Day Trips 2022
Each year, we put together a host of short day trips that get us out of the city and allow us to see another view of England. The city is wonderful, full of brilliant shows, fascinating people, and interesting things to do, but as the British aristocracy has always known, the country provides its own pleasures.
Featured Excursions in 2022
The following excursions are built into the program and parts of these trips are paid for in advance through your program fee. If there are any extra charges associated with the trip, those are noted, as well.
Oxford or Cambridge? (Travel & Tour = Pre-Paid/Included)
Each year, we take a day-trip to either Oxford or Cambridge so that you can get a sense of what that style of college/university life is like. It’s different enough from US higher education that it’s worth seeing, and there are building in both places that are older than the United States as a nation. Our tour guides have always been wonderful, somewhat perfectly “British” and fitting every stereotype you’re looking for. At Oxford, we see lots of sites, like the courtyard at New College where “Mad Eye” Moody turns Draco Malfoy into a ferret in Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire. There are lots of other Harry-Potter-related sites in Oxford, as well, that you could do as part of your own walking tour. (PDF) Cambridge offers equally beautiful sites as Oxford, as well as some beautiful first editions of A. A. Milne’s Pooh books, and artifacts related to the discovery of DNA, as well as places you’ll have seen in the recent film about Stephen Hawking, A Theory of Everything. In both towns, you have the chance to go “punting” — you shouldn’t miss it. Grab a bottle of wine (or two) and put a group together for a punt. There’s nothing quite like a relaxing summer boat ride around Oxford or Cambridge to relax you and also to make you feel a bit like Rat from The Wind in the Willows!
Kew Garden (Travel & Entry Fees: Pre-Paid/Included)
One of our favorite early “outings” each year is to hop on a Thames River Boat Tour and head out to the Royal Botanic Gardens at Kew. After four or five days in central London, it’s fun to get away from the hustle and bustle of city life and see one of the most interesting botanic gardens in the world. Kew really came of age in the 19th century as English explorers traveled the globe and brought back rare plant specimens to London for study and cultivation. Kew Gardens produced the first tropical fruits in England, which became extremely important for sailors who often succumbed to scurvy while traveling. The vitamins in citrus fruit help keep the sailors healthy. But Kew also has Queen Charlotte’s summer palace, and the Treetop Walkway: take a few minutes to climb the stairs and look out over the London suburban countryside from the sky! And whatever you do, make sure you try the orange juice at the Orangery: fresh squeezed each day, it is the best OJ we’ve ever tasted … seriously!
After we’ve had our fun in the garden, we’ll head to the Original Maids of Honour Tea Shoppe for an afternoon “cream tea.” You’ll definitely want to try their eponymous confection, the “original Maids of Honour” pastry, but if you’ve never had afternoon “cream tea,” complete with rejuvenating hot tea and a scone that’s been slathered in delicious clotted cream and jam, well, you’ve been letting the best in life pass you by! You’ll want more tea-and-scone afternoons after this one, and let’s face it: after all the miles we’ve walked in London and in Kew, the calories won’t matter.
Additional Excursions in 2022
Did You Say Harry Potter? (Optional Extra Trip: £50-75 depending on tour options)
Caught that did you? The fact that there’s Harry Potter sites to see in Oxford? Well, what about the Warner Bros. Studio in Watford Junction, which has an amazing tour of Harry Potter sets, props, costumes, and all the Butter Bear you could ever ask for?! That’s right: you can sate every one of your HP desires by taking one of the tours. We went two years ago and had way more fun than we thought we would, and then last year, the tours had gotten so popular that they were sold out for all of July by the time we got there. If you want to do the Harry Potter Studio Tour, you’ll want to book early. We can help you do that and get a group together. It’s way more fun with friends!
But That’s Just the Beginning …
While we’ll do some of these things together as a large group, there are so many other wonderful day or afternoon excursions you’ll want to enjoy. It’s a simple trip to grab the train at Paddington and hop over to Windsor for an afternoon to tour Windsor Castle and see the town. Or if it’s Henry VIII you’re interested in, go to Hampton Court Palace. The tour of the palace is wonderful, but you can actually the hedge-row maze for free! If Stonehenge and Bath are more your speed, then there are very inexpensive coach (bus) tours that pick you up in Central London and spirit you around to cool places, all in a day. Students over the years have really enjoying putting together afternoon or all-day-Saturday trips to Stonehenge-Bath-and-Oxford.
If you’re interested in “the Continent,” then now’s a great chance to go. From London’s 4 airports, it’s easy to grab a cheap ticket on RyanAir or ValueJet to Paris, Rome, Amsterdam, Barcelona, Berlin, or really anywhere in central Europe. Put a group of 3 or 4 together and get a room for the weekend. Since we don’t have classes on the weekends, you can escape on Friday afternoon and stay until late Sunday. You’ve got your passport, you’ve got friends, why not see more of Europe, Ireland, or Scotland?? Now’s the chance!
Travel 2024
Good news: we’ve finalized the flight plans for the Summer 2024 trip.
In the following message, you will find (1) an explanation of our air travel plan, (2) details about the flights you should book, (3) instructions on ordering your tickets, (4) information about alternatives to these preferred flights, and (5) some additional flight-related suggestions.
Our Air Travel Plan
As we discussed at previous information sessions/by email, each participant will need to book their ticket individually. Although you will book your ticket individually, we’d like everyone to book the same group flight if possible. Those who fly with the group will benefit by having an airport shuttle to pick us up from the airport and take us (and more importantly our heavy bags) to our London flats (apartments). Some exceptions can be made, of course: for instance, people who are going to be somewhere other than North Carolina in July might want to fly directly from that location rather than returning to ECU before departure, while others may have air miles on carriers other than American Airlines (which is what services Gville). But if you book a flight that’s different from the booking provided below, you’ll have to either take a train from the airport to the city, and few train stations have escalators, which makes traveling with luggage rather frustrating, or you’ll need a taxi/Uber, which will cost around $120 each way. You may want to ask yourself if you’re really save much money if you have to add taxi/train costs on once you land. Aside from that practical matter, it’s just nicer to travel in a group, when possible. If you are going to fly separately, though, please see Section 4 below.
To make it possible to travel together, we’ve selected flights for which there are still lots of open seats. Nevertheless, it’s important to book your flight soon; we may have 10-12 travelers in our group, and we want to grab all our seats before others take them!
Flight details (a.k.a. “Book this itinerary!”)
Here’s a summary of the itinerary that you should book as soon as possible. If you wait to book, you might see that the times for these flights are adjusted slightly; this is normal for the airlines to modify schedules by up to 30 minutes. Just makes sure the flight numbers and dates are correct and know that if that’s correct, you’re on the right flights::
Outbound: Greenville to Charlotte to London-Heathrow
American: AA5788 (PGV-CLT)
Departs Greenville 14 June 2024 @ 6:04 pm
Arrive Charlotte 14 June 2024 @ 7:25 pmAmerican: AA734 (CLT-LHR)
Departs Charlotte 14 June 2024 @ 11:10 pm
Arrives London-Heathrow 15 June 2024 @ 12:10 pm
Inbound: London to Charlotte to Greenville
American: AA731 (LHR-CLT)
Departs London-Heathrow 7 July 2024 @ 9:15 am
Arrives Charlotte 7 July 2024 @ 1:05 pmAmerican: AA5788 (CLT-PGV)
Departs Charlotte 7 2024 @ 4:20 pm
Arrives Greenville 7 July 2024 @ 5:34 pm
If you want to take a different flight to Charlotte and meet us there and then fly with the group from CLT, please feel free to do that, especially if it saves you money. In that case, just make sure you’re on the right CLT-LHR flight # above and we’ll meet you in Charlotte. 😊
How to Book Your Tickets
The best way to book your ticket is directly through American Airlines website: https://www.aa.com. You can go through Expedia or Kayak or another reseller option, but the prices — at least at the moment — are not any better, not once you dig in and realize that the price those discount sites show you do not include everything. In my experience, when you book with the airline directly, you get better service should something go wrong, but if you like to live risky …
When you get to the American site, you can search for the trip as such:
Choose MAIN CABIN: When you search for flights and get results, you’ll see that you have two options with American. You can choose “Basic Economy” or “Main Cabin.” There’s usually a $100-200 difference but it is absolutely WORTH IT to book the Main Cabin. With Basic Economy, you have to pay to check your back ($100 each way), while Main Cabin includes one bag in the price. It costs $100 to check a back internationally, so you’ve not saved any money in the end; you’ve just delayed when you spend it. Likewise, Basic Economy does no give you a seat assignment until you get the airport – trust me, you do not want to risk that because if you don’t have a seat, the airline may very likely give your spot to someone else
REMEMBER: the flight numbers are everything! Make sure those are correct with the flight you book. The times sometimes shift depending on how the airlines modifies flight schedules, sometimes but up to an hour, so don’t be surprised if your time if 5 minutes or 10 minutes different from when I took the screenshot below. As long as the flight numbers are right, we’ll all be together on the same flight. Once you’ve selected the outbound and return flights, your screen should look like this:
Once you have selected both flights, to London and back, you should see a screen that looks like this one:
As you go through the process, you’ll see that you’re asked to enter your traveler information. This is very important: it MUST match what’s on your passport, so be sure you enter this information correctly.
Eventually, you may be asked to enter your Passport Number, so be sure to have it handy. If you haven’t gotten it yet, that’s fine. You can add that information later. As you go through the process, you’ll see that you’re asked to enter your traveler information. This is very important: your name MUST match what’s on your passport, so be sure you enter this information correctly.
Send me an email at BANKSW [at] ECU [dot] EDU to say that you’ve booked your ticket and what your itinerary is (Group from Gville; Group from CLT; or On My Own). If you are traveling on your own, please send a copy of your itinerary so that we know where you are and how we might best make plans to meet you once we’re all in London. We instructors will be three bundles of stress between now and the time that every student has booked a ticket. Please settle our nerves by telling us when you’ve booked.
If you want to share a seat with someone you know from the program, then just book your flights at the same time and choose seats together.
Alternate Bookings
Some of you already have plans to travel on different days or from different airports. You might need to book flights different from those listed above for one of these three reasons:
- You plan to be somewhere other than Greenville before our departure date, and you prefer to fly from where you are rather than coming back to Greenville to fly out with the group. Note that the direct flight from Charlotte is currently more expensive than flying from Greenville. If Charlotte is closer for you, you can just meet us at the gate in Charlotte (and of course book just that leg of the flight). But if you’re in eastern NC, there’s really no financial advantage to driving over to Charlotte. Just fly out of Greenville with the rest of us!
- You plan to go to Europe before our program or stay in Europe for additional travel after the trip ends (lucky you!)
- You wait too long and there are no more available seats on the specified flights.
In each of these three situations, the process of booking your flight remains the same, but, of course, the specific flights will differ. If you’re departing from an airport other than PGV (Greenville) (e.g., if you’re going to be in New York, Atlanta, Virginia Beach, or Peoria), you might want to search for the best fare from your location. If possible, try to get a booking in which you will be landing at London Heathrow Airport (LHR) before the group’s arrival time (12:00 pm). If you do that, we should be able to meet up in Heathrow so you can ride with us to the flats.
If you plan to travel in Europe (post-trip), note that you can book an “open jaw” flight (that is, a flight where you arrive in one airport, but return from a different airport —e.g., Greenville to London, then tour Europe by train, then Madrid to Greenville). The airline websites provide instructions for booking this type of flight. If you’re on the continent, an open-jaw booking may be cheaper than returning to London first. The exception is often Paris; if you’re visiting Paris, it may be cheaper to return to London and fly out the next day. I’m always happy to talk with you about travel if you’d like some suggestions.
IMPORTANT: If you plan to use an alternative booking, PLEASE let me know as soon as possible! I’ll keep a list of everyone’s booking status and knowing who is where will go a long way to easing my mind that we’ve not lost someone.
Additional Suggestions and Comments
- Become a member of the American Airlines frequent flyer miles program! It’s free, and this flight will give you almost 10,000 frequent flyer miles right from the start. (That’s nearly halfway to a free domestic flight, and almost 1/3 of the way to a flight to the Caribbean!) You can book your ticket first, then sign up for the miles program; as long as you’re a member before you board the plane, you can count the miles.
- Reminder: use the exact same name for your flight booking that you have on your passport. No nicknames or abbreviation! I go by “Will” but my passport says “William” so that’s what I put when booking a flight.
- Some of you may not be sure yet whether you’d like to travel after the program. It’s possible to book your tickets, arrive in London, decide that you’d like to stay longer, and change your return flight by paying a change fee. That fee is something like $200 plus any increase in the new booking. So it’s possible to be spontaneous, but if you know for sure that you’d like to stay longer, you’re better off booking the extended itinerary from the start.
That’s it for now! Please, please let me know (banksw [at] ecu [dot] edu) when you’ve booked your ticket. We’ll sleep better knowing everyone’s successfully booked. Summer is a busy travel time for London, and the earlier we’re all booked, the more likely it is that we can travel together. This is especially true if you’re planning to fly out of Greenville, since it’s a smaller plane and there are fewer seats available.
Have questions or need help? Just ask. We’re going to have a great trip!
Travel 2019
Good news: we’ve finalized the flight plans for the Summer 2019 trip. The cost this year is consistent with the last few years, so that’s good news. But you will want to act quickly because these costs rarely go down, but they will certainly go up as more seats fill on the flights!
In the following message, you will find (1) an explanation of our air travel plan, (2) details about the flights you should book, (3) instructions on ordering your tickets, (4) information about alternatives to these preferred flights, and (5) some additional flight-related suggestions.
Our Air Travel Plan
As we discussed at the information sessions, each participant will need to book his or her ticket individually. Although you will book your ticket individually, we’d like everyone to book the same flight from Charlotte to London, if possible. That way, we can arrange an airport shuttle to take the group in from the airport to our London lodging. Some exceptions can be made, of course (for instance, people who are going to be somewhere other than North Carolina in June might want to fly directly from that location rather than returning to ECU before departure). But if you book a flight that’s different from the booking provided below, you may have to take a train from the airport to the city, and very few train stations have escalators, which makes traveling with luggage rather frustrating. Aside from that practical matter, it’s just nicer to travel in a group!
To make it possible to travel together, we’ve selected flights for which there are still lots of open seats. Nevertheless, it’s important to book your flight soon; we have around 18 travelers in our group, and we want to grab all our seats before others take them! There’s no way to predict how long the space will remain available, and there’s also no way to know that the price will remain the same.
Flight details (a.k.a. “Book this itinerary!”)
Here’s a summary of the itinerary that you should book as soon as possible:
Outbound: Greenville to Charlotte to London-Heathrow
American: AA5008 (PGV-CLT)
Departs Greenville 21 June 2019 @ 2:31 pm
Arrive Charlotte 21 June 2019 @ 3:51 pmAmerican: AA730 (CLT-LHR) — Overnight Flight
Departs Charlotte 21 June 2019 @ 6:55 pm
Arrives London-Heathrow 22 June 2019 @ 8:00 am
Inbound: London to Charlotte to Greenville
American: AA733 (LHR-CLT)
Departs London-Heathrow 14 July 2019 @ 12:20 pm
Arrives Charlotte 14 July 2019 @ 4:30 pmAmerican: AA4795 (CLT-PGV)
Departs Charlotte 14 July 2019 @ 9:14 pm
Arrives Greenville 14 July 2019 @ 10:18 pm
If you want, you can join us in Charlotte (usually that means in Concourse D – International Concourse) and skip the PGV-CLT leg of the trip. At the moment, that direct flight is actually MORE expensive. I do not understand airline logics.
How to Book Your Tickets
The best way to book your ticket is directly through American Airlines website: http://www.aa.com. You can go through Expedia or Orbitz or another reseller option, but the prices — at least at the moment — are not any better. In my experience, when you book with the airline directly, you get better service should something go wrong.
When you get to the American site, you can search for the trip as such:
REMEMBER: the flight numbers are everything! Make sure those are correct with the flight you book. The times sometimes shift by up to 15 or 20 minutes, so don’t be surprised if your time is a little different from when I took the screenshot. As long as the flight numbers are right, we’ll all be together on the same flight.
When you go to select your flights out and back, you’ll see two prices that are fairly close. American Airlines now offers “basic economy” and “main cabin” with about a $100 price difference. I highly recommend you spend the $100 up front and go for main cabin. If you read the stipulations on the two kinds of tickets, you’ll see that with “basic economy” you have to pay to check your bag, you board last, and you have no assigned seat until the day of the flight — which means you could more easily be bumped from the flight if they get in an “over sold” situation. You’re not really saving much money once you factor in the cost of checking your luggage.
Once you have selected both flights, to London and back, you should see a screen that looks like this one:
As you go through the process, you’ll see that you’re asked to enter your traveler information. This is very important: it MUST match what’s on your passport, so be sure you enter this information correctly.
Eventually, you may be asked to enter your Passport Number, so be sure to have it handy. If you haven’t gotten it yet, that’s fine. You can add that information later.
Send me an email at BANKSW [at] ECU [dot] EDU to say that you’ve booked your ticket and what your itinerary is (Group from Gville; Group from CLT; or On My Own). If you are traveling on your own, please send a copy of your itinerary so that we know where you are and how we might best make plans to meet you once we’re all in London. We instructors will be three bundles of stress between now and the time that every student has booked a ticket. Please settle our nerves by telling us when you’ve booked.
If you want to share a seat with someone you know from the program, then just book your flights at the same time and choose seats together.
Alternate Bookings
Some of you already have plans to travel on different days or from different airports. You might need to book flights different from those listed above for different reasons:
- You plan to be somewhere other than Greenville before our departure date, and you prefer to fly from where you are rather than coming back to Greenville to fly out with the group. If Charlotte is closer for you, you can just meet us at the gate in Charlotte (and of course book just that leg of the flight). But if you’re in eastern NC, there’s really no financial advantage to driving over to Charlotte. Just fly out of Greenville with the rest of us!
- You plan to stay in Europe for additional travel after the trip ends (lucky you!)
- You wait too long and there are no more available seats on the specified flights.
In each of these situations, the process of booking your flight remains the same, but, of course, the specific flights will differ. If you’re departing from an airport other than PGV (Greenville) (e.g., if you’re going to be in New York, Atlanta, Virginia Beach, or Peoria), you might want to search for the best fare from your location. If possible, try to get a booking in which you will be landing at London Heathrow Airport (LHR) before the group’s arrival time (8:00 am). If you do that, we should be able to meet up in the airport so you can take our hired shuttle bus in to the city. The shuttle can’t wait if your flight is delayed. You will have to get from the airport to the city on your own, but it’s not difficult, and we can give you the necessary instructions.
If you plan to travel in Europe (post-trip), note that you can book an “open jaw” flight (that is, a flight where you arrive in one airport, but return from a different airport—e.g., Greenville to London, then tour Europe by train, then Madrid to Greenville). The airline websites provide instructions for booking this type of flight. If you’re on the continent, an open-jaw booking may be cheaper than returning to London first.
This is important. If you plan to use an alternative booking, PLEASE let me know as soon as possible! I’ll keep a list of everyone’s booking status.
Additional Suggestions and Comments
Become a member of the American Airlines frequent flyer miles program! It’s free, and this flight will give you almost 10,000 frequent flyer miles right from the start. (That’s almost halfway to a free domestic flight, and almost 1/3 of the way to a flight to the Caribbean!) You can book your ticket first, then sign up for the miles program; as long as you’re a member before you board the plane, you can count the miles.
Reminder: use the exact same name for your flight booking that you have on your passport. No nicknames! I’m talking to you, Richard “Muscles” Taylor.
Some of you may not be sure yet whether you’d like to travel after the program. It’s possible to book your tickets, arrive in London, decide that you’d like to stay longer, and change your return flight by paying a change fee. That fee is something like $200 plus any increase in the new booking. So it’s possible to be spontaneous, but if you know for sure that you’d like to stay longer, you’re better off booking the extended itinerary from the start.
That’s it for now! Please, please let Dr. Banks know when you’ve booked your ticket. We’ll sleep better knowing everyone’s successfully booked. Summer is a busy travel time for London, and the earlier we’re all booked, the more likely it is that we can travel together. This is especially true if you’re planning to fly out of Greenville, since it’s a smaller plane and there are fewer seats available. Book ASAP, okay?
Have questions or need help? Just ask. We’re going to have a great trip!
Travel 2018
Information on travel for 2019 will be available in February 2019 as we make flight arrangements. Information below will give you a sense of the flight we usually take and how you will eventually book your own flight for the trip. More soon!
Good news: we’ve finalized the flight plans for the Summer 2018 trip. The cost this year is consistent with the last few years, so that’s good news. But you will want to act quickly because these costs rarely go down, but they will certainly go up as more seats fill on the flights!
In the following message, you will find (1) an explanation of our air travel plan, (2) details about the flights you should book, (3) instructions on ordering your tickets, (4) information about alternatives to these preferred flights, and (5) some additional flight-related suggestions.
Our Air Travel Plan
As we discussed at the information sessions, each participant will need to book his or her ticket individually. Although you will book your ticket individually, we’d like everyone to book the same flight from Charlotte to London, if possible. That way, we can arrange an airport shuttle to take the group in from the airport to our London lodging. Some exceptions can be made, of course (for instance, people who are going to be somewhere other than North Carolina in June might want to fly directly from that location rather than returning to ECU before departure). But if you book a flight that’s different from the booking provided below, you may have to take a train from the airport to the city, and very few train stations have escalators, which makes traveling with luggage rather frustrating. Aside from that practical matter, it’s just nicer to travel in a group!
To make it possible to travel together, we’ve selected flights for which there are still lots of open seats. Nevertheless, it’s important to book your flight soon; we have around 15 travelers in our group, and we want to grab all our seats before others take them! There’s no way to predict how long the space will remain available, and there’s also no way to know that the price will remain the same.
Flight details (a.k.a. “Book this itinerary!”)
Here’s a summary of the itinerary that you should book as soon as possible:
Outbound: Greenville to Charlotte to London-Heathrow
American: 5083 (PGV-CLT)
Departs Greenville 22 June 2018 @ 2:23 pm
Arrive Charlotte 22 June 2018 @ 3:40 pmAmerican: US730 (CLT-LHR) — Overnight Flight
Departs Charlotte 22 June 2018 @ 7:05 pm
Arrives London-Heathrow 23 June 2018 @ 8:00 am
Inbound: London to Charlotte to Greenville
American: US733 (LHR-CLT)
Departs London-Heathrow 15 July 2018 @ 2:00 pm
Arrives Charlotte 15 July 2018 @ 6:25 pmAmerican: US5123 (CLT-PGV)
Departs Charlotte 15 July 2018 @ 8:05 pm
Arrives Greenville 15 July 2018 @ 9:08 pm
If you want, you can join us in Charlotte (usually that means in Concourse D – International Concourse) and skip the PGV-CLT leg of the trip. At the moment, that direct flight is actually MORE expensive. I do not understand airline logics.
How to Book Your Tickets
The best way to book your ticket is directly through American Airlines website: http://www.aa.com. You can go through Expedia or Orbitz or another reseller option, but the prices — at least at the moment — are not any better. In my experience, when you book with the airline directly, you get better service should something go wrong.
When you get to the American site, you can search for the trip as such:
REMEMBER: the flight numbers are everything! Make sure those are correct with the flight you book. The times sometimes shift by up to 15 minutes, so don’t be surprised if your time if 5 minutes or 10 minutes different from when I took the screenshot. As long as the flight numbers are right, we’ll all be together on the same flight.
As you go through the process, you’ll see that you’re asked to enter your traveler information. This is very important: it MUST match what’s on your passport, so be sure you enter this information correctly.
Eventually, you may be asked to enter your Passport Number, so be sure to have it handy. If you haven’t gotten it yet, that’s fine. You can add that information later.
Send me an email at BANKSW [at] ECU [dot] EDU to say that you’ve booked your ticket and what your itinerary is (Group from Gville; Group from CLT; or On My Own). If you are traveling on your own, please send a copy of your itinerary so that we know where you are and how we might best make plans to meet you once we’re all in London. We instructors will be three bundles of stress between now and the time that every student has booked a ticket. Please settle our nerves by telling us when you’ve booked.
If you want to share a seat with someone you know from the program, then just book your flights at the same time and choose seats together.
Alternate Bookings
Some of you already have plans to travel on different days or from different airports. You might need to book flights different from those listed above for different reasons:
- You plan to be somewhere other than Greenville before our departure date, and you prefer to fly from where you are rather than coming back to Greenville to fly out with the group. If Charlotte is closer for you, you can just meet us at the gate in Charlotte (and of course book just that leg of the flight). But if you’re in eastern NC, there’s really no financial advantage to driving over to Charlotte. Just fly out of Greenville with the rest of us!
- You plan to stay in Europe for additional travel after the trip ends (lucky you!)
- You wait too long and there are no more available seats on the specified flights.
In each of these situations, the process of booking your flight remains the same, but, of course, the specific flights will differ. If you’re departing from an airport other than PGV (Greenville) (e.g., if you’re going to be in New York, Atlanta, Virginia Beach, or Peoria), you might want to search for the best fare from your location. If possible, try to get a booking in which you will be landing at London Heathrow Airport (LHR) before the group’s arrival time (8:00 am). If you do that, we might be able to meet up in the airport so you can take our hired shuttle bus in to the city. The shuttle can’t wait if your flight is delayed. You will have to get from the airport to the city on your own, but it’s not difficult, and I’ll give you the necessary instructions.
If you plan to travel in Europe (post-trip), note that you can book an “open jaw” flight (that is, a flight where you arrive in one airport, but return from a different airport—e.g., Greenville to London, then tour Europe by train, then Madrid to Greenville). The airline websites provide instructions for booking this type of flight. If you’re on the continent, an open-jaw booking may be cheaper than returning to London first.
This is important. If you plan to use an alternative booking, PLEASE let me know as soon as possible! I’ll keep a list of everyone’s booking status.
Additional Suggestions and Comments
Become a member of the American Airlines frequent flyer miles program! It’s free, and this flight will give you almost 10,000 frequent flyer miles right from the start. (That’s almost halfway to a free domestic flight, and almost 1/3 of the way to a flight to the Caribbean!) You can book your ticket first, then sign up for the miles program; as long as you’re a member before you board the plane, you can count the miles.
Reminder: use the exact same name for your flight booking that you have on your passport. No nicknames! I’m talking to you, Richard “Muscles” Taylor.
Some of you may not be sure yet whether you’d like to travel after the program. It’s possible to book your tickets, arrive in London, decide that you’d like to stay longer, and change your return flight by paying a change fee. That fee is something like $200 plus any increase in the new booking. So it’s possible to be spontaneous, but if you know for sure that you’d like to stay longer, you’re better off booking the extended itinerary from the start.
That’s it for now! Please, please let Dr. Banks know when you’ve booked your ticket. We’ll sleep better knowing everyone’s successfully booked. Summer is a busy travel time for London, and the earlier we’re all booked, the more likely it is that we can travel together. This is especially true if you’re planning to fly out of Greenville, since it’s a smaller plane and there are fewer seats available. Book ASAP, okay?
Have questions or need help? Just ask. We’re going to have a great trip!
Day Trips 2018
Each year, we put together a host of short day trips that get us out of the city and allow us to see another view of England. The city is wonderful, full of brilliant shows, fascinating people, and interesting things to do, but as the British aristocracy has always known, the country provides its own pleasures.
Featured Excursions in 21018
The following excursions are built into the program and parts of these trips are paid for in advance through your program fee. If there are any extra charges associated with the trip, those are noted, as well.
Oxford or Cambridge? (Travel = Pre-Paid; Tour = £10-15)
Each year, we take a day-trip to either Oxford or Cambridge so that you can get a sense of what that style of college/university life is like. It’s different enough from US higher education that it’s worth seeing, and there are building in both places that are older than the United States as a nation. Our tour guides have always been wonderful, somewhat perfectly “British” and fitting every stereotype you’re looking for. At Oxford, we see lots of sites, like the courtyard at New College where “Mad Eye” Moody turns Draco Malfoy into a ferret in Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire. There are lots of other Harry-Potter-related sites in Oxford, as well, that you could do as part of your own walking tour. (PDF) Cambridge offers equally beautiful sites as Oxford, as well as some beautiful first editions of A. A. Milne’s Pooh books, and artifacts related to the discovery of DNA, as well as places you’ll have seen in the recent film about Stephen Hawking, A Theory of Everything. In both towns, you have the chance to go “punting” — you shouldn’t miss it. Grab a bottle of wine (or two) and put a group together for a punt. There’s nothing quite like a relaxing summer boat ride around Oxford or Cambridge to relax you and also to make you feel a bit like Rat from The Wind in the Willows!
Kew Garden (Course Trip: Pre-Paid)
One of our favorite early “outings” each year is to hop on a Thames River Boat Tour and head out to the Royal Botanic Gardens at Kew. After four or five days in central London, it’s fun to get away from the hustle and bustle of city life and see one of the most interesting botanic gardens in the world. Kew really came of age in the 19th century as English explorers traveled the globe and brought back rare plant specimens to London for study and cultivation. Kew Gardens produced the first tropical fruits in England, which became extremely important for sailors who often succumbed to scurvy while traveling. The vitamins in citrus fruit help keep the sailors healthy. But Kew also has Queen Charlotte’s summer palace, and the Treetop Walkway: take a few minutes to climb the stairs and look out over the London suburban countryside from the sky! And whatever you do, make sure you try the orange juice at the Orangery: fresh squeezed each day, it is the best OJ we’ve ever tasted … seriously!
After we’ve had our fun in the garden, we’ll head to the Original Maids of Honour Tea Shoppe for an afternoon “cream tea.” You’ll definitely want to try their eponymous confection, the “original Maids of Honour” pastry, but if you’ve never had afternoon “cream tea,” complete with rejuvenating hot tea and a scone that’s been slathered in delicious clotted cream and jam, well, you’ve been letting the best in life pass you by! You’ll want more tea-and-scone afternoons after this one, and let’s face it: after all the miles we’ve walked in London and in Kew, the calories won’t matter.
Additional Excursions in 2018
Stratford-Upon-Avon & the Shakespeare Institute (Optional Extra Trip: £30)
This year, because we have a former student, Karen Harker (London 2012), studying at the Shakespeare Institute, we have the opportunity to take a quick train out to Stratford-Upon-Avon, birthplace to the Bard. While there, we’ll have an expert on the area (and Shakespeare — Karen’s finishing a master’s on playwright!) who has offered to give us a tour around town. She also thinks she can introduce us to some of the actors working at the local theatres. Imagine it: a day trip to the country complete with free tours, a great play, and a chance to go behind the scenes! How can we pass up an opportunity like that? Come join us at Marylebone station, and we’ll take the train up together!
Did You Say Harry Potter? (Optional Extra Trip: £50-75 depending on tour options)
Caught that did you? The fact that there’s Harry Potter sites to see in Oxford? Well, what about the Warner Bros. Studio in Watford Junction, which has an amazing tour of Harry Potter sets, props, costumes, and all the Butter Bear you could ever ask for?! That’s right: you can sate every one of your HP desires by taking one of the tours. We went two years ago and had way more fun than we thought we would, and then last year, the tours had gotten so popular that they were sold out for all of July by the time we got there. If you want to do the Harry Potter Studio Tour, you’ll want to book early. We can help you do that and get a group together. It’s way more fun with friends!
But That’s Just the Beginning …
While we’ll do some of these things together as a large group, there are so many other wonderful day or afternoon excursions you’ll want to enjoy. It’s a simple trip to grab the train at Paddington and hop over to Windsor for an afternoon to tour Windsor Castle and see the town. Or if it’s Henry VIII you’re interested in, go to Hampton Court Palace. The tour of the palace is wonderful, but you can actually the hedge-row maze for free! If Stonehenge and Bath are more your speed, then there are very inexpensive coach (bus) tours that pick you up in Central London and spirit you around to cool places, all in a day. Students over the years have really enjoying putting together afternoon or all-day-Saturday trips to Stonehenge-Bath-and-Oxford.
If you’re interested in “the Continent,” then now’s a great chance to go. From London’s 4 airports, it’s easy to grab a cheap ticket on RyanAir or ValueJet to Paris, Rome, Amsterdam, Barcelona, Berlin, or really anywhere in central Europe. Put a group of 3 or 4 together and get a room for the weekend. Since we don’t have classes on the weekends, you can escape on Friday afternoon and stay until late Sunday. You’ve got your passport, you’ve got friends, why not see more of Europe, Ireland, or Scotland?? Now’s the chance!
Travel 2016
COMING SOON: Below is the information from 2015 to give you a sense of how our travel worked then. This stays fairly constant from year to year.
Good news: we’ve finalized the flight plans for the Summer 2015 trip. The current price is hovering around $1,400—not bad for London in late summer (and currently $200 cheaper than last year)!
In the following message, you will find (1) an explanation of our air travel plan, (2) details about the flights you should book, (3) instructions on ordering your tickets, (4) information about alternatives to these preferred flights, and (5) some additional flight-related suggestions.
Our Air Travel Plan
As we discussed at the information sessions, each participant will need to book his or her ticket individually. Although you will book your ticket individually, we’d like everyone to book the same flight from Charlotte to London, if possible. That way, we can arrange an airport shuttle to take the group in from the airport to our London lodging. Some exceptions can be made, of course (for instance, people who are going to be somewhere other than North Carolina in June might want to fly directly from that location rather than returning to ECU before departure). But if you book a flight that’s different from the booking provided below, you’ll have to take a train from the airport to the city, and very few train stations have escalators, which makes traveling with luggage rather frustrating. Aside from that practical matter, it’s just nicer to travel in a group!
To make it possible to travel together, we’ve selected flights for which there are still lots of open seats. Nevertheless, it’s important to book your flight soon; we have more than 20 travelers, and we want to grab all our seats before others take them! There’s no way to predict how long the space will remain available, and there’s also no way to know that the price will remain the same. (It looks very, very doubtful that the price would go down, but, as the flight fills up, it’s normal for the prices to go up.)
Flight details (a.k.a. “Book this itinerary!”)
Here’s a summary of the itinerary that you should book as soon as possible:
Outbound: Greenville to Charlotte to London-Heathrow
US Airways: US4768 (PGV-CLT)
Departs Greenville 3 July 2015 @ 2:21 pm
Arrive Charlotte 3 July 2015 @ 3:37 pmUS Airways: US730 (CLT-LHR)
Departs Charlotte 3 July 2015 @ 6:45 pm
Arrives London-Heathrow 4 July 2015 7:40 am
Inbound: London to Charlotte to Greenville
US Airways: US731 (LHR-CLT)
Departs London-Heathrow 26 July 2015 @ 11:00 am
Arrives Charlotte 26 July 2015 @ 2:53 pmUS Airways: US4797 (CLT-PGV)
Departs Charlotte 26 July 2015 @ 4:12 pm
Arrives Greenville 26 July 2015 @ 5:21 pm
If you want, you can join us in Charlotte (in Concourse D – International Concourse) and skip the PGV-CLT leg of the trip. At the moment, you’re not saving any money – it’s actually more expensive – but that may change.
How to Book Your Tickets
The best way to book your ticket is directly through USAirways website: http://www.usairways.com. You can go through Expedia or Orbitz or another reseller option, but the prices — at least at the moment — are not any better. In my experience, when you book with the airline directly, you get better service should something go wrong.
When you get to the USAirways site, you can search for the trip as such:
REMEMBER: the flight numbers are everything! Make sure those are correct with the flight you book. The times sometimes shift by up to 15 minutes, so don’t be surprised if your time if 5 minutes or 10 minutes different from when I took the screenshot. As long as the flight numbers are right, we’ll all be together on the same flight.
At the moment, it is $400 cheaper to fly from Washington DC to Charlotte to London – honestly, there is no logic here – than it is to fly from Greenville to Charlotte to London or even, believe it or not, to fly straight from London. I mention this because the exact same plane for all three of these goes to London (USAir Flight #730). So if Greenville isn’t the closest option, you might check around airports in the area where you have family or friends you might spend the night with. You might save yourself some money on the flight.
As you go through the process, you’ll see that you’re asked to enter your traveler information. This is very important: it MUST match what’s on your passport, so be sure you enter this information correctly.
Eventually, you may be asked to enter your Passport Number, so be sure to have it handy.
Send me an email at BANKSW [at] ECU [dot] EDU to say that you’ve booked your ticket and what your itinerary is (Group from Gville; Group from CLT; or On My Own). If you are traveling on your own, please send a copy of your itinerary so that we know where you are and how we might best make plans to meet you once we’re all in London. We instructors will be three bundles of stress between now and the time that every student has booked a ticket. Please settle our nerves by telling us when you’ve booked.
If you want to share a seat with someone you know from the program, then just book your flights at the same time and choose seats together.
Alternate Bookings
Some of you already have plans to travel on different days or from different airports. You might need to book flights different from those listed above for different reasons:
- You plan to be somewhere other than Greenville before our departure date, and you prefer to fly from where you are rather than coming back to Greenville to fly out with the group. If Charlotte is closer for you, you can just meet us at the gate in Charlotte (and of course book just that leg of the flight). But if you’re in eastern NC, there’s really no financial advantage to driving over to Charlotte. Just fly out of Greenville with the rest of us!
- You plan to stay in Europe for additional travel after the trip ends (lucky you!)
- You wait too long and there are no more available seats on the specified flights.
In each of these situations, the process of booking your flight remains the same, but, of course, the specific flights will differ. If you’re departing from an airport other than PGV (Greenville) (e.g., if you’re going to be in New York, Atlanta, Virginia Beach, or Peoria), you might want to search for the best fare from your location. If possible, try to get a booking in which you will be landing at London Heathrow Airport (LHR) before the group’s arrival time (7:50 am). If you do that, we might be able to meet up in the airport so you can take our private shuttle bus in to the city. The shuttle can’t wait if your flight is delayed, but don’t worry. You will have to get from the airport to the city on your own, but it’s not difficult, and I’ll give you the necessary instructions.
If you plan to travel in Europe (post-trip), note that you can book an “open jaw” flight (that is, a flight where you arrive in one airport, but return from a different airport—e.g., Greenville to London, then tour Europe by train, then Madrid to Greenville). The airline websites provide instructions for booking this type of flight. If you’re on the continent, an open-jaw booking may be cheaper than returning to London first. The exception is Paris; if you’re visiting Paris, it may be cheaper to return to London and fly out the next day.
This is important. If you plan to use an alternative booking, PLEASE let me know as soon as possible! I’ll keep a list of everyone’s booking status.
Additional Suggestions and Comments
Become a member of the USAirways “Dividend Miles” frequent flyer miles program! Now that USAirways and American Airlines are the same company, if you already have an AA frequent flyer account, you can connect it to USAirways and add these miles. It’s free, and this flight will give you almost 10,000 frequent flyer miles right from the start. (That’s almost halfway to a free domestic flight, and almost 1/3 of the way to a flight to the Caribbean!) You can book your ticket first, then sign up for the miles program; as long as you’re a member before you board the plane, you can count the miles.
Reminder: use the exact same name for your flight booking that you have on your passport. No nicknames! I’m talking to you, Richard “Muscles” Taylor.
Some of you may not be sure yet whether you’d like to travel after the program. It’s possible to book your tickets, arrive in London, decide that you’d like to stay longer, and change your return flight by paying a change fee. That fee is something like $200 plus any increase in the new booking. So it’s possible to be spontaneous, but if you know for sure that you’d like to stay longer, you’re better off booking the extended itinerary from the start.
That’s it for now! Please, please let Dr. Banks know when you’ve booked your ticket. We’ll sleep better knowing everyone’s successfully booked. Summer is a busy travel time for London, and the earlier we’re all booked, the more likely it is that we can travel together. This is especially true if you’re planning to fly out of Greenville, since it’s a smaller plane and there are fewer seats available. Book ASAP, okay?
Have questions or need help? Just ask. We’re going to have a great trip!
Day Trips for 2016
COMING SOON: Below is the information from 2015 to give you a sense of how our travel worked then. This stays fairly constant from year to year.
Each year, we put together a host of short day trips that get us out of the city and allow us to see another view of England. The city is wonderful, full of brilliant shows, people, and things to do, but as the British aristocracy has always known, the country provides its own pleasures.
Stratford-Upon-Avon & the Shakespeare Institute
This year, because we have a former student, Karen Harker (London 2012), studying at the Shakespeare Institute, we have the opportunity to take a quick train out to Stratford-Upon-Avon, birthplace to the Bard. While there, we’ll have an expert on the area (and Shakespeare — Karen’s finishing a master’s on playwright!) who has offered to give us a tour around town. She also thinks she can introduce us to some of the actors working at the local theatres. Imagine it: a day trip to the country complete with free tours, a great play, and a chance to go behind the scenes! How can we pass up an opportunity like that? Come join us at Marylebone station, and we’ll take the train up together!
Oxford or Cambridge?
Likewise, we often take a day trip to either Oxford or Cambridge so that you can get a sense of what that style of college/university life is like. It’s different enough from US higher education that it’s worth seeing, and there are building in both places that are older than the United States as a nation. Our tour guides have always been wonderful, somewhat perfectly “British” and fitting every stereotype you’re looking for. At Oxford, we see lots of sites, like the courtyard at New College where “Mad Eye” Moody turns Draco Malfoy into a ferret in Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire. There lots of other Harry-Potter-related sites in Oxford, as well, that you could do as part of your own walking tour. (PDF) Cambridge offers equally beautiful sites as Oxford, as well as some beautiful first editions of A. A. Milne’s Pooh books, and artifacts related to the discovery of DNA, as well as places you’ll have seen in the recent film about Stephen Hawking, A Theory of Everything. In both towns, you have the chance to go “punting” — you shouldn’t miss it. Grab a bottle of wine (or two) and put a group together for a punt. There’s nothing quite like a relaxing summer boat ride around Oxford or Cambridge to relax you and also to make you feel a bit like Rat from The Wind in the Willows!
Kew Garden
One of our favorite early “outings” each year is to hop on a Thames River Boat Tour and head out to the Royal Botanic Gardens at Kew. After four or five days in central London, it’s fun to get away from the hustle and bustle of city life and see one of the most interesting botanic gardens in the world. Kew really came of age in the 19th century as English explorers traveled the globe and brought back rare plant specimens to London for study and cultivation. Kew Gardens produced the first tropical fruits in England, which became extremely important for sailors who often succumbed to scurvy while traveling. The vitamins in citrus fruit help keep the sailors healthy. But Kew also has Queen Charlotte’s summer palace, and the Treetop Walkway: take a few minutes to climb the stairs and look out over the London suburban countryside from the sky! And whatever you do, make sure you try the orange juice at the Orangery: fresh squeezed each day, it is the best OJ we’ve ever tasted … seriously!
After we’ve had our fun in the garden, we’ll head to the Original Maids of Honour Tea Shoppe for an afternoon “cream tea.” You’ll definitely want to try their eponymous confection, the “original Maids of Honour” pastry, but if you’ve never had afternoon “cream tea,” complete with rejuvenating hot tea and a scone that’s been slathered in delicious clotted cream and jam, well, you’ve been letting the best in life pass you by! You’ll want more tea-and-scone afternoons after this one, and let’s face it: after all the miles we’ve walked in London and in Kew, the calories won’t matter.
Did You Say Harry Potter?
Caught that did you? The fact that there’s Harry Potter sites to see in Oxford? Well, what about the Warner Bros. Studio in Watford Junction, which has an amazing tour of Harry Potter sets, props, costumes, and all the Butter Bear you could ever ask for?! That’s right: you can sate every one of your HP desires by taking one of the tours. We went two years ago and had way more fun than we thought we would, and then last year, the tours had gotten so popular that they were sold out for all of July by the time we got there. If you want to do the Harry Potter Studio Tour, you’ll want to book early. We can help you do that and get a group together. It’s way more fun with friends!
But That’s Just the Beginning …
While we’ll do some of these things together as a large group, there are so many other wonderful day or afternoon excursions you’ll want to enjoy. It’s a simple trip to grab the train at Paddington and hop over to Windsor for an afternoon to tour Windsor Castle and see the town. Or if it’s Henry VIII you’re interested in, go to Hampton Court Palace. The tour of the palace is wonderful, but you can actually the hedge-row maze for free! If Stonehenge and Bath are more your speed, then there are very inexpensive coach (bus) tours that pick you up in Central London and spirit you around to cool places, all in a day. Students over the years have really enjoying putting together afternoon or all-day-Saturday trips to Stonehenge-Bath-and-Oxford.
If you’re interested in “the Continent,” then now’s a great chance to go. From London’s 4 airports, it’s easy to grab a cheap ticket on RyanAir or ValueJet to Paris, Rome, Amsterdam, Barcelona, Berlin, or really anywhere in central Europe. Put a group of 3 or 4 together and get a room for the weekend. Since we don’t have classes on the weekends, you can escape on Friday afternoon and stay until late Sunday. You’ve got your passport, you’ve got friends, why not see more of Europe, Ireland, or Scotland?? Now’s the chance!
