Stonehenge Question

The direct route to Salisbury is a 1/2 hour train ride from Waterloo. From there a bus to Stonehenge.

Hopefully someone who has recently visited Stonehenge can answer your questions regarding cost.

Did you research the London Walks website? Believe they do a Stonehenge tour. www.walks.com

I went to Stonehenge last October from London. From my trip report on how we did it:

https://www.thestonehengetour.info/

It involved walking to the Waterloo train station to take a 1.5-hour
train to Salisbury. I had booked us open return train tickets in
advance. There are no seat reservations on this particular train. Then
right outside the Salisbury train station, the bus picked us up and
took us to Stonehenge. The bus ride is not time specific, so you can
take any bus you like. We took the first one at 10 am. The check-in
process was a little slow as it seemed most people had not purchased
tickets ahead of time. (I bought our bus and Stonehenge tickets ahead
of time from the tour website linked above.) The bus dropped us off
near the visitor center where we had to show our tour tickets to get a
Stonehenge ticket. We then took the free shuttle out to the site. We
had a fantastic day!! Blue skies!!!! It was not crowded at all. And
much to my delight, there were sheep all around. I had originally
planned for us to see the Salisbury Cathedral afterwards, but it was a
long day and so we decided to just head back to London.

https://community.ricksteves.com/travel-forum/trip-reports/10-days-in-london-our-first-time-a-trip-report

We had 1st class train tickets. So, not budget friendly. You can buy 2nd class tickets and if you get them ahead of time, I believe they will be cheaper.

Don’t use Omio as that is a third party. In looking at the LNER website, it looks to be about 20 pounds one way per adult.

https://www.lner.co.uk/

We traveled Salisbury to London Waterloo (direct, no changes; one and half hours journey time) in September 2024 and paid approx 10GBP/each for the advance tickets, one way. I use GWR to buy tickets because I already have an account with them. Their app does not work from the US, but the website is fine. Advance tickets are released approx 12 weeks in advance.

Are you going to do more train travel than the return trip to Salisbury? If yes, you may want to see if the two together railcard helps with additional savings.

If you book train specific tickets several weeks in advance it should be £12.60 to £20.90 per adult each way, 2nd class. You could strike lucky and get 1st class for £20.70 each way.
Add on an estimated 5% increase for next year.

So say £150, maybe a bit less for the family.

4 people get groupsave discount so an Off Peak Return for the family - any train after 1020 weekday, any train weekend £158.50. No railcard needed.

Add on the bus and admission currently £143.50 for the family.

I just want to 2nd what Carrie says about NOT using Omio. It’s a 3rd party booking engine and not reliable especially if you have problems.

Book directly with the train company. I don’t think any of the above answers mentioned National Rail website which will direct you to the specific train companies in UK.

https://www.nationalrail.co.uk/

Thank you for all your response. Appreciate it.

Note- on further playing around with the South Western Railway website there is a fares anomaly-
The £158.50 Off Peak Return Group Save fare is correct, but there is an Anytime Day Return Group Save (valid on any train after 0950 weekdays, so half an hour earlier) for £136.55.
Note that groupsave only starts at 0930 on weekdays, so despite this being an Anytime ticket 0950 is the first valid train.
Anytime fares are usually far more expensive than off peak fares, so that is an oddity.
That can even be bought on the day at the station.
With a Family and Friends Railcard (cost £35) the fare is £119.55 - total of £154.55.
So if this is your only rail journey then the £136.55 above is your best fare.

Isn31c - since youve opened up the family and friends railcard, is it worth it for tourist? Can we get discounts on train ride? We’ll be flying from Edinburgh then fly to London via Stansted airport. Plus the Stonehenge train and going to Warner Bros, plus the Heathrow when we get home. I know this is a different topic altogether and insights will be appreciated.

You see that is what tips the scales to Family and Friends.

Stansted to London reduces from £87.50 to £54.70- so a £32.80 saving

Watford Junction most people do by contactless at £14.40 return per adult.

But 3A and 1C off peak return with family and friends is a total of £37.90 using paper/electronic tickets.

If you go to Heathrow on the Elizabeth Line it is per adult is £13.90.

With the railcard, so after 10am weekdays, the family are a total of £34.50, so another £21 saving.

Buy all these tickets beforehand and you've also got the two for one savings at various London attractions as you have arriving and departing national rail tickets.
So double dipping in your savings.

And the railcard can be used for any other trips you decide to do like Windsor or Hampton Court, or St Andrews from Edinburgh.

Thank you. Those are good information, money-wise. I’ll look into it more. Have a nice day.

We went in June and booked rail tickets in April on South Western Railway. London Waterloo to Salisbury round trip for 3 adults an 1 child was $126 USD.

We then added on the Stonehenge bus from the train station that includes Stonehenge admission. That was an additional $206 USD.