Day Trip to Windsor, Bath & Stonehedge

We are looking to do a full day trip to Wimdsor, Bath & Stonehedge after our cruise in October. Not sure which tour company to use. Has anyone had any experience with EvansEvens, Golden or any other tour company doing this trip?

Irene

I wouldn't have thought any tour company would try to fit those three into a one day tour. You wouldn't have time to do any of them justice with such an itinerary.

In 2003 I used Astral Travels - their History & Mystery Tour which goes to Stonehenge, Bath & Jane Austen's Lacock Village. It was an awesome trip. They used Mercedes 16 passenger luxury mini coaches. No hugh groups to deal with and they picked us up at the Travel Inn in Kensington. Their web address is: www.astraltravels.co.uk

I read recently on their website that they offer a tour called Royals, Romans & Ruins (Tour #8) - Windsor, Bath & Stonehenge. You are able to go inside the fences at Stonehenge on some of their tours.

Check them out! We are using them in September 2008 for the Royals, Romans & Ruins Tour.

Enjoy!:D

We also used Astral to do Stonehenge, Bath and Lacock in a day, which was very doable. Bath though, does deserve at least a full day in itself.

We took the train to Windsor and spent the day there using a Cheap Day Return ticket I believe it was called. Very reasonable. Need to change trains once, very easy to do.

Astral Travels are probaly your best bet, but it is a very rushed affair.

90 minutes on bus out to Stonehenge about 9:45, maximum one hour at Stonehenge, an hour or so on bus to Bath. maximum of 2 hours at Bath with one hour at Roman Baths, 90 minutes to Windsor with 90 minutes at Windsor before another 45 minutes on bus back to London.

In other words you'll spend more time on the bus than visiting attractions.

Would recommend you visit Windsor independently from London its very easy quick and cheap on public transport.

Astral Travels are probaly your best bet, but it is a very rushed affair.

90 minutes on bus out to Stonehenge about 9:45, maximum one hour at Stonehenge, an hour or so on bus to Bath. maximum of 2 hours at Bath with one hour at Roman Baths, 90 minutes to Windsor with 90 minutes at Windsor before another 45 minutes on bus back to London.

In other words you'll spend more time on the bus than visiting attractions.

 

Would recommend you visit Windsor independently from London its very easy quick and cheap on public transport.

Windsor soesn't require a tour guide. You can easily do that by yourself. Save Bath and Stonehenge for another day.

The train is fast, convenient and you don't need to fret about traffic jams. Take the tube to Paddington Station. Try to catch an "express". We inadvertantly took a "local" outbound and it took much longer than the return which had a lot fewer stops. The "local" was still a lot quicker than by bus.

Beside the large groups, a problem with out of London day tours is the bus which takes much longer than the trains. Nearly all the popular tour sites are easily done by rail on your own.

If you do feel the uncomfortable without a guide, try to hook up with one of London Walks out of town tours. The guides are great, the tour groups usually small, and you go by train. Their walks are legendary.

http://www.walks.com/

We had considered doing the 3 in a tour bus, but after reading these posts we looked up the train info to go to Windsor and it sounds doable - 1 train, 1 transfer and a 7 minute walk. Unfortunateley, the day we can go there London Walks is not available. They do have guided tours at Windsor don't they?

Did a day trip to Windsor through Evan Evans, they were very good. The tour guides are usually historians. I suggest them if your can afford guided tours as you can ask questions before/during/after visiting in addition to excellent narraratives.

As mentioned before, it is not possible to really see Windsor and Bath in one day, they are too far apart. You need a full day in Bath to really enjoy the surroundings.

I'm still chuckling at this thread being called Stonehedge

... we looked up the train info to go to Windsor and it sounds doable - 1 train, 1 transfer and a 7 minute walk ...

It really is simple London to Waterloo, there are two train options plus a coach which stops outside the castle. The indirect train from Paddington is faster than the direct one from Waterloo, and if your hotel is in Kensington or Victoria it can be quicker and cheaper by coach.

Detailed discussion of public transport options from London to Windsor see:

http://www.londontoolkit.com/whattodo/windsor_transport.htm