Mary Valentine Tours invites you to join us as we seek out "off the beaten path" locations. Stay tuned here for details as we continue to build our newest tour. You are guaranteed to be both entertained and educated.
British Villages and Small Towns
Our 2027 tours will emphasize life in British villages and small towns. Not just sites for gorgeous photos, UK villages and towns are wonderful examples of how rural areas in the UK maintain their identity and way of life as the world around them modernizes. See below for some of our current picks, subject to updating as we get closer to tour dates.
May 14-21 and September 15-22, 2027
Not included: airfare, airport transport, meals other than dinners and afternoon tea, incidentals, and tips for our driver.
Bibury, a historic Cotswold Village, is considered by some to be the most beautiful village in the United Kingdom.
Castle Combe has also been called 'The Prettiest Village in England' and with good reason; visitors have been coming to enjoy its charms for at least a century and the small street leading from the Market Cross down to the By Brook is as picturesque today as it ever was.
Upper and Lower Slaughter share a fascinating name, which derives from 'miry place'. The link is the tiny River Eye, tributary to the nearby river Windrush. Lower Slaughter is very conservation-minded, and a wander alongside the stream seems like a privilege. People actually live here! Upper Slaughter is equally attractive - a 'sainted village' meaning that it lost nobody in the First World War.
A village that has outlawed automobiles, Clovelly is a beautiful, picturesque fishing village, steeped in maritime atmosphere and history. It was once owned by the Queen of England!
Originally the estate was owned by William the Conqueror, King of England, gifted to his wife and then had many royal associations until 1242 when first acquired by the Giffard family. Until the middle of the 19th century Clovelly was unknown to the outside world.
Robin Hood's Bay is known locally as "Bay" or "Bay Town" and features a maze of narrow, twisting cobbled streets, steep hills, and tightly packed historic cottages built mostly between 1650 and 1750. It is also known for its smuggling history.
The setting for many films that require a historic setting because of its preserved 13th Century Medieval architecture and streets, it is also the home of the Fox Talbot Museum which displays many interesting artifacts from the history of photography.
Some of the films made here include the Harry Potter series, a version of Pride & Prejudice, and scenes from Downtown Abbey.
Big Ben and Westminster Bridge.
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