You don’t get much privacy as a royal. It’s all ‘this photo is edited’ tweets and ‘no, HE broke up the family!’ headlines on Sunday broadsheets, but not a lot of peace. As much as this might bother us regular folk, King Charles III seems to be taking it in his stride, opening up the last private royal home to tourists for the first time in over a century.
Balmoral Castle was rumoured to be the late Queen’s favourite of her many homes. It was where she spent a large amount of her time, and eventually where she would pass away, surrounded by loved ones. It seemingly holds less sentimental value for Charles, who hopes that the £150 tour followed by afternoon tea package will generate a bit more money for the crown.
Paying visitors are already able to visit the grounds and its ballroom, but this experience will allow guests to see parts of the castle that were previously kept, literally, behind locked doors, including the drawing room and private quarters. For the low, low price of £100, or £150 if you’d like to throw in that aforementioned afternoon tea, you can see where the royals spend their downtime.
The bedroom where Liz passed will be kept off limits to tourists, so apologies if you would like to see that particular part of Windsor history. The tours will be pretty limited, with only 40 tickets available each day between July 1 to August 4. They’re also already starting to sell out, so make sure to head to Balmoral’s website and snap yours up soon.
RIP Elizabeth. You would’ve loved Balmoral being opened up to the selfie-stick wielding masses.
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