Cycle the Cotswold Hills beginning in Bath, the most celebrated spa in England. Cycle to Corsham Court with its art collection... to Lacock with 100 homes from the 14th century and home to the world's first photograph... to Sudley Castle with its thousand-year history... to Shakespeare's birthplace and the house in which his wife Anne Hathaway grew up... to Blenheim Palace, England's largest home and Churchill's birthplace. All the while cycling tiny country roads through some of the most charming little villages in the world.

Day 1 - We meet in Bath; one of England's most attractive towns. Visit the Roman baths, still intact and enjoy the Georgian ambiance that still exists. We'll take a short warm-up ride in the countryside. This evening we'll celebrate new friendships at our champagne reception and get acquainted dinner.

Day 2 - Cycle through rolling hills laced with lovely villages of golden-hued stones to Corsham Court owned by Ethelred-The-Unready in the 10th century. Then to Lacock one of the most beautiful and most photographed villages in Britain with 100 houses dating from the 14th c. Photography was invented here (the French will argue this) and you can see the worlds first photograph. Then on to Malmesbury with its 7th c abbey. Arriving finally in Cirencester, with one of the finest collections of Roman antiquities in England including a Roman Villa.

Day 3 - Spend a beautiful day cycling among tiny villages along a route with sweeping views, broad fields, stone houses and horses heading towards the coarse moor-like land of Cheltenham, a fashionable inland spa. There is no finer shopping street in England than the Promenade. A wonderful place for an after dinner stroll.

Day 4 - Cycle to Winchcombe and Sudley Castle with its thousand years of history. Then to Broadway, an Elizabethan town of old inns and antique shops. Steer a winding course on a tiny road to Chipping Camden, a pretty little town packed with fascinating old buildings. Pedaling on to Warwickshire, we enter a land of sleepy villages and thatched roofs. The land of Shakespeare. Spend a night in Stratford-upon-Avon, his hometown. Visit his birthplace and the garden where he wrote The Tempest and Anne Hathaway's house with its thatched roof.

Day 5 - A short scenic ride today through country towns like Effington, Shipston-on-Stour and Moreton to Stow-on-the-Wold sitting astride the old Roman Foss Way. Nearby are Abbotswood and its beautiful park and the Chedworth Roman Villa.

Day 6 - Cycling south we'll soon be in the Oxfordshire Cotswolds with its yellow stone villages. Visit Blenheim Palace, the largest private home in England, Winston Churchill's birthplace, a mansion of over 200 rooms and enormous gardens. Continue cycling and soon you will see Oxford rising from the horizon with all its turrets and towers and spires spiking the sky like some mystical city. We'll spend our last night here and celebrate our gala farewell dinner among the legends of this citadel of education.

Day 7 - Enjoy a lingering breakfast before saying farewell to newfound friends.

Overnight Itinerary:  Bath, Cirencester,  Cheltenham,  Stratford-upon-Avon, Stow-on-the-Wold,  Oxford,  Marlow-on-Thames

Half board option $120  (3 dinners)

TOUR DATES:  July 19 - 26