10 Stunning Tours That You’ll Adore

I actually didn’t mean to make the title of this blog post to rhyme; it was a happy accident!

After reading a fantastic online article from The Guardian and including said article in October’s edition of the Oakleigh Journal, our free e-newsletter, I thought I would bring it to you in the form of a blog post in the Oakleigh Manor’s beloved Blog!

Jane Dunford, a writer at the newspaper, has compiled ten of the best architectural tours in the world. From Palm Springs in the United States of America, to Tokyo, the capital city of Japan, these ten tours are from all corners of the globe and each one differs greatly in the architectural styles they exhibit. I will demonstrate these in more detail, as well as one of the biggest factor in any decision: the price!

Anyway, let’s look at the ten tours:

• Palm Springs Modern Tours, Palm Springs, United States of America
  • Style: Modernist;
  • Highlights: Sights range from Hollywood celebrity homes to civic buildings, as well as the stories behind them all;
  • Price: $85/person.
• Brutalist bus tour, London, United Kingdom
  • Style: Brutalist, post-war architectural movement, prevalent in the 1960s;
  • Highlights: See a select number of London’s Brutalist buildings, such as Queen Elizabeth Hall and Trellick Tower, all from the top deck of a Routemaster, National Trust-led;
  • Price: £35/person.
• Mid-century modernism tour, Chandigarh, India
  • Style: Modernism;
  • Highlights: Pays homage to both Le Corbusier and Pierre Jeaneret, architects who helped the development of the city;
  • Price: €70/person.
• New Khmer architecture, Phnom Penh, Cambodia
  • Style: New Khmer;
  • Highlights: Tours of the country’s capital focus on architecture after their independence in 1953, blending traditional architecture with the worldwide modernism movement;
  • Price: $15/person.
• Brasilia modernism (Monumental Axis), Brasilia, Brazil
  • Style: Homage to the modernist movement;
  • Highlights: Four-hour tour around the UNESCO World Heritage Site and Brazilian capital takes in landmarks such as the cathedral and National Congress;
  • Price: €200 for four people.
• Art Deco Cocktail Tour, Miami, United States of America
  • Style: Art-deco;
  • Highlights: Three-hour walk through the city, seeing the famous buildings of Miami’s South Beach with cocktails in hand!
  • Price: $60/person, including drinks.
• Sydney architecture walk 1: The City tour, Sydney, Australia
  • Style: Sydney’s architecture – blend of many;
  • Highlights: Focuses on three iconic buildings: Aurora Palace, Governor Philip Tower and 1 Bligh Street skyscraper, all designed by different architects;
  • Price: From $19/person.
• Art nouveau and cubist architecture, Prague, Czech Republic
  • Style: Art nouveau, as well as cubist architecture;
  • Highlights: Visiting hotels, bars and restaurants amongst other buildings, viewing the stunning art nouveau style, with stops for cubist style-lovers, which includes the Bank of the Legions;
  • Price: £43/person.
• Guiding Architects Bilbao Centre and Metropolitan Area tour, Bilbao, Spain
  • Style: Contemporary;
  • Highlights: Choice of architecture-led tours, which many of course include the famous Guggenheim museum, exploring the radical changes the Basque city has undergone;
  • Price: €200 for five people.
• Japanese architecture and tour of the Diet Building, Tokyo, Japan
  • Style: Modernist
  • Highlights: Revolves around three districts of the city, the centres of political and business life, where urban development kicked on in the early 20th Century – includes a visit to the National Diet, Japan’s parliament building;
  • Price: £5/person.

So there you have it! If you’re ever in the vicinity of these tours, do not hesitate to give them a visit. For us here in the South East, if you just fancy something different to do on the weekend, it seems the Brutalist bus tour may be the one for you! However, it only ran for September 26th to October 3rd, so I’m afraid we’ve missed it! However, keep an eye on the National Trust website for other activities.

We hope you enjoyed this article. If you want to know more about each tour individually, you can read the original article here.

[mc4wp_form]

Oakleigh Manor Limited are a multi-disciplinary company specialising in providing all outdoor needs under one roof, for all size and styles of external spaces. Our expertise has led us to numerous national awards, but what fuels us every day is the ethos we adopt: to create unique, bespoke projects. You can see perfect examples of these by looking at our Facebook page.