Become a Home Based Travel Agent

PUTTING THE "T" IN BRITAIN
By Paull Tickner

I work closely with a very fine group of hotels (www.cotswold-inns-hotels.co.uk) and recently enjoyed a very pleasant lunch with their Sales Director in the gardens of the Broadway Hotel in the heart of the picturesque Cotswold village of Broadway.  We were talking about food in general and the area's annual Asparagus Festival in particular when she fixed me with a penetrating stare and asked me what I might be able to do with strawberries, as the basis for a tour.

Stumped for about 30 seconds, I looked around me and taking in the great banks of lavender and the flowerbeds filled to overflowing with colourful drifts of fragrant roses, I uttered the immortal words "Strawberries, Lavender and Roses".

The upshot of this observation was the immediate creation of a brand new tour that puts the T in the word Cotswolds and which works beautifully as a 6-7 night London and the Cotswolds, Girls Getaway itinerary that runs best in June and includes:

*  A demonstration of how to use strawberries in a variety of different ways, plus a strawberry cream tea, a strawberry cocktail and Strawberries Romanof as the dinner desert.

*  Lavender flavoured scones during another afternoon tea at the Snowshill Lavender Fields where their Gift Shop is well worth a visit.

*  Leisurely visits to the scent-filled, award-winning gardens at Kiftsgate Court, Sudeley Castle and Coughton Court winners of an Award for Garden Excellence from the World Federation of Roses - a first for the UK.

*  A closer look at the Cotswold Arts and Crafts Movement  in Chipping Campden.

*  A private and interactive opportunity to learn how to correctly prepare and serve an English Afternoon Tea and the etiquette behind it.

The Cotswolds is home to another interpretaion of the letter T, as in golf tee.  The area has a number of good golf courses and I can offer you a programme which brings together visits to 2-3 fabulous gardens (chosen according to the season), some antiquing time in Tetbury and other nearby villages and 2-3 rounds of golf including a Sollheim-type competition against a team of local lady golfers. There are cups for the winners and mild hangovers for everyone!

From the Cotswolds, we then travel cross country to the county of Bedfordshire just north of London where Anna Maria Russell, the 7th Duchess of Bedford created Afternoon Tea.  Back in the early part of the 19th century, as tea was being introduced in England she found that our famous brew and a snack was the ideal pick me up when she had "that sinking feeling" in the late afternoon.  She took the idea back into fashionable London Society and the rest is as they say, history.  A 2 night 'Bedford tea experience' includes a visit to the treasure filled Woburn Abbey and an interactive afternoon at Kathy Brown's manor home and beautiful garden where her culinary course will teach how to use the flowers from the Edible Borders in a variety of different and imaginative ways.

In earlier articles, I've mentioned  BaTh as another highly recommended destination for Girls Getaways and my spies tell me that there are some exceptional and award winning tearooms in and around the city.  The letter T pops up again  with the Thermae Bath Spa where a 2 or 4 hour session will make you feel a million dollars.

A reviving cuppa can be worked into itineraries in a number of different ways.  It provides a nice link between a private tour of one of our magnificent cathedrals, and Choral Evensong, a short act of worship that's taken place, each day in the cathedral, for hundreds of years.

Tea and cakes and watching the locals is a high point in visits to privately owned gardens that open when at their best, as part of the National Garden Scheme (www.ngs.org.uk), a charity that raises huge sums of money each year for various deserving causes.  At present, I live in Chipping Campden and each year in mid June, over 20 gardens open simultaneously.  Some eager beavers see all of them.  Others like my wife and I visit 10-12 before home made cakes and 'a brew' halt us in our tracks at about 4.30pm!

Its also a lovely thing to enjoy after a boat ride down the River Thames, a tour of the National Maritime Museum and a visit to the utterly charming Fan Museum where the afternoon tea and cakes are exceptional.  Been there, done that and enjoyed it immensely.

My friend at Cotswold Inns and Hotels is delighted with the 'Strawberries, Lavender and Roses' idea and so are 3 travel agents who spotted the story in my weekly Niche Britain eNewsletter.  She's now asked me to come up with something involving plums...

For your own copy of this new tour and other Girls Getaway programmes, send an email to pjtickner@yahoo.co.uk