The tours cover a variety of subjects and include cultural cruises as well as natural history courses and music festivals.
[2] The company was founded in 1958 by Philip Brooke Barnes as The Association for Cultural Exchange and is currently based in Babraham, Cambridge, England.
[4] In its early years, ACE mainly provided courses for student and professional groups coming to Britain from abroad, particularly, but not exclusively, from the United States and Scandinavia.
[4] One of the first summer schools, entitled Tradition and Experiment in British Society, held at Exeter College, Oxford, included a keynote speech by Clement Attlee.
[4] On one occasion, tour participants were personally shown around the royal summer palace at Sofiero Castle by the King of Sweden, Gustav VI Adolf.