Tours & experiences

Hand-picked tours across the New Forest & the UK

Our team has been pulling together the best small-group tours, day trips and multi-day adventures around the New Forest & the UK for years. Mick reads the traveller reviews before any tour earns a spot on this page — if a tour's a dud, it doesn't get listed.

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364 tours in HistoryClear filters

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★ 5.0 (6)

🛕 Culture & History

United Kingdom

Londons Natural History Museum

A guided 2.5-hour tour through London's Natural History Museum, revealing 80 million specimens across key galleries. Your guide steers you toward standout pieces: Sophie the Stegosaurus, the preserved Dodo, and Archaeopteryx—a crucial fossil bridging dinosaurs and modern birds. You'll examine a cross-section of Giant Sequoia, plaster casts documenting Pompeii's final moments, and a collection of gemstones alongside rocks retrieved from the Moon and Mars. The route balances depth with accessibility, ideal for those wanting curatorial insight without wandering aimlessly.

British Museum Private Tour: Ancient Daemons and Timeless Beauty

Skip the queues and explore the British Museum with a specialist guide who traces how ancient cultures defined beauty across Egyptian, Mesopotamian, Greek, and Roman civilisations. This two-hour private tour for up to six guests moves beyond surface-level sightseeing, revealing the narratives behind treasured artefacts—from tales of love and loss carved into stone to unexpected glimpses into medieval imaginings of sacred history. Your guide unpacks the philosophical shifts in aesthetic ideals across millennia, transforming familiar gallery displays into a coherent journey through human creativity.

2 hours – 3 hoursfrom AUD $425

Private Tour to St Andrews and Scottish Coastal Villages

★ 5.0 (6)

🚌 Day Trips & Sightseeing

United Kingdom

Private Tour to St Andrews and Scottish Coastal Villages

Escape Edinburgh's crowds on this eight-hour private drive through Fife, exploring coastal villages steeped in Scottish heritage. Your guide shares regional history whilst you sample local food and visit seaside settlements that feel worlds apart from the capital. The itinerary flexes to your interests—whether you're after architectural detail, culinary discoveries, or simply watching the North Sea unfold from charming harbours. Includes refreshments and a café stop.

8 hoursfrom AUD $1236

Walking Wildlife History Tour in Edinburgh

★ 5.0 (6)

🌿 Nature & Wildlife

United Kingdom

Walking Wildlife History Tour in Edinburgh

Explore Edinburgh's industrial past and present wildlife along a 3–5 hour walk from the West End down the Water of Leith to one of three villages—Colinton, Juniper Green or Balerno. This guided route traces how the river powered the city's mills and manufactories whilst offering genuine chances to spot kingfishers, dippers, herons, deer and otters. Equipment and whisky tasting included; finish with a meal in your chosen village before catching the bus back into town.

3 hours – 5 hoursfrom AUD $87

Speyside Whisky Tour : 3 Hour Small Group Tour & Tasting

★ 5.0 (6)

🍜 Food & Cooking

United Kingdom

Speyside Whisky Tour : 3 Hour Small Group Tour & Tasting

A three-hour guided journey through Speyside with whisky expert Mitch Bechard, visiting four hand-picked distilleries along the River Spey. You'll taste four carefully selected drams whilst hearing stories rooted in two decades of industry knowledge. Small groups mean the experience bends to what interests you, whether that's production methods, flavour profiles or local history. This is whisky culture stripped of pretence—Scotland's heartland of Scotch explored at a human pace with proper scenery and room to ask questions.

3 hoursfrom AUD $1157

★ 5.0 (6)

🛕 Culture & History

United Kingdom

Secret tours

This 2-hour walking tour peels back Edinburgh's conventional layers to reveal forgotten alleyways, underground vaults, and shadowy histories tucked between Old Town's medieval stonework. Your guide shares archival photographs and navigates you through passages that have survived since the 16th century, when the city harboured witchcraft accusations, banditry, and clandestine networks. You'll encounter corners that seldom appear on standard maps—places where locals know to look but tourists typically miss. It's history told through geography rather than plaques.

Private London Gin History Tour with Tastings

A 2.5-hour private walking tour through London's West End that traces gin's evolution from 17th-century Dutch remedy to the spirit that shaped the city's culture. Your guide navigates Seven Dials and Covent Garden, revealing how gin fuelled theatrical bohemia, Victorian excess, and literary escapades. You'll taste four distinct gins at characterful bars and former gin palaces, each stop anchored to a specific chapter of London's spirited past.

Private Outlander & Cawdor Castle Tour

Explore the Highlands' film and historical landmarks on a fully private eight-hour tour departing from Inverness. Travel in a Mercedes-Benz V-Class with your own driver-photographer, visiting castles and locations tied to Outlander and Scottish history. The journey includes hotel collection, refreshments on board, and professional photographs taken throughout the day for your personal gallery.

8 hoursfrom AUD $618

Castles, Lochs and Outlander Day Tour From Glasgow

★ 5.0 (6)

🚌 Day Trips & Sightseeing

United Kingdom

Castles, Lochs and Outlander Day Tour From Glasgow

Trace Scottish history and Outlander filming routes on a nine-and-a-half-hour guided loop from Glasgow. Start at the Kelpies' monumental horse sculptures, then venture to the Highlands visiting castle grounds and the bonnie banks of Loch Lomond. A local guide navigates you through Stirling's fortifications and the atmospheric grounds of Midhope (subject to availability), with downtime in Balloch village for lunch or a loch-side stroll. Packed itinerary; bring sturdy shoes.

9h 30mfrom AUD $99

Private Shore Excursion: Edinburgh City and Rosslyn Chapel

★ 5.0 (6)

🚌 Day Trips & Sightseeing

United Kingdom

Private Shore Excursion: Edinburgh City and Rosslyn Chapel

This 9-hour private minivan tour covers Edinburgh's layered history and one of Scotland's most intriguing medieval structures. You'll see Edinburgh Castle with its crown jewels, traverse the Royal Mile's narrow closes, explore the Georgian squares of the New Town, and drive past the Scottish Parliament and Arthur's Seat. The journey culminates at Rosslyn Chapel, a 15th-century stone chapel south of the city whose intricate carvings and mysterious symbolism have captivated scholars for centuries.

9 hoursfrom AUD $1545

Private Beatles Tour Liverpool with Expert Local Guide

★ 5.0 (5)

🛕 Culture & History

United Kingdom

Private Beatles Tour Liverpool with Expert Local Guide

Explore Beatles history across Liverpool in a private car with a local guide who knows the city inside out. Over two and a half hours, you'll visit Penny Lane, Strawberry Field, and the childhood homes of John, Paul and Ringo, plus quieter spots most organised tours skip. Your guide shares real stories that connect the band to their hometown. You're picked up and dropped off anywhere in the city centre, so timing fits your schedule—perfect if you're in port or want something more intimate than a coach full of strangers.

London Private History Tour with a Local Guide: Tailored to Your Interests

Walk through London's layered past with a local guide matched to your interests. Over three or five hours, you'll navigate from the Great Fire's origins to Shakespeare's stages, Spitalfields' silk heritage, and Dickens's favourite watering holes. After booking, you'll answer a brief questionnaire about your tastes; your host then crafts a flexible route and meets you at a time and place that suits you both. Everything stays fluid—change direction mid-walk if something catches your eye.

3 hours – 5 hoursfrom GBP $79

Oban, Glencoe, Western Highlands, Lochs & Castles Private Tour

★ 5.0 (5)

🚌 Day Trips & Sightseeing

United Kingdom

Oban, Glencoe, Western Highlands, Lochs & Castles Private Tour

Explore Scotland's western highlands on a 10–11 hour private tour that sweeps from Oban through Glen Coe to the shores of multiple lochs. Your driver-guide reveals Clan history, architectural gems like St Conan's Kirk, and the mountain-and-water landscape that defines this region. Stop at Inveraray Castle's grounds, taste the seafood Oban is known for (meals separate), and drink in views that justify the Hebrides' reputation as a traveller's destination.

10 hours – 11 hoursfrom AUD $700

The Almost Complete History of the Old Town of Cambridge

★ 5.0 (5)

🛕 Culture & History

United Kingdom

The Almost Complete History of the Old Town of Cambridge

Walk through Cambridge's town centre with a guide who knows the streets as a resident, not a visitor. This two-hour tour uses a 500-year-old map and local knowledge to unpick two millennia of Cambridge history—from Anglo-Saxon settlement through medieval markets, college rivalries, and the city we navigate today. You'll learn how townspeople shaped the place, not just the colleges. A local social enterprise, the guides bring lived experience of Cambridge's real communities to the narrative.

2 hoursfrom AUD $41

Private Highlands, Glencoe and Loch Ness day trip from Edinburgh

★ 5.0 (5)

🚌 Day Trips & Sightseeing

United Kingdom

Private Highlands, Glencoe and Loch Ness day trip from Edinburgh

A 12-hour private tour through Scotland's most celebrated Highland landscapes, departing from Edinburgh. Travel through Glencoe's dramatic passes, stop at Stirling Castle, glimpse Ben Nevis, and reach Loch Ness whilst a knowledgeable local guide reveals the region's history and character. You'll encounter Highland cattle, pause at scenic vantage points, and sample local fare along the way. The route balances driving with exploration, offering genuine insight into why these mountains and lochs define the Scottish identity.

12 hoursfrom AUD $1922

The Kelpies, St Andrews & Cute Coastal Towns

★ 5.0 (5)

🚌 Day Trips & Sightseeing

United Kingdom

The Kelpies, St Andrews & Cute Coastal Towns

An eight-hour drive through Fife and beyond, connecting Scotland's industrial landmarks with coastal heritage. Start at The Kelpies, those towering stainless-steel horse sculptures that bridge mythology and engineering, then head to St Andrews to wander the golf-steeped streets and seaside lanes where centuries of Scottish history settled. The route weaves through Outlander filming locations at Blackness Castle and Falkland before pausing at a Fife coastal village for photographs and sea air. Your driver narrates throughout.

Royal Tour w/ Buckingham Palace Tickets - Semi-Private 8ppl Max

A 4-hour semi-private walking tour exploring London's royal history, from Henry VIII's hunting grounds through Parliament's evolution to modern monarchy. Starting at Hyde Park, you'll visit Wellington Arch and Green Park with a knowledgeable guide uncovering palace intrigue, assassination plots and the Crown's relationship with Parliament. The tour concludes with timed entry to Buckingham Palace for self-guided exploration of the State Rooms. Groups capped at 8 people ensure a more intimate experience.

4 hoursfrom AUD $264

Stirling Castle The Trossachs & Loch Lomond

★ 5.0 (5)

🚌 Day Trips & Sightseeing

United Kingdom

Stirling Castle The Trossachs & Loch Lomond

A six to eight-hour guided tour covering three of Scotland's most distinctive landscapes in a single day. Starting from central Scotland, you'll visit Stirling Castle—a fortress shaped by centuries of Scottish history—then venture into the Trossachs' forested hills and along the shores of Loch Lomond. The route maximises sightseeing time, moving efficiently between landmarks so you experience the contrasts of castle, wilderness and water in one outing.

6 hours – 8 hoursfrom AUD $1253

★ 5.0 (5)

🛕 Culture & History

United Kingdom

Giants Causeway Private Tour

Explore Northern Ireland's most striking geological formation and Belfast's layered past on a customised private tour. Your local guide drives you through the dramatic north coast landscape to the Giant's Causeway—those remarkable hexagonal basalt columns—then ventures into Belfast city to confront its turbulent twentieth-century history via the peace walls and associated sites. Tours run 4–8 hours depending on your interests. Includes air-conditioned transport, bottled water, and a guide who adapts the itinerary to your group's pace and curiosity.

4 hours – 8 hoursfrom AUD $1304

★ 5.0 (5)

🚌 Day Trips & Sightseeing

United Kingdom

The Sweet Spots of Covent Garden

A two-hour walking tour through Covent Garden that combines theatre district history with culinary stops. Navigate hidden passageways and independent shops with a local guide whilst sampling artisan chocolates, French macarons, street food, and a drink at a centuries-old pub. You'll uncover stories of performers and creatives who've shaped this vibrant corner of central London, from ballet dancers to street musicians.

2 hoursfrom AUD $153

★ 5.0 (5)

🚌 Day Trips & Sightseeing

United Kingdom

Highland Lochs & Castle Tours

A 10-hour Highland tour through Scotland's most dramatic terrain, combining castle visits with loch and glen scenery. You'll travel by private vehicle through a landscape of steep-sided valleys, deep water basins, and stone fortifications that shaped the region's history. The route passes through remote villages and stops at significant historic sites, though some admission fees are separate. Bottled water is provided throughout the day.

10 hoursfrom AUD $1835

The City of London Food Tour with 10+ Tastings

★ 5.0 (5)

🍜 Food & Cooking

United Kingdom

The City of London Food Tour with 10+ Tastings

Taste your way through London's food scene on a three to four-hour walking tour led by a local food enthusiast. Visit over a dozen carefully selected spots across the city, sampling more than ten dishes and drinks at each stop. The small group experience caps at ten participants, allowing your guide to share insider knowledge about London's culinary history and hidden gems. Expect to try something completely new to your palate.

3 hours – 4 hoursfrom GBP $100

Fully Guided History Tour of The City of Brighton

★ 5.0 (5)

🛕 Culture & History

United Kingdom

Fully Guided History Tour of The City of Brighton

A 10-hour private exploration of Brighton's seaside character with a knowledgeable local guide. This tour navigates the city's Victorian heritage, bohemian culture, and coastal landmarks from a comfortable minivan, with hotel or port collection included. Your guide curates stops at landmarks, independent shops, and local eateries, handling photo duties and revealing lesser-known vantage points that capture Brighton's personality. Complimentary water and device charging keep you mobile throughout the day.

10 hoursfrom AUD $1448

★ 5.0 (5)

🛕 Culture & History

United Kingdom

Shakespeare Promenade

An actor-led walking tour tracing Shakespeare's London from the Globe Theatre to its theatrical origins in Shoreditch. Over two hours, your guide performs period speeches at key sites whilst explaining how Renaissance playhouses shaped British theatre. The route crosses the Barbican estate, passes Tallow Chandlers Hall, and offers views of the reconstructed Globe from the north bank. You'll encounter Elizabethan history, street art, and the Royal Shakespeare Company's home base, with a 20-minute rest at the Barbican Arts Centre included.

Royal London and The Beatles Private Tour

A 4-hour guided walk connecting two threads of London history: the Beatles' haunts and the Royal Mile. Starting at the iconic Abbey Road zebra crossing, you'll visit sites tied to the band's London years—McCartney's address, Ringo's former flat, the Apple rooftop—before pivoting to royal landmarks including Buckingham Palace, Westminster Abbey, and St James's Park. A Blue Badge guide leads the route, with two bus journeys included to bridge sections on foot.

4 hoursfrom AUD $290

Highland Mystique and Hogwarts Private Journey from Inverness

★ 5.0 (5)

🚌 Day Trips & Sightseeing

United Kingdom

Highland Mystique and Hogwarts Private Journey from Inverness

This 12-hour private tour from Inverness weaves together Highland history, landscape, and film culture. You'll explore Urquhart Castle's ruins, witness the Glenfinnan Viaduct (famous from Harry Potter), and visit Loch Ness with a local guide driving. The route takes in Fort William, Mallaig, and Falls of Foyers, moving between dramatic valleys and coastal villages. Expect a full day of Scottish scenery paired with tangible history and cinematic landmarks.

12 hoursfrom AUD $3707

Coastal Kingdoms Day Tour Lindisfarne and Bamburgh Castle

★ 5.0 (5)

🚌 Day Trips & Sightseeing

United Kingdom

Coastal Kingdoms Day Tour Lindisfarne and Bamburgh Castle

This nine-hour coastal tour takes you along Northumberland's dramatic shoreline to explore two major historical sites: Bamburgh Castle and Holy Island of Lindisfarne. Travel in a luxury minibus with panoramic windows and knowledgeable commentary from your driver-guide. The itinerary adapts to tidal patterns, ensuring you make the most of conditions on the day. Ideal for those keen on medieval history and striking coastal landscapes.

Private History Tour Beyond Borough Market

Explore the layered history tucked behind Borough Market's bustling façade with Dr Stephen King, a seasoned London guide who unearths the neighbourhood's lesser-known stories. Over 90 minutes to two hours, you'll navigate medieval alleyways, Georgian architecture, and industrial heritage that most locals miss. Fully customisable to match your group's curiosity—whether corporate interest or family exploration—this walking tour reads the city's past through its streets rather than guidebook clichés.

1h 30m – 2 hoursfrom AUD $193

Private Guided Discovery Walk in the Cairngorms

★ 5.0 (5)

🌿 Nature & Wildlife

United Kingdom

Private Guided Discovery Walk in the Cairngorms

Walk through Scotland's Cairngorms National Park with a knowledgeable local guide over 2–4 hours. Your guide tailors the route to what your group wants to see: ancient Caledonian forests, castle ruins, or mountain lochs. The pace is leisurely, giving space to absorb the landscape and learn about Highland history and ecology. Families, mixed abilities and wheelchair users all welcome.

2 hours – 4 hoursfrom AUD $154

★ 5.0 (5)

🛕 Culture & History

United Kingdom

Royal London Westminster Tour

This 2.5-hour walking tour traces Westminster's royal geography and power structures, guiding you through the palaces, parks and government buildings that shape Britain's monarchy and politics. Led by a knowledgeable London resident, you'll discover which royal residence actually matters most, peek at the sovereign's mute swans, and understand a thousand years of constitutional history. Time your visit right and catch the Changing of the Guard from the best vantage point—or spot the King himself.

2h 30mfrom AUD $415

★ 5.0 (5)

🚌 Day Trips & Sightseeing

United Kingdom

London Taxi Capital Highlights Tour

A bespoke four to five-hour tour through London's dual heart—the City of London and City of Westminster—delivered in a private black cab with a green-badge guide. You'll discover celebrated landmarks alongside lesser-known corners, stopping for short walks to absorb the atmosphere of each neighbourhood. Your guide tailors the route to your passions, whether that's street art, architecture, literary heritage or royal history, ensuring the experience reflects what genuinely interests you rather than a rigid itinerary.

4 hours – 5 hoursfrom AUD $763

★ 5.0 (5)

🚌 Day Trips & Sightseeing

United Kingdom

Belfast to Giant’s Causeway Tour

Discover Northern Ireland's dramatic coastline on this 8–9 hour route from Belfast, taking in the hexagonal basalt columns of Giant's Causeway, the ruins of Dunluce Castle perched on cliffs, and the picturesque fishing village of Ballintoy. Your local guide shares folklore and regional history as you travel through the Dark Hedges avenue. Optional add-ons include crossing the Carrick-a-Rede Rope Bridge for vertigo-inducing sea views, and lunch at a harbourside pub.

8 hours – 9 hoursfrom AUD $1255

Letchworth Garden City: Self-Guided History Puzzle Walk

★ 5.0 (5)

🛕 Culture & History

United Kingdom

Letchworth Garden City: Self-Guided History Puzzle Walk

Navigate Letchworth's tree-lined streets on a self-guided puzzle walk that doubles as both historical investigation and escape game. Uncover how this Hertfordshire town became the world's first Garden City, piecing together clues about its visionary founders and a peculiar local mystery still debated today. Spend 90 minutes at your own pace between London and Cambridge, with the freedom to pause, explore side streets, or grab a coffee whenever you fancy.

Waterfront Maritime History Walk with Cream Tea- Shore Excursion

Walk Liverpool's waterfront with a knowledgeable guide who unpacks three centuries of maritime trade, innovation and architecture across the city's restored docks and iconic buildings. The 3-hour excursion culminates in cream tea—scones, cakes, finger sandwiches and hot beverages—served inside a Grade-listed Victorian building with ties to the Titanic's ownership. A measured pace combines local stories with genuine British hospitality.

Epic Sightseeing Private Walk + History, Culture, The Beatles

A 2.5-hour private walking tour of Liverpool led by a local guide, exploring three distinct neighbourhoods whilst uncovering the city's role as birthplace of the Beatles, centre of a 19th-century empire, and 1960s cultural hub. You'll navigate at your own pace, stop where you please, and finish at a vantage point overlooking cathedrals, football grounds and the urban skyline. Your guide shares stories of the city's complicated past, colourful characters and the etymology of 'Scousers'—delivered as narrative rather than lecture.

Private Tour: Beatrix Potter Afternoon Half Day All-Inclusive Tour with Expert

Follow the literary footsteps of Beatrix Potter across the Lake District's most significant landscapes in this four-hour guided tour. You'll visit the real locations that shaped her imagination and inspired her beloved stories—from the castle where she first fell in love with the region as a teenager to Hill Top, the house her Peter Rabbit royalties purchased. The tour weaves together her personal history with the Lakeland scenery she sketched and painted, finishing with a cruise across Windermere's tranquil waters.

Jack the Ripper Tour

Walk through Whitechapel's fog-laden streets on this 2–3 hour investigation into London's most notorious unsolved murders. Your guide presents verified crime-scene evidence, period correspondence and historical documentation rather than sensationalism, reconstructing the Ripper killings through archival detail and site visits. You'll examine victim profiles, forensic facts and leading theories while standing where the crimes occurred, forming your own judgements on one of history's most elusive criminal cases.

2 hours – 3 hoursfrom AUD $950

London's Alternative History: A Self-Guided Audio Tour

★ 5.0 (4)

🛕 Culture & History

United Kingdom

London's Alternative History: A Self-Guided Audio Tour

Navigate central London's overlooked corners with a self-guided audio tour that peels back layers of quirky, sometimes scandalous history. Narrated by a lifelong Londoner, this 60–90 minute walk reveals oddities: why the Thames flows as it does, the unexpected origins of Covent Garden's name, Britain's forgotten connection to a particular drink, and tales of 18th-century vice and the forgotten constables who policed it. Designed for first-time visitors and curious locals alike.

1 hour – 1h 30mfrom AUD $14

In Jack The Ripper Footsteps: Private Black Cab Tour in London

★ 5.0 (4)

🛕 Culture & History

United Kingdom

In Jack The Ripper Footsteps: Private Black Cab Tour in London

This 4-hour private black cab tour tracks the 1888 Whitechapel murders through London's East End with a driver-guide versed in Ripper history. You'll visit crime scenes and haunted pubs where victims spent their final hours, weaving between Buck's Row and Mitre Square whilst passing iconic landmarks like Tower Bridge and St. Paul's Cathedral. The narrative extends beyond Jack the Ripper to cover other dark chapters—the Kray Twins, Sweeney Todd—painting a portrait of Victorian London's criminal underbelly from the safety of an iconic London taxi.

Londinium's Footprint: Explore London's Roman wall on a self-guided audio tour

Follow London's Roman defensive line on a self-guided audio walk, tracing two millennia of the city's fortifications. This 1–2 hour route uses the VoiceMap app to guide you past surviving wall sections and their layered history—from Roman garrison to Norman stronghold to Tudor power base. You'll stand before the actual stones that shaped London's growth and defensive strategy across centuries, hearing stories of soldiers, rulers and ordinary inhabitants who lived within these boundaries.

1 hour – 2 hoursfrom AUD $14

Some tours listed with Viator, a Tripadvisor company. Prices and availability confirmed at checkout.