Discovering Devon: Personalised Tours and Local Insights with Alex Graeme of Unique Devon Tours

In episode 120 of the UK Travel Planning Podcast, host Tracy Collins is joined by Alex Graeme, founder of Unique Devon Tours. Alex takes listeners on a journey through the beautiful county of Devon, sharing his passion for the region and the story behind his bespoke tour company. 

Discover what inspired Alex to set up Unique Devon Tours, his deep love for Devon, and the incredible variety of tours he offers, from single-day adventures to immersive multi-day experiences.

Alex provides a behind-the-scenes look at the logistics of his tours, including group sizes and the unique experiences that make his tours stand out. 

Whether you're planning a trip to Devon or simply curious about one of England's most picturesque regions, this episode is packed with insights and tips from a local expert. 

We wrap up with Alex's top tip for anyone visiting Devon for the first time, which you won't want to miss.

⭐️ Guest - Alex Graeme of  Unique Devon Tours
📝  Show Notes - Episode  120

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Chapters

• 0:04 Exploring Devon With Unique Tours
• 7:51 Award-Winning Devon Tours
• 19:57 Personalized Devon Tours and Experiences

Transcript

Speaker 1: 0:04

Welcome to the UK Travel Planning Podcast. Your host is the founder of the UK Travel Planning website, Tracey Collins. In this podcast, Tracey shares destination guides, travel tips and itinerary ideas, as well as interviews with a variety of guests who share their knowledge and experience of UK travel to help you plan your perfect UK vacation. Join us as we explore the UK from cosmopolitan cities to quaint villages, from historic castles to beautiful islands, and from the picturesque countryside to seaside towns.

Speaker 2: 0:43

Hi and welcome to episode 120 of the UK Travel Planning Podcast. This week, I'm thrilled to be joined by Alex Graham, the founder of Unique Devon Tours. Alex takes us on a journey through the beautiful county of Devon, sharing his passion for the region and the story behind his bespoke tour company. We dive into what inspired Alex to set up Un Devon tours, his deep love for Devon and the incredible variety of tours he offers, from single day adventures to immersive multi-day experiences. Alex also gives us a behind the scenes look at the logistics of his tours, including group sizes and the unique experiences that make his tours stand out. Whether you're planning a trip to Devon or simply curious about one of England's most picturesque regions, this episode is packed with insights and tips from a local expert. We wrap up with Alex's top tip for anyone visiting Devon for the first time, which you won't want to miss. I started, as usual, by asking Alex to introduce himself.

Speaker 3: 1:40

Okay, so yes, my name is Alex Graham. I'm 53 years old and I was born and raised in the county of Devon in the southwest of England, and I spent many years trying to find myself during my sort of my job life, working in various things such as the care industry, the hotel industry, banking, many years in social services, always working with people, but normally working with people at their lowest step. You know whether or not people needed care services or a bank loan or you know anything like that. So, but yeah, always working with people but always trying to find myself.

Speaker 3: 2:24

Then my time with social services came to a natural end because I had to help my parents move out of a big old house that I was brought up in and the family had lived there for about 150, 160 years, so there was a lot of stuff to go through. So, yeah, it was a very interesting exercise. It took two years and, yeah, we were sifting through all the old family archives letters going back to 1560, just endless. It was basically like going through an old museum and trying to sift through it to make sense of it. But then I helped my parents downsize to a six bedroom house, as you do.

Speaker 2: 3:06

How big was the house before that? If parents downsize to a six-bedroom house, as you do, how big was the house?

Speaker 3: 3:10

before that, if you downsized to six, probably about 30 rooms in total. So quite a large house. Wow, that must have been a lot.

Speaker 2: 3:17

If you did well clearing that up in two years, I have to say, considering the size of it.

Speaker 3: 3:21

Well, yeah, we at least made some sense of it and we've still got most of the stuff. But we basically we come down from scotland in the uh, mid 1800s, having lived up on the same place up there for the best part of 300 years. So, uh, yeah, it was, uh, it was a lot of family history to go through and it was fascinating and I can really relate to my guests that come on tour with me to do my family history tours. But, yeah, it was a long process but that gave me the opportunity to think about what I wanted to do next and, yeah, this sounds like it was a pivotal kind of moment in your life, alex.

Speaker 2: 3:59

So you're helping your parents, you kind of did the downsizing of the house, you kind of going through all this family history stuff as well, and obviously you're from Devon it's where you were born, where you were brought up. So how then did that morph into becoming Unique Devon Tours?

Speaker 3: 4:18

So I had a pipe dream from an early age. So, as part of in the part of the big old house that I was brought up in, my mum used to run a bed and breakfast, and she did it for probably about 30 years and I used to help out when I was young, making the beds, serving breakfast, showing people around the house, the bed and breakfast when they arrived, that sort of thing. And at some stage I came up with the idea to do little mini tours of the nice gardens that we had. So my dad took care of the gardens and they were interesting. There were some very nice aspects, nice features to them, and I'd show my guests, my mum's guests, around and I used to think I really enjoy this. Maybe I could be a tour guide one day.

Speaker 3: 5:08

Of course, when I went to school and saw careers advisors, none of them thought being a tour guide was a good idea, so I just put it on the back burner for about 30 years, but it always remained a pipe dream. And then when I got to this point where I helped my parents move out of the big old house, I really didn't want to go back to working for social services and I only had plan A, and plan A was to try being a tour guide. And so, yeah, and I still have a postcard from when I was about 10 years old from some of the Americans. I showed around a really lovely couple and I showed them around the garden and when they got back to the States they sent me a postcard to say thank you for the fabulous tour and they addressed it to Alexander the Great. So that's, that's a really nice memory that I still have. But, yeah, so that's's the pipe dream that led to where I am now a tour guide.

Speaker 2: 6:06

Okay. So I have to say, alex, I'm from probably as far away in England as you can just about get to Devon because I'm from Northumberland, so right up on that kind of Scottish border, so I haven't spent a lot of time in Devon, I have to tell you. I've been there a few times, I've driven through it on the way to Cornwall. I've spent some time based in Devon, but what I want to say to you, listening, is you need to stop off in Devon and Alex is going to tell you exactly what Devon has to offer and why he loves the county.

Speaker 3: 6:37

Okay. So I think of Devon as a bit of a hidden gem, certainly to the typical international visitor, but it's very well known in the UK as being one of the most popular destinations but international guests. I think yeah, it does go under the radar a bit, but it really shouldn't do. I would describe it as England's great all-rounder. So it offers a bit of everything from beautiful coastline, absolutely gorgeous countryside, fabulous national parks particularly Dartmoor National Park very interesting cities and towns and villages, many, many layers of history, from Bronze Age history to seafaring history, incredible literary links. So Agatha Christie was born in the same town that I was born, in Torquay, and you've got the Hound of the Baskervilles and other such things. And the food, the food and drink experience in Devon really a second to none. So, yeah, we're very, very lucky.

Speaker 3: 7:51

As a tour guide, I don't think I could be a better place in Europe to show my guests around. I have so much to show them and it always surprises people. Yeah, it's more than people expect. It's very beautiful, rolling green hills, and I share a lot of my photos on my Facebook page and then people really do fall in love with Devon. But it's multidimensional and I think that's the great thing about it you can see so much of what England is all about just in one county. So, yeah, I feel very lucky to be where I am. And my most repeat guest has come back to Devon on six occasions, I think, because he knows there's always more to see. So, yeah, I feel very lucky to be where I am.

Speaker 2: 8:47

Thank you. Well, I have to say it is a. It is a beautiful county. The times that I have managed to to visit. It's amazed me, and I know. A couple of years ago, doug and I managed to take the steam railway to Dartmouth. I could not believe how beautiful Dartmouth it took me by surprise, I have to say. I was just like wow, had no idea. I literally had no idea, and I'm English. I did not know how amazing it is. So since you started Unique Devon Tours, alex, you've won loads of awards, so clearly you are doing something amazing. So just talk us through some of the awards that you've won. And I know you've got I don't know how many, was it 187 or even more, five-star reviews on TripAdvisor. So you're absolutely fantastic.

Speaker 3: 9:42

Yeah, I've been very lucky where the awards and the reviews are concerned. I'm now up to 406 five-star reviews out of 407 reviews. I've just got one four-star review, but otherwise a perfect record. And, yeah, I've been very lucky to win several awards at a local level. I've won gold at the Visit Devon Tourism Awards and the Visit Southwest Tourism Awards. Probably the highlight for me certainly the highlight was getting to the final of the Wanderlust World Guide of the Year Awards on two occasions and there are normally over 4,000 guides that are put forward for this award and I've got down to the final 10 on two occasions.

Speaker 3: 10:34

And in 2018, I was voted the top UK tour guide.

Speaker 3: 10:39

So that was really amazing and we had a great day where we were invited up to London, we were given a guided tour and then taken to lunch and we had an award ceremony at the National Geographic Society, had an award ceremony at the National Geographic Society and Bill Bryson, the well-known author from the US he handed me my award, so that was a real crowning moment for me.

Speaker 3: 11:07

And a year later, bill couldn't be a judge, so they asked me to fill in for Bill Bryson, so that was an incredible honor. So, yeah, I've been very, very lucky and my reputation, thankfully, is very good, which is a great help, and it gives people a lot of assurance that when they book a tour with me, that they're in safe hands and I'm going to deliver a great tour. And I have to say, I've been doing this 11 years and when I beat it out on tour recently, my passion for what I do has not diminished in the slightest and thankfully, my reviews are still coming in very, very nicely. So, yes, I feel lucky. I found my perfect job. I think that's all it comes down to.

Speaker 2: 11:48

No, that's fantastic, and it was actually one of our group members who sent me a message and said I think you should contact Alex. You need to work with Alex because his unique Devon tours really is fantastic, and they had been out on tour with you and they said that you were a perfect fit for us, because they were like because you know how we like to work with the best and clearly what you're doing down in Devon is amazing, Alex. So would you like to give us an overview of the different types of tours that you offer, Because I know you have single day tours but also you do multi-day tours. So can you give us an overview of the two different sorts the single day and the multi-day and then maybe let's go into talk about some of those single day tours that you offer?

Speaker 3: 12:32

Yes, well, the single day tours are really for people to. It's like a menu that people can pick and choose from. So they can pick four single day tours and then we can make it into a four day itinerary with those single day tours. But I, you know, I'm very flexible. The strap line in my company is tailor made for you. So part of my job when I first start speaking to people is to just try and find out what it is they're looking for, why they're coming to Devon, what they like to do when they go on holiday, the types of interests that they have. And then I'm quite happy if they just tell me they want to just do my Agatha Christie tour and we'll just do that. But if they say we're coming to Devon, we've heard it's a beautiful area, it's a bit off the beaten track, what can you do for us? Then I'll create a tour based on their preferences and their interests. So really, the multi-day tours that I offer, normally there's just several of the different single day tours stitched together. So, yeah, I offer a sort of a four day highlights of Devon tour. I do a broader tour where we can do some of Devon, some of Cornwall, and then a tour even to include some of Dorset and Somerset. So it's, you know, it's very flexible. I mean, my watchword really is flexibility. So, yeah, it's all about just tuning into what the people want and then making it fit a day where we go to the places that inspired her as a youngster to write the book she wrote, the places she loved to go swimming or roller skating, the places that she went with her friends, and we also visit the house that she bought with her second husband. So that's a really nice day. I do a Hound of the Baskervilles tour and it's funny. I don't know if you can pick up the dogs barking in the background, but yes, I do a Hound of the Baskervilles tour. That is really the story behind the great story.

Speaker 3: 14:47

I do a lot of family history tours. So people have done their family history research back at home. They then want to put the colour into it. So they'll come to, you know, namely Devon, and I'll take them to the churches, the villages, the streets that their ancestors once lived and worked and worshipped in. Then I do a food and drink tour of Devon. So we'll make sure we have a Devonshire cream tea, one of our famous regional specialities, and we'll go to nice vineyards or pubs or tea rooms. So it's really about exploring the wonderful food that we have in Devon. I do a People of Devon tour and that's where we get to meet.

Speaker 3: 15:31

We go out with a shepherd on Dartmoor and we do a. He does a sheepdog demonstration for us definitely one of my guests favorite things. We'll go. We can go out in a horse-drawn carriage through the very narrow devon lanes and it's two shire horses pulling us, two huge working horses, and when you start to gallop with them, when they start galloping, it's truly it's like being at the fairground. It's very exciting, uh. So yeah, a lot of different tours I can offer, butoping it's truly it's like being at the fairground. It's very exciting. So, yeah, a lot of different tours that I can offer, but it's really like I said before all about flexibility and creating a tour to suit my guests.

Speaker 2: 17:19

I think the thing that I absolutely love, alex, is those one day tours are like a menu, and I know when I was going through I was like, oh, that one sounds great, I'd love to do that. I'm really into Agatha Christie, and Doug was like, oh, I really want to do the Hound of the Baskervilles. That would be fantastic. Oh, and then you've just mentioned that the sheepdog that I would absolutely love to go and see that. How amazing would that be. So I guess maybe one of the problems I would have would be actually choosing which ones to do. So do you sort of help your guests with which ones you think would probably suit them the best, once you've found out what the interests are?

Speaker 3: 17:49

absolutely yes, um, you know, partly it's. It's sometimes there are practical issues such as mobility. So, uh, you know, if people don't find it so easy to to get around, then we can do a more sort of just a more gentle tour where we and we can see an awful lot from the car and just driving through Devon is is one of life's great pleasures, um, but, yeah, I, it's about just listening to what people say, and sometimes people just it's very straightforward they'll just tell me they want to do a, b and c and we'll do a, b and c. But uh, if they're not so sure, then yes, I'll hold their hand through the yes, I'll hold their hand through the process and I'll hold their hand through the process of how they get from London, say, down to Devon, which hotels to book, because sometimes people book themselves into a hotel and I think, yeah, I probably wouldn't send my worst enemy there. Not that we've got too many bad hotels, but we've got a great selection of hotels and B&b's and pubs and inns.

Speaker 2: 18:50

So yeah, it's. Yeah, I am. I did hear that faulty towers had closed down because it was a bit famous for talkie, wasn't it?

Speaker 3: 18:57

yeah, yeah, I do take people to the place. Where was it new?

Speaker 2: 19:00

key have. I got that no no, no, it's talkie.

Speaker 3: 19:02

I do take people to the place where the monty python team was staying in 1971 and and the hotel owner, donald Sinclair, was a pretty wild and crazy man and it was him that inspired that greatest of all English comedies.

Speaker 2: 19:16

So yes, I was going to say that wouldn't have been the hotel that you'd want to stay in, Not at all. So you've obviously talked about some of these things that I'd never heard about, like been able to go on to to uh dartmoor and and see the sheep dogs and and herding the sheep, which is fantastic, um, so what are the unique experiences and kind of lesser known gems could guests expect if they come on your tours?

Speaker 3: 19:43

uh, well, I've just had actually I've got a tour at the end of this month for some people and they told me they really want to meet local people and friends of mine, which isn't necessarily that easy to engineer, particularly, you know, the friends thing. But I have actually arranged for some friends of mine in the village I live in to. They're going to cook up a beautiful cream tea and she is a fabulous baker, so they're going to make scones and provide cream and jam and nice tea, and then she's going to make two different cakes and then we're going to go and sit in their garden. Now, their garden isn't just any garden, it is absolutely drop dead gorgeous. It's beautiful. They're just the quintessential English gardeners. They have the greenest of fingers. So, yeah, we're going to go and sit in their garden. They're lovely people to speak to, very gentle and interesting, and we're going to spend a couple of hours in their company in their beautiful garden, eating beautiful cream tea. So that can't be bad. So that's the sort of thing I might organize.

Speaker 3: 20:45

But if people want to go and make gin, we can do a gin making course. I can take people fossil hunting on the Jurassic coast. What else can we do? We can go for a very, very personalized, private guided tour of Powderham Castle, which is where the Earl of Devon lives. So yeah, there are lots of you know I've been doing this for several years now, so there are lots of behind the scenes experiences that I can organize. I can take people to an old estate where the same family have lived for over 800 years and it's a private estate but Francis, the owner of the estate, he will give my guests a private guided tour of his big old house and he's got thousands of acres of land and you know, it's about the closest people can get to meeting old school English aristocracy. So it's a really, really bespoke experience. So, yeah, I really try and give my guests memories for life and by doing these more off the beaten track things, I think that helps create those memories.

Speaker 2: 21:52

Oh, absolutely it does sound amazing, alex, I have to say, and also obviously to just mention that and I know you have kind of briefly, kind of mentioned it before but you don't just stay in Devon, you will go into Cornwall and into Dorset Jurassic Coast as well, so you can kind of incorporate those areas as well. If somebody thinks, ok, I want to base myself in Devon but I'd like to go and maybe see a bit of the Jurassic Coast or pop down into Cornwall and see a bit of that, you can incorporate all of that into their itinerary.

Speaker 3: 22:22

Yes, absolutely. I realise that sometimes people expect only to come to the southwest of England once in their life maybe, so they want to see a bit of Devon and a bit of Cornwall, and so, yes, I remain very flexible where that is concerned. Somerset, the neighbouring counties, and we can do day trips, you know, down to some of these places, and sometimes, if I'm picking guests up from London, for instance, we might be able to do some touring on the way from London down to Devon. So I've got some people coming on tour with me soon. I'm picking them up off their flight from Heathrow and on the way down to Devon we're going to stop at Stonehenge. So that's the sort of thing we can do.

Speaker 3: 23:09

Yeah, but yes, I have great flexibility. I even occasionally venture up to Scotland and do guided tours up there. It's not something that I advertise on my website, but occasionally I'll do tours up there because I have a lot of well. Occasionally I'll do tours up there because I have a lot of well. I spent my childhood going up to Scotland on family holidays, following in my ancestors' footsteps, and so occasionally I'll take people up to Scotland as well.

Speaker 2: 23:36

Oh lovely. So let's talk about the kind of nitty gritty in terms of booking with you. So thinking about kind of the practical things like how many people can you typically accommodate on a tour?

Speaker 3: 23:49

So my typical group size is one, two, three or four. I don't mix groups together. So I take a lot of couples on tour and small families. I can fit six in my car but the two of the passengers are slightly compromised. But I would say four is an optimum amount of people in my car. But, like I say, I deal with a lot of solo travelers, a lot of couples. So, yeah, I have taken bigger groups on tour but then we have to start getting a minibus with a driver, so that can really add to the cost. But I love the intimacy of the small groups and that's my typical bread and butter, I would say.

Speaker 2: 24:30

Oh well, it's really nice because it's also a great way for you to get to know your guests, for them to get to know you, as you're driving around and and showing them. You know beautiful areas where you are. You know. What should guests know or prepare for before going on one of your tours? Is there anything specific they need to know, um, or need to prepare for?

Speaker 3: 24:50

I would always say um well, you have to prepare for the english weather, and I know that's difficult because, um, you have to sometimes pack for three seasons. Um, but, uh, I think the best piece of advice I could give anyone is to speak to their guide. So, whether it's me or another tour guide, as long as they've got a good reputation, then put your trust in them. So listen to what the tour guide has to say about accommodation, about how to get from the logistics, how to get from the airport down to Devon, for instance. And sometimes people come through an agent and that's absolutely fine.

Speaker 3: 25:28

But if they haven't come direct, then sometimes we miss some of the finer points of booking direct with the tour guide. But I think it's that communication. So just let the tour guide whether it's me or another tour guide just let them know a bit about you, why you're coming to Devon, what it is you like to do when you travel. You know we all go all around the world, but we have. So when I travel, I love to eat great meals, for instance, so I want to know the best places to eat. So, yeah, just put your trust in the tour guide is my advice.

Speaker 2: 26:06

Perfect. So how can our listeners find out more about unique devon tours and get in touch with you? I will just say in the show notes for this episode, which are at uktravelplanningcom, forward slash 120, that there will be a link to your website in in the show notes. So if anybody's listening thinking, oh, I'm not going to be able to write this down quickly, you know or remember it, it will be in the show notes. So if anybody's listening and thinking, oh, I'm not going to be able to write this down quickly enough or remember it, it will be in the show notes. But if somebody wants to get in touch with you, alex, what is the best way?

Speaker 3: 26:31

Well, by all means, my website, Unique Devon Tours. If you just search for Unique Devon Tours on the internet, you'll be able to find my website, wwwuniquedevantourscouk, and there's a contact form that you can fill out, or you can just send me an email and the email address is on the website. A lot of people like to follow me on Facebook and again, just look up Unique Devon Tours and you'll quickly find me and I post on there and you'll be able to see. Well, hopefully that'll help you fall in love with Devon through my photographs that I've taken and posted on there. But yeah, just reach out to me any which way you can find and I'll try and respond in a timely manner.

Speaker 2: 27:16

That's fantastic. Now, what is your most popular tour? I have to ask you that, Alex.

Speaker 3: 27:21

My most popular tour, oh my gosh, my most popular tour, I would say, is probably my family history tour. So people looking to do their genealogy, to follow in their ancestors' footsteps, and that's, I think, the most popular tour that I do, closely followed by my Best of Devon tour, which is where people only allow me one day to show them around. So I try and show them as much of the different dimensions of Devon that I can. And my Agatha Christie tour is also very popular.

Speaker 2: 27:54

Yeah, I can imagine Absolutely. Now I always end the podcast with one question, the same question, and all my listeners will go and they know exactly what I'm going to ask. But I'm going to throw a bit of a curve ball in here because I'm going to ask Alex two questions. Ask, but I'm going to throw a bit of a curveball in here because I'm going to ask Alex two questions. So the first one is a bit of a trick question but I have to ask this. So if I'm having a scone in Devon, is it?

Speaker 3: 28:17

jam or cream first. Alex, it's always cream first. It's either the Devon way, which is the original, authentic way, or it's the wrong way.

Speaker 2: 28:24

Simple as that, authentic way or it's the wrong way. Simple as that. Had to ask, had to ask, and okay. So the question I always end with now so this is a normal question is what would be the one tip that you would give to anyone visiting or planning to visit Devon for the first time?

Speaker 3: 28:40

I would say try and give long enough for me to be able to show you around Devon. I would say three days minimum if you can, and I'm not just trying to get business, it's just that there's so much for me to show you. Three, four days is a really nice time for me to help you really fall in love with Devon and show you its many different aspects. And I have to say, prepare yourself for the Devon Lanes, because the Devon Lanes are incredible and I didn't realize when I was a tour guide, when I became a tour guide, that the Devon Lanes would become an attraction. But they're these wonderful narrow lanes where sometimes my wing mirror of my car is touching the hedgerow on both sides, and that's the moment where you'll really be grateful that I'm the one driving and not you.

Speaker 2: 29:29

Absolutely, absolutely. That's great advice, absolutely great advice there, alex. So thanks so much for coming on the podcast this week. It's been fantastic to talk to you. All things Devon. It is a beautiful, beautiful county and I'm sure people will be in touch. Hopefully you get some of those tours booked with Alex guys, because, honestly, he is just fantastic.

Speaker 3: 29:49

Thank you very much, Tracy. Thank you very much. It's been a pleasure to come on the podcast. Thank you.

Speaker 2: 29:55

Thank you for tuning in to this week's episode of the UK Travel Planning Podcast. As always, show notes can be found at uktravelplanningcom. If you've enjoyed the show, why not leave us feedback via text or a review on your favourite podcast app? We love to hear from you and you never know. You may receive a shout out in a future episode, but, as always, that just leaves me to say until next week. Happy UK travel planning.