Best tours for day trips from London

Pat Shelley's tour of Salisbury and Stonehenge is getting top ranking on TripAdvisor.

Have a look at the London Walks website, they do day trips from London. www.walks.com.

They do a day trip to Bath, which goes once a week in summer and on other occasional days. They also do a day trip to Salisbury and Stonehenge, again once a week in summer and on a few other random days. They use the train to get there, in the case of these 2 trips you would start at Paddington. You don't book, so can change your mind without penalty.

I have done a few of their day trips and they are always well organised + with a blue badge guide. I haven't got round to doing the Bath day trip yet but did the Salisbury and Stonehenge trip a few years ago. Was my first time to both places, underwhelmed by Stonehenge.

Katy

It's quite feasible to visit Bath on your own, also. Easy train ride, very walkable.

Thank you for all the suggestions you guys! Am looking into all these right away. Though we really would like to do Stonehenge and Bath in the same day, splitting them up and doing Bath by ourselves also sounds like a wonderful idea. Thanks Insbig for the brilliant idea!

Train
07:50 London Waterloo
09:20 Salisbury

The Stonehenge Tour Bus http://www.thestonehengetour.info/route
09:30 Salisbury Station
10:03 Stonehenge
http://www.english-heritage.org.uk/visit/places/stonehenge/plan-your-visit/

The Stonehenge Tour Bus
11:13 Stonehenge
11:40 Salisbury New Canal (for Cathedral)

Train
12:40 Salisbury
13:34 Bath

Train
17:13 Bath
19:16 London Paddington

We did the Mad Max tour of Stonehenge and loved it You got to see so much and were at Stonehenge before the crowds. If ne were to go around 11am, it might be too crowded. The area around Stonehenge has so much history around it that I enjoyed having a guide do the driving as well as describe all the different areas. It is an entire day tour. I also enjoyed seeing the Roman Bath Spas. My son and I did this the day after Mad Max. We spent about two hours at the spas.

Did Evan Evans for that exact day trip: Windsor Castle, Bath and Stonehenge. Super. Why rent a car or figure out train schedules. Sit back in comfort, have someone providing informative and humorous commentary and enjoy your day!

I have visited Bath twice, first time on my own by train. Second time about 5 years later I did a bus tour to Salisbury , Bath and Stonehenge.

I was very glad I did Bath on my own first because the tour gave us a very short time to visit it.. barely got through the actual Baths again before we had to meet the bus.. maybe an extra 15 minutes to wander some streets nearby.. and I knew from my previous visit I was missing a lot.

If possible I would choose to do Bath on your own. Its a wonderful walkable town, the Baths are interesting.. don't want to rush through them, then there was a very interesting Fashion museum,, loved seeing all the old dresses etc, I didn't get into the Jane Austen museum, but it would be on my list next time.. and of course you have to stop and have tea and walking along The Royal Cresent.. and the Cresent.. ( so many movie scenes have been filmed there, you will recognize them )

I am sorry to say.. I was not overwhelmed by Stonehenge.. but then some folks are.. depends on what you expect.

I think you should visit TripAdvisor, Base on review and price, you will able to find a umber of option.

My husband and I used Evan Evans for numerous tours within London and outside London. I agree with the previous suggestion - the company is well organized and offers very informative tours.

The same fellow, Richard, who led our London Walks day trip to the Cotswolds leads their trip to Bath, and he was wonderful. If they have a date that coincides with your visit, I'd encourage you to go that way.

Go to the London Walks site as someone linked above, then Schedule, then on the left-hand side there's a link for Stonehenge, Oxford, Cotswolds - follow that link and see their descriptions of their Stonehenge and Bath trips and what dates they're offered for the fall.

p.s. you can definitely do Bath on your own, I don't mean to say that you can't (I did, and thoroughly enjoyed it). But of course you always learn more -- and see more -- with a guide. They always open my eyes to things I wouldn't even have noticed, much less thought to ask about.

Thank you everyone for your replies and suggestions! Hope you're all havin' a lovely summer :)

Yet another Bath suggestion - found this free audio tour of Jane Austen's Bath http://channels.visitbath.co.uk/janeausten/things-to-do. (Also, if you have not yet read 'Northanger Abbey' or 'Persuasion', now's the time!)