stonehenge

Refer to the hints on how to perform an effective search for previous threads as this question has been asked before. This way you will see what different opinions there are.

here are prior discussions on this forum of the Stonehenge special access tours

Yes getting inside the stone circle is well worth while, it's an entirely different experience than walking around them, and the sense of scale is overwhelming. Here’s a useful page for either organising it yourself (for not much more than twice the price of ordinary admission) or for finding a guided tour.

http://www.solvingstonehenge.co.uk/page8.html

If you are interested in an escorted tour from London, we really liked Astral Tours. They had small vans that took us to Avebury as well as other early sites. We went into Stonehenge after it closed to regular visitors. They also have an early morning tour. Pick-up and return were at a hotel near Victoria Station. We felt that it was well worth the expense because we were able to hangout with and touch the stones. For us that was a very big deal. Happy Travels!

We are just home from our trip and visited Stonehenge just a few days ago. We both were surprised about all the fuss some people kick up...the views from the restricted areas are absolutely adequate, and you are quite a bit nearer than what you may expect. For us, it was fine. There is an excellent audio guide that comes with admission.

[If you are interested in an escorted tour from London, we really liked Astral Tours.]

Astral went out of business in October 2007

We used Vic of www.vicktaxi.com with wonderful results. Check out his website. He answers all emails promptly.

Its worth noting that for Private Tours with Special Access to Stonehenge you will almost certainly have to deal direct with Stonehenge to obtain an offer of a special access slot. Once you have an offer which includes a place for the guide you can make firm plans.
These are normally sold out about 2 months going forward and the slots are between 05:30 to 08:30 in the morning and 18:30 amd 20:45 in the evenings. Its not far off 2 hours from a London hotel to Stonehenge so as you can see its a very early start or a lte finish.

If this is a trip of a lifetime I would recommend you go for an evening slot and get your guide to take you to Avebury beforehand. Avebury is a much bigger henge than Stonehenge 20 miles away and you can visit also inside Neolithic burial chambers which are older than henges. Its a great 'training camp' for Stonehenge, you'll get a lot more out of Stonehenge if you visit Avebury prior.

Hi all! thanks to this thread I managed to snag tickets for my husband and I for an innner circle tour. The downside is that the only available tickets for were a 6:15 am tour. We are staying in London and were going to take the train down for a normal tour but since this is so much earlier than when we would leave for a normal tour I wanted to seek some advice. Any tips/advice on organizing travel from London to Stonehenge for this morning tour.

Why not stay overnight in Bath? I bet you could get a taxi to take you out for the early access.

We had only planned to do a part day at stonehenge we were never staying in Bath or salsbury so we already have hotel set up for London for the night before and other sites. So I really just need any advice on getting from London to there in the morning.

Gena: I don't think it's feasible: sleep in London the night before and yet reach Stonehenge by public transport in time for a 6:15am tour.

I say that based on this January 2009 post from Bob of London, which was a reply to someone trying to get there by 8:00am, and his answer was: can't be done (see the boldface below for the reason).

"It sounds like you've got special access tickets to Stonehenge for the 08:00 slot. This in not a tour. i.e. there are no guides, audio devices like during public hours and everything is shut, bar the toilets. There is just a security guard to let you in.

Public transport stopped going to Stonehenge about a year ago from Salisbury. There is now just a HOHO tourist bus that only goes during public opening hours. There are public buses between Salisbury and Amesbury, then its about a 30 minute walk."

The way you would get to Stonehenge, during normal operating hours, is: take the train to Salisbury and then the tourist HOHO bus (referred to by Bob) from Salisbury to Stonehenge. But that's not going to work for you.

I live about 30 miles from Stonehenge. No way are you going to get there that early by public transport!
Your best bet would be to stay overnight in Salisbury & get a taxi in the morning.