Girl Scouts: London to Lucerne

Meet your Tour Director and check into hotel

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.

Join a licensed local guide for an in-depth look at London, from the royal haunt of Buckingham Palace (the official London residence of Queen Elizabeth II) 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 to the magnificent St. Paul’s Cathedral, the masterpiece of London architect Christopher Wren.

Afternoon tea started in England in the 1840s when the Duchess of Bedford wanted a small bite between lunch and dinner. What started out as just tea and a small snack quickly grew in popularity when she invited friends, until it became a social gathering for the wealthy social class. You’ll get to sit down to this very British experience and enjoy a selection of savories, scones with clotted cream and jam, an assortment of cakes, and of course tea!

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.

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.

See the Arc de Triomphe, Champs Élysées, Eiffel Tower, Les Invalides, and Notre-Dame Cathedral on this immersive tour through the City of Light.

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.

If you’re coming to Paris, you absolutely need to take a walk in Montmartre! This area will wake the artist in you up. Its narrow alleys, windmills, little details, and soul are some of the things that make Montmartre so unique. As you walk in Montmartre, you will quickly understand how it has inspired so many artists such as Picasso and Van Gogh. As you walk up the hill make sure to take in all that surrounds you, because in Montmartre you are likely to find surprises around every corner!

The ultimate palace, Versailles was built by Louis XIII, and housed the royal family and its groveling court from 1682, when the Sun King moved in, to the French Revolution. Everything in Versailles is worth a look, from the 250-foot-long Hall of Mirrors, with themed salons on either side, to Marie Antoinette's faux country hamlet. When being a queen became too much to bear, she would pretend to be a commoner, tending her sheep and wearing peasant clothes.

A lively role-play puts you in the shoes of the monarchy, clergy, nobility, bourgeoisie, or peasantry to explore the issues underlying the French Revolution.

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 on the Left Bank and 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.

LEAP Activity | Seize the Château!

This costume workshop is a lively role-play activity that puts you in the shoes of the monarchy, clergy, nobility, bourgeoisie, or peasantry to explore the issues underlying the French Revolution.

Travel to Bern on the TGV

Legends of William Tell, the Lion Monument, Swiss independence and more come to life as you reenact episodes in the history of Switzerland.

Travel to Adelboden

LEAP Activity | Swiss Life and Legends

Legends of William Tell, the Lion Monument, Swiss independence, and more come to life as you reenact episodes in the history of Switzerland.

Experience the first of the World Centres, which opened in 1932 and offers year-round activities, special events, and conferences for Girl Guides, Girl Scouts, and leaders from around the world.

Our Chalet pinning ceremony

Travel to Lucerne

View the Lion Monument, or Löwendenkmal, created in 1820 in honor of the Swiss Guards who lost their lives in 1792 during the French Revolution. One of the city's famous landmarks is Chapel Bridge, or Kapellbrücke, a wooden bridge first built in the 14th century. View the impressive Jesuitenkirche, the first large baroque church built in Switzerland. The ostentatious baroque style architecture is meant to represent the power and glory of the Catholic tradition. Stroll through the picturesque medieval Weinmarkt Square and the Kornmarkt Square in the historical heart of Lucerne.

Travel to Florence and Rome on a two-day extension, then end your tour on Day 15.