Stonehenge

Bren, please be aware that many many places in London and elsewhere in the UK, will shut down tighter than a drum around Christmas. You are wise to pose this question, and though I'm sure you'll get helpful feedback here, please research this very carefully for yourself and make definite plans well ahead of time. It's not just Dec. 25th that's a holiday. The next day, Boxing Day, is also observed - a bank holiday, equivalent to a federal holiday in the US. I'm sure that with planning you can enjoy the holiday season there, but do not assume that public venues and businesses - including transportation providers - will be operating as usual for all of that period.

As the previous poster noted London quiets down for the Christmas Holiday. You need to consider that sites will start to close early on the 24rd and stay closed until the 27th. There will be after Christmas sales even on Boxing Day but if you want to shop in Harrods, won't be happening. If your husband and son love sports try Lillywhites at Piccadilly Circus. My better half loves their after Xmas sale. He knows has to leave room in his carry on for the rugby and soccer shirts he buys and packs accordingly. As far as Stonehenge you could take a half day bus tour or when trains are back in operation take the train to Salisbury, then a bus to explore Stonehenge, then train back to London. Personally if you are on a tight budget I'd save this excursion for another trip and better weather.

Stonehenge is closed on Christmas Eve and Christmas Day but is open Boxing Day - although what travel arrangements might be possible on that day is another matter. Trains to Bath should run a near normal timetable except for 24-26 Dec; there will be an early run down on 24th and no services on 25-26 Dec. I would advise booking well in advance for the pre-Christmas period - indeed it may already be too late for the cheapest advance tickets.

Hi Bren,
I, too, prefer to explore on my own, but I decided on one of my trips through England that I'd just suck it up and go on a tour that included Stonehenge as it seemed the simplest way. It turned out to be a wonderful surprise. It was a small tour group in a van rather than a large bus, and we were given plenty of time to explore on our own once at the various destinations. So my biggest fear, feeling like I was being herded around like cattle, was unfounded. I went on the "Stones and Bones" tour which included Avebury (another stone circle), Old Serum, Stonehenge, and Salisbury Cathedral. All were well worth a visit. Many people say they are disappointed by Stonehenge, but I loved it. And Avebury, though less impressive at first glance, is wonderful because you are free to wander among the stones and get a close up look. The tour company I went with is no longer around, but other companies have similar small tour vans with various itineraries and a more personal touch. But still affordable :) Hope you and your family have a great time!

A quick look at London Walks website shows they are running their Stonehenge and Salisbury explorer day on 28th December. walks.com. I have done this day trip with them, it wasn't my favourite, not an issue with London Walks, glad I've been but Stonehenge didn't do it for me. (By contrast, The Winchester Explorer Day, which I see they are doing on the 22nd December I really enjoyed very much. Winchester Cathedral much more interesting inside than Salisbury - you also go to the Castle (round table) and Winchester College (boys public school.)
One issue that I am sure you have thought about is that the week you are in London will be the shortest days - it starts getting gloomy around 3.30pm or so.

Asides from closing on holidays. In May we did a Windsor castle, Salisbury, and Stonehenge on our own without a car. Most tours combine, Windsor, stonehedge, and bath together. They rush the heck out of you and u spend 45 minutes-ish at each site. We didn't like that, and decided to do it ourselves. When doing it ourselves, we couldn't make it out to bath due to the time constrain. But here is a brief description of what we did: We left London on a train to Windsor Castle and got to the castle 20 minutes before it was open. Spent a couple hours there and took a train to Salisbury. I remember changing trains at two different stations to get to Salisbury. At Salisbury, we took the stonehedge tour bus which was quite expensive... I believe 20 quid per person. It took us to stonehedge and Old Sarum. Under 3 hours later we were back at Salisbury and visited the town on our own. It was about 5pm by the time we were done browsing. We were faced with a choice to take the train to Bath or just head back to London. We decided to head back to London. You can easily cut off Windsor and just do stonehedge and Bath. We dropped by King's Cross station couple days before and a ticket guy at the train station helped us with all of our questions and tickets. Even though we missed Bath because we didn't join the tour. But the whole trip was cheaper doing it our own, and we got to spend more time at each sights. Good luck!

I am going to do the same thing next summer. This is how I plan to do it.... 8am train from London to Bath (arrive 9:30am) 10:30am FREE walking tour Roman Baths after walking tour 3:30pm train from Bath to Salsbury (arrive 4:30pm) 5pm take the Stonehenge tour from train station to Stonehenge 7:30pm tour bus back to train station 8:30pm train back to London from Salsbury
***NOTE - double check the walking tours and Stonehenge bus tour because I believe the hours are different in the winter. The only way this do it yourself plan works is with extended hours in the summer. Good luck with winter hours!!

The suggestions to do Stonehenge/Salisbury and possibly Bath on your own by train are very do-able, and you have the advantage of spending as much (or as little) time as you ses fit. You can easily do Windsor as a separate train trip from London- the train journney is relativley short and again, you will probably get back to london in time for some other activity. Doing these tours by train rather than being on the road for hours in a tour bus is so much more pleasant

greetings! i'm mainly here snooping around researching for my next trip, but i saw this thread and thought i'd comment... my husband and i did a day trip to bath/stonehenge in summer of 2010. we took a very early train from london to bath (booked in advance) and a very late train back. we arrived in bath before anyone even woke up (probably around 9am). we walked around, took photos, and checked out the actual baths. we then did an early afternoon small bus tour to stonehenge, which we booked through the TI early that morning. it was...not great. i want to type 'awful' but that's not true. we got to see some beautiful country side on the way and we did get to spend maybe a whole hour at stonehenge. but an hour at stonehenge is almost a 5K run. we fairly jogged from the parking lot to the stones, around the stones, and then back to the bus. we then returned to bath, had a nice meal at a pub, and caught the 8pm train back to london. had i to do it over again (and i may. that's why i'm here researching) at the very least i would have found a way to hire a car and would have driven to stonehenge myself. the roads really aren't that scary (i've seen scarier. bermuda comes to mind). in an ideal situation, i would have spent an overnight in bath. or maybe even two. and still done the car hire thing. however, if the ONLY way you can see both bath and stonehenge from london is to do just what i didthe early train, the van tour, and the late train, then still go for it. bath is one of the loveliest places i've ever been and i'm glad i made it into the countryside and to stonehenge. just know there are better (if more time consuming and expensive) ways to do it. EDIT: i edited this when i remembered that this forum does not allow for the em-dash. my apologies if i missed any corrections.

IF you plan well you could take the train to Bath (day of tickets are VERY expensive- see if you can get advance purchase discounted tickets), see some of Bath in the morning, then take a Madd Maxx tour to Stonehenge from Bath. They leave from near the town center. I'd check the winter schedules though. You won't have alot of daylight (roughly 9:00 am to 3:30 or 4:00 pm) and even the daylight hours can be 'dim' with cloud. Stonehenge is interesting, but I wouldn't put it on my personal must see list. Bath has a wonderful (and large) Christmas market, too, so you could easily fill a full day there.

Bath is an easy train ride from London and you can see the sights on your own. For Stonehenge, take the train to Salisbury and then take a tour bus to Stonehenge. Then enjoy Salisbury after Stonehenge, before going back to the train station. Easy to plan and execute on your own.