Isles of Scilly Guided Small Group Tour

Perhaps you’ll choose to travel to Penzance by rail, one of England’s finest routes? We’ll be happy to assist, and Land’s End is just 10 miles from Penzance, 20 minutes in a local taxi. Arrive early enough and you’ll have time to tramp the clifftop path, take in the awe-inspiring views and visit the Land’s End museum and gallery, all good, appetite-building stuff in readiness for this evening’s welcome dinner.

Your Accommodation in Land’s End

Named for its location, your hotel at Land’s End enjoys Victorian heritage and contemporary touches throughout. In a breath-taking location atop 200-foot granite cliffs affording superb views to Scilly and beyond, guests are encouraged to wander along the coastline and to wallow in the natural drama of this unique landscape.

After early breakfast, its off to tiny Land’s End Airport, for the short flight across the Atlantic to the isle of St Mary’s, the ‘main’ isle of Scilly. Then on to your hotel in Hugh Town, the island capital.

Drop luggage at your hotel and meet up with a friendly local guide, setting off on a gentle guided stroll through Hugh Town and a little of wider St Mary’s. You’ll learn about the fascinating history of this place, a little more than six square miles in size, from Neolithic to Roman, to its centuries of strategic maritime importance.

In the afternoon, take time to yourself, perhaps with lunch at one of several fine cafes or pubs, and a dawdle towards Porthmellon or Porthcressa.

Your Accommodation on St Mary’s

Your base for five full nights here in Hugh Town, your hotel is a remarkable property, long-established in the 16th -century castle on the Garrison that overlooks the island. You’ll enjoy a stay in one of the hotel’s spacious country cottage-style bedrooms within four acres of beautifully tended gardens, with breakfast served in the light-filled, vine-adorned conservatory restaurant. Each morning, the hotel’s boatman visits to discuss interisland travel plans, giving a real flavour of how life proceeds here. Guests are invited to make full use of the heated indoor pool, tennis court and  complimentary golf, while the in-house restaurant serves an award-winning menu, often featuring lobster and crab, personally caught by the proprietor aboard the hotel’s own fishing boat.

Take a leisurely approach to the start of today, maybe at the pool, strolling the garden, or delving deeper into the history of your castle hotel. Later, alongside your tour leader, make your way northeast to Scilly’s only winery to enjoy a tour and tasting. Your host established the vineyard and winery here over a decade ago, with some 7000 Vines planted in 2009 – 60 % Pinot Noir, 30 % Chardonnay and 10 % Pinot Gris. The winery also features the Story of Wine Exhibition which tells the story of the Vineyard, the process of English winemaking, wine tasting and much more. Tour over, make the short trip back to your hotel for a delicious lobster lunch, followed by an evening at leisure.

Today you embark on the first of three inter-island trips during your holiday. After breakfast, meet your friendly local guide and, along with your tour leader, allow the local boatman to take you across the water to the idyllic island of Tresco. This second-largest of the isles of Scilly is family-owned and carefully curated, a subtropical ‘pocket-sized paradise’, an island of golden beaches, dramatic rocky outcrops, bronze age burial sites and romantic castle ruins. You’ll enjoy a guided walk around the island’s highlights, followed by lunch at a beachside cafe at leisure. Later, visit staggering Abbey Gardens, where you’ll have plenty of time to stroll its terraces featuring some 20,000 exotic plants from across the globe and the dramatic Valhalla collection of figureheads salvaged from the islands’ shipwrecks. Returning to St Mary’s in late afternoon, take the evening to yourself either at your hotel or in Hugh Town.

Another interisland adventure awaits today, as you make the brief crossing from St Mary’s to one of the smallest of Scilly’s inhabited islands. Both rugged and beautiful, constantly at the relentless mercy of the broiling Atlantic on one side, yet serene and peaceful on the other, Bryher wears its contrasts with pride. Its 80 lucky souls enjoy a slice of untamed Scilly amidst rocky coves, pristine beaches and gentle granite hills. Alongside your tour leader and a local guide, you’ll explore the very best of this island today, perhaps admiring the stacks of Shipman Head – up close for the intrepid – watch the Atlantic rollers thunder into Hell Bay and drink in  the calm and tranquility of Rushy Bay overlooking the island of Samson. You’ll take lunch at leisure today, returning to St Mary’s in the afternoon for an evening’s relaxation.

The gentlest of final days’ holiday today. Take the morning and early afternoon at leisure, making use of your hotel’s facilities, strolling the beaches of Hugh Town or indulging in a little souvenir shopping. In the afternoon, accompanied by your tour leader, board a local boat for your last interisland trip, this time to flawless St Agnes. The outlier of the Isles of Scilly, and therefore England’s southwestern frontier, St. Agnes is totally unspoilt and astonishingly peaceful. Measuring a little over a mile across, its closest neighbour is Gugh, to which it is joined by a sandbar at low tide. Similar to Bryher, the island feels the force of the Atlantic ocean on one side, while enjoying a Zen-like calm on the other. Take in the circular maze of rounded beach stones and the stone stacks and cairns at Wingletang Down. Periglis Beach lays out its shimmering sandy carpet at your feet and affords superb views across to  Annet, the Western Rocks and out to Bishop Rock. Should you make it to Gugh, introduce yourself to the Old Man of Gugh, standing three metres tall and believed to have been erected in the Bronze Age.

While here, enjoy a farewell dinner with your fellow travellers at the UK’s southwesternmost pub, before the return boat trip to St Mary’s.

A last early breakfast today, before you’re whisked back to St Mary’s airport for your return flight to Land’s End. Your tour leader will get you safely to Penzance, where you bid your new friends farewell and continue your onward journey home.