FlyerTalk Forums - View Single Post - Bath, Windsor, Stonehenge Tour from London
Old May 21, 2013 | 2:27 am
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Originally Posted by rknicker
Did all three in a one day tour with Grayline/Golden Tours last Wednesday (same tour in the end). You get approximately 1:30-2:00 in each place on a tour that leaves at 8AM and returns around 7PM. Doing all three in one day will be discontinued in the Fall/Winter due to stonehenge changes described below. Overall, the "tour" is primarily the individual audio device you are given at each stop. Grayline/Golden tours are not really led by tour guides, you just get a smattering of information on bus on the way (at least that was ours).

Windsor - Definitely worth the trip in my opinion. Great collection of art, you get to walk all through the castle and grounds. The queen has a gallery of Rembrandt's, Vermeer's, etc throughout. Tons of old armor, historical collections and gifts. Cool gardens, amazing decor, changing of the guard display, and a chapel where numerous monarch's are buried. Much more interesting than Tower of London.

Stonehenge - Wander around stonehenge from about 50 yards outside the actual structures, trampling the ground until it looks like a driving range. Seriously, they move the track around it to let the grass grow again, just like at the range. You have to do a special tour to actually go in($$). A new visitor center is being built a half mile away, where the new parking and tourist shops will be located. Due to the way things are being reworked, and the distance itself, the time spent at stonehenge will not fit in a 3 stop tour in the future according to the guide. We'd been told it was underwhelming by others, but... it's stonehenge... so I went. And was underwhelmed. Seriously, unless you're an actual druid, just skip it.

Bath - Roman baths and excavation of the remnants with lot's of video information, top tier museum quality presentation, and then there's all of Bath. Beautiful city, planning to go back to just spend a couple days enjoying it. This was our last stop, and I wish we had stayed a day there instead.


As someone who lived very close to Stonehenge for many years I agree with your assessment.
Over the years this amazing monument has been scandalously under-played as a tourist attraction with very little to explain to the ordinary vistor the history behind it and what new archaelogical secrets are being unveiled all the time.
At the moment there is little to be gained from stopping at the moment that you can't see as you drive past it.
Bath and Windsor Castle however are superb places to visit as is another much overlooked tourist attraction, Hampton Court Palace.

www.hrp.org.uk/HamptonCourtPalace

And HMS Vistory, the only surviving warship that fought in the American War of Independence, the French Revolutionary War and the Napoleonic wars.

www.hms-victory.com
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