With autumn being the season of mists and mellow fruitfulness, October would be a good month for a few days in the Cotswolds and London. Our fall foliage isn't as spectacular as yours but then we can compensate with visits to the Shakespeare Houses, world class performances at the Royal Shakespeare Theatre, stunning gardens at Hidcote, Mill Dene and Batsford, a birds of prey flying display, Britain's ultimate castle at Warwick, antique shops, tea rooms and pub suppers and you've still not reached London!

If your local theatre stages Shakespeare plays, the odds are that they'll already be aware that the World Shakespeare Festival starts on the Bard's birthday (23rd April) and runs through to November 2012.

This imaginative tour is the perfect conversation starter for clients of yours who may be involved with fundraising tours for art galleries and museums. Enhanced by special curator led visits, front and backstage tours and evenings of world class theatre in Stratford upon Avon and London, this unique programme will impress and delight small groups of 15 or so with an interest in the visual and performing arts.

Today's Tour of the Week has been created JUST FOR YOU and is an INVITATION to attend the Best of Britain and Ireland trade show at the National Exhibition Centre, Birmingham in March. If England, Scotland, Wales and Ireland are on your 20122013 radar, this unique event will bring you bang up to date and with your newly acquired knowledge give you a huge advantage over your competitors.

Harry Potter, Alice in Wonderland, C S Lewis, Sir Winston Churchill and William Shakespeare are just a few of the characters that play their part in this tour. The two cathedrals at the heart of the programme are those at Christ Church in Oxford and in Coventry where they are enthusiastically celebrating their 50th anniversary this year. This tour can be enhanced by adding an extra day to include a visit to The Making of Harry Potter, the new Warner Brothers attraction just to the north of London.

Today's Tour of the week starts and finishes in London but spends 3 nights at Wroxall Abbey, a fine country house near Stratford and in Shakespeare Country. It starts with shopping at Portobello Road, Harrods and Petticoat Lane befor a few hours at the huge discount designer outlet shopping village at Bicester near Oxford. Spectacular castles, stately homes and gardens and opportunities to go to the theatre then fill the rest of the 6 night tour.

The internationally famous markets at Portobello Road and Petticoat Lane, sophisticated shopping in Harrods and the boutique stores on Sloane Streetthe Kings Roadplus the Cotswolds, what an intriguingstarting pointfor a UK Girls Getaway. Follow me and let me take you to some special places in our capital city and in the Cotswolds, an iconic destination in its own right and where I live!

Because many gardeners are too busy to travel in the spring, give some serious thought to a UK tour based around the annual Harrogate Autumn Flower Show. It takes place in mid September and to make access really easy, I strongly recommend that you fly your clients into Manchester in North West England.

Today's Tour of the Week is a great conversation starter for clients of yours who enjoy cultural experiences in the tours you recommend to them. Available in Word, why not test the waters by mailing it to some of your anglophile customers? Similarly, over your next cup of tea or coffee, why not draw up a list of localnearby art galleries, museums, festivals and other arts minded organisations who might like to see what you can offer them as a fundraiser? Email it to them as well!

Featuring the great cathedrals in Peterborough, Ely, and Bury St Edmunds and concluding with Southwark in London, this 6 night tour includes visits to John Bunyan's birthplace, the university colleges in Cambridge, Her Majesty the Queen's country home at Sandringham, American connections at Otley Hall and a fish 'n chip supper in London's Bankside. Amazing Grace also make an entrance on Day 1!

In most tour operator's brochures, a visit to Cornwall might be a day trip from Plymouth, driving by St Michael's Mount, a photo op at Lands End and an hour or so in picturesque St Ives.

If you're thinking of a UK-bound Girls Getaway trip, take a look at this week's Tour of the Week. It starts with a few days of world class shopping and interesting sightseeing in the iconic city of Bath and includes a couple of self indulgent hours in the award winning Thermae Bath Spa. Swimming in their heated roof top pool is something that's not to be missed.

With non-stop flights on the increase to the user friendly Manchester England gateway, here's a 3 country tour that offers value added visits to some of the great castles, stately homes and award winning gardens in North Wales, the Scottish border country and in northern England. Use this as the foundation for a small group, customised tour and offer a 2-3 night London extension pre or post. To make it really special, after Day 4 you could easily include 2-3 nights in Edinburgh!

With the 2012 World Shakespeare Festival going live in just over 5 months time, here's an itinerary that could make a very good conversation starter with the person (who you probably know) who's in charge of fund raising at your local theatre. Because of their own bush telegraph, its almost certain that they will already be aware of this 6 month celebration of the world's greatest playwright.What they won't know is how toconvert it into a trip that delights their patrons and generates valuable revenue for the theatre.This is where you step in with a programme, with the appropriate bells and whistles that will lead to an enjoyable and profitableoutcome for everyone concerned.

Based in the iconic heritage cities of Oxford and Stratford upon Avon, with London at the end (plus extensions) this 8 nighter could be just the tour to present to your art gallery-theatre contacts as a fund raiser for 15-20 anglophile travellers.With the help ofmy local contacts, I can add a number bells and whistles which will add extra value to the customised tour. Blending this all together will produce a memorable travel experience that will also generate some valuable funds for the organisation concerned.

Two spectacular castles, an Elizabethan England experience, Independence Day at Sulgrave Manor George Washington's ancestral home, and a close encounter with the Queen of Hearts, the Mad Hatter, the White Rabbit and the Dormouse. Welcome to a fun-filled 7 night family programme to London, Stratford upon Avon and Oxford.

With a UK land sales value of around $40,000 (including commission worth a minimum of $4000) my Tours of the Week merit very close attention. Imaginatively put together and not for clients looking for a cheap set departure tour, here are six recent creations that will catch the eye of Book Clubs and Reading Circles; Master Gardeners, Herb, Rose and other Garden Clubs; Continuing Education Colleges; friends of yours who will enjoy a Girls Getaway to the Cotswolds in June.

Here's another itinerary that's packed with former winners of the fiercely contested Historic Houses Association-Christies Garden of the Year Award. Being based in the Cotswolds for 3 nights further enhances its appeal and the tour concludes with a wonderful, colour and scent filled day at the 2012 Hampton Court Flower Show. This programme is spot on for those knowledgeable garden contacts of yours who, being too busy in their own gardens in the spring may well say yes to this particular Collection of Excellence.

The audience for today's Tour of the Week includes the fundraiser at your art gallery or museum, the lecturer and possible pied piper at your community college, or a group of art teachers looking for an interesting holiday experience. The tour delves deep into the far South West of England with an inspired blend of art collections, theatre under the stars, a castle, a garden, a Cornish cream tea and, never too far away, tales of King Arthur and the Knights of the Round Table.

Credit for today's Tour of the Week goes to my good friend and Niche Britain reader Gloria Hobbins, owner of Global Village Travels in Plainfield, New Jersey who emailed me earlier this week to say that she has a group of women who might be interested in a UK tour. I gave it some thought and sent her my Royal Tour (which she liked) and which has since migrated into today's Tour of the Week timed to include, among many other things, a day at the 2012 Hampton Court Flower Show. One further thought. Having come all this way, talk to me about amending the programme to include 3 nights in Holland with a visit for a full day at the Floriade World Horticultural Expo.

A few weeks ago, I introduced a unique Holland&England garden tour which combines Floriade and the Chelsea Flower Show.It attracted a fair bit of interest then and again at last week's ASTA Trade Show. In case you missed it, here it comes once more. Like Oberammagau, Floriade comes but once every 10 years and for just a few days in late May 2012, you can combine it with Chelsea. Talk to your garden contacts who might not be aware of this two country combination.

In June 1612, Robert Dover opened the first 'Cotswold Olimpicks' in the iconic market town of Chipping Campden. Honouring the ancient Games of Greece, then as now the sports included singlestick, wrestling, jumping in sacks, dancing and shin kicking. The tradition continues and to celebrate this landmark event, I've put together this 400th anniversary tour for all those who are unable to visit the UK in July-August.

4 night Silver Package from £279 per person

4 night Gold Package from £579 per person

During February and March each year, Kew Gardens and the Royal Horticultural Society both stage shows that will fully satisfy the expectations of orchid clubs and Friends of botanic gardens and arboreta. With off season air fares and very good London hotel rates, this 'long weekend' to London will go down a treat.

The Ardingly International Antiques and Collectors Fairs are the largest in the south east of England and this tour brings them together with antique hunting in Brighton's 'twittens' and the bustling colourful London markets at Bermondsey, Portobello Road, Spitalfields and Petticoat Lane. The 2012 Ardingly Fairs will take place on Tuesdays and Wednesdays on 10-11 January, 28-29 February, 24-25 April, 17-18 July, 4-5 September and 30-31 November. Ask me for details of the 3 night Paris Flea market tour that can precede or follow this programme.

This exciting tour has been created to celebrate the beginning of the 2012 World Shakespeare Festival. The tour takes place inStratford upon Avon over the Bard's Birthday weekend and finishes with a few days in London. Come and join the party.