Great Britain & Ireland is our Specialty
www.handcraftedholidays.com

- FALL ITINERARY -

Rather than provide you with an exact itinerary here, I’ll point out that there are events that occur many times in succession in a month that can be strung together to create a very specialized and exciting trip that suits your creative interests perfectly.

It would be very easy to “bookend” your trip with these events, or intersperce them and  spend time sightseeing in the countryside having the time of your life. Using a combination of trains and a car rental, you can cover long distances and still have the pleasure of driving smaller roads and exploring small towns and villages too.

How Would This Work?
I’ll give you an example by telling you what I did on one of my own personal trips.  I left London via train to Manchester, and picked up my rental car there. By doing this, I was able to cover a long distance much faster than if I had driven the distance myself.  Then, when I picked up the car in Manchester, I was able to enjoy driving in the glorious Lake District, as well as the Borders region of Scotland, and on up to Edinburgh.

I prefer to use this tactic anytime I am going to leave the greater London area. It allows me to avoid having a car, and all the attendant parking expense and traffic hassles, while in a city that has a wonderful public transportation system, that will take me anywhere I want to go quite easily and efficiently.

A 2-week trip arranged this way, in the month of October 2001, might have looked something like this:

• October 9 - Depart for London.
• October 10 - Arrive in London.
  After settling into your hotel, Bed & Breakfast, or hostel, a little light sightseeing around London - a city bus tour is a good idea to get you familiar with some of the landmarks and the layout of the city.  Have an early night so you’re ready for a full day on the 11th.
• October 11 - Spend the day sightseeing in London.
• October 12 & 13 - Knitting & Stitching show at Alexandra Palace, London
• October 14 - Take a train from London to:
  Manchester, if you are planning to tour the Lake District, or Yorkshire, or Scotland;
  Bath, if you want to tour that beautiful city and Avebury, Stonehenge, the Cotswolds region, or Wales;
  Exeter, if you want to tour Devon and Cornwall.
  Pick up your rental car at the train station and drive to your destination for that night’s stay.
• October 15-19 - Touring your chosen area.  In that week you could participate in a pre-arranged workshop as well as taking in the sights. There are many ideas in the “Workshops & Courses” chapter of the book that can help you with this. Return to London for the night of October 19.  You could turn in your rental car either before you get back into London, or at an in-city location.
• October 20 & 21 - Chelsea Craft Fair at the Chelsea Town Hall, London
• October 22 - London sightseeing and shopping at Harrod’s and Liberty of London department stores, which should be decorated for Christmas already!
• October 23 - Flight home.

Go to the Tours page and take a look at the exciting itineray we have planned for our
Fiber, Craft, & Textile Tour of England & Wales: October 4-18. 2004.
We will be going to both the Knitting & Stitching Show and the Chelsea Crafts Fair, and having some wonderfully exciting experiences between those show dates too.
We’d love it if you would join us too!