Crime Writers Tour

7 days / 6 nights

$5,250 per person

(minimum 2 people)

This specially designed tour takes you to literary sites associated with Agatha Christie and Arthur Conan Doyle, including the spectacular county of Devon and Sherlock Holmes locations in London. The tour is completely private. You and your party will be our only guests. What’s more, the pace is unhurried. You’ll have plenty of time to immerse yourself in the writers’ worlds and enjoy every site you visit (literary, non-literary, film and TV locations).

The Crime Writers Tour has been thoughtfully designed by the experts at Literary Tours of England. However, we’re flexible: the tour can be modified to reflect your personal tastes and preferences. The itinerary can even be adjusted en route to take account of weather conditions, local events, etc. If you wish, your tour can be extended to include more time in London and/or other areas of England.

The tour includes:

For lunch, afternoon tea and dinner (per your preference) your tour guide will help you find the type of eating establishment and food you like, from country pub to fine cuisine.

Day 1: Drive to Torquay

You are met at London’s Heathrow Airport by your personal driver / tour guide. The relaxing drive to Torquay takes about three and a half hours. Your four-star hotel is right in the town center, within walking distance of all amenities.

Day 2: Explore Torquay

A full day to enjoy this seaside town and its Agatha Christie associations.

Agatha Christie is the undisputed “Queen of Crime”: the most widely published author of all time, outsold only by the Bible and Shakespeare! Christie was born in 1890 in Torquay, a popular coastal resort in the spectacular southwestern county of Devon. She is commemorated there by the Agatha Christie Mile: an easy walk that connects eleven Christie-related sites, including a bronze bust in the town center. We’ll follow the trail beside the harbor and along the palm-lined promenades. Torquay Museum is one of the stops. In its impressive Agatha Christie Gallery, you’ll find Hercule Poirot’s books, furniture and other props from his London flat in the brilliant TV adaptations (1989-2013) starring David Suchet as the inimitable detective. The Gallery also contains meticulously researched information panels containing a wealth of facts and photographs about Agatha Christie’s life and work. You’ll also see a selection of Christie’s personal effects, including handwritten notes and some of her clothes. There’ll be time to visit other sites in and around Torquay, including the micro-community of Babbacombe overlooking pristine sandy beaches.

Day 3: Visit Greenway

A full day to enjoy Agatha Christie’s magnificent country home.

Nearby Paignton is the starting point for the Dartmouth Steam Railway. It was this very railway that Christie would use to get to and from Greenway. It was also taken by Poirot in The ABC Murders (1936) and Dead Man’s Folly (1956). We’ll board the historic train for the nostalgic 20-minute ride. From 1938 until her death in 1976 Agatha Christie spent most summers at Greenway. She called it “the loveliest place in the world”: a fitting description given the beautifully landscaped gardens and stunning views. The house and gardens (now owned and managed by the National Trust) are easily recognizable as the setting of several Christie stories, including Five Little Pigs (1943) and Ordeal by Innocence (1958). The house is presented as it was in the 1950s. In Christie’s bedroom there’s an open wardrobe containing some of her clothes. Most poignant is the small room in which she worked on her stories. Her typewriter is still there and the bookcases hold many first editions of her books. You might like to wander down to the boathouse, the scene of the crime in Dead Man’s Folly. Fittingly, the TV adaptation was shot entirely at Greenway (Nasse House in the story). Before leaving you’ll want to check out the excellent gift shop, which carries Christie’s books plus souvenirs, plants and local produce. You might also want to enjoy a delicious Devon cream tea or a slice of cake in the Barn Café.

Day 4: Explore Dartmoor

A full day to enjoy the dramatic setting of “The Hound of the Baskervilles”.

A ten-mile drive along country lanes from Torquay brings us to the pretty small town of Ashburton. From here we make the short drive up the hill and enter a different world. This is Dartmoor, a wild and windswept landscape of open moorland, deep valleys, rocky outcrops and peat bogs. We are certain to encounter the moor’s wild ponies and we’ll stop to admire Bronze Age standing stones. It’s no wonder that Dartmoor has inspired many writers, including Agatha Christie. Her novel The Sittaford Mystery (1931) is set there. In it she makes respectful reference to Sir Arthur Conan Doyle and aspects of the setting echo his most famous novel, The Hound of the Baskervilles (1902): surely one of Sherlock Holmes’ greatest challenges. We might not find the fictional Baskerville Hall within Dartmoor’s 368 square miles, but the eerie atmosphere that permeates the story is omni-present. There have been more than 20 film and television adaptations of the story, most famously in 1939 with Basil Rathbone, 1959 with Peter Cushing and 1988 with Jeremy Brett. Doyle had been drawn to Dartmoor previously, when he made it the setting for his popular short story The Adventure of Silver Blaze (1892) in which Holmes investigates the disappearance of the eponymous racehorse. Before returning to Torquay, there’ll be time for a Devon cream tea in the picturesque village of Widecombe.

Day 5: Drive to London

Enjoy spectacular sites, including Stonehenge, along the way.

The drive from Torquay to London takes around four hours, so we’ll have time to stop at any significant sites we pass. At about the half-way point, standing in the middle of Salisbury Plain, we’ll come to the massive and mysterious marvel of Stonehenge. This prehistoric ring of standing stones, each around 13 feet high and weighing around 25 tons, is a masterpiece of engineering that archeologists believe dates from 3000 BC to 2000 BC. If time permits, we can take a detour into the beautiful and ancient city of Salisbury. There’s much to enjoy there, including many timbered buildings and some of England’s finest historic houses. The city’s centerpiece is the ornate 13^th Century cathedral with its soaring spire and working 14^th Century clock. The Chapter House holds the best preserved of the four original Magna Carta manuscripts dating from 1215. If you want, we can have lunch at the New Inn (which actually dates from the 12^th Century). Closer to London we’ll come to the historic town of Windsor on the River Thames, best known as the site of the hugely impressive Windsor Castle. A royal residence for more than a thousand years and the Queen’s favorite weekend retreat, it’s the oldest and largest inhabited castle in the world. Your four-star hotel is right in central London, within walking distance of all amenities.

Day 6: Explore London

A full day to experience Sherlock Holmes and other historic sites.

Sherlock Holmes lived at 221B Baker Street between 1881 and 1904, according to the stories written by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle. We’ll visit the Sherlock Holmes Museum: a classic Georgian townhouse (actually at number 239) that’s filled with all kinds of Holmes memorabilia. A short walk away is a larger-than-life statue showing the great consulting detective in characteristic pose. Tucked away on a side street near Trafalgar Square we’ll find the Sherlock Holmes pub. Its Victorian-style interior is loaded with references to stories and film adaptations featuring Holmes and Watson. Upstairs there’s a detailed recreation of Holmes’ famous Baker Street flat and an exhibition replicating his living quarters. If you want, we can stop here for a classic London pub lunch. Close by is Westminster with its many attractions, including Big Ben and the Houses of Parliament, Westminster Abbey and Poets’ Corner, and much more. Alternatively we could head towards historic Fleet Street: in a narrow side alley you’ll find Ye Olde Cheshire Cheese. This atmospheric pub, rebuilt shortly after the Great Fire of 1666, was a regular haunt of many literary figures, including Sir Arthur Conan Doyle, Charles Dickens and Dr Samuel Johnson. Dr Johnson’s House is a short walk away: a charming 300-year-old townhouse (now a fascinating museum) nestled amongst a tangle of ancient alleys in the historic City of London. It’s here that he worked on his extraordinary Dictionary of the English Language (1755).

Day 7: Drive to Heathrow Airport

We’ll enjoy more sites in London if time permits, before making the short drive to Heathrow Airport.

You might also like…