Top England Day Trips

I highly recommend this tour, 11/10! John was our guide and driver for the day. We selected the London Eye meeting point with a 8:45am pickup time. Tip-best toilet near by is at the Premier Inn on the Southwest corner of the meeting spot, you will need to ask for a key. John was on time and we were first in the 15 passenger van. The van then headed to the Double Tree meeting spot and picked up the rest of the passengers. It was about a 2 hour drive to Stonehenge. John's lively commentary during the drive was fantastic, and the 'points system' keeps you on your toes! When we arrived at Stonehenge John went to purchase our tickets while we had a few minutes to prepare for the tour while deciding if we would walk the 1.5 miles (full sun, no water on trial) to the site or wait in a long line for the facilities bus to take us from the visitors center to the Stonehenge site. The queue for the bus was the worst part of the day. It took about 15 minutes, full sun, zero seats, and the lady working at Stonehenge let the 'public line' move way faster than the 'tour line' - John even spoke with her to try and get the very time sensitive 'tour line' to move faster and she was very rude to him about it. The facilities bus ride was fine, but they could and should have packed more people on the bus in order to make the line move faster. We arrived to the Stonehenge site and it was not really what I expected. The grass was extremely dry, mostly dusty dirt. There is a rope around the stones with security guards around-you are not allowed to touch the stones except twice per year. On the day we visited, it was the first day the school children were out of school, so there were school children everywhere. My Stonehenge tip is have sunscreen, an umbrella, water, be prepared to stand a lot, walk a lot, and have patience. Also, be sure to allow time to get back on the facilities bus from the stones to the mandatory exit through the visitor center/gift shop. We had plenty of time at Stonehenge, John determined the faculties bus queue line time and based that on our requested time back at the van! Next we headed to Bath. Beautiful drive from Stonehenge to Bath, took about an hour. On the day we were in Bath it was university graduation and the main streets were packed! John navigated the busy roads very well. A Bath bonus was we were provided with a printed map of Bath with the highlights of the city. My family chose to have lunch and cider at The Stable, I highly recommend the cider flight and mac n' cheese. We went on the walking tour with John-also highly recommend and very informative about the Roman baths. Next we headed to Cotswolds. The roads are extremely narrow and there was a lot of tight maneuvering. We went to Castle Combe, absolutely breathtaking! You can walk the entire town in about 5-10 minutes, then see the church with the oldest faceless clock, grab a pint at Castle Inn, and still have plenty of time to sit while enjoying the views. The drive back to London was about 2 hours. John was fantastic, asking everyone where their nearest drop-off to their hotel would be and organizing the easiest drop-off for everyone. For us, this reduced our walking time after a long day of walking in the hot sun, by about 10 minutes! Endless water bottles were provided in the van, fantastic free addition, especially on a hot sunny summer day. The tour van had amazing air con, seats were like airplane seats but with more leg room. Yes, it's a long day, almost exactly 12 hours, but worth it! *No need to pre-purchase your Stonehenge tickets, your guide will purchase them on site, and you will pay via cash/card after you return to the van from Stonehenge. This was our 5th full-day tour of our vacation and I can easily say it was the best due to John's hilarious commentary and his passion for England! I HIGHLY recommend this tour!