Cambridge University Tour by Alumni™ with optional King's Chapel
Description
This is the original Alumni Tour™ — the first of its kind and the most professional experience in the city. Our tours are led by Cambridge students and graduates who combine genuine personal experience with a deep knowledge of the city’s history and architecture. The 90-minute tour includes iconic landmarks like the Corpus Clock, the Mathematical Bridge, and King’s College from the iconic Backs. The tour is entirely outdoors, focusing on Cambridge’s historic streets, squares, and college exteriors. If selected when booking, your experience can be enriched after the walking tour ends with a visit to King’s College Chapel, the absolute crown jewel of English Gothic architecture. You’ll pass through quiet college lanes and back lawns where Isaac Newton revolutionised physics, Charles Darwin developed his theories, and where Stephen Hawking studied and found inspiration. Available in English, 中文, and Español upon request.
Tour Options
Itinerary
Meet your Alumni Guide outside King's College, on King's Parade. Your guide will be wearing an item of royal blue clothing—such as a jacket, scarf, cap, beanie, or polo shirt—with the heraldic symbol of Alumni Tours on it.
Learn about the fascinating story behind the design of this famous clock, noticing the details than an uninformed observer could easily miss!
Visit The Eagle pub—where history lives in every corner, from WWII airmen to the scientists of the nearby Cavendish Laboratory. With over 400 years of history, this pub holds countless remarkable stories.
Discover the place that put Cambridge on the map of the scientific world—a place that changed the history of science and the history of humanity as well.
Listen to your student-guide describe the (somewhat dark!) history of Corpus Christi College, and feel free to ask any questions about the College or student life
Hear about the reason why this is Queens' College rather than Queen's, and discover the myths that abound about the nearby Mathematical Bridge
Walk along by the famous College Backs while you learn about the history of King's College and how it is related to three different King Henrys
Home of some of the most famous Alumni, hear a student's take on the rivalry between Trinity and St John's!
Admire the magnificent profile of St John's College, known for its grand architecture and notable alumni. A perfect blend of history and beauty along the River Cam.
Get a student's perspective on the practice of the public announcement of grades, and get a glimpse into the particular traditions of the University of Cambridge while you hear about the graduation ceremony.
##IMPORTANT: this option must be selected as an upgrade of the walking tour ticket. Please, make sure that you select it. The visit of the chapel is self-guided at the end of the 90 minutes walking tour, and it is not supervised by our official guide. The duration of the visit is a basic approximation, but you can leave the chapel when you prefer.
Highlights
What's included
Traveller Ratings
Important Information
- Wheelchair accessible
- Infants and small children can ride in a pram or stroller
- Service animals allowed
- Public transportation options are available nearby
- Transportation options are wheelchair accessible
- All areas and surfaces are wheelchair accessible
- Suitable for all physical fitness levels
- Wheelchair users are welcome on the tour. Please note that some parts of the route may be difficult to access due to uneven terrain, curbs, and other obstacles. We advise caution because of uneven surfaces and potential trip hazards. Please also be mindful of vehicles and bicycles, especially in busy areas
- Not recommended for travellers who cannot complete a 90-minute walk
Reviews(2,471)
Lovely tour- my actual favorite thing I did while in Cambridge! Isabel was the best tour guide and I learned so much!
Our tour with Dr. John was our favorite part of Cambridge. We learned so much about the different colleges and their history. He struck a perfect balance of information, entertainment, and humor, all while taking us through one of the most picturesque cities in the UK. His background as a history major and PhD was evident, as he gave us great insight into origins of the colleges and their amusing rivalries with each other. We highly recommend requesting John for your tour. You won’t be disappointed!
I believe the tour guide was at worst sadist, at best, just plain cruel It was 98° this day. I am dealing with recent foot surgery, but I am able to walk with a cane. There is also older couple on this tour with us. When I arrived, he could not find me on his list so he treated me like a third class passenger and pawned me off on somebody else. When they determined I was on his tour when I came back, he seemed displeased. As we walking around the city, there were a couple of times, due to construction, that a road may have been closed so he made us double back and walk all the way around the block, only to find that the road was closed to vehicles, not pedestrians, so all that effort was futile. We walked a mile on a dirt path in a park area that basically had no shade just so we could find two spots to take pictures. Most of the time he spent pointing at buildings and told us who study there, which is information I could have gotten from Wikipedia, since most the buildings weren’t that interesting to look at. When there was shade along the journey, he often stopped in a place 20 feet from it to stand there and talk to us for five minutes. If there was a bench nearby for us to rest, he would stay away from it so that we had to stand in the extreme heat, without a break the entire hour and a half. When we got toward the end of the tour, we walked past the back entrance to Kings College church. And walked about another half a mile to the front, which was closed so we had to double back AGAIN to the entrance. We had already walked past. We started the tour at the front location, this is something he should have known… In general, the tour was not worth the excruciating heat, the amount of knowledge for the expenditure of physical exertion under these trying circumstances. I would not recommend.
Dear Clint, Thank you for your feedback. While we understand that walking in 98-degree heat is incredibly uncomfortable, we must be very clear: you are blaming our business and, even worse, our excellent guide by calling him a "sadist," for circumstances that are completely out of our control and for content that is the exact nature of this tour. Our booking page explicitly warns guests about the physical demands of this experience, stating clearly that it is a standard walking tour requiring physical activity, which can be challenging for people with mobility issues. You knew the weather forecast and your own situation recovering from surgery before arriving. If you had explained your circumstances to us beforehand, we would have gladly issued you a refund. Instead, you chose to book and participate anyway. We cannot control the sun, the temperature, or city construction detours, and our tours move forward unless there is an active safety hazard. Additionally, you had actually booked for the wrong date and informed us at the very last minute. Although this strictly should have required an entirely new booking, we wanted to be accommodating and went the extra mile to let you join the tour regardless. It is disappointing to receive such a harsh review after we stretched our policies to make sure you could participate. Regarding the content, this is a shared tour focused on the collegiate history of Cambridge. That is exactly what was delivered. Historical facts for mentioned in any tour can always be found online and in academic papers, but the service we provide is the guided experience through the environment where that history happened. We delivered the accurate, comprehensive tour as advertised, and it is unfair to penalize our business and our guide for the weather and your personal choices. We ask you to remove this review. Thank you.
Great tour guide with John F, really informative and easy walk overall. We learned a lot about the college system and how students engage with the university.
This was a great walking tour to get a good overview of Cambridge University’s historic colleges, traditions and buildings. Our tour guide (Sam) was full of interesting information and was able to answer any of the questions we asked. The tour of about 2.5 hours went very fast. I fully recommend this tour for those visiting Cambridge wanting to learn about the University and its colleges.
Very enjoyable, just the right amount of information and a pinch of lighthearted humour - a recipe for a great tour. We attended with two teenager daughters and they loved it too. Lucy was happy to answer all our questions about life as a CU student which was very helpful.
This was a wonderful tour! Our guide, Sam, was absolutely lovely, so knowledgable and entertaining. The group was mostly older people wanting to see the town, but as someone who is looking to apply to Cambridge, Sam did a great job of giving information about what the Cambridge experience is like, about the colleges and academics. The group was large, but it still felt tailored to suit everyone's interests.
Oishi is very knowledgeable and is a PhD student at the college. We covered many colleges during the walk. he told us some great details of histories and background of how colleges come about, all happened during the heatwave. He’s very relatable and considerate of walking speed, patiently answers many questions and we had a great time, so thank you!
We LOVED our visit to Cambridge as led by the awesome and friendly Sam! Sam was very knowledgeable, friendly, and considerate of everyone in the group as we often walked in the shade during a very hot day. He balanced the history of the colleges with daily student life and traditions very well. Thank you Sam for making our first visit to Cambridge a wonderful one!
John was an amazing guide and answering all our questions. The tour went a little over the hour but we were happy with that extra time.
