Moderate Activity Tours

Follow Galicia’s Camellia Route, a journey through one of Spain’s most atmospheric and greenest regions. Staying in La Coruña and Santiago de Compostela, we explore a landscape shaped by a mild Atlantic climate where historic estates known as pazos sit within lush gardens and wooded valleys. In late winter and early spring, camellias provide vibrant colour across riverside walks, formal terraces and hillside gardens, marking the season in shades of white, pink and red. Visit a carefully chosen collection of estates including Pazo de Mariñan, Pazo de Faramello, Pazo de Oca and Pazo de Santa Cruz de Rivadulla, alongside the dramatic Castillo de Soutomaior. With time in Santiago de Compostela and its historic cathedral, this is a journey where gardens, heritage and landscape are closely interwoven, experienced at a calm and unhurried pace.

This morning, we visit the Frans Hals Museum in the charming city of Haarlem. Frans Hals was a Master Dutch Golden Age painter whose portraits are greatly admired, partly due to his use of visible brushstrokes, a new technique at the time. The Laughing Cavalier is recognised as one of, if not the greatest, portrait painting produced in the Dutch Golden Age. The museum's collection includes an extensive array of Hals' portraits, which are known for their lively and spontaneous style. In addition to Hals' masterpieces, the museum houses works by notable artists from the same period, providing a comprehensive overview of Dutch art in the 17th century.  In the afternoon, we head to the oldest museum in the Netherlands for a unique glimpse into the world of art, science and natural history. The Teylers Museum also boasts an exceptional art gallery featuring works from the Dutch Romantic period, as well as masterpieces by renowned artists such as Michelangelo and Raphael.  Meals: Breakfast Accommodation: Golden Tulip, Leiden

At the head of the Adriatic, where the rivers of the Alps fan out across a wide plain and drain into lagoon and sea, lies one of the most richly layered landscapes in all of Italy. From our base in the lagoon town of Grado, join us as we explore Aquileia, once one of the largest cities in the Roman Empire, and make daily forays into the Fruili-Venezia Giulia region beyond.

An in-depth analysis of two of palaeontology’s greatest finds. Palaeolithic cave painting and engravings are mankind’s first recognisable artistic expression, but they mean even more than that. They show creatures which were extant during the Ice Age and shed light on hunter gatherer culture thousands of years old, with many archaeologists considering the art to be a highly sophisticated way of expressing complex beliefs about the supernatural world. The discovery of the caves at Cosquer in the Ardeche in 1985 and Chauvet – Pont d’Arc in Provence in 1994 were of huge significance. Exceptional because of the number and variety of the animal images depicted, their extreme age and quality, together with the sheer size of both sites with their interlocking galleries; these caves revolutionise our understanding of emerging human creativity.

Few moments in the ancient world are as vividly documented as the eruption of Vesuvius in AD 79.  We know, with a specificity that no other lost city can match, what Pompeii looked like on the day it was destroyed and it is this intimacy, a sense of a world interrupted rather than simply destroyed, that makes the sites of the Bay of Naples so extraordinary. Greek colonists, native Samnites, the Romans (of course), Bourbon excavators and World War bombers have all left their marks on these sites. This tour sets out to explore that world in depth and in context, providing expert guidance with a well-thought-out itinerary, which includes free afternoons for independent exploration and a hotel in the modern town of Pompei for easy access to sites.