DESTINATION • ENGLAND
The home of the games.
Cricket at Lord's, rugby at Twickenham, football at Wembley, and hockey at the Olympic Park. England wrote the rulebook on most modern sports, and a tour here is a pilgrimage every team should take.
BEST TIME
May to Sep
CLIMATE
18–25°C
TYPICAL TOUR
7–21 days
TOURING SINCE
2010
WHY ENGLAND
Where the modern game grew up.
England is the spiritual home of cricket, rugby, football, and hockey, all four codes were either invented or codified here. From Lord's to Twickenham, from Wembley to Bisham Abbey, an English tour is a tour through the grounds where the modern games were written.
For overseas schools and clubs, an English tour is the rite of passage, fixtures against historic schools, training at the grounds your coaches grew up watching, and excursions through the country where the sports themselves were invented.
Inspire has been running England tours since 2010, with deep relationships across the independent school system and the major sporting venues. Cricket, rugby, football, hockey, netball, every sport your school plays can be the spine of an English tour.
ENGLAND, BY THE NUMBERS
Fifteen years, four sports.
15+
YEARS TOURING
Inspire has operated Sri Lanka tours since 2010, with deep school and federation relationships across multiple sports.
5
SPORTS TOURED
Cricket, rugby, hockey, and netball, with combined multi-sport tours available for schools that play across codes.
30+
SCHOOL PARTNERS
Every tour travels with two to three of our own people on the ground, never an outsourced local agent.
TOUR TYPES
Sports we tour in England.
England offers the deepest school sport network in the world. Inspire tours across the five major team sports plus combined multi-sport itineraries.
HERITAGE
Cricket
The home of cricket. Lord's, the Oval, county grounds, and historic independent schools. School playing tours, county pre-season fixtures, the APEX 1st XI Festival at Millfield, and Ashes 2027 spectator packages, the deepest cricket tour offering anywhere.
NOTABLE VENUES
Lord's, Oval, Edgbaston
ACTIVE TOURS
Ashes 2027, APEX
ENQUIRE ABOUT CRICKET TOURS →
HERITAGE
Rugby
The birthplace of rugby. School tours against historic English independent schools (Rugby School, Tonbridge, Marlborough), Twickenham stadium experiences, and Six Nations spectator weekends. The deepest rugby tour network in world rugby.
NOTABLE SCHOOLS
Rugby, Tonbridge, Marlborough
VENUE EXPERIENCE
Twickenham
ENQUIRE ABOUT RUGBY TOURS →
PREMIER LEAGUE
Football
Premier League stadium experiences, school football fixtures against historic English programmes, and category-1 academy training sessions. The biggest football culture in the world, paired with school competition at the highest level.
NOTABLE VENUES
Wembley, PL stadiums
TRAINING
Cat-1 academies
ENQUIRE ABOUT FOOTBALL TOURS →
OLYMPIC
Hockey & Netball
School hockey tours against England's top hockey schools, with sessions at England Hockey-affiliated academies. Netball school tours connecting to the largest school netball network in Europe. Both sports thriving at the elite school level.
HOCKEY VENUES
Bisham, Lee Valley
NETBALL NETWORK
ISA schools
ENQUIRE ABOUT HOCKEY OR NETBALL TOURS →
TOUR TYPES
Three ways to tour England.
Whether you are a school 1st team on a UK tour, a 1st XI joining the APEX festival, or a spectator following an England Test series, there is an English tour built for you, across whichever sport you play.
— 01 —
SCHOOL TOURS
School Playing Tours
Two-week summer tours for overseas school 1st teams. Fixtures against the best of the English independent system across cricket, rugby, football, hockey, and netball. Lord's nets, county academies, and historic-ground experiences woven through.
DURATION
10–14 days
FIXTURES
5–8 matches
ENQUIRE ABOUT A SCHOOL TOUR →
— 02 —
SPECTATOR
The Ashes & Test Series
Spectator packages built around major Test series at the iconic English grounds. ATOL protected, ticket-inclusive, all five Tests of the 2027 Ashes available now for registration.
DURATION
7–21 days
FORMAT
Match-based
— 03 —
SUMMER FESTIVAL
The APEX 1st XI Festival
The marquee summer cricket festival for international school 1st XIs, hosted at Millfield. T20 and 50-over fixtures, on-campus boarding, full Inspire Travels support throughout.
DURATION
4–7 days
FORMAT
Festival entry
THE TOUR
What an English tour actually feels like.
Honest expectations matter. Here is what touring sides find on the ground in England, and what makes the English summer a different sporting experience to anywhere else in the world.
The Venues.
From village grounds to Test arenas, English sporting venues sit at every scale. Cricket at Lord's, rugby at Twickenham, hockey at Bisham Abbey, football at category-1 academies, your tour can be built around whichever level you need.
The Opposition.
English independent schools field competitive 1st teams across multiple sports, with first-class academy programmes alongside. Inspire arranges fixtures matched to your group, from school 1st teams through to county academy and minor counties opposition.
The Conditions.
18–25°C through the touring season, with showers and occasional bright days. Players adapt fast, but the weather is real. Inspire builds rain-friendly schedules with backup indoor sessions and flexible rescheduling built into every itinerary.
The Welcome.
English schools and clubs are gracious hosts. Tour fixtures often include hosted lunches, post-match teas, and the kind of sport hospitality that defines the English game. The friendships between visiting and home sides often outlast the tour itself.
BEYOND THE GAME
England beyond the game.
Every tour weaves rest days and cultural excursions around the sport. Below is a selection of the experiences Inspire regularly includes on English tours.
LONDON
London & Lord's
Tower of London, Westminster, the Tate Modern, the Thames at dusk. Pair the sport with a guided morning at Lord's Cricket Ground, Twickenham, or Wembley Stadium, depending on which game your tour is built around.
COUNTRY
The Cotswolds
Three days through honey-stone villages, Stratford-upon-Avon, Blenheim Palace, and the Cotswold countryside. The classic English Test-series add-on, with optional country house hotels.
HERITAGE
Stonehedge & Bath
World Heritage neolithic monument and the Georgian terraces of Bath. A heritage classic, ideal for any touring group between matches in southern England.
NORTHERN ENGLAND
The Lake District
Wordsworth country, lakes, fells, and country-house hotels. Three days through the Lake District pairs naturally with northern fixtures or as a rest-day extension.
SCOTLAND
Edinburgh & Highlands
Edinburgh Castle and the Royal Mile, then north into the Highlands. Whisky distillery experiences, Loch Ness, and the Scottish coast. A natural northern extension to any English tour.
ENGLISH SUMMER
Wimbledon & Royal Ascot
The English summer's other great sporting institutions. Wimbledon Centre Court (ballot-led) and Royal Ascot mid-June. Calendar-dependent, ask us about availability at booking.
PAIR THE RIGHT EXCURSIONS WITH YOUR CHOSEN TESTS. WE'LL HANDLE THE LOGISTICS.
REGISTER YOUR INTEREST →
CURRENTLY OPEN FOR BOOKINGS
Featured England tour.
nspire's flagship England product, currently open for registrations.
ENGLAND • SUMMER 2027
The Ashes 2027.
Cricket's greatest rivalry, back on English soil.
Five Tests across the iconic grounds of southern and central England, from Edgbaston and Lord's to the Ageas Bowl and the Oval. ATOL-protected packages, guaranteed tickets, and the boutique service Inspire is known for.
FROM £ TBC
WHY INSPIRE TRAVELS
Spectator cricket tours, since 2010.
15+
YEARS OF SPECTATOR TOURS
Inspire has been running spectator cricket tours since 2010. From Ashes summers at Lord's and The Oval to England tours abroad in South Africa, Sri Lanka, and the Caribbean, our team designs and runs every spectator tour we offer, including this one.