Stonehenge, the characteristic and mysterious site famous around the world, has been on my list of places to visit for absolute ages. But despite living in London, a mere 80 miles away, for 6 years, I only finally managed to visit Stonehenge a couple of weeks ago. The main reason why I postponed that trip for so long was that it seemed tricky to get to without a car. However, there are ways! In this post, I will tell you about getting to Stonehenge, but also describe the visit itself. Here is how the trip was organised, and most importantly, what you can expect from visiting Stonehenge.

Getting to Salisbury

The nearest large city to Stonehenge is Salisbury, and that’s where I headed to first. I took a morning train from London to Salisbury – the journey took about 90 minutes. As always, I recommend buying train tickets in advance. A railcard is also a good idea – train ticket prices in the UK are a bit ridiculous.

Getting from Salisbury to Stonehenge

Now, here’s where it gets a little bit more tricky. The official Stonehenge website mentioned Salisbury Reds buses running between the two locations. However, when I tried to check the timetable of those buses for my selected date and time (a Saturday morning), I got no results.

Before I continue, just a little disclaimer: I’m going to describe my experience booking a trip with the Stonehenge Tour company. This is not a sponsored post in any way – they just popped up in my Google search results. I paid for the trip myself. If you’re interested in reading about the Stonehenge visit itself – applicable no matter how you get to Stonehenge – just scroll down.

I went on to Google search for connections between Salisbury and Stonehenge. One of the top results was for the Stonehenge Tour (https://www.thestonehengetour.info/), which appeared to be a private company organising trips from Salisbury to Stonehenge. I’m usually reluctant to buy package trips – I typically prefer to organise everything myself, buy my own tickets and so on. The Stonehenge Tour, however, was mentioned on the official Stonehenge website, so it seemed legit. It allowed you to buy coach tickets alone, which seemed like a good idea at first – I had a look at the timetable and saw that they had buses running between Salisbury rail station and Stonehenge every hour, with the trip taking around 30 minutes. I wanted to buy the bus tickets, and saw the price – £19! A bit excessive for two 30-minute trips.

I was desperate to make the Stonehenge trip a reality and was close to actually buying those bus tickets, but I had another look at the ‘package deals’ by Stonehenge Tour. There seemed to be an option for buying bus tickets along with the Stonehenge entrance, which worked out cheaper than buying the two separately. It was priced at £39 (compared to pre-booked online Stonehenge tickets alone being £27.50).

Now, I have to say – the website for Stonehenge Tour was horrible. I bought the package deal for bus + Stonehenge, but until the very last moment, I had no idea what was actually included in that package and whether there would be extra entrance fees. That’s why I’m writing this post – hopefully it helps someone else.

What’s included in the Stonehenge Tour

It turns out, the package I bought from the Stonehenge Tour company was a pretty decent deal. First, it included a bus ride from Salisbury to Stonehenge (not for a specific time – the buses run once per hour and you can use any service on the chosen day, which is convenient). I showed my online ticket to the bus driver, and they gave me a paper ticket… and a brand new pair of cheap earphones? That’s when I found out that the coach was equipped with audio outlets and included some educational commentary during the journey. That was a nice surprise!

The ride itself was quite enjoyable. It was a double-decker bus, and we managed to snatch the front seats on the top floor. The views of narrow English roads were pretty nice.

Once we got to Stonehenge (more about the actual Stonehenge visit later in this post), we didn’t need to queue for the ticket offices. The tickets given to us by the bus driver were recognised by the Stonehenge staff. We were able to enter the site straight away. The ticket covered all areas of Stonehenge.

But there’s more!

The package also included a ride back from Stonehenge, with further audio commentary – buses ran every hour too. On the way back, there was an optional opportunity to hop off at Old Sarum (scroll down to read more about it), with the entrance ticket also covered by the package deal. Then, you could hop on any Salisbury Reds local bus to get back to Salisbury.

Overall, I feel like the £39 was a fair deal. Including coach rides to and from Stonehenge, with audio commentary, queue-free entrance to Stonehenge, entrance to Old Sarum, and a pair of cheap wired earphones (which are surprisingly comfortable – they might come in handy one day!). Keep in mind that if you organise a Stonehenge visit yourself, a pre-booked adult ticket is already £27.50.

Visiting Stonehenge

So, let’s get to the most important part. What is it like to visit Stonehenge?

We got to the car park and headed straight to the entrance. There were ticket offices (we didn’t need to queue for those, already having the tickets printed by the bus driver), a cafe, a souvenir shop, toilets, and an entrance to an exhibition. The only thing missing was… well, the Stone Circle itself. We couldn’t see it yet.

We got there around 11:40 am on a Saturday in January, and it wasn’t busy at all. It wasn’t exactly empty, there were people queuing for the tickets or enjoying a snack at the cafe, but the site didn’t feel overcrowded. I fully expected to see a crowd, being so used to the masses of tourists in London every day of the year. But Stonehenge felt quiet and relaxing, which was a bit of a surprise.

Leaving the rest of the facilities for later, we headed straight towards the Stone Circle. We couldn’t see it yet, but we could see a road running up a small hill, and looking at Google maps, we knew that the Stone Circle was somewhere behind that hill.

To get to the Stone Circle from the site entrance, you have two options. You can either walk along the road, or you can take a shuttle bus. The distance is around 2 kilometres, and if it wasn’t for the pressure of time, I would have chosen to walk. But, since we had more plans for the day, we opted to take the shuttle bus. There’s no extra cost to use the bus, and they run every 5 minutes or so. Really convenient! In just a few minutes, we could see the Stone Circle on the horizon.

The first impression was… a tiny bit of disappointment, I guess? Seeing Stonehenge in photos, I always imagined it being enormous. In reality, though, it seemed pretty small, to be honest. I imagine the Stone Circle would probably fit in a tennis court.

The second surprise came from the fact that it was possible to walk up close to the Stone Circle. I thought I’d only get to see it from a far distance, having to zoom in to take photos. In reality, there’s a walking path around the stones, and you get to walk as close as a few metres away from them.

Keep in mind that you can’t walk inside of the Stone Circle. Not on a regular visit, at least. Apparently, there are guided tours every morning, before the regular opening hours, during which it’s possible to enter the Stone Circle. Those cost a lot more than regular entrance tickets, and unfortunately there aren’t any buses running from Salisbury early enough to get you to Stonehenge in time for it. But if you’re desperate to enter the Stone Circle, it is possible – you just need to plan it carefully, and spend extra money.

The Stone Circle is surrounded by a rural landscape, and it was quite fun to see dozens – if not hundreds – of sheep chilling on the grass. They have one of the best views in the country!

We spent quite a good while admiring the Stone Circle and taking lots of photos. Probably well oven an hour! There was a handful of other visitors there, but it was still fairly easy to take photos with no one in the frame. It was freezing, but the grass was green and the sun was – occasionally – shining, which allowed us to take nice pictures. There were a few signs with educational information placed along the path around the Stone Circle.

Eventually, it was time to head back. We took the shuttle bus again, and were soon back to the visitor centre.

We headed to the souvenir shop to find some treats for ourselves. My main goal was to get a fridge magnet – I collect them and buy them on all of my trips. The Stonehenge souvenir shop was well stocked, with a variety of souvenirs: magnets, pins, postcards, socks, tote bags, jewellery, toys, T-shirts, and even branded food. Everything was really cool, but also, everything was crazy expensive. I got the most beautiful metal fridge magnet, but it was £10 a piece! I have hundreds of magnets from my trips at home, but I can’t remember if I ever spent £10 on a single market. Still, it’s beautiful, and of course I had to get it.

After leaving the souvenir shop, we went to see the Stonehenge exhibition next door. I expected a full blown museum, but in reality, it was just one large room with a few display cases filled with artifacts from Stonehenge area. Everything looked modern and neat, but we didn’t need to spend much time at the exhibition to see everything.

Outside, near the exhibition and the souvenir shop, there are a few life size models of what the dwellings of Stonehenge builders could have looked like.

At that point, we’d seen everything, and we had around 25 minutes until the return bus. We popped into the cafe to grab some takeaway coffee, and headed towards the bus stop.

Visiting Old Sarum

Our return bus took us to Old Sarum – a ruined site of the earliest settlement of Salisbury. Located on a small hill, it now includes parts of some remaining walls of a Norman castle. I wouldn’t necessarily go there on purpose – there wasn’t too much to see, to be honest – but the views were pretty nice, and it’s a good place for a relaxing walk.

Entrance to Old Sarum was included in our tickets. If you book them separately online, adult tickets are £7.20.

Back to Salisbury

Finally, it was time to go back to Salisbury. We took a local bus from Old Sarum, and after a 10 minute ride, we were back in Salisbury. Just so you know: the all inclusive ticket from the Stonehenge Tour allows you to a ride on a Salisbury Reds bus from Old Sarum to Salisbury. However, not all buses stopping at the bus stop near Old Sarum are Salisbury Reds! As it usually happens in smaller towns, the buses don’t run every 5 minutes. Luckily, we only needed to wait for around 15 minutes before an appropriate bus showed up.

In Salisbury, we had a short stroll around the city centre. We didn’t visit the cathedral on this occasion, but we had a chance to see it from the outside. If you’d like to read about visiting Salisbury Cathedral and things to do in Salisbury for a day, read my post about my previous day trip to Salisbury.

Finally, we headed back to Salisbury train station and went back to London.

Final thoughts

Although I usually don’t trust companies offering organised trips to popular locations, I actually can’t fault the Stonehenge Tour. It got me from Salisbury to Stonehenge quickly and safely, and even helped me discover another site, Old Sarum – I wouldn’t have visited it otherwise. For everything included in the price, I think £39 was a fair deal.

When I was looking into visiting Stonehenge, I also saw several companies offering half-day trips to Stonehenge from London. Considering train ticket prices, it may have overall been even cheaper to go with one of those. The downside of those organised London – Stonehenge – London trips is that you only have a limited amount of time at Stonehenge, and don’t get to stroll around Old Sarum or Salisbury.

As for visiting Stonehenge itself, it was really enjoyable. I expected crowds and grandeur, but in reality, the Stone Circle was smaller than expected, and there were far fewer visitors than I thought there would be. It was surpsising, but I wasn’t mad. It ended up being really peaceful and relaxing, and I enjoyed my time visiting Stonehenge.

And just like that, another item on my bucket list was checked off!

Also see:

• Travel