Half day Stonehenge tour from Bath

We took the Mad Max tour that included Avebury and a few Cotswold villages. They may have one that just covers Stonehenge. Check them out but book early as they are popular.

If you must see Stonehenge I would book a tour with prebooked admission tickets. I would check to see if you can also visit Salisbury Cathedral. I do see your tour features Avebury where you do get to walk around the stones with the sheep. At Stonehenge you will not get to walk amongst the Stones unless you make special arrangements or buy special tickets, if available. You do get to walk in a circle around it that is several yards away. Bath has a lot going for it including hikes that can take you to great scenic view spots

Two years ago, I did a tour of Salisbury and Stonehenge with The Stonehenge Tour

I spent the first half of the day touring Stonehenge then Salisbury. Afterwards, I spent the afternoon in Bath. I really enjoyed it as it was at my own pace and I felt I was able to see all that I had wanted. You will have to take the train from Bath to Salisbury to catch the bus tour, which is super easy to do.

We hired a driver who picked us up in Bath and drove us to Avebury ( he dropped us off outside of Avebury where we were able to walk between rows of tall stones into Avebury—it was the coolest part of our day) and to a long barrow, and then to an evening tour of Stonehenge where we got to go right up next to the stones. It was called something like a Golden Circle tour at Stonehenge. It worked out well. The driver was with a company named Celtic Horizons, if I remember right.

IF you can't find a tour that meets your needs, this is pretty easy to do yourself.

• Take the train from Bath Spa train station to Salisbury train station. No need to buy tickets ahead of time but do download the app from Great Western Railway and purchase on that the day of or the day before.

• At Salisbury station, the Stonehenge Tour bus makes regular stops. This is not actually a tour but is a bus run by the local bus company, the Salisbury Reds, out to the stones, back via Old Sarum to Salisbury. Get the all in one ticket that includes Stonehenge admission.

https://www.salisburyreds.co.uk/stonehenge-tour?__cf_chl_tk=U5FH6_M8TU612rqL187xGTAzVmY9CgbTYOoRhKaMp_s-1765226013-1.0.1.1-CUa8Z_PVzStw5h06yb05aiF8E48RIkH2.LZSsLM4Y_Q

• Catch the bus back to Salisbury, if you have time visit the Cathedral (not included on the RS Best of England).

This will probably take you at least 3/4 of a day.

For context, I have also taken the Mad Max full day tour of Stonehenge and The Cotswolds. I looked at the website and they are not currently offering anything that includes Stonehenge other than this full day tour. I looked at another Bath local tour company, Lion Tours (ex husband of the owner of Mad Max tours) and he is only offering specialty tours of Stonehenge.

I'm not sure how many nights you have ahead of your Best of England start BUT could you spend 1 or 2 nights in Salisbury to do the Stonehenge tour from the train station or City Centre pick up spot and then head to Bath? The more nights you can do ahead of time the better, lol.

PS - This is a wonderful taster tour...you'll see SO much! IF you are interested in neolithic stones, you'll have another great chance at Keswick to see the Castlerigg Stone Circle. IF the tour doesn't stop there (some do, some don't) the guide can tell you how to get there. I walked up there but there used to be a bus that kind of went by there.

thank you all---these are perfect suggestions to help us plan! -- Alison

Scarper tours from Bath does a half day tour. It was a good option for us several years ago. In April you can do a morning or an afternoon tour. https://www.scarpertours.com/

Regarding Castlerigg there are buses from/to Keswick between 6am and 11pm (at least 2 an hour for most of the day, sometimes 3) which stop at the road end, from where it is a very short walk to the stones. In addition 1 or 2 buses an hour on the way to Windermere stop just round the corner, so as many as 5 buses an hour- not that it is a long walk up from the centre of Keswick.

Years ago there was a minibus which went up the hill and stopped literally outside the stones, but that was not really needed so was stopped. From memory it was the Osprey bus (to visit the Osprey hides).

Rather like Stonehenge the locals are quite happy for all the tourists to go to Castlerigg, as there are around 30 stone circles in Cumbria/the Lake District of which 13 are still substantially complete, and/or relatively easy to reach with your own transport. All the other 12 or so complete/easy to reach ones are always deserted. Many locals would argue that Castlerigg isn't even the best of them.

We did the Scarper Tour in September 2025; I believe it was 65€ per adult. The pickup location was in central Bath (Abbey Hotel); the driver was friendly, courteous and pointed out many facts of interest on the ride to and from Stonehenge. We had a little over 2 hours at Stonehenge which was perfect. Our group of 5 felt overall that it was well worth the $$.

It’s been several years now and I don’t see the gentleman that guided the tour listed anymore but we booked a tour from Salisbury that went in the late afternoon and we entered the inner circle. I highly recommend researching these types of tours because the guide brought the stones to life versus just walking around the outer ring. We also visited Avebury henge where they believe the laborers village was.