Delegates and accompanying persons have the choice of a range of specially created tours celebrating children’s (and some adult) literature. These are listed below and full details can be found on the website of our partners International Friends.

You can also take advantage of discounts on a wide range of regular guided day trips and weekend tours, which are operated by International Friends. Destinations include Edinburgh, Bath, Stonehenge, Paris, the Cotswolds and many more.

We have negotiated these discounts for IBBY Congress members and friends or family, using the promotion codes below. Details of special offer.

If you are booking one of these tours, you must enter one of the promotion codes below to obtain your exclusive IBBY discount:

IBBY10 - £10 discount on any 2-4 day tour*
IBBY5 - £5 discount on any day trip*

*Please note these discounts are for general International Friends day trips and tours and not the IBBY only excursions

 

IBBY Special Tours Celebrating Children’s Literature
 

A. Walking Tours in London

NB you can combine tours to cover two in one day if you wish

 

Shakespeare’s London

Tuesday 21st, 10-12
Wednesday 22nd, 2-4
Thursday 23rd, 10 – 12
Sunday 26th, 2-4
Tuesday 28th, 10-12

Meet outside Monument Tube Station.
Allow 30 minutes travelling time from Imperial College via the District Line from South Kensington underground station.

Cost: £12 per person

This tour begins at Sir Christopher Wren's Monument to the Great Fire of 1666, explores areas of London linked to Shakespeare and finishes at St Paul's Cathedral. On the way you will also catch glimpses of literary London from other times, walk over London Bridge, tread cobbled streets in Borough Market and see the replica of the Elizabethan ship The Golden Hinde and the new Globe Theatre.

Full details and book this tour
 

Peter Pan’s London

Wednesday 22nd, 10-12
Thursday 23rd, 10 – 12
Sunday 26th, 2-4
Monday 27th, 2-4

Meet outside Queensway Tube Station
Allow 30 minutes travel from Imperial College taking the Circle Line from South Kensington, changing at Notting Hill to the Central line.

Cost: £12 per person

This tour explores areas where J M Barrie lived and worked, and where he set his most famous work. A short tube ride is part of the tour, taking you to the Museum of Great Ormond Street Hospital, containing memorabilia of both Peter Pan and Barrie. Finally a short walk to the home of Wendy and the rest of the Darling family, and the theatre where Peter Pan first appeared.

Full details and book this tour

Charles Dickens’ London

Tuesday 21st, 2-4
Thursday 23rd, 10 – 12
Sunday 26th, 2-4
Monday 27th, 10-12
Tuesday 28th, 2-4

Meet outside British Museum
Allow 30 minutes journey time from Imperial College taking the Piccadilly line from South Kensington, changing at Leicester Square and alighting at Tottenham Court Road. It is then a 5 minute walk to the British Museum.

Cost: £12 per person

Starting in London's vibrant Theatreland, this tour takes in Covent Garden and the Victorian buildings of the Inns of Court, both places where Dickens once worked. Crossing Fleet Street, passing the Royal Courts of Justice, it takes Chancery Lane to the site of Furnival's Inn, Dickens' former home, where the tour finishes.

Full details and book this tour

 

B. One Day Tours

All of these tours are offered twice. Entrance fees are included where specified; lunches will be at own cost.

Green Knowe and Tom’s Midnight Garden

Monday 20th August
Tuesday 28th August

Meeting point - Imperial College

Cost: £72 per person including entrance and tour of the Manor, Hemingford Grey

This tour travels to Cambridgeshire to the manor house of Hemingford Grey, the setting for Lucy M Boston's Green Knowe books and the home of the children who lived there over the centuries. A tour of the house is followed by lunch in a country pub en route to the historic city of Ely. In the afternoon we see locations used in Philippa Pearce’s classic story, Tom's Midnight Garden, including the author’s former home in Great Shelford and Ely Cathedral.

Full details and book this tour

Charles Dickens and Great Expectations

Tuesday 21st August
Wednesday 29th August

Meeting point - Imperial College

Cost: £65 per person

A day tour to Kent, the setting for many of Dickens’ books, including Rochester, his favourite town, where many buildings linked to Dickens can be seen. After lunch the tour moves to Chatham to see his home there, and then to Broadstairs where he would come for relaxation, and finishes at the Dickens House and Museum before returning to London.

Full details and book this tour

Children’s Literature in Oxford

Wednesday 22nd
Thursday 30th

Meeting point - Imperial College

Cost: £78 per person including private tour of Christchurch and entrance to The Story Museum

Visit the city which was home to some of the greatest children’s writers, including Lewis Carroll, C S Lewis, J R R Tolkien and Philip Pullman, and learn about these and other characters who have lived here. We include a walking tour of the University, a private 'behind the scenes' tour of Christchurch and a visit to the exciting new Story Museum.

Full details and book this tour

Wizards and Wonka

Sunday 19th
Monday 27th

Meeting point - Imperial College

Cost: £97 including entrance to the Harry Potter Studio and the Roald Dahl Museum

Spend the morning at the most anticipated new attraction of the year, the Harry Potter Studio Tour in the former stage buildings at Leavesden. All the major sets are here and countless props along with costumes and exhibits such as Harry's Nimbus 2000 and Hagrid's motorbike. In the afternoon the tour moves to Great Missenden to see the Roald Dahl Museum and Story Centre where we can enter the world of Charlie and the Chocolate Factory and James and the Giant Peach. The museum contains Dahl memorabilia as well as various objects that gave the author his inspirations.

Full details and book this tour

 

C. Overnight tours

Home of Children's' Books - two days

Monday 27th August to Tuesday 28th August

Meeting point - Imperial College

Cost: £185 including 1 night 3 star hotel/B&B accommodation, entrance to Parsonage Museum and entrance to Seven Stories Museum

On this two day tour discover England's North East, visiting Yorkshire, including the Parsonage Museum in Haworth and its links with the Bronte sisters, and Newcastle to see Seven Stories, the national home of children's literature, with its fascinating collection of exhibitions and original artwork.
 There will also be a short stop in York on the return journey.

Full details and book this tour

Swallows, Amazons & Peter Rabbit - 3 days

Monday 20th to Wednesday 22nd August

Meeting point - Imperial College

Cost: £269 including 2 nights 3 star hotel/B&B accommodation, boat cruise on Lake Windermere and entrance to Hill Top House.

This three day tour heads to the beautiful Lake District National Park, beginning in Bowness on Windermere for a journey by boat across the largest of England's lakes, one of the settings for Arthur Ransome’s classic Swallows and Amazons books. We explore the National Park by coach, visit Hill Top Farm, the home of Beatrix Potter, and Coniston Water where an optional visit is to the Ruskin Museum. Finally we see Grasmere where William Wordsworth is buried and visit Dove Cottage or walk along the banks of the River Rothey from Grasmere to Rydal Water, Wordsworth's favourite lake.

Full details and book this tour