Stonehenge and What Else?
 

My husband and 18 year old daughter and I are going to be in London at the end of June to attend Wimbledon. We have a free day that we would like to take a day trip to Stonehenge. Any thoughts on how to set that up before we leave? Any other must-sees along the way?

People often combine Stonehenge with Salisbury. I did both on my first trip to the UK many years ago, and I was just in Salisbury again a couple of weeks ago. Salisbury is a lovely town with a beautiful cathedral. I took the tour of the cathedral's bell tower, it was fantastic.

As for how to set it up, I met one family on my recent trip who had done it by train. I wouldn't buy train tix before you leave, but do get an early start.

I agree with P_M. The tour we took of Salisbury Cathedral was actually much more memorable than Stonehenge!

Bath was my choice to paired up w/Stonehenge and I was extremely pleased with the choice!

We did the Stonehenge-Salisbury combination tour in 2003. Salisbury Cathedral and surrounds are lovely. Just read recently that one of 4 copies of the Magna Carta is on display at the Cathedral. Don't know why we were not aware of this when we were there. Well, just one more reason to go back to England!

Combine Stonehenge with Salisbury & AVEBURY which is much better (and free)

http://www.wdbus.co.uk/htm/ta/sdo-stonehenge.asp

Make sure you get an early start on your train trip to Stonehenge. It is a couple of hours ride. Once you arrive at the train station you will then purchase a ticket for a bus that will take you to Stonehenge. The day we went they had a fire in one of the train stations and it really messed up the train travel. Our easy trip turned into switching trains several times (not the norm) and arriving at the station after the last bus had departed. Thankfully there were taxis outside and we hired one to take us to Stonehenge and then wait for us to complete the tour and take us back to the station. The town of Salisbury is a quaint beautiful town. We did not get to tour the cathederal as we ran out of time.

Enjoy your trip. Stonehenge was really a great trip and very interesting.

I spent 10 days in Salisbury last May with a friend visiting her relatives. The cathedral there is beautiful. It is also a nice little townwith lots of shopping and tea rooms.

Thank you to all who replied to my inquiry. I think we will definitely think about going to Sailsbury on the same trip. This is great information!

If I'm not mistaken, the gardens at Stourhead are not far from the area. They should be beautiful about now.

When I took a day trip to the area, I used a great tour guide (www.vicstaxi.com) who drove us around in a private car (he also has a minivan for larger groups). He is a garralous, pleasant old man, a veteran who has retired to doing tours of the area.

For a total of £100, he took DH and I from Salisbury train station to Avebury Stone Circle, West Kennet Longbarrow, Old Sarum, Salisbury, and a dusk tour (among the stones, inside the ropes) of Stonehenge. I had to fill out an application ahead of time for the special Stonehenge tour, but it was great.

I highly recommend all the above places. I have been to Bath as well, and would recommend that, too, especially if you like shopping :)

Also, if you are interested in this, between Salisbury & Stonehenge are the ruins of Old Sarum, which is where the earliest settlement of Salisbury took place. I found it interesting not only for the ruins & the history, but also for the views from that area - on top of a hill. The history of this settlement goes back about 2000 to 3000 years ago. It is a couple miles outside of Salisbury. Website: http://www.english-heritage.org.uk/oldsarum/

If you are really interested in that area (Old Sarum) read a book called Sarum by Edward Rutherford. It's fiction, but set in history, from the hunter/gatherers to modern day, following a string of characters descended in a line... great stuff!