going from london to oxford but we want to stop and see the stones of avebury.
can anyone give me some advice on a good way to do this? are the stone circles more than a 3 hour sort of visit? i've been told the traffic and congestion of SE england makes this an inadvisable route to oxford via public transport. true?
thanks in advance for any help.

3 hours shoulld suffice....Are you only using public transport?

This link http://bit.ly/dOUTR1 says that there is a bus from Swindon, so you could get train to Swindon, bus to and from Avebury (it says nearby, dunno how frequently) then train from Swindon to Oxford via Didcot.

I really like Avebury, but would be easier if you were driving

I've done the train to Swindon and the bus to Avebury route. Works quite well and the busses ar5e only a few feet from the rail station in Swindon. Short bus ride to the first of the stones which you can walk amongst and touch...how long that will take depends entirely on you IMO.

"i've been told the traffic and congestion of SE england makes this an inadvisable route to oxford via public transport. true?"

False - what is true though is that it's a faff getting from Avebury to Oxford.

You take the train to Swindon, walk to Swindon Bus station, take the 49 bus to Avebury, return to Swindon by the same bus and take the 66 bus to Oxford.

But where are you going to store luggage? Swindon doesn't have anywhere to leave luggage.

oh we'll only have mid sized backpacks

""i've been told the traffic and congestion of SE england makes this an inadvisable route to oxford via public transport. true?""

Codswallop. Whoever told you such nonsense: don't believe anything from him.

Getting from Swindon to Oxford is often quicker and more convenient by train (the bus can take 100 minutes because it's the nature of some buses to stop a lot. Nothing to do wth the traffic.) Varies by time of say: work out the different timetables from www.transportdirect.info

thx for the advice! the side trip to avebury was great and easy as hell.

took the train from paddington to swindon and got the 49 to avebury. then a bus back to swindon and another bus to oxford. no hassles at all. just wish we had more time to spend in avebury. i definitely wanna go back there soon. we didnt even have time to check out silbury hill.... oh well