mdieri

We'd like to visit all three and have our hotel booked in London for the week, so prefer not to make an overnight. Would it be too hectic to take a day tour seeing all three? My preference would be to do it over two days but cost and convenience point to a one day motorcoach tour. Has anyone done all three as one tour?

janisj

Lots of folks take those expensive coach tours. Wouldn't be my choice, but they live to tell the tale

You get a short time in Salisbury, a look-see at Stonehenge, and a few hours in Bath. Just the drive back in to central London from Bath is 120 miles and can take 2.5 to 3 hours or more. So you can do the math.

anyegr

I took a daytour to these three places with Golden Tours in 2010. It's a lot of time on the bus, so bring a book.

You get time to walk around the stones at Stonehenge and there is an audioguide thing that you can borrow, but I felt that there wasn't enough time to listen to all the audio info.

We had a choice between eating lunch with the group (cost NOT included in daytour price) at a restaurant or finding something on our own. The group lunch was ok, slightly above cafeteria level food.

Salisbury Cathedral was beautiful, but I'm not exactly religious so it felt mostly like any other pretty building. If I remember correctly they had a copy of the Magna Carta there. There was no time to walk around in Salisbury, unless you chose not to take the group lunch offer.

We had a lot more time in Bath. Entry to the Roman Baths was included and we got to borrow audio guides there, too. Then we could walk around in the town for a while.

I thought the morning was rushed and would have preferred more time at Stonehenge and a lot less in Bath.

Please note that there was only a recorded audio guide, not an actual human guide to ask questions of at Stonehenge and the Roman Baths.

Would I recommend this daytrip? Well, if you don't have a car and don't want to spend a lot of time looking at some old stones, sure. It's not really a bad trip. Do remember to bring something to read on the bus, though, maybe an audiobook so you can look out through the window at the same time.

Sue_xx_yy

Greetings mdieri.

I'd say no, don't do the motorcoach tour. Getting to Bath from London is easy.

This link should help:

http://www.nationalrail.co.uk/

You could take an 8:30 a.m train out of Paddington (your tube ticket to the station will be included in your train ticket in all probability.) Arrive in Bath 10:00 a.m and,take the free mayor's city walking tour at 10:30 a.m. (visitbath.co.uk) - a great introduction to a lovely city with beautiful architecture that you may recognize from various film or TV series. Don't rush Bath on a bus tour!

The tour lasts around 2 hours. Then you could have a light and quick lunch (best bet is to pack a picnic) and then head for the Roman Baths. These deserve, in my opinion, at least 2 hours.

Then grab the 16:43 train heading back to London around 18:00. You'll beat the bus tour back, and have had a much more enjoyable, and less rushed, day.

ira

>Salisbury and Stonehenge and Bath too much for one day?<

Unless your only purpose is to check them off a list: Yes.

Sue_xx_yy

About Stonehenge and Salisbury:

First, I have not seen these sights. There are many fine cathedrals in Britain, and we found another that fitted our schedule better. (Ely, as it happens, because we were going to East Anglia anyway.) Just for the record: Stonehenge is a very large, and hence very famous, prehistoric site. However, it isn't the only place you can find megaliths. For example, if you ever go to Normandy, France, or better yet Brittany, the place is littered with them (pick up a Michelin detailed area map and you'll see what I mean.) I say this so that if you miss Stonehenge for some reason, it won't necessarily be your last chance to see a prehistoric site.

That said, one option is to take a different bus tour from London, one that focuses mainly on Stonehenge and thus would be less rushed. There's an outfit called Premium tours that offers a bus tour of London in the morning, then an afternoon visit to Stonehenge. Or you could just take the Stonehenge afternoon bus tour option.

If you go on your own, you would take the train from London Waterloo instead of London Paddington station. You'll want to time it to coincide with a tour bus that will take you to Stonehenge:

http://www.thestonehengetour.info/times.shtml

This is a 'hop on, hop off' tour, so you aren't as constrained on times. I cannot comment further, as I haven't taken it. But it seems to take about 30 minutes out of Salisbury. You then hop off at the Cathedral, then back on again to the rail station for your return home.

Best of luck. Enjoy Britain.

Sue_xx_yy

oops, should have included the link to the Salisbury hop on hop off route:

http://www.thestonehengetour.info/route.shtml

Sue_xx_yy

One last comment: if this were my trip, I would try to organize 2 overnights in Bath, as in: train to Bath from London, relax, overnight.
Take day trip to Salisbury Stonehenge out of Bath.
After the second night, check out of hotel and leave bags at hotel, then do walking tour and Roman baths as described. Pick up bags, head back to London for the night. Much less backtracking.

texasbookworm

Short answer--yes.

Longer answer--You have been given advice above that I would second. In the first place, with only a week in London, I wouldn't suggest more than 1 day trip. So I'd say pick between. I've done exactly what Sue above suggests--train to Salisbury then TheStoneHengeTour bus to Stonehenge (catch it right outside train station). This was a fabulous, long day. I've been to Bath twice with students on student tours, on our way from a to b, not as a day trip. Bath takes a whole day, too. Much to see! Sooooo, I'd urge you, if you really want a day trip, to choose. You aren't going to run out of things in a week in London, but I do understand the desire to see other stuff. (My favorite day trip from London, though, is to Oxford!)

mdieri

Thanks everyone. My son really wants to see the Magna Carta and I'd really like to see Stonehenge and Bath, so hard to choose! But I think you all are right and we will either go for 2 of the three in one day trip or else spring for the overnight in Salisbury or Bath.

indy_dad

You could see the Manga Carta at the British Library in London as well. You'd miss the cathedral but perhaps that's the best compromise.

basingstoke2

I took that bus tour some years ago with #2son and the descriptions above are pretty much on the mark. A little of each with a few hours in Bath before the long trip back on a crowded highway. Think of it as a tasting tour. The value of the tour was that it firmed in my mind that these are places to come back to and explore with more time, especially Bath. I did that last year with DW knowing they were places where we would both enjoy spending time.

lovs2travel

I wouldn’t recommend going to all three places in one day. It would be rushed and tiring and you would be missing out on what you really want to experience.

A few years ago, I took a day trip to Bath and included a Mad Max tour to Stonehenge. It was a full day, but we saw a lot. The Mad Max tour included a stop in Lacock, which is an adorable village featured in many period movies. http://www.madmaxtours.co.uk/ Prior to the tour, we took the HOHO bus around Bath to get an overview, visited the Roman Baths and had tea in the Pump Room. Upon our return from the Stonehenge tour, we went into Bath Abbey and had dinner prior to taking the train back to London.

Recently, I took a day trip to Salisbury and went on the Stonehenge Tour. The bus is right outside the train station and you can buy your tickets on the bus. The audio guide is included in the price of the tour. We went on a Tuesday so we were able to walk around the farmer’s market in the town center upon our return. We then walked to Salisbury Cathedral and saw the Magna Carta.

I would suggest taking the train to Bath with a tour to Stonehenge and seeing the Magna Carta at the British Library. The British Library is well worth a visit and it is open late on Tuesday evenings. However, if you choose to do a day trip to Salisbury/Stonehenge, look at buying your train ticket through Megabus.com for a great savings.

Whatever you decide, have a great trip!

emily71

I went to Bath for a daytrip and it was a full day for me taking into consideration the train travel time-though the station is right in the heart of of the city. Do see the Roman Baths and I enjoyed the Assembly Rooms. The tourist office offers free walking tours of Bath that were very good, with just a touch of Austen. I think my favorite part was just walking the Georgian backstreets, so many interesting homes!

flanneruk

Stonehenge probably gets more "Oh, is that all there is?" responses from visitors than any other sight in Britain. It's also just about the oldest impressive ancient site anywhere in the world, apart from the Pyramids/Sphinx complex, easily accessible from a major city.

A rushed, quick view of Stonehenge is EXACTLY what most people want: the only real alternative is several days' car-based touring of the entire Salisbury Plain landscape with a highly qualified expert on the area's history and astronomy. Or a full day tour of nearby Avebury as an alternative to Stonehenge: but the truth is, Avebury is far more interesting and accessible but it's less visually impressive and the stones are practically all 20th century concrete recreations of what one eccentric thought were once there. The stones at Stonehenge really were transported 5,000 years ago from 150 miles away - and seeing them for yourself is itself a mind-changing experience.

You'll see more of Bath in a day (or a week) than in a couple of hours, but you'll see a reasonable amount in a couple of hours. It's practically impossible for most visitors to get to Stonehenge without going through Salisbury - and Salisbury Cathedral's external beauty is arguably far more interesting than a proper, lengthy review of its limited resources inside. This isn't St Mark's in Venice or Westminster Abbey: there really isn't that much within for a hurried visitor to miss.

The alternatives to this tour suggested here are all claiming the tour doesn't do justice to something the proposer likes. If you've only got a day, this tour is almost certainly the most efficient use of your time.

Note that, for all the looking down their noses, none of those telling you not to take the tour have any experience of it. Some, indeed, haven't even seen the places they're telling you to avoid.

indy_dad

We visited Bath, Stonehenge and Avebury (as well as Cheddar, Wells, and Glastonbury) over a long weekend if photos help. (Sorry, we didn't make it to Salisbury).

http://ukfrey.blogspot.com/2011/08/bath-stonehenge.html

Some good advice from Flanner above.

mdieri

Thanks everyone for the advice. Since my son isn't as interested in Bath, we will just "do" Salisbury and Stonehenge independently on a day trip using the train from London, or if we can get an early morning inner-circle tour at this point we'll go out the evening before. We don't need a lot of time at each place, but spending so much extra time on a bus to hit all three is not appealing. And I think the train out of London will save a lot of tiresome driving around congested central London.

jamikins

Also check out the the day trips on www.walks.com they do affordable tours with two walks during the day with a guide!

colleen61

We took the London walks tour of Salisbury and Stonehenge and really enjoyed it. It was a full day so I can't imagine adding on Bath as well without feeling really rushed.

mdieri

Thanks for the info on walks.com They have limited dates in Feb none of which work for us, but the Harry Potter and Ghost walks in London look great!