Girl Scouts: London & Paris

Your 24-hour Tour Director will meet you at the airport and remain with your group until your final airport departure. You’ll also have a private coach and driver while touring .

Step outside your hotel for a stroll through the heart of the English-speaking world. In this city of nearly seven million, you'll see everything from 12th-century fortifications to modern skyscrapers, royal parks to street art. Your Tour Director will lead you to some of the most famous sites. Walk along the Thames River. Cross Trafalgar Square. See bustling Piccadilly Circus. Pass trendy shops and cafés in Bohemian Soho on your way to Covent Garden, a 13th-century fruit and vegetable garden transformed into a maze of narrow streets and pedestrian walkways burgeoning with street performers, open-air markets and boutiques.

See Trafalgar Square, often used for community gatherings and political demonstrations.

Visit the National Gallery, which contains an unrivaled collection of Western art spanning seven centuries, from the late 13th to the early 20th. The largest portion of the collection is devoted to the Italians, including works by da Vinci, Titian, Veronese, Tintoretto and Botticelli; but the collection also features works by the Spanish giants El Greco, Goya and Velázquez. The Flemish-Dutch school is represented by Brueghel, Jan van Eyck, Vermeer, Rubens and Rembrandt; and there is also an immense French impressionist and post-impressionist collection that includes works by Manet, Monet, Degas, Renoir and Cézanne.

Visit Piccadilly Circus, a shopping and entertainment area brightly lit with video displays and neon signs.

Covent Garden is a district in London, on the eastern fringes of the West End, between St Martin's Lane and Drury Lane. It is associated with the former fruit and vegetable market in the central square, now a popular shopping and tourist site, and with the Royal Opera House, which itself may be referred to as "Covent Garden". The district is divided by the main thoroughfare of Long Acre, north of which is given over to independent shops centered on Neal's Yard and Seven Dials, while the south contains the central square with its street performers and most of the historical buildings, theatres and entertainment facilities, including the London Transport Museum and the Theatre Royal, Drury Lane.

Leicester Square is perfectly situated in the heart of London's West End, with Trafalgar Square to the south, Piccadilly Circus to the west, Covent Garden to the east, and China Town to the north.

Nothing’s more British than fish and chips—there are eight fish and chip shops (“chippies”) for every McDonald’s in the country. Head to an authentic pub with your Tour Director for a taste of this national food, generally served with malt vinegar.

Walk along the Thames river in one of London's most popular and vibrant neighborhoods: the South Bank. Spot the National Theatre and the historic pubs, stop to view the London Eye from the tree-lined walkway, and pause to watch one of the area’s famous street performers.

Vendors hocking sandwiches. Spectators sitting in the open air, exposed to the hot sun or cold rain. People cheering and heckling the players. Sounds more like a typical day at the ballpark than a performance of a Shakespearean play. In Elizabethan England the Globe Theatre was a lively place, and this 1990s reconstruction strives to be as authentic as possible. Learn how modern-day actors deal with the rowdy groundlings (working in simulated daylight means actors can see—and react to—each and every audience member), how the costumers hand-sew antique fabrics to create the clothing, how designers cope with the very minimalist Elizabethan standards for scenery and props, and how directors take advantage of the unique conditions to break down the idea that “Shakespeare equals stuffy.” Please note that the workshop is restricted to students and a limited number of accompanying adults. Adults who are not able to participate will be offered a guided tour of The Shakespeare Globe as a substitute activity.

Attention all Girl Guides and Girl Scouts! Make your visit to London extra special with a visit to Pax Lodge, the Scouts’ third world center located in northwest London. Located right by the International Headquarters of WAGGGS, the Pax Lodge will welcome you for a self-guided tour and regularly hosts international events, parties and scout challenges. No two visits will be the same!

Participate in a pinning ceremony where each participant will receive a pin from the Pax Lodge, the Girl Scouts’ third world center located in northwest London. Situated right by the International Headquarters of WAGGGS, the Pax Lodge will welcome Girl Guides and Girl Scouts from all around the world.

Join a licensed local guide for an in-depth look at London, from the royal haunt of Buckingham Palace (the official London residence of King Charles III) to the slightly more democratic Speakers’ Corner of Hyde Park, where anyone can pull up a soapbox and orate to his heart’s content. You’ll see the changing of the guard (season permitting), the clock tower of Big Ben with its 14-ton bell, and Westminster Abbey, where almost every English king and queen since William the Conqueror has been crowned. After a stop at the Houses of Parliament, continue on to the magnificent St. Paul’s Cathedral, the masterpiece of London architect Christopher Wren.

Take the Eurostar under the English Channel. Faster than you can say... anything, in French, you'll whiz through a tunnel and arrive in Paris.

This city was made for walking. Stroll grand boulevards with sweeping views of the city, pristine parks with trees planted in perfect rows, and narrow streets crowded with vendors selling flowers, pastries and cheese. Then head to the Île de la Cité, a small island in the Seine, to see Notre Dame Cathedral. Please note Notre Dame Cathedral is currently closed due to fire damage.

View the Notre-Dame Cathedral. Work began in 1163 on a spot that had been a holy shrine since Roman times. Over the centuries, the cathedral has been the scene of some of France's most momentous occasions, including the coronation of Napoleon.

Take interactive learning to another level with a Tour Director-led treasure hunt of the Ile de la Cité, home of Notre-Dame Cathedral! Enjoy an after-dinner adventure, complete exciting activities and solve fun clues. Each clue and every activity is built to maximize on-tour experiential learning.

The world's largest art museum, the Louvre is housed in a Medieval fortress-turned-castle so grand it's worth a tour itself. You walk through the 71-foot glass pyramid designed by I.M. Pei and added in 1989, and step into another world--one with carved ceilings, deep-set windows, and so many architectural details you could spend a week just admiring the rooms. The Mona Lisa is here, as well as the Venus de Milo and Winged Victory (the headless statue, circa 200 BC, discovered at Samothrace). The Louvre has seven different departments of paintings, prints, drawings, sculptures and antiquities. Don't miss the Egyptian collection, complete with creepy sarcophagi, or the collection of Greek ceramics, one of the largest in the world. (Please note the Louvre is closed on Tuesdays.)

Try your hand at this game of boules, similar to bocce, and make new friends with a group of local players along the way. Lesson is in French (with translation by your Tour Director, if necessary) and lasts 1-2 hours. Includes a beverage for refreshment after a competitive match!

See the city from the water on an hour-long cruise along the River Seine. The Seine cuts right through Paris, dividing the city in half. See the Eiffel tower rising up on the Left Bank, the walls of the Louvre on the Right Bank. A guide will point out other monuments and architectural marvels as you pass, many of which are illuminated by clear white light at night.

What's that huge white arch at the end of the Champs-Élysées? The Arc de Triomphe, commissioned by Napoleon in 1806 after his victory at Austerlitz. Your licensed local guide will elaborate on this, and other Parisian landmarks. See some of the most famous sites, including the ornate 19th-century Opera, the Presidential residence and the Place de la Concorde, where in the center you’ll find the Obelisk of Luxor, a gift from Egypt in 1836. Spot chic locals (and tons of tourists) strolling the Champs-Élysées. Look up at the iron girders of the Eiffel Tower, built for the 1889 World's Fair to commemorate the centenary of the French Revolution. See Les Invalides (a refuge for war wounded) and the École Militaire (Napoleon's alma mater).

Tonight for dinner, enjoy a speciality from the Brittany region of France: crepes. Creperie restaurants are very popular in Paris and you will be able to choose from the variety of toppings (ham, cheese, egg, peppers, spinach, cream--or a combination!) to create your favorite savory crepe (called "galette") before you enjoy a local favourite: a sweet crepe served with chocolate, fruit or jam.