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Post by Phar Lap on May 25, 2014 6:12:27 GMT -5
I always said if ever I went to England I'd visit Stonehenge. Unfortunately you can't walk among the stones any more unless you pre-book an out of hours stone circle visit. The cost is £21.00 but then you have to have transport to and from there.
One of the tour companies runs tours for both. Stonehenge at sunrise, Oxford and Windsor Castle or Windsor Castle. Oxford and Stonehenge at sunset. Both are £104.00. If I did one, which do you think would be better from a safety point of view?
The sunrise one starts at 5.30am at the Royal National Hotel plus three other places, the sunset tour finishes at 10.00PM at Victoria train station. I'm not sure about getting public transport at for these, google maps tells me I'd have to leave just after 4.00AM.
How easy is it to get a taxi from Victoria train station around 10pm? Ditto for taxi pick-up from son's apartment.
Any sage words of advice? Anyone here been to Stonehenge?
Cost of entry to Windsor Castle and the pre-booked stone circle visit is £37.75. I'm not fussed about Oxford because I'll be going there as part of another tour.
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Post by kneazle on May 25, 2014 6:39:05 GMT -5
You can easily get anywhere from Victoria station at 10pm - it's be eaiser to get public transport at 10pm than at 4am but as Victoria is a major train station there are taxi's but I figure if I can bus from Bermondsey to Victoria then from there to Cricklewood after midnight whilst somewhat under the influence you should be fine.
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Post by poppy on May 25, 2014 16:42:50 GMT -5
ditto Kneazle. At 10.00 p.m. you would still be able to get a tube train back to NOtting Hill.
Be prepared to be underwhelmed, like the 12 apostles (rocks in water) they are basically just rocks in a paddock.
If you really wanted to go on the early morning tour - get a booked cab (can't remember the correct term), we used Addison Lee and they where fantastic.
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Post by kneazle on May 25, 2014 16:54:13 GMT -5
To Notting hill you don't even have to change lines - just take the Circle line
See it's funny I'd had so many people say that Stonehenge was underwheliming that they were more impressive than I thought they'd be, if you can make it on an overcast day it's more atmospheric (I've been three times)
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Post by Bastet on May 25, 2014 17:17:07 GMT -5
I was extremely underwhelmed by Stonehenge even though I'd been warned. They were so small, next to a road with nothing but sheep around. Glad I did it but I liked Avebury much more.
12 apostles on the other hand I love. Never get bored by them!
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Post by lisamnz on May 25, 2014 17:32:48 GMT -5
Like ria said I liked Avebury more than stonehenge and when I went you were still able to walk amongst the stones.
I don't think there's much difference from a safety point of view: but I'd much rather be trying to get home from vic station at 10pm that be having to get up at 4am.
And what Poppy's talking about is a mini-cab company, rather than a black cab. The only thing I'd be careful of there is using a larger company (like Addison Lee) as opposed to a tiny one operating from a street corner cupboard office - unless you have company with you.
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Post by Phar Lap on May 26, 2014 8:23:25 GMT -5
I'm still humming and haaring - not about the lateness of the hour (10PM) that's been dealt with.
It looks like financial discretion is winning the war over tourist expenditure.
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Post by riverhorse on May 26, 2014 9:07:42 GMT -5
EGB was at Stonehenge while I was away in Australia recently, and whilst the big main road still goes past it, the carpark and visitor centre that was right across the road has now been moved to much further away - there is a brand spanking new visitor centre but he said it would now be a much further walk to get there, if this is something that concerns you. (Although I see from the website that they also have little shuttles to take less mobile visitors to the stones).
To be perfectly honest, whilst I've been to Stonehenge many times and really enjoyed it each time, I don't think it's the kind of thing that is worthwhile going to a huge amount of time, money and effort to see, unless it's part of the tour you were looking at anyway. There are far far more worthwhile places to see on your visit!
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Post by poppy on May 26, 2014 16:57:50 GMT -5
just had a thought, the weekend the kids hire a car, plan to drive past them. Can see them ever so well from the road.
the visitor centre river is talking about is a long long way from the stones, saw the construction when I was last there. I was under the impression they were having road trains to ferry all and sundry to and from.
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Post by shilgia on May 26, 2014 17:01:40 GMT -5
So if you don't book a tour you can't see it at all or you just can't enter the circle? If you can see Stonehenge for cheap without a tour, maybe from a slightly bigger distance, wouldn't that be a better option than not seeing it all?
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Post by Phar Lap on May 26, 2014 18:34:14 GMT -5
I thought of that Poppy. I've an idea he's only going to hire a car for the Saturday because younger son and gf arrive London on the 31st July (a Thursday) and leave on the 7th August and they don't want to come to the Cotswolds. I had suggested to son in London why don't we go by train that weekend to Chester on the Saturday as fares were much cheaper and hire the car on Sunday. Problem is younger son and gf don't want to do any of this and big son wants to see an spend some time with his brother which I understand.
Have been thinking of suggesting to big son we drive back via Stonehenge and the three of us do the stone circle access thing at sunset and if he's agreeable I'll book the tickets. He may not want to though because of returning the hire car, some places are closed Sundays. He said back home, most places you can drop the car off outside of office hours, just drop the key in the box. Doesn't know if that happens in the UK.
Shilgia, it's my understanding if you're driving past them on the freeway? highway? you can stop for a quick photo. Of course they're a far way off. With tours, the only ones where you can actually get up close to them are the sunrise/sunset ones, with all the others you're about 30 feet away from them.
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Post by shilgia on May 26, 2014 18:42:34 GMT -5
30 feet seems like nothing to me. But whatever.
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Stonehenge
May 29, 2014 12:24:17 GMT -5
via mobile
Post by treehugger on May 29, 2014 12:24:17 GMT -5
It's not a freeway, it's just a small A road, one lane in each direction. You can pull over and see it easily without spending any money. I've driven past it many times, underwhelming. Avebury is much nicer, imho.
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paddox
Eating Figjam
Posts: 791
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Post by paddox on May 29, 2014 12:43:31 GMT -5
Ha, underwhelming is also how I'd describe them. You usually get a long time to see Stonehenge as the traffic on that road is terrible. I wouldn't bother to make such an effort to go, there's far more interesting things to spend your time doing.
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Post by Phar Lap on Jun 4, 2014 5:19:41 GMT -5
Thanks ladies for your advice and tips, I really appreciate them. I decided not to go to Stonehenge, it's a lot of money to spend and there's something else I'd really like to do which is also expensive and I know I would enjoy it better.
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Post by lisamnz on Jun 4, 2014 17:19:47 GMT -5
good decision. Drive to or from somewhere via Avebury, for a much more interesting and close up experience with similarly ancient standing stones. And a nice pub.
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Post by riverhorse on Jun 4, 2014 17:26:53 GMT -5
Oooh yes, I remember the nice pub in the centre of Avebury!
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Post by ozziegiraffe on Jun 8, 2014 8:21:13 GMT -5
Oooh yes, I remember the nice pub in the centre of Avebury! Another vote for the Avebury pub. |
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Post by Phar Lap on Jun 9, 2014 4:57:02 GMT -5
Some interesting responses here, thanks ladies for your input and thoughts. Thought I'd let you all know I decided not to go to Stonehenge. I was wanting to do a Bastille Day dinner cruise (another expensive thing) and the dinner cruise won out. Although it's a bit dearer, I know I'll enjoy it far more.
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