Come with me!

Tours and excursions by train from Stamford

I have arranged several small group days out over the last few years, from a beginning as outings for readers of the parish magazine articles out of which this weblog has grown. I do not pretend to be a travel agent or a professional tour manager: these have just been groups of acquaintances on a day out together. I buy the tickets, arrange an itinerary and suggest activities, and usually book an optional meal together which so far everyone has opted to take. The outings have been reported on this blog, and so far have covered:

• Ely
• Lincoln
• York
• The Grainstore Brewery, Oakham
• Spalding
• Yarwell, via the Nene Valley Railway
• Birmingham Frankfurt Christmas Market
• Birmingham Jewellery Quarter
• Canterbury
• Cambridge

The idea of these days out is to use ordinary service trains to have the sort of adventures together that I normally take alone or with my wife, using the principles I describe in this blog. Like my personal trips these all start from Stamford station in Lincolnshire and are usually, although not always, on a Saturday so that working people can take part. We do sometimes get people from elsewhere joining in by catching the same train from somewhere else before or after Stamford, and if anyone reading this from anywhere else would like to join us, then please do contact me by email at mark@mwtrips.co.uk or a personal message on my Twitter account @mwtrips which you are surely going to want to follow if you are interested in joining an outing. I offer absolutely no warranties, compensation or guarantees; nothing is sponsored or subsidised or professional, but neither do I charge anything for my time and I pay my own fares. I do accept the odd pint or two, but I do not ask for it! If you want travel insurance you need to arrange your own.

If you might be interested in coming along on one these occasional tours, please join my mailing list (there is a subscription form below) and I'll let you know when I am planning one. I generally consult on the date, destination and activities. I shall not be using the mailing list for anything else (so you will not often hear from me except during the planning of a tour) and I shall not share your details with anyone else.

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Keeping informed about forthcoming tours

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Advice for Adventurers

What to wear

Please read my description of the day's activities and look at the weather forecast! Many of the trips involve a fair bit of walking and there can be considerable variation in temperature, so several thin layers and a bag to carry cast-off layers is probably best, with comfortable shoes, boots or sandals depending upon terrain.

(There is a selection of shirts, jumpers, jackets and bags at my shop on this website if you want something special for your trip! How cool would that be?)

On the day

Please ensure you arrive at the specified meeting point at the station at least ten minutes before departure. There are tickets and leaflets to hand out and there may be last-minute notices, and we cannot do all this if everyone arrives just as the train is coming into the platform.

On the day of a tour I shall give you my mobile telephone number and ask for your mobile number which I can then use on the day to keep us together and try to solve any difficulties. If you have a smartphone I suggest you install WhatsApp if you do not already have it and just before the tour starts I shall create a WhatsApp Group for the tour members and invite everyone to share their location (I can do a tutorial on the first train!) so that we do not lose each other if anything goes wrong; if you do not have a smartphone you just have to make sure nothing goes wrong!