ALISON'S TOURS
GENERAL INFORMATION
for visitors travelling from overseas
| Accommodation in Cornwall | General Travel Information | Other FAQs |
I am Cornish born and bred, having been born in Redruth Hospital, and brought back to Truro at a very early age (!) where I remained until I was 21. I trained as a bilingual secretary (English/French with Spanish as a second foreign language) and then moved to Reading in Berkshire as employment prospects were better there at that time. They were not so good, however, to allow me to find a job in my chosen profession so I spent my secretarial career in the legal profession dealing mostly with conveyancing (property) and latterly Wills and Probate. In 1998, I was thankful to return home to Truro to live but have since moved to Falmouth. I am very proud to be Cornish, and hope that my enthusiasm for, and love of, Cornwall shines through in my guiding. My own special guiding interests are in Cornish Gardens, and Art in West Cornwall and I work for a number of holiday operators who specialise in tours on these themes. However, I do not restrict myself to special interests and my tours take in everything from industrial heritage to literature, from coast to moor, from churches and churchyards to houses and gardens, and from archaeology to modern art.
My personal interests are genealogy (family history) and music, as well as walking. I have managed to trace my Cornish ancestry back some 400 years on one particular family on my mother's side although since my son was born in October 2005 I have had no spare time!!!.
Although I wanted to be a tourist guide from my teenage years, it wasn't until after I returned to Cornwall that I trained as a Blue Badge Guide. I qualified in December 2000.
Although it sounds rather grand, Alison's Tours is a name I have given my small business - small in that it is just me! I started my business at the beginning of 2001 and am self-employed (freelance) and work from home, offering tour guiding services to individuals and groups on foot and on buses/coaches (I have not yet worked on boats, trains and planes but would be happy to do so if requested). I also offer an itinerary planning service. My clients range from private individuals and families from the UK and overseas, to UK tour operators and coach companies. I have yet to break into the overseas group travel market.
I regret that I am not a tourist information office, nor a guide booking agency; neither am I able to make travel arrangements, accommodation bookings, etc., as I do not carry the necessary insurance required by law.
The Blue Badge is the national qualification for professional tourist guides. It is named because of the oval blue badge we are entitled to wear on qualifying. We all have to follow a course of study, which varies in length depending on the area in which we study, but in the case of South West England the course lasts one year and concludes with three written examinations (2½ hours each) and a day's practical examination (on a coach, on foot and around a museum or similar).
All Blue Badge Guides are qualified to work in a particular area of Britain (or more than one, if they have undertaken further courses of study and examinations). Since April 2002 we have been regulated by the Institute of Tourist Guiding (prior to that each regional tourist board maintained the standards of the Blue Badge Guides qualified in that area) but we are all self-employed individuals (i.e. freelance) - we are not employed by the Tourist Boards. We each hold £5 million Public Liability Insurance and Driver-Guides hold special "hire and reward" insurance to enable them to carry passengers in their cars (they also have to be licensed with the local authority who require them to undergo a medical examination and a check at the Criminal Records office as well as hold a "clean" driving licence - they are re-licensed and medically examined regularly, and their vehicles are safety checked and re-licensed every year). To check whether your guide is registered, or to search for a guide, visit the Institute of Tourist Guides website and use their search or registration checker facility.
I regret I am unable to arrange any accommodation for you, as although I am fully insured for tours, I do not hold the necessary insurance to enable me book a hotel on your behalf. I do not like to make recommendations either, simply because if I have not stayed in a hotel myself, I do not feel it is my place to recommend it from third-party comments.
Useful contacts for accommodation:
Falmouth Tourist Information Centre falmouthtic@yahoo.co.uk
Telephone +44 1326 312300 Fax +44 1326 313457
West Cornwall website (brochure available by mail)
Cornwall Tourist Board (brochure available by mail)
Telephone +44 1872 322900 Fax +44 1872 322895 +4
Devon & Cornwall Overseas Marketing (brochure available by mail)
Brochures can be ordered from Cornwall Tourist Board, the tourist information centres or by visiting http://www.cornwall-breaks.com/
Accommodation Ratings Explained
All accommodation establishments listed on the Cornwall Tourist Board database are members of the Cornwall Tourist Board Quality Cornwall Programme, and have been inspected to ensure that they conform to the minimum standards set by Cornwall Tourist Board although of course many establishments achieve a much higher standard.
You will obtain an even better idea of how the establishment rates, in terms of quality of service and facilities on offer, by the number of stars or diamonds awarded by either the AA, RAC or English Tourism Council - 5 stars being the highest grading possible. Diamond ratings are awarded to guest houses/bed and breakfasts and small hotels. For an explanation of the ratings, please have a look at the VisitBritain website's "Accommodation Ratings Explained" page.
Getting to Cornwall
By air to Newquay Airport from London Gatwick, Bristol, Manchester, Leeds/Bradford and Dublin - Air South West
By air to Newquay Airport from London Stansted - RyanAir
By rail from London - First Great Western
By rail from the North of England - Virgin Trains
The branch line between Truro and Falmouth (as well as other routes) is operated by Wessex Trains
Please note that if you are booking your rail tickets online, the website to use is BritRail. They have a reasonable map of the rail network in Britain at http://www.britrail.com/doc/BritRailMapforEurope.pdf but do please note when choosing a station in Falmouth that there are three stations in the town (Penmere, Falmouth Town and Falmouth Docks) so please ask your accommodation provider which is the closest to where you want to go.
By coach (bus) - National Express
By road - give yourself plenty of time! www.theaa.com and www.rac.co.uk both provide online route planners
Getting around in Cornwall
With a Blue Badge Driver-Guide - the following people are qualified Blue Badge Tourist Guides like myself and also hold the relevant insurance, etc to offer private car tours:
St Ives based, Mr Hugh Trevarthen http://www.cambrontours.co.uk; e-mail trevarthen@cambrontours.fsnet.co.uk
Camborne based, Mr Lawrie Prideaux http://www.pixietours.co.uk; e-mail info@pixietours.co.uk (also has a minibus)
Plymouth based, Mr Graham Light e-mail grahamlight@hotmail.com. He does not have a web site.
By bus - several companies operate routes throughout Cornwall. The main ones in the Falmouth area are First Western National and Truronian
By rail - the main railway line runs down the "spine" of Cornwall with branch lines operated by Wessex Trains from Plymouth to Gunnislake, Liskeard to Looe, Par to Newquay, Truro to Falmouth and St Erth to St Ives.
By taxi - there are usually plenty of taxis in the town centres but fewer elsewhere, so order one in good time for your journey. Your hotel will be able to advise. A useful website to find taxi companies operating from railway stations (nationally) is http://www.traintaxi.co.uk/
Hiring a car - the major car hire companies each have depots in Cornwall but there are not that many and there may not be one near where you are staying.
About Cornwall - You won't necessarily find the commercialisation (if that's the right word) in Cornwall which you may find in a big city (the largest town here has a population of around 22,000) as Cornwall is a rural county and that's why it is such a popular destination (5 million British visitors a year can't be wrong (70% of those come back year after year)). By commercialisation I mean big modern hotel chains, motorways, 24 hour everything (although there are supermarkets in the main towns which do open 24 hours) and bureaux de change on every corner. We do of course have all the services and facilities that you will find elsewhere but we also have friendly people who enjoy a relatively unhurried, relaxed way of life, who still find the time to chat to strangers. That doesn't mean we are lazy, however - we probably work harder than anyone else to get things right.
Clothing - the climate in Cornwall is mild, with daytime temperatures usually dropping no lower than about 40 Fahrenheit (about 4 degrees Centigrade) in winter and usually not exceeding 75 Fahrenheit in Summer (about 22 degrees Centigrade). We do get a lot of wind, however, as nowhere is far from the coast. With the wind often comes rain. My best advice is to bring a wind/waterproof jacket and a pair of good, strong, grippy shoes for walking in. Not everything is paved (footpaths, some of the paths around the gardens, etc).
Walking - there are a lot of hills here but there are also hundreds of miles of good walking including the Cornish section of the South West Coastal Footpath!!
Paying for things - Although the major banks have bureaux de change, as do the Post Offices, they have limited opening hours so it would be wise to bring a mixture of payment methods. Credit cards, of course, are always a good bet but many of the smaller shops, cafés, etc. do not accept them due to the overheads involved. Visa and MasterCard are much more widely accepted than American Express. A new system was introduced on 1st January 2005 in line with most of the rest of Europe where payment by credit/debit card no longer involves the customer signing for their purchase but using their PIN number, so make sure you know yours!! Further information can be found at the "Chip & Pin" website. There are ATM machines all over the place, so cash can be withdrawn from them if you have the appropriate card (and your PIN, of course). Travellers' Cheques are always useful and although I am told that Sterling Travellers' cheques are not readily available overseas I am also told they can be ordered on-line from American Express (if you are bringing travellers' cheques with you for your holiday, you will be better off bringing Sterling ones as you are likely to have to pay commission to exchange Travellers' Cheques in another currency, which is in addition to the commission you had to pay when you bought them). Of course, for cash purchases you will need Pounds Sterling.
General information on visiting Cornwall is contained on the Cornwall Tourist Board, and DACOM websites, as well as in the brochures they produce.
General information on visiting Britain is available at the VisitBritain website (the official website of the British Tourist Authority). More useful information is also on the website of the British Embassy homepage in your country. Too numerous to list but the for the USA it's http://www.britainusa.com, for Australia it's http://www.britaus.net/ and for Canada it's http://www.britainincanada.org/. By visiting the Foreign & Commonwealth Office at http://www.fco.gov.uk and following the links link you will get a list of all the British Consular Office, Embassies and High Commissions worldwide.
I am sure this is more information than you may have wanted, but I hope that this is useful and that my tours are of interest to you, and I look forward to hearing from you with your more specific requirements and to answer any questions you may have (however trivial - it's the small details that make the difference between a holiday you remember for the right reasons and one you remember for the wrong ones!).
General Information for Overseas Visitors
Institute of Tourist Guiding Code of Conduct
What is a Blue Badge Guide, and other questions?
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