Setting up a family trip to England and Ireland

I'm involved with setting up a trip for my famil;y. Around 10 to 14 people. Going there at end of July for two weeks. This was just decided so there is zero done, identified or prepped.
I'm looking for incite into everything. Where to go for best airfares, Where to stay, what to see,
My needs are Crown Jewels, Stonehenge, Irish country side, the Chunnel. The others differ with me on this and want London and countryside sightseeing tours (I'm aghast at this as I don't have high regard for bus tours, no time to experience the scene. I hope I'm wrong)
Generally people want to pub crawl, see Shakespeare's haunting grounds. Where is this anyway? Avon, Canterbury?
I believe in renting cars and seeing the sights that way. Most disagree with me.
I would also like any info on great places to purchase smoking pipes (tobacco )
Any info from my friends over the pond?
Of course I'll google but I know there'll be info from you folks
HAPPY NEW YEAR TO US ALL

With London traffic, you'll have all the time in the world on a bus tour. I believe there are tours that allow you to get on and off the buses around the route so that you can focus on things that interest you.

I'm not quite sure what you want to see of the Channel Tunnel. I guess they do tours or something?

Perhaps a holiday shop can make you a holiday and organise all the transport and hotels, and tours and whatever else you all want to do.

Al

don't call them buses, you'll upset your driver, they are "coaches"!

The funniest set of construction street signs I've ever seen was just outside London. While traversing a temporary round-about with most of it's exits closed there was a large sign that said "All routes this way" and if you continued to the next open exit a sign that said "All OTHER routes this way" LOL, I had to go around one more time just to see if I had somehow missed something, but it was really there

If you want to see Shakespeare stuff you can visit stratford, I recommend it. Or just get tickets to see the royal Shakespeare company for whatever they are doing. We saw both midsummer nights dream and hamlet while we were there, I think, it was a long time ago now. The most fun part for me was being in the theaters and such.

The other thing that you have to do is visit some castles and cathedrals. Even if you're not really into cathedrals I discovered that many of them offer a "roof tour" for a couple of pounds. Sometimes it's not even guided they just point you to a tiny door up a tiny spiral staircase that you climb for an eternity before emerging hundreds of feet above the city to stare down the parapets. I did this at every cathedral we stopped at (and there were a lot of them on the tour)

Stonehenge was a bit of a disappointment I'm afraid. It is cordoned off so you can't walk in and actually touch the stones or frolic in the middle. But you can get up fairly close and at least take some good pictures.

I would definitely check with a couple of tour companies, they know about all the good stuff and can arrange for guides and the coach and everything. There will be a premium price involved, but they can also get you plane tickets cheaper sometimes so that may offset a bit. I wish I had details on some of those companies for you, but I haven't been since 1988, so the details have escaped from my memory (if I ever knew them at all)

You can certainly drive around, but remember they drive on the wrong side of the road. My mother did eventually get quite good at that, but it took a few white knuckle moments... I did some of the driving too and it was fun. Their version of street signs and such are a little different than here. For example, many roads are only 1 lane wide, but instead of saying "one lane road ahead" as you might expect, the sign will say "lorries in the middle of road ahead" and you don't get much warning when a lane is ending. None of this coddling you with a gentle merge, the lanes simple end in a brick wall. Also driving in the cities proper can be very challenging as anything other than the main drags are mostly single lanes about as wide as the Fiat that you'll be renting

Overall it was a great experience, you will have a good time! Make sure that you do at least a little bit of pub hopping in London and ride the Tube into Picadilly and such.

Be sure to pick up a few strange and wonderful british made flashlights while you're there, as long as they are not made by Lucas! or you will be in the dark.

Have a great trip.

TOB9595,
My wife and I went to England in 1985. We used the London Underground, "The Tube" (subway) a lot. It takes you within blocks of where all the good stuff is and if you need to go further, hop on a "coach". The attendant will know you're not from around there and will ask you where you're going. If you tell him/her, they'll tell you when to get off and point you in the right direction. You don't get that in L.A.! We purchased our Underground tickets in the U.S. before going and saved a ton of money http://www.thetube.com/ . You could't buy them there. We also got BritRail passes here and saved a bunch http://www.raileurope.com/us/rail/passes/britrail_classic_pass.htm. Check to see if this is still true. We "trained" to Stratford, Edinburgh, and Lincoln. We hired a car in Lincoln and drove around. I kept saying to myself "keep left, keep left, keep left", and had not too many problems. I wouldn't even THINK about driving in London if you haven't practiced "in the country" away from traffic first. We plan to go again in a couple of years. I could go every year, but the funds say otherwise. We flew British Airways non-stop from L.A. to Heathrow. That's a long 11 hours, but you'd knock 5 or so off of that leaving from the East Coast. We used a company called Idyll, Ltd. www.untours.com . It appears they don't "do" England anymore. They set us up in a 3rd floor flat in a private residence in East Ealing (about 20 minutes by "Tube" from London). Pretty convenient and away from the hustle and bustle of downtown. If you buy a lot of stuff, save your receipts to get a refund on the VAT tax when you leave and for U.S. Customs stuff. Have a great trip. Oh, by the way. When crossing the street look RIGHT or you'll step in front of a car going the WRONG way, like I did. Kind of gets your attention!
Kirk
Kirk

Thanks for all the helpful tips and links. I see the value to rail travel and I'll be doing that instead of renting a car. Yeah, I'll probably get in trouble in the country after tipping a few driving on the wrong side of the road.
There's a great commercial for, I guess, an english car being imported into america. He's stopped by an english Bobbie for driving on the wrong side and he's really in the American Desert lands. A real Hoot.