LEAP encompasses the best practices of student-centered learning. Your Tour Director will get to know you and your group, will push you to think deeply, and will prepare thoughtful, hands-on opportunities to display your learning. LEAP is exclusive to WorldStrides and is what makes our Tour Directors unique and our programs transformative.

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

See Trafalgar Square, often used for community gatherings and political demonstrations.

Visit the National Gallery, which contains an unrivaled collection of Western art spanning seven centuries, from the late 13th to the early 20th. The largest portion of the collection is devoted to the Italians, including works by da Vinci, Titian, Veronese, Tintoretto and Botticelli; but the collection also features works by the Spanish giants El Greco, Goya and Velázquez. The Flemish-Dutch school is represented by Brueghel, Jan van Eyck, Vermeer, Rubens and Rembrandt; and there is also an immense French impressionist and post-impressionist collection that includes works by Manet, Monet, Degas, Renoir and Cézanne.

Visit Piccadilly Circus, a shopping and entertainment area brightly lit with video displays and neon signs.

Covent Garden is a district in London, on the eastern fringes of the West End, between St Martin's Lane and Drury Lane. It is associated with the former fruit and vegetable market in the central square, now a popular shopping and tourist site, and with the Royal Opera House, which itself may be referred to as "Covent Garden". The district is divided by the main thoroughfare of Long Acre, north of which is given over to independent shops centered on Neal's Yard and Seven Dials, while the south contains the central square with its street performers and most of the historical buildings, theatres and entertainment facilities, including the London Transport Museum and the Theatre Royal, Drury Lane.

Leicester Square is perfectly situated in the heart of London's West End, with Trafalgar Square to the south, Piccadilly Circus to the west, Covent Garden to the east, and China Town to the north.

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

Nothing's more British than fish and chips-there are eight fish and chips shops ("chippies") for every McDonald's in the county. Head to an authentic pub with your Tour Director for a taste of this national food, generally served with malt vinegar.

What to do in a city with a reputation for theatre? Watch everything you can in the West End, but why not also see the world from your own stage. Play a dramatic part or put on a musical production. Learn about lighting, make up and all of the hard work that’s acted out before the curtain goes up.

Enjoy a show in the West End, the British version of Broadway, with London's 40-or-so professional theaters, as well as restaurants, shops and cafés. Please ask your Program Consultant for a list of shows to submit a request.

What to do in a city with a reputation for theatre? Watch everything you can in the West End, but why not also see the world from your own stage. Play a dramatic part or put on a musical production. Learn about lighting, make up and all of the hard work that’s acted out before the curtain goes up.

Produce a prime time TV show for sixteenth century England! Compare Shakespearian times to our own and see the Bard's work in a new light.

Visit and take a tour of Shakespeare's Globe Theatre and Museum, housed in a reconstruction of the original theater that closed in 1642 and dedicated to the experience and international understanding of Shakespeare in performance. The museum explores the costumes, special effects, music and printing and publishing process during the Shakespearean era.

Your guide will take you to William Shakespeare's childhood home, furnished in a style typical to the Elizabethan period. Afterwards, you’ll tour the thatched cottage where his wife, Anne Hathaway, lived before their marriage. The adjoining Shakespeare Tree Garden is planted with trees and flowers mentioned in Shakespeare’s plays.

The cottage provides a rare insight into the life of a family in Shakespearean times, and many of the original furnishings are preserved inside the house.

Explore Shakespeare's Birthplace, a carefully restored 16th Century house where The Bard was born, April 23, 1564. After touring the property and the period-correct gardens, we will visit the Shakespeare-related exhibits in the adjoining Shakespeare Center, built to commemorate the 400th anniversary of Shakespeare's birth.

See the renowned RSC perform in Shakespeare's hometown. Formed in 1905, the RSC has employed such great actors as John Gielgud, Vivien Leigh, Laurence Olivier, Judi Dench, and Sir Ian McKellen. (If the theater is unavailable, a play in London will be substituted)

Explore the magic of the Harry Potter films. This unique tour takes you behind-the-scenes and showcases a huge array of beautiful sets, costumes and props. It also reveals some closely guarded secrets, including facts about the special effects and animatronics that made these films so hugely popular all over the world.

Enjoy a show in the West End, the British version of Broadway, with London's 40-or-so professional theaters, as well as restaurants, shops and cafés. Please ask your Program Consultant for a list of shows to submit a request.