the crown jewels | up close and personal

Entrance to the Crown Jewels

As many as nineteen thousand tourists a day visit the Tower of London. That's over two thousand entrances an hour, forty visitors each minute. The Crown Jewels are the highlight of any visit. Displayed behind glass, two moving sidewalks along each side of the display carry visitors along — the only way to keep people moving through. Your natural inclination would be to spend five or ten minutes (or even more) looking at the crowns, scepters, and orbs on display, but if every visitor did this, the queue would never move.

You can see the crown jewels a different way. We entered the Tower of London after hours and were taken through by the curator of the Crown Jewels. He explained the history of these objects, their significance as symbols of the British monarchy, and how they will be used at the coronation of the next monarch. We had all the time and space we wanted to view these objects and ask questions of an expert guide.

Next came the Ceremony of the Keys, a tradition that has been observed every night without fail for over 700 years. Although the Queen does not reside in the Tower (which is a royal palace), the Crown Jewels do ... and they must be kept secure. Only bookable online (and fully booked through the normal online process until January, 2017), our contacts in England will do their best to secure tickets  by other means for our clients.

This has been the theme of our trip — learning how to offer an entirely different way to visit London to our clients. We can plan exclusive experiences you'll never forget, bypassing the crowds and discovering things most tourists even know exist. For instance, did you know you can purchase special tickets (subject to availability one or two days in advance of your visit) to visit the Tower of London both before and after hours? Please scroll through other recent articles in Travel Horizons to learn about other unique experiences that can be yours.

copyright  (c)  2016 by David Ourisman LLC.  All rights reserved. We provide Virtuoso and other Preferred Partner amenities as an affiliate of Brownell Travel. If you have comments on this column, or questions about booking travel, email me or visit my website.