Group travel fam trip to Reading

17th April 2024

Visit Reading/REDA hosted 20 Group Travel Organiser (GTO) in Reading on 15 April to showcase the group offer to Reading for 2025.  GTOs came from Watford, Hampshire, Devon, Swindon, Essex and Sussex and London (enjoying free travel on the Elizabeth Line to Reading with their Freedom Passes), among other areas.  

The group visited the British Bayeux Tapestry in Reading Museum, the only full-scale replica of the Norman tapestry stitched by Victorian women. Guja Bandini offered a taster of the tapestry group visit which tells the history of the original as well as the story and techniques behind the 70-metre long Victorian artwork.

The group were then taken around Reading Abbey Gateway, which is a short walk from Reading Museum in the Abbey Quarter. Part of the original medieval abbey complex, it later became a boarding school for young ladies and included among its pupils a 10 year-old Jane Austen and her sister.  2025 is the 250th anniversary of the birth of the world-famous author. The Gateway building has been conserved and during 2025, Reading Museum will be offering visits to Jane Austen’s school building.

The group then toured the Abbey Quarter area which includes the ruins of 900 year-old Reading Abbey, the burial place of King Henry I of England and Forbury Gardens. Group walks around the Abbey Quarter are organised through Reading Museum and are led by a team of enthusiastic volunteers.

Having worked up an appetite, the group then enjoyed lunch aboard a Thames River Cruise boat as they headed upstream on the Thames to sample part of Thames River Cruise suite of group cruises. Most popular are their Afternoon Tea cruises and 90-minute circular cruises which cruise upstream to Mapledurham. Thames River Cruise are a family business celebrating their 50th anniversary this year and offers a programme of bespoke and scheduled cruises.  

Key to the group offer is the ease of access to Reading by coach and rail, coach drop off and value for money of the group offer along with a surprising history, fascinating museums and lovely Thames trips. More information at https://www.visit-reading.com/visitor-info/travel-trade/trade-brochure or call Alex Brannen on 07860 779166.