Stonehenge / windsor castle tour

[LINDAE3213]

Hi!  Taking adult nephew on 1st trip....on his list is stonehenge/windsor castle.   I've seen both but it's been 40 years since.  Found an 11 hour tour...yes I know it will be longgg day..similar to our grand canyon tour via vegas...mostly drive time.  Anyone been recently?  Pro/con on tour companies...thanks.

[John Bull]

There's a number of established & respected coach operators offering this itinerary as a day-trip from central London - Evan Evans, Golden Tours, Premium, Kings Ferry, International Friends, to name just a few.

The main choices are Stonehenge alone, or Stonehenge plus Windsor or Stonehenge plus Bath.

 

Windsor alone from central London is very cheap and easy by direct train. Ditto Bath, altho it's a lot further. Stonehenge (plus Salisbury) just a little more complicated - direct train to the historic cathedral city of Salisbury then ho-ho to Stonehenge.

But combining two or more places in one day isn't practical by train.

 

If you are spending time in London pre-cruise - or especially post-cruise - and your cruise is out of Southampton or Dover, there's a much better option.............

International Friends offers cruise passengers a choice of door-to-door tour-transfers between ship and central London hotels or (for Southampton cruises) Heathrow airport. 

The ship-to-London direction is by far the better value since it's not constrained by cruise registration times and consequently tours are more-comprehensive.

Ship > Salisbury  Stonehenge > Windsor > London hotel is one of the options.

https://www.internationalfriends.co.uk/shore-excursions-and-cruise-transfers.html

 

Whatever your transport, buy your Stonehenge tickets with your tour (or Salisbury ho-ho) tickets. 

Numbers at Stonehenge are limited,............

- If you buy tickets from the Stonehenge website you have to quote a half-hour arrival window, if you're late for that time window you'll have to wait for an under-subscribed window.

- If you buy on arrival you risk the same delay.

- But tickets bought from tour operators (and the Salisbury ho-ho and ships' tours) are "admission anytime"

 

JB 🙂

[TouchstoneFeste]

16 minutes ago, John Bull said:

But tickets bought from tour operators (and the Salisbury ho-ho and ships' tours) are "admission anytime"

To really blow your nephew's mind, look into an "inner circle" tour of Stonehenge. Seeing it from the outside is amazing. Seeing it up close is ... beyond amazing.

[LINDAE3213]

Thanks for info..we are not cruising  pre or post  just visiting london..but I have found this board responsive to questions...been pending admission on another site for several days now...so can't ask questions there.   I am aware if we do both in 1 day via tour it will be overview trips to both  not comprehensive but my thought is some is better than none.  Nephew can always come back on other trip.

[LINDAE3213]

1 minute ago, TouchstoneFeste said:

To really blow your nephew's mind, look into an "inner circle" tour of Stonehenge. Seeing it from the outside is amazing. Seeing it up close is ... beyond amazing.

Will do!  We are not going til end July...i was there in 1980's with high school trip via the travel club...we found cabbage patch dolls to bring home...such fond memories of being a teenager on my 1st trip...nephew is 28 but I think he will enjoy london and any little surprises will be delightful.  

[BuckeyeMark]

Did International Friends from Southampton to Bath and Windsor, drop off at our hotel in London. Big win. Well done and very professional.  A good day.

[thehowlingroad]

If you have the time for, I would recommend separating Windsor and Stonehenge. We did the International Friends tour mentioned above, and found it unbalanced-- too much time at Stonehenge and not enough at Windsor. It was convenient for us, coming back from Southampton port, but if you don't need the transfers, then consider looking for a Stonehenge-specific tour, or one of the specialty tours that allow for inside-the-henge viewing, and then doing Windsor on your own. The town outside the castle is a lot of fun to wander, but the combined tour will give you the option of the castle or the town, but not enough time for both.

 

We also did Bath on our own on our last trip to London and it was very easy-- 90 min one-way train from Paddington Station.

[LINDAE3213]

25 minutes ago, thehowlingroad said:

If you have the time for, I would recommend separating Windsor and Stonehenge. We did the International Friends tour mentioned above, and found it unbalanced-- too much time at Stonehenge and not enough at Windsor. It was convenient for us, coming back from Southampton port, but if you don't need the transfers, then consider looking for a Stonehenge-specific tour, or one of the specialty tours that allow for inside-the-henge viewing, and then doing Windsor on your own. The town outside the castle is a lot of fun to wander, but the combined tour will give you the option of the castle or the town, but not enough time for both.

 

We also did Bath on our own on our last trip to London and it was very easy-- 90 min one-way train from Paddington Station.

Understood...still looking at every option...trying to lay out the daily itinerary....have to get nephew to put his wish list in priority order.