Our aim is to give you the best time possible for your visit to London, England and the U.K. We welcome feedback and here is a selection of just some of the hundreds of 5-star reviews we have received..
Two Great Days Out!
We went on two tours with Stephen at Ye Olde England Tours. The first was our extended family from grandparents down to grandchildren on a guided history walk of London and all of the big sights. Somehow we managed to visit all the big sights in one day and still had time for lots of photos and Stephen found us somewhere to have Fish and Chips!! Then my husband and I took a day tour to Portsmouth. My husband is a big fan of ships and particularly enjoyed HMS Victory. Even better, we had the place almost to ourselves as there were only about 200 people there all day, the site manager said normally corporate groups pay tens of thousands for such a day out! Our guide was a very friendly guide and we had a lot of fun.
Visited January 2015
Julia from Singapore
The trip to visit the 2 Manor homes was very pleasant.My driver was informative prior to our arrival as to the historic significance of the manors and to the roll of the owners in British History. He also spoke of the regions as we traveled there, which was a plus for me being a visitor to the UK.
Visited December 2014
Shirley from New York, USA
Stephen was very helpful on helping us choose some tours whilst I was in London on business. Firstly my husband went on a days outing to Historic Portsmouth Docks and visited a number of world famous naval ships as well as enjoying a harbor tour by boat. A few days later both of us went out on a fantastic day out to see some of old England and visited the big old stone circle at Avebury before going to Lacock where we had lunch in an old pub. Afterwards we explored the pretty little village, bought some treats from the traditional stores and visited Lacock Abbey. Stephen was great company all day and got us back to London at the end of the day. He’s a nice guy and we wish him well for his tours.
R & N Atlanta, USA
Want to have a happy insightful personalised tour of London and Southern England? Want to have some input into how long you spend at a given site or location? Want to have direct and complete attention from a pleasant knowledgeable guide?
Do yourself a favour and check out what Yee Olde England Tours has to offer. Better still contact Ye Olde England Tours and book a tour — and leave behind crowded tour busses and waiting to get on and off busses with steep stairs and slow passengers and having controlled three minute only photo stops. If you have a tour in mind and it is not listed, enquire — if the company can do it you will get value for your money.
Recently (September 2014) I took 3 tours to Portsmouth (naval dockyards, HMS Victory, Mary Rose, Harbour cruise), Hendon (RAF museum) and Southampton with Yee Old England Tours. I found the guide-driver personable, polite, and very knowledgeable, with a good sense of humour. He has designed tours for several of the large tour companies and is an accredited tour guide. The journeys by car were safe, comfortable, relaxing, fun. I had input into what I saw and how long I stayed at tour stops. As the tour size was small there was more chance to talk not only with the attentive guide-driver but also with guides and workers at many of the sites to gain even more inside knowledge. The pace and focus of the tour was on what I needed and desired. There was space in the car for any souvenirs or items I needed to bring with me.
All in all the tours were excellent and great value for money not just in what each day delivered in terms of comfort and driver-guide attention but also when compared to what is on offer in large group (bus) tours and other smaller (car and people carrier) offerings. Be a happy and comfortable tourer and go home with happy memories as I have done with Ye Old England Tours.
Robert from Australia
When my husband and I were planning our recent trip to the UK, we decided to include a tour of Stonehenge, Salisbury, Old Sarum and Avebury. We wanted a small personal tour rather than a big coach group and found Ye Olde England Tours on the internet. We got in touch with Stephen and from the start, he was helpful, friendly and obviously knowledgeable. He kept in touch with us until until it was time for us to leave to reassure us everything was on track for the tour. The day was brilliant. He picked us up from our hotel in London and took us on a journey which kick started our holiday in the best way possible. He is knowledgeable, courteous, friendly, a very safe driver (important) and nothing was too much trouble. He even dashed us back to Salisbury Cathedral from Old Sarum to retrieve my mislaid camera! If we happen to have another holiday in UK, we would certainly have at least one more tour with Stephen, if not more. He does it well.
Bronwen from New Zealand
I discovered Stephen Liddell by reading his blog, and felt like I already knew him. This is important because when traveling with my two sisters we want to feel comfortable with our guides. With Stephen I felt like we were with a good friend or a cousin. When I first contacted him for a tour of Avebury, he not only suggested making a day of it with Salisbury Cathedral and Lacock, he also offered to give us a walking tour from Westminster to Trafalgar Square. Long story short, we had a wonderful time on both tours, learned a lot, and even met Winston Churchill’s grandson. When we parted ways we all missed him. Thanks for making our adventures so memorable Stephen!
Nancy from Florida, USA.
Stephen escorted us on a day trip to Oxford and Blenheim Palace during September.
His knowledge of the areas meant we skipped most crowds and saw the highlights relevant to us.
He accommodated our requests and also helped us navigate our way to just out of London to avoid peak hour traffic.
He was kind and courteous and we had a lot of fun.
Visited September 2014
Julia from Melbourne, Australia
Since we didn’t want to try navigating a car around England we decided to hire a tour guide. Our hotel concierge recommended Stephen Liddell of Ye Olde England Tours. He picked us up right on time and spent the entire day showing us around. We really wanted to see Bath and Stonehenge which were both fantastic. Stephen also took us to Lacock for a quick tour and Chilten for dinner at a pub. It is obvious that Stephen loves history and was able to share lots of facts with us. Since we were in the car a good part of the day going between sites, we had a lovely conversation and he answered our questions on English politics, school system, the monarcy, etc, All in all it was a fun day and well worth the money spent to let someone else do the driving as well as being very knowledgeable.
Amy from California, USA
Stephen Liddell was exactly the tour guide we needed to enhance our July 2014 tour of the British Isles. Over a three-day period, he transported us, while touring along the way. We covered a lot of ground in those three days and he did a great job of making certain we were able to get to each one of these places with enough time to enjoy the experiences. The largest chunk of our trip was spent on a 10-day Celebrity cruise of the British Isles (also wonderful and recommended!), but Stephen also helped us with that, by transporting us to and from the port, which was in Harwich, a 2+ hour drive from London. On our arrival day, he picked us up at Heathrow early in the morning, drove us to St. Albans and Sutton Hoo for quick visits, and got us to our ship in plenty of time before we sailed. My favorite day with Stephen was right after the cruise, when he picked us up at the port early in the morning and we had tour stops at Hampton Court Palace and Highclere Castle. Wonderful history in both beautiful places! A refreshing picnic lunch on the grounds of Highclere was just what we needed to keep us going through our busy afternoon. Afterward, he dropped us at the door of our hotel in Windsor. Bright and early the next morning, Stephen picked us up again and we ventured to Bath, Stonehenge, and Lacock Village. Another delicious picnic at Stonehenge held us through another full day of touring, before heading back to our Windsor hotel. It was a lovely trip all around and we are thankful to Stephen for helping us simplify our plans by providing both transportation to/from our cruise and the knowledgeable guidance we needed to make our stops with him most educational and fun. He knows the history of the area and has many stories to tell about it! His fees are fair and much more reasonable than many other guides I looked into. Also, he has been very patient with us over the months of planning this trip, as we tweaked and made changes fairly regularly. His positive, friendly attitude will make him your friend, as well as your tour guide. Thanks, Stephen, for a fabulous trip!
Debbie Ellis from Georgia, USA
We have just had a great 4 hours tour with Stephen. It was meant to be a Sherlock-Tour, which we booked for our youngsters (as they are fans of the modern Sherlock). During the trip we asked Stephen to mix it a little bit with historic infos to London to the important areas we anyway passed on our tour. That was a real great mix for our youngsters and the oldies, Stephen gave us lots of infos and everybody was very happy and satisfied.
We highly recommend Stephen and we will for sure contact him for another tour, when we are back in London.
Thanks a lot!
Nina from Hamburg, Germany
Highly recommended! stephen liddell has become a friend after travelling with him for only a day ,his knowledge was extremely useful and upto our expectations ,i was travelling with my family and all of us thought he was of great help and not only that he is a great human being so… Thank you stephen
Raja Vallaru – Hyderabad, India
Stephen Liddell was a thorough professional from the time of conception of our trip to its completion. He came highly recommended to me from another friend of mine who had used his services on their trip to London for ten days. I was not disappointed about the recommendation and would gladly do so for others looking for Guide services in London and around in the future.
Stephen had planned our trip for three days to the city based on our interests and was also flexible. We were a family of five touring London for three days. He did the walking tour of the main sights in the city, the Tower Bridge, Tower of London and the Windsor Castle with short side trip to Bakers (Sherlock), and the Wembley stadium. He would arrive at our hotel for pickup and take us around with his cheerful disposition and eagerness and willingness in his attitude to share and help with his vast repertoire of knowledge about the English history.
He was also very kind enough to provide outline for a couple other cities in our itinerary which proved to be useful and came in handy. My teenage son particularly wished we had him provide his expertise while we were visiting other cities in Europe. That pretty much says it all !!
Sathya Sri – Illinois, USA Visited June 2014
Great day trip- thanks to Stephen”
I booked Ye Ole England Tours for a day trip from London for myself and my 2 teenage daughters. Stephen was very helpful in planning our itinerary before the trip, and gave us suggestions for the day. His correspondence before the trip was great, and he was very professional. The day of the trip, he met us promptly and drove us to Avebury, where we toured the standing stones, and Lacock town and Abbey. Both of these destinations were very interesting, and Stephen was well versed on both of the locations. Since he is a historian, he told us interesting facts about the country we were traveling through, and kept us entertained during the trip. He had refreshments for us, and allowed us to have full control over the day- how long we stayed in each place, where we stopped for photo ops, and we even adjusted our tour during the day to eliminate Salisbury (we were getting tired) and driving by Stonehenge.
Stephen was an absolute joy, and I without reservation recommend Ye Olde England Tours. Thanks for a great day in the country!!!
Nikki and family – June 2014
After our first choice of an estate tour was closed on our available date, Stephen Liddell suggested Hughenden Manor as a comparable choice. He picked us up at our London hotel, so the tour started early as he explained points of interest on the drive through the city. He had visited the manor many times before and was familiar with the exhibits. Beyond that, he was able to explain the significance of what we were seeing, and to draw the connections between other places and events. It was much more than just an estate tour, because Stephen was able to place it in a historical context. I highly recommend Stephen for educational tours of historic sites!
Amazing Trip to Stonehenge and Salisbury Cathedral
Terrific and professional! Steven Liddell is a wonderful guide who picked us up promptly in London and expertly drove us to Stonehenge and guiding us around and then Salisbury.
He also met us in London for a morning walk around Westminster, again very knowledgeable.
We enjoyed his excellent knowledge and learned so much. He was kind enough to email us further information about another trip we we taking by train out of London. We enjoyed every minute of the tour. Thank you for the homemade apple chutney Stephen!
We were in London for a few days but Stephan customized those days to our specific needs with private tours scenic views, historical sites visit excellent shopping and fabulous meals at authentic off the beaten track restaurant. He was prompt courteous, flexible, extremely knowledgeable, humorous, accommodating to our every want and desires to see as much as we could within our short time. He navigated local neighborhoods we would have not see on “big bus tour”
I would highly recommend him.
George from Greece. March 2014.
Single women traveling with two teens girls, was something that needed some amount of planning regarding security in a new country. I wanted a guide to show us around, so we could do the trip in leisure. It was an absolute blessing from the moment we contacted our guide Stephen Liddell before we left. He had planned our trip for us in detail, with plenty of flexibility and options, as I was not sure how much or little the girls would want to do each day.
Stephen, waited us at the airport and took great interest and care, including helping us carry our suitcase. Which was not something I would have expected from a guide. We took the underground for most of our trip. As well planned as the underground rail is, people do tend to get confused or lost. Stephen took time to help others as we went along. From the past experiences of people visiting London and not having the locals stop to help others, he proved my notions wrong.
We had a ten day stay in London. First five days at Canary Wharf and the next half on the Plaza on the river, Embankment drive. Stephen would arrive by the time we got ready and with great enthusiasm, take us around, wherever the girls wanted to go for the day. The rail was convenient to go to most places but there was endless walking each day. On days that we wanted to visit the country side and Cambridge University, he drove us in his car. With plenty of knowledge and experiences to share about all the places we visited, everyday was new and entertaining. He has a double major in history and has authored the number one best seller on travel, on amazon. He had plenty of information on each of the sights we visited. Walking encyclopedia, with fun facts for all ages! You could clearly see his passion towards people.
Importantly he was the most reasonable we found in London. Soon after I got back, I contacted my family and friends letting them know, he is the only way to travel. Wish we be so lucky, to find others like him, on our travels. Thank you Steven Liddell for the best time you showed us in and around. Wishing you great success on your future books. And hope you share your wealth of knowledge with other travelers. You are a Five Star experience! Thank you so very much.
– Pramana and family, Milwaukee USA.
Stephen Liddell 