London & the Countryside With Paris Extension

Step outside your hotel, for a stroll through the streets of the heart of the English-speaking world. In this city of nearly seven million, you'll see everything from 12th-century fortifications to modern skyscrapers, formal parks to punk rockers. Your Tour Director will lead you to some of the most famous sites. Walk along the Thames River. Cross Trafalgar Square. See bustling Piccadilly Circus. Pass trendy shops and cafés in Bohemian Soho on your way to Covent Garden, a 13th-century fruit and vegetable garden transformed into a maze of narrow streets and pedestrian walkways burgeoning with street performers, open-air markets and boutiques.

Nothing’s more British than fish and chips—there are eight fish and chip shops (“chippies”) for every McDonald’s in the country. Head to an authentic pub with your Tour Director for a taste of this national food, generally served with malt vinegar.

Join a licensed local guide for an in-depth look at London, from the royal haunt of Buckingham Palace (the official London residence of Queen Elizabeth II) to the slightly more democratic Speakers’ Corner of Hyde Park, where anyone can pull up a soapbox and orate to his heart’s content. You’ll see the changing of the guard (season permitting), the clock tower of Big Ben with its 14-ton bell, and Westminster Abbey, where almost every English king and queen since William the Conqueror has been crowned. After a stop at the Houses of Parliament, continue on to the magnificent St. Paul’s Cathedral, the masterpiece of London architect Christopher Wren.

See how the Queen relaxes on this guided tour of the royal weekend estate, originally built as a fortress in the 11th century under William the Conqueror. Tiptoe through the tulips (and other flowers) in the East Terrace Gardens, marvel at the Gothic St. George's Chapel, or peek into the rooms of Queen Mary's doll house with its gallery of pint-size perfect furniture. Get decorating tips for your own country estate (or dorm room, as it may be).

Get up close and personal with the Tower of London. Towers, rather. Twenty stone towers, as well as tunnels, winding staircases and narrow passageways comprise this huge fortress covering 18 acres on the banks of the Thames. A royal residence from the 11th - 16th centuries, the Tower also served as a jewel safe and a prison. Scary: See the headless skeletons of Anne Boleyn and Catherine Howard (Henry VIII's former wives who were executed here). Shiny: The Crown Jewels are housed here, including the largest cut diamond in the world (530-carats). Safe: Beefeaters (guards) lead tours through the Tower.

Explore the backstreets of the East End, where the world’s most renowned serial killer attacked his victims. Jack the Ripper killed at least five, and maybe as many as eleven, prostitutes in foggy Victorian London. His identity has never been determined -- maybe you’ll pick up a few clues and solve the mystery yourself.

Explore the oldest English-speaking university in the world. Founded in 1096, Oxford got a big attendance boost in 1167, when a tiff between the English and French kings caused all English students to be expelled from the University of Paris. Many came back to Oxford, and since then the university has been home to many of England's most illustrious thinkers and writers, including Sir Walter Raleigh, Roger Bacon -- and Dr. Seuss.

See William Shakespeare's childhood home, furnished in a style typical to the Elizabethan period. Then tour the thatched cottage where his wife, Anne Hathaway, lived before her marriage. The adjoining Shakespeare Tree Garden is planted with trees and flowers mentioned in Shakespeare's plays.

Visit William Shakespeare's childhood home, furnished in a style typical to the Elizabethan period. Then tour the thatched cottage where his wife, Anne Hathaway, lived before her marriage. The adjoining Shakespeare Tree Garden is planted with trees and flowers mentioned in Shakespeare’s plays.

Rising up from a cliff overlooking the Avon River, Warwick Castle is one of the finest medieval castles in England. Built between the 13th and 17th centuries, the castle has turrets, towers, and a turbulent past. Enter through a passageway cut in a slab of solid rock. See the "apartment block" containing the chapel, great hall, staterooms, and apartments. Then climb a narrow spiral staircase to the top of Guy's Tower (named after Guy of Warwick, a legendary warrior featured in Chaucer's Canterbury Tales). From the tower, look out over the lush countryside of Warwickshire. That small hill to your right is the castle mound, the site of the original 11th-century wooden castle. End with a stroll of the sweeping lawns planted with grand trees.

England's most fashionable spa town in the 18th century, beautiful, Georgian-style Bath was where the society set headed to "take the waters" and attend the theaters. But the spa scene began bubbling long before then. The Romans built baths here between the 1st and 5th centuries to capitalize on the area's natural hot springs. A professional, local tour guide will lead you to the Roman ruins, some of the best in Europe. But keep your clothes on! Your tour continues to the remains of the Medieval abbey church of Saint Peter and Saint Paul (built on the site of a nunnery from the 670s). Look up at the fan-vaulted ceiling. Step back outside to see the ornate west front featuring relief sculptures of Jacob's ladder. Continue to Pulteney Bridge, built in the 18th century after the style of Florence's Ponte Vecchio. As in Florence, shops line the span.

Visit prehistoric Stonehenge, built in 3,000 BC, a mysterious monument of four concentric rings of hefty stones, believed to be a sacred place of worship or some type of calendar.

Take the Eurostar under the English Channel. Faster than you can say... anything, in French, you'll whiz through a tunnel and arrive in Paris.

This city was made for walking. Stroll grand boulevards with sweeping views of the city, pristine parks with trees planted in perfect rows, and narrow streets crowded with vendors selling flowers, pastries and cheese. Then head to the Île de la Cité, a small island in the Seine, to see Notre Dame Cathedral. Look up at the great stone buttresses, grotesque gargoyles, and massive stained-glass windows.

Visit one of the original college towns. Since the Sorbonne’s founding in the 1100s, the Left Bank has attracted not only intellectuals but also the cafés, bookstores, and cinemas that tend to accompany them. It’s also attracted its fair share of famous residents – a plaque marks one of Hemingway’s apartments on rue du Cardinal-Lemoine, and the imposing neoclassical Panthéon holds the tombs of Voltaire, Rousseau, Victor Hugo, and Marie Curie.

What's that huge white arch at the end of the Champs-Élysées? The Arc de Triomphe, commissioned by Napoleon in 1806 after his victory at Austerlitz. Your licensed local guide will elaborate on this, and other Parisian landmarks. See some of the most famous sites, including the ornate, 19th-century Opera, the Presidential residence, the ultra-chic shops of the Rue du Faubourg St-Honoré, and the gardens of the Tuileries. You'll pass the Place de la Concorde, where in the center you’ll find the Obelisk of Luxor, a gift from Egypt in 1836, and the Place Vendôme, a huge square surrounded by 17th-century buildings. Spot chic locals (and tons of tourists) strolling the Champs-Élysées. Look up at the iron girders of the Eiffel Tower, built for the 1889 World's Fair to commemorate the centenary of the French Revolution. See Les Invalides (a refuge for war wounded), the École Militaire (Napoleon's alma mater), and the Conciergerie (the prison where Marie Antoinette was kept during the French Revolution).

The world's largest art museum, the Louvre is housed in a medieval fortress-turned-castle so grand it's worth a tour itself. You walk through the 71-foot glass pyramid designed by I.M. Pei and added in 1989, and step into another world-one with carved ceilings, deep-set windows, and so many architectural details, you could spend a week just admiring the rooms. But check out the art on the walls. The Mona Lisa is here, as well as the Venus de Milo and Winged Victory (the headless statue, circa 200 BC, discovered at Samothrace). The Louvre has seven different departments of paintings, prints, drawings, sculptures and antiquities. Don't miss the Egyptian collection, complete with creepy sarcophagi, or the collection of Greek ceramics, one of the largest in the world. (Please note the Louvre is closed on Tuesdays.)

See the city from the water on an hour-long cruise along the River Seine. The Seine cuts right through Paris, dividing the city in half. See the Eiffel tower rising up on the Left Bank, the walls of the Louvre on the Right Bank. A guide will point out other monuments and architectural marvels as you pass, many of which are illuminated by clear white light at night.