Hi, I am trying to figure out if I should use a combination of a train/taxi or just rent a car to get to Stonehenge from Bath, and if so, should I stay somewhere closer to Stonehenge that night or go back to Bath. I have tickets to a 20:00-21:00 inner circle tour this August. We are going to be coming from Bath, where we are staying the night before. Many busses stop transport to Stonehenge by this late in the evening, so we could take a train to Salisbury then taxi the rest of the way to the Stonehenge visitor center, or we could start our car rental a day early and just drive down. If we drive down and are planning on leaving Bath the next morning anyway, should we just stay the night close to Stonehenge and not go back to Bath? It sounds like starting the car rental early might be less stressful and possible cheaper than using at taxi both ways to the Salisbury train station. This is a trip with three people. Thanks for your advice.
Posted by
Isle of Skye, Scotland
1375 posts
I saw a post a few days ago where isn31c (a very reliable contributor to these forums) estimated the cost of a taxi between Salisbury and Stonehenge at £50. It would make for a very late night if you travelled back to Bath, the last train from Salisbury is around 11pm and gets to Bath just after midnight. Add to that the price of the train tickets from Bath to Salisbury and it would appear sensible to simply travel by rental car.
In terms of where you should sleep it depends where you are going next after Stonehenge and Bath. It will take about 1 hour 20 minutes to drive from Bath to Stonehenge. You could stay in Amesbury, which is the nearest place to the stones. It's a small town/large village with B&Bs etc. There is also a Travelodge very close to Stonehenge on the edge of Amesbury and a Holiday Inn nearby too. Both are on the A303 road.
Posted by
OP
2 posts
Thank you, this is very helpful.
Posted by
146 posts
You will have a wonderful time!
We were in this position last May. We already had our car in Bath and so we debated how to get to our late night Inner Circle Tour. We had a romantic notion of viewing the stones while experiencing a magnificent sunset. We were concerned about driving home late at night and decided to take the train to Salisbury, immediately find a cab driver to help us with on how to plan to get to Stonehenge that night, visit Salisbury Cathedral, tour the town, have dinner in town, and continue to Stonehenge for our tour. Dependent on the information our cab driver provided, after the tour, we would either hire him to get us to the train, or to take us all the way back to Bath.
Fast forward to that day, it was blustery, drizzly and overcast. Viewing a gorgeous sunset was not going to happen. We had learned that the bus from the Salisbury train station to Stonehenge only operated during regular Stonehenge hours, so the early and late night Inner Circle Tours, were not covered for transportation. We also knew that the Visitor's Center and the Museum were closed after regular hours. This also meant that no bathroom facilities would be available. This concerned my husband and we decided to head to Salisbury, after lunch, in our car. Parking was easy and we enjoyed the town and the Cathedral. We drove to Stonehenge and they had a huge parking lot. They honored our Inner Circle Tour tickets for use for general admission, but there was no refund for the difference in price, which we didn't expect. We enjoyed our visit, it was always on my husband's bucket list. He did comment that he would not have wanted to be there later at night, in even colder, windier weather and we really enjoyed the museum and the bathroom. He also said he would have been very uncomfortable driving home in the dark, since some of the roads were very narrow.
Depending on where you are heading to next, I would consider staying in Salisbury that night. Then your hotel can help you find a driver to and from your tour, enjoy!
Posted by
Isle of Skye, Scotland
1375 posts
Yes the roads are narrow between Stonehenge and Salisbury but only the back roads! All British roads (except our motorways) are narrow compared to American roads as we don't routinely have a 'shoulder'. However, the A303 which passes very close to Stonehenge and passes the edge of Amesbury is a wide road. If you stay in either the Holiday Inn or the Travelodge on the edge of Amesbury you will have no narrow roads to negotiate in the dark and you are less than 10 minutes by car from the stones. (Although I live in Scotland now I was born in Salisbury and lived very close to Stonehenge growing up, so I do know what I'm talking about!).
Posted by
544 posts
We arranged a tour with Celtic Horizons. They picked three of us up in Bath and took us to Avebury, and to our Inner Circle Stonehenge tour and also to the West Kennet Longbarrow.
We are so glad we did it this way and did not try to drive.