London to Avebury-Help with Transportation Planning
 

Will be in London in April and want to do a daytrip, on our own, to Avebury. We are not interested in an organized tour.

From the research I have managed to do it seems easiest to take a train to Swindon and then one of the Wilts&Dorset busses from there. Had originally thought of taking the train to Salisbury and then a W&D bus from there.

I suppose we could take the train to Swindon, then the bus to Avebury and then the bus from Avebury to Salisbury and the train from there back to London. Don't know how easily a so-called "open jaw" train ticket London-Swindon Salisbury-London would be booked OR if this arrangement would add immensely to the cost.

Appreciate any advice. Again, the main focus is Avebury and we have to be back in London that evening in time for a 7:30 PM theatre curtain.

Thanks in advance.

The route to Avebury and back is simple, only gets a little complicated if you want to continue to Salisbury and back into London from there. Train from London Paddington to Swindon, there you'll have to make a short walk from the railway station to the bus station. It's clearly signposted and will take about five minutes. Two companies run buses to Avebury, Thamesdown and Wilts and Dorset but only the latter run all the way to Salisbury as well.
The bus journey to Avebury takes about 40 minutes and be on the look out for the Hackpen White Horse hill figure on your left as you climb up into the Marlborough Downs.
Apart form the stones at Avebury there is a public footpath that links Silbury Hill and West Kennet Longbarrow to the village. the Alexander Keiller Museum and the National Trust's Avebury Manor are worth a look at as well.
Although the open-jaw type ticket will cost more, if you find you will have the time to continue to Salisbury and visit the magnificent cathedral then make this part of your plan before you leave London. Although it won't save you alot of money, do not buy a return (round trip) ticket at Paddington but get yourself a single ticket to Swindon. At Salisbury buy a single ticket from there to London Waterloo (remember you'll exit London and return to London at completely different termini).

I should also add that sometimes a return ticket is cheaper than a single but thats up to the pricing policies of the train operators you'll be using, and the time of day you'll be leaving London. Before 9am on a weekday is when train fares are at their highest.

Henneth: THANKS for the information. This makes it sound doable; I never thought about buying the rail tickets separately, i.e, waiting to get to Salisbury and then buying tickets there for the trip back into the city.

If I have any other questions I'll re-post; again, this has been VERY helpful.

The idea of buying the ticket at Salisbury was based on the flexibility of your day. As in most cases the greater flexibility of the tickets, the more expensive it will be. There is alot of stuff to do at Avebury with the walks around the other Neolithic sites so you might end up skipping Salisbury as it starts to get late in the day and just returning to Swindon.
If you are set on this route and know that you will have time to include Avebury and Salisbury then buying tickets on line in advance will save money. You wil also be using two different operators, First Great Western to Swindon and from Salisbury you'll use South West trains.

I think in retrospect after reading what you have said about Avebury/environs in and of themselves and from the other research I've done on the web I think the best thing will be to stick to Avebury.

We have never been to Salisbury or to Stonehenge and would love to do both of those also, but we only have limited time. We have been told that in some respects the Avebury site is better than the one at Stonehenge and it looks as if we could also see the other sites you mentioned above and make it a not so rushed trip.

I checked the Wilts&Dorset bus schedule and the trip from Swindon apparently only takes 23 minutes. We will probably spend several hours there and then take a return bus to Swindon and the train back to London.

I just hope it doesn't rain but we'll have enough basic rain gear with us and will plan to do this rain or shine (if it ends up POURING...well, what can you do...it will make it more of an "adventure" that's for sure.

Again, I cannot begin to thank you enough for this excellent information/recommendations..it really helps in the decision-making process.

It would make it logistically easier. And if it does rain then there's always the Red Lion pub right in the centre of the stone circle!!