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Interactive England
November 07, 2008
Big Ben, the Crown Jewels, Buckingham Palace…chances are your incentive recipients have already seen the touristy highlights of London. But an interactive tour of England that includes hands-on activities in London and beyond can put a new twist on this dependable destination.
By Margery Weinstein
Sipping a cocktail at Galvin at Windows, with a birds-eye view wide enough to take in some of the grounds of Buckingham Palace, an incentive trip that begins where mine did, The London Hilton on Park Lane, puts you in just the frame of mind to enjoy a trip to the spa, a good restaurant, and maybe a luxury boat ride up the Thames. Luckily, for the lazy among us, those tried and tested incentive "activities" are still available in England. But these days, the river's currents flow in a slightly different direction—that of the interactive experience. With so much history, it would be easy to sit back and watch the sights of London slip passively by. Easy but not necessarily engaging, more incentive planners seem to be discovering.
Getting Hands-on
This trend was apparent at my first meal in England, lunch at the Cookbook Café at the InterContinental London Park Lane. A good meal that's unique (my two dining companions and I all opted for a modern vegetarian lasagna dish)? Sure. But one you can participate in the creation of, too. Activities such as master cheese and cocktail classes, and motivational team-building programs in which one group of employees makes the appetizers and the other the desserts, makes the Cookbook Café a hands-on experience.
Assuming all goes well (no one literally ends up with egg on his or her face), cookbooks containing the recipes are available for purchase at the restaurant. The best part is the cookbooks are on display on the establishment's shelves, so you have something to peruse if the conversation with peers requires an escape. And should you be the one who ends up with the egg on her face, you can unwind from the teambuilding "fun" at the Spa InterContental. I didn't have any culinary disasters to recover from—just garden-variety jet lag—but my pedicure was soothing nonetheless.
To spice up the interactive vibe, encourage exploration beyond the area of the city your group's hotel is located in. Head, for instance, as I did, to Canary Wharf in London's East End. A revitalized business and shopping district, the East End offers some of the city's oldest pubs such as The Grapes, in which, I’m told, Charles Dickens spent time. For the less literary-minded there are more morbid tours such as those involving the history of Jack the Ripper.
Once bored with the interactive walking tours, your group can then make its way to the golf courses that have sprung up nearby or maybe take a ride on the Silver Sturgeon luxury Thames river cruise. Or for something more exhilarating, a Thames Rib Experience boat ride, speeding across the water James Bond-style. Another antidote to end-of-day fatigue is the London Eye, a ferris wheel-like contraption featuring "capsules," or compartments in which you and your traveling companions will (on a clear day) get a prime view of the city. Lunch at Skylon, located at Royal Festival Hall, followed by a modern tea, or "Afternoon De-light," at the Metropolitan hotel, in which breadless sandwiches in glasses are available along with sweets, also helps. Incidentally, as long as you're in Royal Festival Hall, you may as well take a tour of the National Theatre. It requires some walking, though not too much exertion, and is great for cultural/artistic incentive packages. And though many of your workers have probably been to the Tower of London before, a dinner in one of its buildings, or "towers," will surely motivate, or at least give your workforce pause. This is the same complex, after all with the famous Traitor's Gate Anne Boleyn and others made their way through. If that doesn't inspire company loyalty, what will?
Then there are the activities that are halfway between interaction and lazy gluttony that might be a good choice for your second or third day activities. A MyChocolate incentive workshop includes a tutorial about chocolate (controlled tastings encouraged) followed by audience participation dipping fudge in milk and dark chocolate and decorating (the interactive part) and then consuming if desired (the gluttony portion of the program). Well-educated, and stuffed, the only thing left to do is get a little tipsy, in an educational, interactive way, of course—which leads us to Vinopolis, located adjacent to London's outdoor Farmer's Market-like Borough Market. Wine, cheese, and rum classes followed, or maybe even interspersed with generous "tastings," will surely reward a job well done and inspire future superior performance, right? Or at least it won't take much to make you think so after a few hours there.
A Mix of History and Love
In addition to interaction, an England incentive trip will be livened up by traveling further than the city limits of London. A roughly three-hour train ride, or one hour flight, traveling to Manchester isn't so hard, and worth the effort. Long since recovered from the soot of its days as the world's "first industrial city," the art lovers of your group will appreciate the Pre-Rafaelite art collection at the Manchester Art Gallery that impressed the composer Andrew Lloyd Webber so much that's where his own collection will eventually be donated. In addition to the beauty of buildings such as the Midland Hotel (where Mr. Rolls met Mr. Royce, by the way), the city makes a great history lover's incentive trip. The hotel my group stayed at, the Radisson Edwardian Hotel, located in the center of Manchester, was formerly the city's famed Free Trade Hall. The original structure gone, you can still see some of the crests that used to hang on the wall of the Hall—now hung above the hotel's reception desk.
History lovers also should stop by Lincoln Square, featuring a statue of Abraham Lincoln in ode to the support workers in Manchester's cotton manufacturing plants expressed for Lincoln during our Civil War—despite his cause endangering their jobs. A less scholarly experience can be had at the Manchester United football (soccer to Americans) stadium. Tours can be arranged in which even the players changing rooms aren't off limits, provided they aren’t in them at the time. The sporty-minded can also ski indoors at Chill Factore.
Along with more traditional hotels like the Radisson Edwardian, "boutique" style lodging also is available in Manchester. The Yang Sing Oriental Hotel in the city's Chinatown section offers a singular experience (the sink is inside the shower, or "wet room"), and as for unique venues for dinners and galas, I'd give Gorton Monastery, or The Monastery Manchester, as it's formally called, a look. A restored 19th century architectural masterpiece, the space now used for events is reminiscent of the world's great cathedrals.
From Manchester, it's only about 45 minutes to Liverpool, where, of course, you can pay homage to the Beatles in many ways. There are other things to do, like visit the Tate Liverpool art museum, but all roads in that city point to the Fab Four. A tour of The Beatles Story museum, where a few pairs of John Lennon's spectacles, original Beatle stage attire, and what they say is George Harrison's first guitar, is on display along with other artifacts. As we experienced during our visit, a Beatles cover band can be arranged to perform for your own group. Dinner at Parr Street Studios, a working recording studio where artists such as Coldplay and Black Sabbath cut tracks, followed by a stay in the Hard Days Night Hotel, filled with Beatles-inspired art, is a good way to end the day. Beatles songs ensconced in your group's brains, a change of pace may be called for. Heading to Cumbria, or the Lake District, about two hours away, is a nice shift. Rolling green foothills and mountains filled with grazing sheep and one to two century or older inns, such as Holbeck Ghyll, where we ate a lunch that included a rabbit appetizer (Cumbria was home to Peter Rabbit author Beatrix Potter), is charming, as is The Lakeside Hotel, where we stayed.
For rugged interactivity, try the Kankku 4x4 off-road driving experience, or, if you're like me and one of my traveling companions, a reading of original manuscripts at poet William Wordsworth's Dove Cottage is a little better. Can you blame us? There's only so much rugged interaction one can take.
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