Rochester Dickens Christmas Festival Day Trip
Fully refundable and amendable up until 7 days before travel
Celebrate the coming of Christmas with a trip back in time to the world of Charles Dickens. Spend the day in historic Rochester at the Dickensian Christmas Fair.
Tour includes
- Services of a Tour Guide throughout
- Travel by Train
- Walking tour with your guide
- Entrance to Rochester castle
Climbing over the Weald, forming a backbone of hills of Kent, in its northern side to the River Medway is the historic city of Rochester. Here we can find one of the best preserved Norman castles in the country with its impressive stone keep, 113 feet high with walls 12 feet thick. The fortress towers over the town and stands next to the Medway, first crossed here by the Romans 2,000 years ago. Nearby is the cathedral, founded back in 604AD by Bishop Gunimg, in its timeline second only after Canterbury.
Rochester is best known as the home of the writer Charles Dickens, and during our guided walking tour we will learn more about his time here. His works, such as the Pickwick Papers and The Mystery of Edwin Drood where set in Rochester and Restoration House in the middle of town featured as Satis House, the home of the cynical Miss Havisham, in Great Expectations. It's in the month of December that the city comes alive with the rogues and heroes of Dickens' books when Rochester holds its Dickensian Christmas Fair. The perfect backdrop of Georgian and Victorian houses provides an ideal setting for market stalls, street entertainers and musicians with a guarentee of snowfall, in one way or another. Fairground rides are held in the castle grounds and actors are on hand to give impromptue renditions from the author's works. At the end of a fun filled and exiting day we meet up again for our short journey back to London.
Time | Rochester Day Trip Schedule |
---|---|
08:30am | Meet at St Pancras Station |
09:02am | Train Departs |
10:28am | Train Arrives in Rochester - Walking tour of city on arrival |
12:00pm | Entry to Rochester Catherderal |
1:00pm | Lunch & free time |
4:45pm | Meet Guide for return to Station |
5:12pm | Train Departs Rochester |
6:43pm | Train Arrives London |
Please ensure you arrive at your allocated departure point at least 10 minutes before your departure time.
Time | Departure point |
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08:30am | St Pancras Station - The seating area to the side of the entrance to Starbucks (situated on the Lower Ground Floor in the Circle) (MAP) |
If you intend to travel to our central London meeting points by public transport, you can plan your journey in advance on the Transport for London website - click here