Carpenter Holidays

Culture & Leisure
  • T: +44 (0) 20 8946 6821

Bespoke Holidays

If you are a Music Club or Society, a “Friends” or "Patrons" group attached to an orchestra, opera company or venue, or any informal group of people interested in taking a holiday together, then email stephen [at] carpenterholidays.com or phone +44 20 8946 6821 to discuss your outline ideas and requirements, and Stephen will be happy to put together a proposal for a “Bespoke Holiday”. This could range from a visit to a leading Festival in the UK, a “Mendelssohn in Scotland” tour, a “Jacobite Battlefields of Scotland” tour, or visits to some of the iconic tourist attractions in London or other major cities in the UK.

Here is an example of a tour organised by Stephen Carpenter in May 2016 for Patrons of The Schubert Club, a chamber music society based in Saint Paul, Minnesota:

Day 1 – depart Saint Paul

Day 2 – arrive London and transfer to central London Hotel followed by champagne visit to the 68th floor of London’s tallest building, The Shard

Day 3 – private tour, piano recital and lunch at The Mansion House, the official residency of the Lord Mayor of London in the heart of the City; private tour of instrument collection at the Royal Academy of Music; dinner at the Athenaeum (or other typical London “Club") in the St James’s area of London

Day 4 – private tour and recital at the Handel House Museum in Brook Street; private lunch and a tour of the Houses of Parliament; pre-concert dinner and concert at The Wigmore Hall, London

Day 5 – 1st-class rail travel from London to Edinburgh; coach tour of Edinburgh and private dinner at Edinburgh Castle

Day 6 – visit to Abbotsford, the home of the 19th-century Scottish author, Sir Walter Scott; visit to Melrose Abbey; private dinner on The Royal Yacht Britannia

Day 7 – visit to Edradour Distillery, the Killiecrankie Visitor Centre and House of Bruar Visitor Centre, followed by journey across the central Highlands past Loch Tay and Glencoe, to Oban

Day 8 – visit to the Islands of Mull, Iona and Staffa and the extraordinary Fingal’s Cave which so inspired Felix Mendelssohn on his Scottish journey in 1829

Day 9 – private recital and lunch at the Cameron House Hotel on the shores of Loch Lomond; visit to the Bannockburn Visitor Centre; evening flight from Edinburgh to London Heathrow

Day 10 – return flight from London to Saint Paul

+44 (0)20 8946 6821
stephen [at] carpenterholidays.com