Tour Recomendations for Bath and Stonehenge

[bradpole]

Hello,

 

I will be staying in London for 4 days in April and wanted to see Stonehenge and the Roman Baths. I have done a few internet searches and have found many different tour operators offering day trips to Stonehenge and the Roman Baths. Does anyone have any experience with any particular company and tour?

 

Any assistance would be greatly appreciated!

[handfordr]

The main operators running daily tours from London include Evan Evans, Golden Tours (grey Line) and Premium Tours using full sized buses. Nearly all the main tour companies use independent blue badge guides that are not employed by these companies and they flit from one company to the other on a daily basis. They also use pretty much the same coaches so there is little difference.

The template of these companies is 3 main attractions in the day. The most popular being Windsor, Bath & Stonehenge but other permutations include Salisbury or Winchester with Stonehenge & Bath. However these are rushed, you'll get about 45 minutes (all you need) at Stonehenge and about 90 minutes at Bath and Windsor (just enough time to shuffle around the Roman Baths and Castle).

 

Anderson tours use similar/same buses and guides and are cheaper and there is a tour that just visits Stonehenge and Bath, giving you more time in Bath. The crowd on these tend to be more youthful but the product is a simialr standard.

 

Astral Tours went out of business in November, these operated 16 seater minbuses with driver guides that got you into the country lanes and in my view they were the best day tour option. The only reason I say this is another company is going to put on similar tours this year with ex Astral staff.

 

If you've got the time International Friends do a 2 day tour each weekend that covers Bath, Stonehenge and Cotswolds in depth with an overnight near Bath. This again is a small 16 seat bus that goes down the country lanes and visits villages the big buses cannot reach.