ALISON'S TOURS
GENERAL INFORMATION
for UK based visitors
| 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 01326 312300 Fax 01326 313457
West Cornwall website (brochure available by mail)
Cornwall Tourist Board (brochure available by mail)
Telephone 01872 322900 Fax 01872 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
If you are travelling by train to Falmouth, please note that there are three stations serving the town (Penmere, Falmouth Town and Falmouth Docks) so please ask your accommodation provider (or me) 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.
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, grippy shoes for walking in. Not everything is paved (footpaths, some of the paths around the gardens, etc). Whatever the weather is doing at home when you leave, and whatever the newspapers' five-day forecast tells you, please bear in mind that our local weather forecasts bear little relation to the national ones (who tend to plonk their weather symbol on Taunton, about 130 miles from Falmouth) and the weather can be quite different on one coast from the other at the same time.
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 - Many of the smaller shops, tea rooms, etc do not accept credit cards due to the overheads involved, so please remember your debit card and PIN, or indeed cash. There are plenty of ATMs around.
General information on visiting Cornwall is contained on the Cornwall Tourist Board, and DACOM websites, as well as in the brochures they produce.
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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