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Salisbury/Stonehenge Question

Posted by (Wisconsin ) on

Hi All,

I've had to modify my trip slightly to accomodate our desire for the inner circle experience at Stonehenge. The only time during our stay was the day after we intended to leave London. The original plan was to take the train to Oxford, pick up our car, drive to Cotswolds for 4 nights and day trip to Stonehenge but now we would have to be at Stonehenge the next morning at 8 AM. Our new plan is to take the train to Salisbury, pick up the car and have the 20 minute drive in the moring. We'll have to save Oxford for another trip. It will be my husband, 10 YR son, 8 YO daughter and me.

I've heard how wonderful the visitor's center is. Obviously with our 8 AM entry, we won't be able the visit prior to our inner circle experience. Would you try to go the evening before? I am planning to have my kids watch a few documentaries about Stonehenge before we go to get them excited.

If we can't go, is it worth hanging out for the visitor's center to open and visiting after? I'm thinking yes if it was just my husband and me, but the kids will be ready to move on.

Now that we've interrutpted our long stay in the Cotswolds, I'm tempted to head to Bath for an overnight after we leave Salisbury. Then do two nights in the Cotswolds. We had intended to do Bath as a day trip to limit the number of hotel changes.

Here's the current itinerary

London - 5 nights (day trips for Harry Potter Studio and Windsor)

Salisbury - 1 night

Stow on the Wold - 3 nights (day trip to Bath)

York - 2 nights

Edinburgh - 4 nights

Thanks for all your feedback!

Posted by
13952 posts

The Visitor Center is excellent but what the kids may enjoy are the outdoor exhibits with recreated huts, and maybe a big stone on rollers showing how they may have moved them. I am having a memory blank on the stone, lol!! They may be accessible before the exhibit rooms are open. There is a nice cafe in case anyone needs reviving and it’s open. I would not spend the time to go there the night before. It’s good but to me not THAT good.

If you can, walk back from the stones by going over to the tumuli and then to the Cursus and then back to the center.

Hopefully you can get to Salisbury early enough to get into the cathedral and the Chapter House where Magna Carta is. The carvings in the Chapter House are low enough that the kids can easily see them. There is one guy who has a drooping face which looks like Bells Palsy. That’s interesting to me because it means the stone carvers were carving depictions of real folks or fictional accounts, lol.

Posted by
1819 posts

Regulations may have changed but when we did an early morning inner-circle access tour our tickets were good for re-entry to the visitor center and the regular path around the circle. If that is still the case, you could go into Salisbury for a bit, then return to Stonehenge before heading to Stow.

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