Anyone know the contact email for Vic's Taxi? I found Vic's Taxi recommended on here for Stonehenge & Salisbury transport & tours. However, when I go to the site & click on the email link, I get a program that my PC will not accept, so I can't contact them.

I contacted MadMax; no word yet.

I contacted Golden Tours, but the website schedule has a gap from 10/8-11/8/2008; no word yet.

Also aware of LondonWalks. But we want more than they offer.

We will be in London & the dates we have available for a day trip are 11/3 & 11/4/2008; 3 adults. We want Salisbury Cathedral, Roman Baths in Bath, & Stonehenge.

I went over the old posts on here & do not quite understand taking public transport on our own. But I copied the data to my Word Doc, so hopefully after studying it all, I'll be able to figure it out, in case we can't find a guided tour with transport.

Is this the way it goes -
1. train from London (forget which tube) to Salisbury.
2. train to Bath
3. HoHo tour bus to Stonehenge
4. train to Salisbury
5. train to London

Thanks, Julie

Sorry,hit the wrong button; didn't finish thread title! New pc - ughhhh!

The "HOHO" bus to Stonehenge is officially called the Stonehenge Tour. It departs from Salisbury, not Bath.

From London to Salisbury, you'll need to depart from London's Paddington station. The train company is First GreatWestern, it is not operated by the "tube".

This is what I did in May 2008:
Day 1 - early train from London to Bath. Store luggage at the Bath backpackers hostel (as there are no lockers at the train station). Tour Bath. Retrieve luggage in late afternoon and take train from Bath to Salisbury.

Day 2 - Take the Stonehenge tour from Salisbury to Stonehenge. Afternoon visit Wilton House.

Day 3 - visit Salisbury Cathedral in morning, return to London in afternoon.

If you only have 2 days, you can certainly visit Salisbury Cathedral in the afternoon of day 2, then head back to London in the evening.

Yahoo! Thank you so much, yk. You saved me hours of pouring over all of that voluminous data I copied! Your route appears fairly easy.

I also wrote my post confusingly! We only have time for a 1 day trip. The 2 dates I gave are either/or options. We can go only on one of those 2 days.

Have been reading posts about folks wanting more time in Bath. Is it possible to go from Bath to Stonehenge, or is that only feasible from Salisbury? Thought we could cut out Salisbury to allow more time in Bath & not make such a hectic day.

Do you have a cost estimate on the total transport? Wonder how it compares to getting a private car/driver/guide?

Thanks so much for your help.

Julie

I don't think it's possible to do it in one day using public transportation; so your choices are either:

take a tour
or
rent a car and tour on your own

For train schedule and prices, go to nationalrail.co.uk. Train prices vary a great deal, with advance purchase tickets the cheapest.

The Stonehenge tour website has schedule and prices.

If you rent a car for the day, you can see/do whatever you want for as long as you want.

On a guided tour - you will see a lot but on a fairly rushed itinerary.

But by public transport - the logistics of London to Bath to Stonehenge to London via either Salisbury or Bath would be just tooooo crazy making.

Hi Julie - Public transport between Bath and Stonehenge is slow.

How many of you are there? With your planned itinerary it would almost certainly be more cost-effective to hire a car and drive yourselves.

Alternatively you could spend the morning in Bath, then join the afternoon tour bus from Bath to Stonehenge - then leave the tour at Stonehenge and continue to Salisbury and back to London by public transport.

Steve

to all posters YK has inadvertently posted incorrect information.....
The train from London to Salisbury runs from the London terminus Waterloo not Paddington and the service is not run by First Great Western.
http://ojp.nationalrail.co.uk/en/pj/jp
http://www.stonehenge.co.uk/arrive.htm#5
http://www.thestonehengetour.info/

Thanks everyone for your responses. We are considering several options, one of which is:
(1)a.m. London train to Bath
(2)tour Bath on our own in a.m. (like that idea) & have lunch on own
(3)MadMax afternoon tour to Stonehenge & back to Bath
(4)Bath train to London
Note: I understand that we are eliminating Salisbury for this trip, which is acceptable to us since it gives us on-our-own time in Bath, plus Stonehenge. Leaves Salisbury for next time!

What do you folks think of that plan? Is there a 'catch' I don't see?

I assume that if it is pouring down rain and/or cold in Bath, there are enough inside sites to keep us interested for 1/2 day - right? (Realize on this tour plan I need to research Bath activities & will do so, just haven't done yet.)

BTW, just for future info to those wanting to get from 'here to there'! Got an email from MadMax Tours & he said could -
(1)train from London to Bath,
(2)take MadMax morning or afternoon tour to Stonehenge & tour Bath on own, and then
(3)take "the public bus" from Stonehenge to Salisbury, & then
(4)train from Salisbury to London.

Don't plan to do this because as mentioned on here - too much in 1 day. But according to him this is a possible route to see all 3, or to stay overnite in Salisbury for a 2 day tour. Don't know anything about the 'public' bus he mentions. Suppose it could be yk's Stonehenge Tour bus.

We are still considering a guided bus tour from London of Salisbury, Stonehenge, & Bath. Eliminates public transport, includes all 3 places, but also eliminates our own time in Bath. Have emails out to those companies.

Will have to decide what we want, but so great to have Fodorites give us so much info on many options.

Thanks again, Julie

The problem w/ mad max' Salisbury plan is the buses from Stonehenge to Salisbury are not that frequent and even if you caught one immediately after leaving the stones, Salisbury Cathedral and many shops will likely be closed for the day.

Yes - you can do Bath in the AM and Mad Max in the afternoon. It will be very rushed though. You will spend more time on Max' bus than you will at Stonehenge and almost as much time as you'd have to explore Bath.

If it was me - I'd just do Bath as a day trip. Especially if you plan on seeing Salisbury on another trip - Salisbury/Stonehenge is a good/easy day trip.

You can get around by public transport - but it it really isn't quick/efficient unless you are talking about the rail corridors like London/Bath, London/Salisbury, London/Cardiff etc. But to jaunt around the countryside by bus is not all that easy.

Julie - Besides Mad Max, consider Scarper Tours - they get excellent reviews.

http://www.scarpertours.com/

I often pass them (- I live near Bath) - and I know they take a scenic route out of Bath.

You'd need to leave London early to get a full morning and early lunch in Bath before Stonehenge.

Steve

janisj, I've seen from your posts that you obviously know the UK (maybe you live there?). Anyway, your above post confused me (not hard to do!). From what you said, I must be missing something like time frames, transport times, etc?

Please advise me as to why the following will not work or would be too much hassle. I'm the family planner & I don't want to lead my DH & DS astray! What they want is to tour the Roman Baths et al, & see Stonehenge & take the audio tour. I would like time in Bath to walk around some.

7:00 - train from London to Bath (can leave earlier if want more time in Bath, but no good to get there too much before places open).

8:30 - arrive Bath (per online schedule takes 1 1/2 hour)

8:45 - 12:45 - tour Bath & lunch

13:00 - board tour bus to Stonehenge

16:00 - tour bus return to Bath; walk to train station & catch next train to London (runs at least every 30 minutes).

Realize this is not giving enough quality time to these 2 places, but for this trip, it is all the time we have.

What do you think?

Thanks, Julie

Steve, thanks for the Scarper info. Looks better than MadMax. I'll see what janisj says about our plan & go from there.

Julie

Hi Julie -

I think you new itin is doable. It'll be a very long day, as long as you're aware of that fact.

When you arrive in Bath, go visit the Roman Baths first (opens at 9). It is huge and the audioguide goes on and on... it'll take at least 2 hours to visit.

After Roman Baths, head next door for the Bath Abbey. You'll probably will have a little time for a quick to-go lunch before your Stonehenge tour in the afternoon.

JAgain: My >>The problem w/ mad max' Salisbury plan . . . . . . << comment was in response to your post:

&quot;<i>Got an email from MadMax Tours &amp; he said could -
(1)train from London to Bath,
(2)take MadMax morning or afternoon tour to Stonehenge &amp; tour Bath on own, and then
(3)take &quot;the public bus&quot; from Stonehenge to Salisbury, &amp; then
(4)train from Salisbury to London.</i>&quot;

Not that you couldn't do Bath and then Stonehenge w/ Mad Max. But that his e-mail suggestion has a major flaw.

DH and I have used &quot;Evan Evans&quot; tours to see Stonehenge,Winchester and Bath for a daytrip from London. It was fine and they will even pick you up at your hotel.I believe we actually booked it online.

Thanks, yk, especially for the suggestion of the Bath sites.

And thanks janisj, now I understand what you were referring to.

letsgo39, thanks for your suggestion. I did check out Evan Evans. However, after changing our minds several times (!), we decided to focus on only Bath &amp; Stonehenge so we can see more of Bath. Also, taking the train allows us the option to not go without losing our money, if the weather is horrible or we are not feeling well!

So, with lots of help from Fodorites, looks like we will take the train to Bath &amp; take the Scarper Tour of Stonehenge.

If anyone comes back to this thread, I do have a train question. Is the price stable so we don't have to buy until arrive at the station, or does the price go up dramatically if not purchased in advance?

Thanks again everyone.

Julie

When I planned my trip back in May, i found that buying my ticket in advance allowed me to take advantage of the cheapest price, which was less than 10 pounds. My understanding is even if you buy the cheap-day return at the station, it'll be substantially more expensive.

Go to www.nationalrail.co.uk for schedule and prices. You want london Paddington as the station.

Hi, Julie--
Below is a segment (and a segment within a segment) of a report I posted last year. It gives you info not only on Vic's Taxi but also an after hours Stonehenge visit. We loved having the site pretty much to ourselves:

Our taxi deposited us at our B&amp; B, the Paradise House Hotel, at about 11:30 AM, and I see now that we were on the threshold of establishing a pattern of tagging up at our main lodging place only to move quickly from there to an area removed from that for our first day’s visit. In Edinburgh, for example, we checked into Gerald’s Place and after a good night’s sleep went immediately to St. Andrews, delaying our Edinburgh exploration until the second day. Same thing with Bath. We checked into the B&amp;B, dropped off our luggage, and went immediately to the train station for our trip from Bath to Salisbury. We had arranged for a 2:00 meeting with Vic of Vic’s Taxi, a referral I got from Green Dragon here on the message boards, to be our driver/guide through the Wiltshire area. This was to be a Wiltshire/Stonehenge day, and Vic would give us access.

You can contact Vic at vicstaxi.com. You will find him responsive and upbeat, and quick to answer your emails. He has a very engaging writing style, and after an email or two you will feel like he’s a friend. We were looking forward to having him as our guide. A last minute scheduling problem, however, didn’t allow for this, but he made sure that we were taken care of and sent a trusted colleague to tour us instead.

Our main objective in arranging the Wiltshire trip was to see Stonehenge in the way it ought to be seen–close up instead of on a path hundreds of feet away behind a rope, passing by for a quick look along with hoards of other people. What a difference there is in being able to wander at will between and among the stones and being held at bay behind ropes, which is the norm now for the general public. I appreciated this difference during a visit in 1995 when the group I was with was herded past the stones behind the ropes thing. I thought, “What a waste”, since I was remembering an earlier visit in 1969 when free access had still been possible. That 1969 visit was unbelievably exciting for me. I had read Thomas Hardy’s Tess of the d’Urbervilles a few years earlier and still carried with me the dramatic final scene of Tess being unjustly pursued by dogs and police across the Salisbury plains until exhausted, she came to the circle of stones and fell upon the altar stone....only to be overtaken.

Anyway, .Gloria had never been to Stonehenge before and very much wanted to see it, so we decided that if we were going to spend valuable time in getting there, we would do it justice. There is the possibility of before/after hours tours. Sunrise/sunset access by special arrangement through the English Heritage organization. Below is a copy from the information I posted on another thread, for those interested.

Author: 1. Bo2642
Date: 05/25/2007, 04:00 pm
We recently made an &quot;after hours&quot; private access visit to Stonehenge. Early morning &quot;before hours&quot; visits are possible, too. You have to book ahead. We were told several weeks lead time would be required, but we got our booking just a little over two weeks before our visit. Contact [email protected] for the booking. The entry fee for this was 12 pounds each person, and there were not more than 20 of us at the site. We were allowed an hour there, and unlike the day visits where visitors must remain a distance away behind the ropes, we were free to wander among the stones at will. There was no guided tour per se. You must do your own homework to get the most out of the experience.

At any rate, we arranged with Vic to meet us in Salisbury at 2:00, have a tour of the area, including Old Sarnum and Avebury (thanks, alanRow for the on-going heads-up on this amazing place) along with the general countryside which also included passing by Sting’s home, for those young enough to be taken by this. There was also time for a pub dinner in a local village, and then we were taken to Stonehenge for the 7:45 Stone Circle Access, arranged through English Heritage. This was an incredible experience. No more than 20 persons were on site, and we had full opportunity to wander among the stones and view and touch and photograph them at will. It was at sunset with all the drama of the setting sun shining directly on and through the stones!! A day well spent. At least for us. And at the end of it, we were happy in the knowledge that we would leave this special place, be returned by our taxi, which had been waiting, to the Salisbury train station for our waiting, wonderful B&amp;B for a good night’s sleep and the prospect of getting to explore Bath the next day.