Liam McGirr

What . . . is your quest?

To seek a memorable and joyous travel adventure? With your teenager in tow no less? Impossible you say. Pish posh! I just returned from a spring break trip to England with my teenage daughter, and we are still positively beaming. In fact, we spent two hours this past weekend warmly recounting our adventures from each day of the trip over a shared pot of tea, a new family tradition.

The crucial first step in our successful quest was reaching out to kimkim to help us plan the trip. The website paired me with one of their kind and knowledgable experts on England vacations (hat tip to Liam!). I messaged Liam a list of sites and priorities which my daughter and I put together, with interests ranging from King Arthur to Shakespeare, Jane Austen, and even Jack the Ripper. Within a handful of messages Liam had worked out a custom itinerary for us, ticking all the boxes for the sites we wanted to see, including free time for our own exploring, and easy-to-get-to hotels. The kimkim team booked the reservations for us, and compiled everything into a roadbook, also available on the kimkim app (thumbs up for the app!).

The second step for our successful quest was also the kimkim team. On the day we arrived, our flight was delayed and London traffic was snarled. We could not make it to our first high-priority reservation: Westminster Abbey. The kimkim team was there to help. A quick message on the app and a follow-up phone call allowed us to continue on with our schedule to the Tower of London, then a night-time ghost tour and boat ride on the Thames. The kimkim team were pleasant and responsive, gaining us admission to the Abbey the next morning at no additional cost in either money or, more importantly, stress.

We very much liked "seeing the sights" in the small group tours. The guides were all knowledgable and friendly, with good senses of humor. With small group tours we were also able to navigate around the big crowds and avoid the big busses on day-trips to Stonehenge and the Cotswolds, as well as to the White Cliffs of Dover and Canterbury.

We particularly enjoyed three individual tours. Robert Jones, an experienced photographer, led us on an afternoon photography tour of central London and the Thames. Robert helped us "see" the city through a local's eyes, but also to look for moments and views reflected in the glass of the many modern buildings. We have a stack of amazing photos from this tour. Ruth Sillers, a stage and voice actress, took us on a lovely afternoon walk through the many Jane Austen sites in Bath, including where Jane lived and the locations depicted in her two novels set in Bath. Daniel Hancock, a worldly traveler himself with many fascinating stories, led us on an afternoon trip through the ruins of Glastonbury Abbey and on a hike to the top of the Glastonbury Tor. We had a brilliant, clear day, and could see all the way to Bristol and the sea.

The third step for our successful quest was the blocks of free time to explore on our own. I especially enjoyed watching my daughter learn to "Mind the Gap" and navigate the Tube system, and riding together across London on the double-decker busses. We spent a half-day each at the British Museum and the National Gallery. In Bath, we savored walks through the town, dining on the bridge, and especially a morning tour of the house museum at No. 1 Royal Crescent, fully restored to the Georgian time period.

The final high point of our adventure was tea, especially High Tea the Savoy Hotel. I have never before seen my daughter hold a smile for two straight hours: three servings of tea, two servings of finger sandwiches, followed by scones, and dessert. We were later introduced to Cream Tea (tea with scones, clotted cream, and jam, and a regional disagreement on the order for applying clotted cream and jam to the scone, as we found out from one of our small group guides). Contentious opinions over tea? That's news to my American ears. Heh-heh-heh. Despite my weakness for bad jokes (very British!), whenever we've shared tea since our return, the same wondrous smile returns to my daughter as we fondly remember our adventures in England.

To the team at kimkim, thank you for helping us plan such an enjoyable quest. Till next time!

Writer and Aspen Clayton