If you’ve come to the UK for a short trip and are looking for a chance to get out of London, a bus trip could be the ideal way to see one of the country’s top attractions without the hassle of coordinating trains and taxis. or looking for a decent place for a quick bite to eat. If you don’t like long trips or are concerned about driving on the left, a good quality bus trip might be the answer.
Since the Stonehenge Visitor Center was opened and the site has been restored to close to its original state, it is worth visiting at least half a day. Add in a visit to Salisbury Cathedral, lunch, and tea and you’ve got a well-balanced day trip.
The best sources for good coach tour operators are official tourism organizations. If a coach tour operator is listed by an official body, you can expect their standards to be presented at an acceptable level. Visit the Shop Visit Britain or Visit London for a list of reasonably planned, reasonably priced day trips with one or two stops.
But say no to the multi-stop bus ride
Many companies offer day trips, by train or by coach, claiming that visits to the main attractions are easy and inexpensive by making many stops in one day. They usually group three or four main attractions together. This type of trip is rarely worth your time or money and will leave you tired, disappointed, and feeling ripped off.
A widely touted trip that you can book before you arrive in the UK, for example, visit Windsor Castle, Stonehenge, and Bath. Using the British Automobile Association’s route planner, we have found that this is a round trip of approximately 256 miles and involves (using motorways whenever possible) at least six hours of driving. That leaves only five hours of the advertised 11-hour day to visit:
- One of the most famous castles in the world and the largest occupied house in the world.
- An iconic prehistoric World Heritage site
- Jane Austen’s favorite resort, another World Heritage site and a mecca for independent shopping.
Most of what you’ll see on a trip like this is the inside of a luxury coach and hours of bland road scenery. If food is included, it will be of a lower common denominator variety and you will likely come home still believing the old-fashioned cliché that British food is terrible.
What you miss
- Windsor Castle : The castle itself is worth a visit of at least half a day. If you want to queue for Queen Mary’s Doll House and spend time in the Queen’s Drawing Gallery, you can spend a whole day there. The day ticket allows you to go out for lunch in Windsor. Once you’ve visited the castle, you can walk along the river and cross to the fascinating late medieval and Tudor town of Eton. This is the location of the oldest public (i.e. private) school in England. The narrow, sometimes cobbled streets are lined with quaint, half-timbered, and old buildings that are still in use today. And the views of Windsor Castle from Eton are among the best. Getting there is a matter of a 40- to 50-minute train ride from London Paddington or London Waterloo stations. and a total round trip fair of less than £ 12.
- Stonehenge – It may seem that Stonehenge stands out on Salisbury Plain in splendid isolation, but it is actually in the middle of Wiltshire, a county rich with other attractions, such as Longleat Safari Park, the historic town of Salisbury, the fascinating National Trust village from Hollywood. Laycock. Other nearby prehistoric sites include Avebury, the location of one of the most important ceremonial landscapes in Europe with a huge stone circle and a prehistoric ceremonial highway. There is plenty near Stonehenge for a few days of exploration and at least one night visit. But, if you only have time for a day trip, Stonehenge and Salisbury, including the 750-year-old Salisbury Cathedral, are the most sensible combination. Trains from London Waterloo to Salisbury take under an hour and a half and tickets purchased in advance start at less than £ 40 for a round trip. Tours of Stonehenge depart frequently from Salisbury Train Station, as do regular public buses.
- Bath : Allowing a little over an hour to take a ride around the city of Bath on a bus and a quick visit to the Roman Baths is, frankly, criminal. This World Heritage site and the masterpiece of an 18th century city was made to be explored on foot. In addition to Bath’s unique shopping streets and Georgian meeting rooms, where people from the 18th century social society got together, there is the new Thermae Bath Spa. There, for city prices, you can swim in heated hot springs in a rooftop pool overlooking the Cathedral and downtown Bath, a World Heritage Site. Bath is a safe weekend with wonderful restaurants, shops, museums, and attractions. But, if you only have one day, trains to Bath from London Paddington run frequently and take less than an hour and a half. Buying two individual tickets is often cheaper than buying roundtrip tickets and if booked in advance they cost less than £ 50.
If you have mobility issues, specialized accessible tour operators probably make the most sense. Unless you’re the type of visitor who likes to tick the boxes for places you’ve been without actually seeing them, this kind of whistle stops, tours are outdated, and poor value for money.
