Would like to do a day trip to Bath & Stonehenge in Feb. from London. Could someone please tell me which tour company you would recommend.

Hi Sandy,<BR> I'm not sure that you would want to try both in the same day. It's about 1 1/2 hr by train London/Bath.<BR> When we went to Bath, we spent almost the whole day touring the city.

Sandy,<BR>We did the Bath &amp; Stonehenge day trip last March. We used Golden Tours and had a very nice and informative tour guide for the day. If you are wanting to spend most of the day in Bath you may want to consider taking a trip by train on your own. By taking the tour we were only allowed about 3 hours in the city of Bath and you need a little longer to explore.

I concur with the above poster. You'll need more than a day to see both of these places.<BR><BR>I took the train to Bath and then picked up the double decker bus tour of the town at the bus station there, which is very good. You can hop on and hop off at stops as well. The town is quite small which lends itself to wandering around and discovering the sights. But bundle up in February!<BR><BR>I would recommend visiting Stonehenge and Salisbury together. I took a Busabout tour, which was very good, but was more geared for youngish (i.e. 20s to early 30s) travellers. I'm sure if you do a search here, you will find some other recommendations.

Sandy,i have just returned from London 2 weeks ago and believe me you need more then a day, we took the tour and we left at 9 in the morning and returned back at 6 PM, i think it was a 300 mile round trip and i was exhausted, Stonehenge was interesting but it rained, with the tour you have just about an hour and all you look at is the stones, very interesting, disposable cameras where not to good as you do not get close to them, Bath was nice I liked the Abby found that to be very interesting and the shops where wonderful, but you do need time. Any more questions feel free to email me

I went to Stonehenge and Avebury with a tour group called Astral tours. Excellent tour company and they are I believe the only tour group to go into the circle after hours....Very impressive but it takes all day.<BR>Cost was around 70 dollars per person.

We did the Astral Tours Inner Circle tour, too, and it was the highlight of our 3-week trip for my teenage son. The reason it takes all day is that it makes several other stops at prehistoric sites -- Avebury (huge circle and two museums), West Kennett Long Barrow, side trips for viewing crop circles (and the pub where they're allegedly planned) etc. <BR><BR>But according to the web site of English Heritage, which runs Stonehenge, you can contact them directly to arrange after-hours inner-circle access, too.<BR><BR>Stonehenge is not far out of the way on the trip from Lonodn to Bath. Perhaps there's a tour that gives you more than 3 hours in Bath (as Eleaanor's tour did).

To take a tour from London to Stonehenge, expect to pay about &pound;42 (GBP) and if you want the special access (lets you actually touch the stones, fork over an additional &pound;15).<BR><BR>But you can save money by taking the train from London’s Waterloo station to Salisbury (about 1 1/2 hours) and then catch a bus out to Stonehenge (40 minute ride on the Wilts and Dorset bus #3). The buses run regularly from the Salisbury station. I think that a return train ticket from London to Salisbury costs about &pound;20, and a return ticket on bus from Salisbury to Stonehenge costs &pound;5.25, and admission to Stonehenge &pound;5.<BR><BR>So, if you do it yourself, you can see Stonehenge for &pound;30, or pay more for a tour.<BR><BR>Avebury is 24 miles (40-minute ride) from Stonehenge and is similar to Stonhenge but on a much larger scale than Stonehenge and at Avebury you can walk around and touch the stones. This place has unrestricted access and is free. <BR><BR>If Avebury sounds neat to you, for the same price as a Salisbury-Stonehenge return bus, you can buy an Explorer ticket (which allows you all-day travel on any bus (including those stopping by Avebury). <BR><BR> I don't care what the other posters say, you CAN see Stonehenge and either Bath or Avebury all in one day. Stonehenge opens at either 9 or 9:30 a.m. and closes at 4 or 5 p.m. in the winter). I suggest going as early as possible, since seeing the stones really doesn’t take too long.<BR><BR>Consider going to Stonehenge as early as possible in the morning (before its gets crowded). After an hour or so, head to Bath for lunch and maybe take one of the City Tours on the double decker bus. Also, the tourist office in Bath sponsors pretty good free walking tours.<BR>

I've come across two great threads today recommending public-transportation travel in the southern UK. I'm thrilled. Snorkelman, is it as easy to manage as let's say Switzerland? Do the buses and trains run on time? Is there a website for checking connections, schedules ahead of time? Thanks all.

Really? You can get a special access to Stonehenge that lets you go right up and touch them? Both times I was at SH (where the druids lived, and they did live well...) the central area was roped off. Apparently there are nutbars who think they are part of the original cult, and want to get up close and personal with the rocks. English Heritage is worried about damage. Not that they used to care about tourists. In 1991 I was there, they had a riding lawnmower parked in the middle of the circle to embellish your photographic memories. Maybe it was there to sharpen the blades, since there wasn't a pyramid handy.<BR><BR>Not always so uptight. My dad claims to have a photo (about 1945?) of himself doing a chimney climbbetween two stones in his mountain climbing days.<BR><BR>My recollection is that SH is part of a trip via Salisbury, and not connected easily to Bath. All the rail lines radiate from London. I drove the StoneHenge-Bath road (in the dark!) in 2000. I would suggest that if you find a tour, get it! I don't thin it's easy to do by public transport; not in one day.<BR><BR>Agree with previous posters. There's half a day or more of sites to see in Bath, but once you've circled the Henge, taken a few pictures, and maybe a shot or two of the sheep in the nearby fields, you're done. An hour, tops. Salisbury Cathedral is, I thik, the tallest cathedral in England if you're in the neighbourhood. The pillars of the central spire bulge noticeably.

Evan Evans does an all-day trip to Salisbury, Stonehenge, and Bath. You may not get all the time you want, but at least you will have seen the cathedral, the stones, and the baths. Try to have tea and a bun at Sally Lunn's in Bath.

To JW <BR>Try this site to check train schedules<BR>www.trainline.com.<BR>If you plan to take a train to Stonehenge, you will buy a ticket to Salisbury( don't miss walking around the town when you return from seeing Stonehenge) and right outside the station you will be able find &quot; Guide Friday&quot; tour busess that will take you out to the Henge.<BR>If you take a train to Bath, it is a very easy walk from the station to the Baths and to other sights in town.<BR>

I am trying to find a list of top rated tour operators that schedule trips to Europe? Has anyone scheduled their trip with a escorted tour such as Trafalgar? Any information would be helpful.<BR>thank you

Lindsey:<BR>&lt;I am trying to find a list of top rated tour operators that schedule trips to Europe? Has anyone scheduled their trip with a escorted tour such as Trafalgar? Any information would be helpful.<BR>thank you&gt;<BR>Just a suggestion, repost your inquiry as a seperate post so that it does not get lost in the responses to the Bath/Stonehenge question.<BR>

We also did the Astral inner circle tour to Stonehenge and it was WONDERFUL!! We HIGHLY recommed!! )

Is it true that the inner circle tour now allows you to touch the stones? When we took it in summer 2001, we were given very strict instructions NOT to touch them, by both our tour guide and the person from English Heritage. The implication was that if any of us were caught, not only would we be tossed out, but Astral might not be allowed to bring Inner Circle tours anymore! It didn't make sense to me, since touching wouldn't harm the stones but might harm the bottom few feet of lichens, which of course weren't there when the stones were originally used so technically they're no more authentic than rust.

Jen remarked<BR>&gt;... touching wouldn't harm the stones <BR> You would be right if you were the only person touching the stones, but multiplied by hundreds of thousands the oil on your fingers becomes very damaging.

Thanks to all of you who responded,<BR>We are now seriously thinking about<BR>taking the astral tours (we checked out their website.) This board<BR>has been very helpful in all of our planning and I want to thank all of you for your responses. A Happy New &amp; Peaceful New Year to all of You.<BR>Sandy

OK, I'm game: How exactly does oil from people's fingers harm stone?

Oil from your hands can discolor porous polished stone like marble. But raw igneous rock like Stonehenge? Not in a million years.