Recommendations on Bath/Stonehenge trip/excursion

We once did a daytrip to Bath by train, but it didn’t include Stonehenge. If you want to see both, a tour might be the way to go.

Actually, I’ve read that Rick Steves suggests that Avebury is a better sight than Stonehenge, if you were picking just one. Maybe there’s a tour that includes Bath, plus both Stonehenge and Avebury??? Unfortunately, I can’t offer any such tour company.

How many nights are you in London? I'm asking because to me the tours from London that I have seen sometimes include Windsor which is WAY too much to do in one day.

You can easily do either Stonehenge or Bath by public transport but it would be difficult to me to do them in one day. You can take a train to Salisbury and at the station there is a stop for the shuttle bus to Stonehenge. It's called The Stonehenge Tour and it's run by the local Red Bus company. It makes a loop out to the stones, back via Old Sarum and then stops in the city center of Salisbury as well as back at the train station. If you get off at the city center you can also go see the fabulous Salisbury Cathedral. No need to book ahead.

Bath is an easy day trip from London although I prefer to spend the night or several nights, lol as I find lots to see there

You can take a train between Salisbury and Bath (about an hour's ride) but that doesn't leave you much time to see Bath before you took a train back to London for the night.

I've been to Avebury and Stonehenge each a number of times. Honestly, I love Stonehenge. No, I don't believe in mystical powers but it does make me ponder the stone circle, the burial cairns that are in the distance from it plus the other ancient monuments like the Cursus that are nearby. Avebury is much bigger but to me you lose some of the magnificence with the size plus the village built in the middle of it. BOTH are very interesting but to me Stonehenge is just so iconic.....

Several companies offer tours to Stonehenge and Bath but these are all very long days - 10-12 hours - and a lot of that will be sitting in a coach .They are also expensive - well over £100 if admission to Stonehenge and the Roman Baths is included.

As Pam has pointed out, both can easily be done independently but not in a single day.

We will be in London for 7 nights.
I am also considering doing this as 2 individual day trips, one to Bath and one to SH, but that will eat away a lot of our time from the City.
So that is the main reason why I was trying to see how to combine the two.
Also multiple train tickets and transfers add up quickly and make tour prices seem reasonable...

I think that the disadvantage of a day tour to Stonehenge has to be that you will arrive just about the time as all the other tour groups. It is a large enough place for many people, but every view of the stones will contain people at the busiest times of the day.

I went on a RS tour and they timed it so we were there for the first shuttle bus out to the stones that day. We were able to walk around and get some great views and photos before the masses arrived. By the time we left about 2 hours later, there were many, many people and buses.

Unlike Pam, this is not a place I would go unless it was part of something else I was doing. Are the stones impressive? Yes, but I would not go too far out of my way to view them. I guess it is all a matter of personal taste and interest.

You COULD catch the 0750 train out of Waterloo, arrive Salisbury 0920, the first bus up at 1000, spend 1 hour at Stonehenge, stop at Old Sarum on the way back for an hour, arrive Salisbury 1243

Train £19.90 each advance fare, bus + Stonehenge entry £26

Train depart Salisbury 1342, Bath arrive 1436 £5 advance fare

Baths Admittance £20.50

Early evening train back £23- train specific advance fare.

Total £94.

Whether that is a good idea is a matter of debate. It is almost as rushed as a bus tour and misses out as much, but it can be done, in principal.

Thanks for such detailed replies!
I am now thinking of going to Bath for a day and leaving SH for the next trip.
It sounds like doing it all in one day would be a major hassle!

I think that sounds like a good plan. It is SO hard with your first trip (or second or third or tenth, hahaha!!) to distill your wish list to a "possible to see and do in a reasonable time frame" list, lol. I do recommend you start a to-do list for your NEXT trip! As you research more you'll find lots of things that look really interesting!

I have an ongoing roll-over from trip to trip list for both London and Paris.

BTW, to me Bath is fabulous. I enjoy the Roman Baths, the museum called #1 Royal Crescent, the Holburne Museum if there is an interesting exhibition on plus Bath Abbey (especially the facade with the angels going up to heaven and down to hell), viewing the Royal Crescent and the Circus row houses. On one visit when I had several days there I walked up to Priory Park which has a Palladian garden bridge that is of note. I've also been to the nearby American Museum but wouldn't recommend that for a first visit. If one of you is a Jane Austen fan there are a number of sites in town that feature in her books. I do not recommend the Jane Austen Centre - she didn't live there, they have nothing original and I found it to be pretty boring. Someone recently did the Herschel Museum of Astronomy which is on my list for next time, lol.

Awesome, thanks! Could you perhaps share your list for London and Paris, we are actually doing both this April/May.
So ideas would be very welcome.

Your to-do lists for a first visit may be different from my lists, having visited both many times since my first visits in the early 70’s. You may also not be as museum/church heavy as my trips either.

These are some of the things I suggest to friends and family for first visits depending on your interests:

London:
- Westminster Abbey
- Churchill War Rooms
- Tower of London
- A London Walks walk, lol
- National Gallery
- Tate Britain art Gallery
- A play
- St Pauls
- A walk thru some of the little alleyways between Tower of London and St Pauls
- Imperial War Museum
- Windsor Castle
- Hampton Court Palace
- Kew Gardens
- Bletchley Park (day trip to the place where the Enigma Machine was decoded)
- Queens Gallery (if there is an exhibition of interest)
- Greenwich (day trip))

Paris:
- Louvre
- the Orsay
- Orangerie
- Cluny Museum
- Saint Sulpice
- Basilica of Saint-Denis
- Eiffel Tower
- Carnavalet Museum
- Luxembourg Gardens
- Tuileries Gardens
- Jardin des Plantes
- Abbey of Saint-Germain-des-Pres
- Marmottan Museum (Monet)

There may be other things that interest you more!

Many thanks! Sounds great.
And museums and churches are my thing!
I have been to London before, but first trip for my daughter.

A follow up question to that list, which ones of the attractions makes sense to do on weekend?
We gonna have a week in London, so I want to figure out what is not going to be super crowded on the weekend
Thanks!

While you can scratch the surface of Bath on a day trip, it really needs more time if it can arranged. One possibility is to go to Bath directly from the airport. Spend the rest of that day and night there. Spend most of the next day in Bath before going to London in the late afternoon. Just food for thought. And don't try to do Bath and Stonehenge as day trips in the same day. While logistically possible, you'll not do either justice.

I’ve taken three tours to Stonehenge and Bath from London ( different times with different travel companions). One also included Windsor Castle. That one was a long day for sure. I enjoyed each tour though I left the tour and friends at Windsor due to a migraine headache. I took the train back to London and went to bed.
Take a look at Evan Evans and Viator tours and see if their tour options work for you if you don’t want to do it on your own.