About Me
Experienced Guide
I've been giving people tours of the British Isles for over 25 years in car, coach, minibus and on foot. As a child I used to sit in the back of the family car with a map closely following wherever we went. When I learnt to drive I would take a day over a 2 hour journey and explore the back roads. Later I was able to combine an academic background in history with my love of place and became a guide.
Knowledge
I have an academic background in history from the University of Wales. Knowledge is my hobby and my living. I'm told that I make my tours interesting. That's certainly my intention.
Flexibility
The key to successful tours is flexibilty. As a guide I can help you decide where you want to go and put together an itinerary. But every day when you get up it's your choice as to what you do. There are normally plenty of options and after 25 years of doing this I know how what they are.
Mike the Guide (Me) at Windsor Castle
I can put together a tour for you whether you're a couple, an extended family or a university group
TOURS
Small Groups
Your own tour with friends or family. Sometimes it's easier to team-up and share the cost. Why not do it with those you know?
Country Roads
My first rule as a guide, and one that too often gets forgotten. By travelling country lanes you feel that you're IN the countryside, not just driving through it.
Pretty Villages
There are about 15,000 villages in Britain and Ireland. The vast majority of them are very old. Most of them are quiet places without tourists. So that's my second rule - to escape the crowds.
Pubs & Inns
Most villages still have a pub or an inn. Most serve food and the vast majority very good food. (Forget about the old stereotype of food being bad here). In a car we can normally roll-up without booking.
Accommodation with Character
Too often hotels are a way from where you want to be with no character and no view. On a tour I think location is the most important thing.
On Foot
When we're away from the vechicle I can guide you through the stately homes, gardens, castles, cathedrals and small towns that make up so much of what there is to see here.
Events
Whether it is a Highland Gathering, antique fair, or country show you want, it's always easier when there's only a few of you. If you don't have anything specific in mind, I can find something for you.
Educational Tours
Experience is the most powerful learning tool. Sites, sounds and smells can be the bedrock on which more formal learning sits. I've spent my working life trying to make what I'm showing to people interesting. To this end the information must be relevant and, where possible, entertaining. The big advantage that we have on a tour is that what we see through the window of a bus or on foot can be our exciting blackboard. I'm experienced at working with organisers to make this happen
Oxford & Cambridge
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These two university cities need no introduction. Breadth and depth of knowledge and history unsurpassed. I can give informative and entertaining guided walks of both cities, having spent a lot of time in both.
London
The sheer range of things to see, do and learn here is not bettered anywhere else in the world. No short introduction could possibly do the city justice. Save to say, whatever human beings have done, good or bad, they've been doing here for 2000 years. I started my guiding life here and it is my home city.
The Scottish Englightenment
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Scotland certainly has castles and mountainous scenery but there is much more than that here. In the 18th century it became, for a period, the intellectual power house of the world, producing figures such as Adam Smith and Daivd Hume and revolutionising knowledge to such a degree that it has been claimed, not without foundation, that 'Scotland invented the modern World'.
Literary Ireland
'The Saxon took our lands and left them desolate. We took their language and added a new beauty to it' - Oscar Wilde.
Also James Joyce's Dublin, W.B. Yates's County Sligo, Samuel Becket, John Singe, Jonathan Swift, Seamus Heaney, John B. Keane, Sean O'Casey, Flann O'Brien, etc., etc.
Medieval England
Not only does England have some of the finest medieval cities in Europe but, along with Greece, the best preserved ancient landscapes as well. This is not to mention the almost countless castles, villages and churches. The history, literature and art of the middle ages is a speciality of mine.
Literary Tours
- Shakespeare's Stratford-upon-Avon.
- Jane Austen's Hampshire & Bath.
- Thomas Hardy's Wessex.
- Charles Dickens's London & Kent.
- Wordsworth's The Lake District.
Contact Me, Mike Wilson
Special Requests Available
For small group tours, we can customize an itinerary to emphasize your interests. If you have a special request, send us a message, and we will be sure to get back to you soon.
miketheguide@gmail.com
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