leisure time in Paignton
• A six-course dinner with fine wines on the journey home

Smart day wear and comfortable shoes.

Torquay is the centre of the English Riviera, a stretch of South Devon coast with palm trees along the front and more than twenty beaches within easy reach. The harbour and marina sit at the heart of the town, with the Victorian terraces rising up the hillside behind.

It is Agatha Christie's home town, and the Torre Abbey gardens include a poison garden planted with the species she used in her novels. Otherwise the day is simply yours, for the seafront, the harbour and lunch by the water, with brunch on the way down and dinner with wine on the way home.

Your day includes:

• A three-course brunch on the outward journey
• A free afternoon in Torquay
• A Champagne reception on rejoining the train
• A six-course dinner with fine wines on the journey home

Smart day wear and comfortable shoes.