Tours & Guided Walks

NB: For boat and train tours, see the Trains, Boats & Planes section.

Bath

 
BIZARRE BATH
Runs every night 18 Mar-2 Nov, meet 8pm at Huntsman Inn, North Parade Passage, £8 adult/£5 concs. No need to pre-book. Ffi: 01225 335124, www.bizarrebath.co.uk • There is no shortage of tour guides and walks in Bath, but this is a whole lot different. In fact, thousands of tourists down the years will have found that these walks, run every evening through the season by comedian Noel Britten and/or JJ, have nothing whatsoever to do with the city's actual history. This is all about laughs, and if your 90min (or so) adventure doesn't have you in stitches, then your English obviously isn't up to scratch. Not designed for children, but not unsuitable for them either. Older ones will love it.

CITY SIGHTSEEING BATH
Buses depart from High St, nr Abbey Churchyard, in peak season every 15-20 mins from 9.30am daily until 5.30/6pm-ish, duration: 50 mins(ish), £10 adult/£8 senior, student/£6 ages 5-12. Ffi: 01225 330444, www.citysightseeing.co.uk • If the ticket price looks steep, worry not; it's because your ticket gets you two tours, not one. There's yer basic Bath Highlights Tour which in 45 minutes does the Roman Baths, Abbey, Assembly Rooms and such. Then there's the Bath Skyline Tour, which takes in Claverton Down, the Uni and Prior Park Landscape Garden. A very pleasant and informative outing that even people who live in Bristol and Bath ought to try once. Remember to get the children to blow raspberries at the windows of snobby tour-bus-hating Bathonians.

GHOST WALKS OF BATH
Mon-Sat from 1 Apr-31 Oct, Fri only in winter, starts from near Garrick's Head pub, St John's Place (next to Theatre Royal), 8pm, £6 adult/£5 child, senior, student, pre-booking recommended for groups of 10 or more. Ffi: 01225 350512, www.ghostwalksofbath.co.uk • Probably Bath's most celebrated guided tour, lasting about two hours and taking in the city's extraordinary wealth of spooky stories. If you're around later in the year, book a place on their famous Halloween Night Walk, but do it early as they always sell out well in advance.

JANE AUSTEN TOURS
Every Sat & Sun (also Bank Holidays) leaving Abbey Churchyard 11am, duration: 1.5 hrs approx, £5 adult/£4 concs. Ffi: 01225 443000, www.janeausten.co.uk • Ninety-minute walking tour organised by the Jane Austen Centre, taking in all the places of Austenian interest in the central part of the city. No need to pre-book.

MAYOR'S HONORARY GUIDES
Meet Abbey Churchyard, outside Roman Baths, daily 10.30am, also 2pm daily except Sat, also 7pm Tue, Fri & Sat from May-Sept, free. Ffi: 01225 477411, www.thecityofbath.co.uk • Excellent crash-course in Bath's history from ancient and medieval times, through the 18th-century golden age and onwards, all free of charge, courtesy of the highly trained and well-informed members of the Mayor's Guides, founded in 1903.

Bristol

BRISTOL MUSEUMS SERVICE
Ffi: www.bristol.gov.uk/museums • Runs a small programme of walks over the summer months, though numbers on each are limited and must be booked in advance. For details, visit website or get a leaflet from your local library or tourist information centre.

BRISTOL UNIVERSITY TOURS
Ffi: 0117 928 7157 between 8.30am & 3.30pm Tue-Thur or see tinyurl.com/2j63p4 • Bristol University runs an extensive and hugely popular programme of talks and walking tours of various of its facilities and buildings through the year; many of these sites, such as Goldney Gardens, are of great historical significance. Some are free, some not, but places on all need to be pre-booked. No room to list them all here, so see the website. Highlights include tours of Bristol’s Botanic Garden and also around the Wills Memorial Building.

BRISTOL & SOUTH WEST TOUR GUIDES
Ffi: 0117 968 4638, www.bristolwalks.co.uk • Run their well-established 'Bristol Highlights' walks every Saturday through the season from 7 Apr to the end of Sept. They leave the Beetle sculpture in Anchor Square entrance to At-Bristol at 11am and cost £3.50 per person, free for under 12 yrs. The guides also do other local tours including Redcliffe, Clifton, Harbourside, Bristol & the Slave Trade, Brunel and Bristol Wine Merchants; these can be booked by arrangement on the above number.

CITY SIGHTSEEING BRISTOL
Tickets £10 adult/£9 student, senior/£5 ages 5-15, but one adult can take one 5-15-year-old free/free for under-5s. Ffi: 0870 444 0654, www.bristolvisitor.co.uk • See all the best bits of Bristol from the vantage point of an open-top bus. Circular tours of the city taking in such locations as the Centre, At-Bristol, Temple Meads and the Empire & Commonwealth Museum, St Mary Redcliffe, the ss Great Britain, Clifton and the Zoo. Tours run from 10am-4pm every day from 15 Mar to 30 Sept (every 30 mins in July & Aug, rest of season every 45 or 90 mins) and all feature live commentary telling you about places of interest. A ticket is valid for 24 hours, so you can do half your trip one afternoon, get off and visit somewhere and still use it the following morning, or, for a somewhat higher fare (£14 for adults), you can get a ticket that's valid for any three days during the season (they don’t have to be consecutive). All tickets will also get you discounted fares on the Bristol Ferry Boat Co and the Bristol Packet, as well as discount entry to At-Bristol, the Zoo and the Empire & Commonwealth Museum. And they're very keen to emphasise that they're not just for tourists and visitors - this is a great way for long-term residents to see and learn a bit more about Bristol and some of its historic highlights. And, of course, a modern generation of children who don't get to go on a bus very often, especially a bus without a roof, will adore it. Pack a picnic and you've got a fabulous and inexpensive no-brainer for a weekday adventure during the school holidays.

HAUNTED & HIDDEN BRISTOL
Departs 8pm on most Fridays from outside Bristol Cathedral, College Green - advance booking essential, £5 adult/£4 concs. Ffi & booking: 07766 258407, www.hauntedandhiddenbristol.co.uk • Very popular walk around the central part of the city taking in some of Bristol's most haunted buildings, as well as a few famous TV and movie locations and some celebrity tales. Worth checking website if you are planning on going, as if walks are cancelled, it will be put up on the net.

PIRATE WALK
Every Sat & Sun, 2pm, also group bookings by appointment, meet at Tourist Information Centre at At-Bristol, Millennium Square, £3.50 adult/£2.50 child/£8 family. Ffi: 07950 566483, www.piratewalks.com • Yarr! Bristol's colourful seafaring heritage brought to life by the irrepressible Pirate Pete with an entertaining tour of the city's pirate haunts in days of yore. All good, clean, wholesome and very bloodthirsty family fun.

DO IT ON YOUR iPOD
In these here high-tech times, the old-fashioned human tour guide is possibly becoming superfluous. There are more and more of these newfangled MP3 format tours for download to your iPod or other, less fashionable, MP3 player. The Bath tourist office website is offering a downloadable tour of Jane Austen's Bath at http://visitbath.co.uk/janeausten/audio-tour and doubtless there'll be more in years to come.

Bristol , on the other hand, is way ahead of the game. The official Bristol tourism website at www.visitbristol.co.uk has (as of spring 2008) five free MP3 tours to download, namely 'Bristol Quayside Adventure', 'The Brunel Mile & City Docks', 'The Bristol Heritage Walk', 'The Bristol Churches Trail' and 'The Slave Trade Trail'. To download these go to www.visitbristol.co.uk and click on 'Sightseeing and Tours'.

Finally, off the conventional tourist track, Bristol East Side Traders, which promotes business and regeneration in the inner city, has two circular MP3 guided walks, one of Easton and one of St Pauls, with information on historic buildings and events, plus interviews with residents and music and poetry from local artists. Download from www.visiteastside.co.uk

Venue Days Out Guide - Bristol and Bath's best excursion guide. To order your copy ring 0117 942 8491. Only £1.95.