Arts and Crafts Tours - Arts and Crafts Tours - the only company specializing in trips to Britain

The Arts and Crafts Movement was begun over 150 years ago by architects, artisans, and designers. Its ideals and ideas continue to have contemporary resonance. Great Britain in the mid-19th century was a tumultuous time - industrialization was changing forever what was primarily a rural, agricultural way of life, and many recognized that while there were positive benefits there was also a loss.

Some felt that loss could be best addressed by returning, in terms of the domestic arts, to the ways in which artisans worked during the Middle Ages - collaboratively, collectively, and within guilds. Architects and designers such as A.W.N. Pugin, William Morris, Edwin Lutyens, Philip Webb, C.F.A. Voysey, and William Burges responded to these changes in ways that have created some of the most beautiful buildings and objects of the past two centuries.

Arts & Crafts Tours offers highly individualized tours to sites and countries where the best of this work still exists and where new work is being created. We look at the past to help us understand the present - and we would like to have you join us. Take a short virtual tour through our site and then we hope you’ll take a real tour.

While most of our programs are offered through museums, art, craft, architectural, preservation and educational organizations and institutions, they are open to non-members. We are always happy to prepare an itinerary for individual travelers, or to develop a specialized, escorted tour for small groups of from 6 - 12 people which be designed to satisfy specific interests.

The brief descriptions of our past tours offer suggestions of what we might plan for and with you. As with any hand tailored item, a tour planned by Arts & Crafts Tours is one of a kind. We believe when you have read what we do and looked at what some of our past participants have said, you will see why we pride outselves on tours which cater to travelers with discerning tastes and a keen intellectual curiosity - tours for those who would not consider taking part in a group tour.

A tour may be brief, but your memories and pleasures will last a lifetime.

Elaine Hirschl Ellis, President                                                                                Gail Ettinger, Program Director