No... not the amazing range of great beers you can find in Welsh pubs or the famously warm welcome you will get in a Brains pub anywhere in Wales...

Not even the infamous Welsh brain behind Murray the Hump, the man from Carno in Montgomeryshire who made sure, as a key figure in the Chicago mob, that his boss Al Capone kept out of jail for as long as he did...

Statue of Dylan Thomas in Swansea © Crown copyright (2016) Visit Wales

No, we want to remind you that some of the brightest and best from Wales have made their mark throughout the centuries and the world over. And in all walks of life...

• poets of course like Dylan Thomas and RS Thomas
• architects like Frank Lloyd Wright or Clough Williams-Ellis
• actors like Richard Burton, Anthony Hopkins or Catherine Zeta-Jones
• musicians like Tom Jones, Grant Llewellyn or Bryn Terfel
• successful business people like Howard Stringer and Terry Matthews
• amongst the Founding Fathers of the US was Thomas Jefferson, and former First Lady and Secretary of State Hillary Clinton went, as someone proud of her Welsh origins, to Bryn Mawr College in PA....and she might be the next President!

Bryn Mawr College in Pennsylvania has Welsh roots

We can immerse you just a little - or very thoroughly - in this amazing country. Our Welsh team is led by Jan herself, born in Blaenau Ffestiniog in North Wales and a first language Welsh speaker. There is very little in Wales that is not familiar to her and she loves her home country with a passion that you have to experience at first hand!

Legendary Welsh opera singer Bryn Terfel © Crown copyright (2016) Visit Wales

And she has back up from the brains in our academic team - Nick Bardsley, an Oxford educated Historian with a legal background, Helen Moriarty our expert on landscapes and gardens and Nick’s daughter Lydia Bardsley, a linguist from Trinity College Cambridge.

Our VIP Associate is Nicholas Olsberg, historian, archivist, curator and writer. Previousy Director of the Canadian Centre for Architecture in Montreal, Canada, his architectural publications include work on Marcel Breuer and Carlo Scarpa, with major studies and exhibitions on Frank Lloyd Wright, Arthur Erickson, Carlos Diniz and John Lautner.

A group from Bryn Mawr College visits the National Assembly for Wales

We just love to research, plan and manage vacations for visitors who take their pleasures seriously - who are looking for intellectual stimulation and who want to travel with like-minded alumni or members supporting our great artistic and cultural institutions.

If you would like to discuss your ideas for an academic or cultural tour to Europe - it doesn’t have to be Wales! – tours just get in touch with Nick, email nbardsley@janetredlertravelandtourism.com.

Click here to find out more about our Academic and Alumni tours.