We flew into London a few days early before we joined a land based tour of Great Britain.  We looked at a cruise based tour around Great Britain but decided a land version was the way to go.   Our friends John and Susan from North Carolina joined us, as they have several other times, on the tour which made it all the better.   We used a Ireland based company called CEI Tours. We had an exceptionally knowledgeable guide and we gained a tremendous amount of knowledge of the countries.  This was a great tour plus we enjoyed our time in England before the start of the tour.