Tour Real de Santiago, Parques, Palacios y Royal intrigue

A really enjoyable tour, so much interesting detail…. I now know why Green Park is called by that name! Sandy was so knowledgable and told us so many background stories it brought the whole tour alive. Highly recommended!

Learned so much today, from who’s who at the Changing of the Guard, how St James’ Park became a park, masses about the monarchy from Henry VIII to now, to fun facts about Fortnum’s London honeys and marmalade competitions and men’s clubs! Sandy was a great guide, enthusiastic and very informative, and brought the area to life for me.

My family of 5 truly enjoyed Sandy's tour of St. James Village. She is so knowledgeable and inspiring to listen to, from her stories of London's Royal history plus more. I highly recommend this tour.

Sandy’s knowledge of the Royals is so extensive, it was like we had a personal member of the family walking with us! She took her time, explained what was coming up, connected places to people, and people to their place in history. She gave a personal glimpse into what life was like since the beginning of English heritage. Seeing the changing of the guard from the beginning was an added bonus she was able to include! If you want a walking history lesson, and come out feeling like you “know” the royals, this is the tour and Sandy is your guide!

Sandy, our guide for this tour, was prompt and very knowledgeable of St James and the Royal Village. I would highly recommend her, especially for first time London visitors. The walking tour does move fast and is roughly 3 hrs on foot.

Sandy, our guide was extremely knowledgeable, energetic and enthusiastic. She made learning about the history of all of the sites we saw fun and interesting. She also had fantastic advice about how to get the most out of the experience, should we want to dig in deeper at any of the spectacular locations she showed us. Would recommend her 100% for anyone touring this area.

Sandy, our guide for the morning, was already waiting for us at the starting point. There was only 4 of us on this tour, which immediately felt relaxed and just the type of experience we were looking for. After a few facts and figures and explanations on how the the mornings tour would run, we were off. Immediately I could tell we were going to enjoy the experience, Sandy had clearly spent a lot of time preparing the tour and doing her research on Royal St James. We were about to find out not only about the Royals who called St James home but the nobility and local characters that had moved west from the city to establish new lives. Although the history of St James went back to before Henry VIII, we focussed on the last 300 years or so, which was very much what we wanted. Sandy brought to life not only the monarchs of the Georges, the Williams, the Annes and Victoria but also the people that had flocked to the area once the royals were in residence. A highlight of the tour was the changing of the guard at St James Palace and Buckingham Palace with the Grenadier Guards in all their splendour accompanied by marching bands. Always good to see the crowds jump when the drums start the procession with such a clash when you are only a couple of feet away from them. Although it was a hot day with Sandy cramming a lot of interesting facts and answering lots of our questions, the tour seemed over in a flash. If you are looking for a smaller. more personal tour, would highly recommend. We plan to join Sandy on further tours soon, including Hampton Court and Westminster....Can't wait!!

Tour started promptly, and our guide explained everything we would definitely see and what we would hopefully see. This was a small intimate tour and our guide (Sandy) explained that she only toured with small numbers so that she could be attentive to the group and more importantly answer any questions. Sandy had obviously done plenty of research in support of the tour with plenty of little anecdotes as well as the key historical facts. Being a small group we were able to explore the little alleys, narrow streets and tiny square that were tucked away, each with a story to tell and ones that Sandy brought to life. Although it wasn't guaranteed we were able to see the changing of the old guard at St James Palace and the new guard at Wellington Barracks. It meant some swift footwork but Sandy had already explained this and checked we were all happy with making a few quick moves to make the most of the spectacular of the Marching Bands and the Grenadier Guards, responsible for protecting the King. It wasn't all rush and we had time to shade from the sun and have more fun facts and history explained to us, with lots of chances to ask questions. If you love intimate, historical tours with a friendly and knowledgable host, can't recommend enough and will definitely book more tours with Sandy......Wear comfy shoes!!

The walk around St james was extremely informative. Following a return to London and more specifically this particular area, sandy our guide gave me such a great insight to the extensive history of this place through the detailed descriptions provided throughout the tour Thoroughly recommend this tour to not only foreign tourist but locals as well

A very informative tour by our tour guide, Sandy. Really enjoyable and full of amazing facts and anecdotes. Highly recommended. Jan Tomlins