Getting to Stonehenge

The ancient stone circle, Stonehenge, Salisbury and Stonehenge

How to get to Stonehenge from London or Salisbury

Getting to Stonehenge by tour (£40 / $41)

Honestly, if you are only looking to do a day trip to Stonehenge from London (or Bath, or Oxford), by far your best bet is simply to sign up for a tour. As you'll see below, doing it by public transit is a bit trickier, more time-consuming, and—unless you book your train ticket well ahead of time—public transit actually costs more. (Even if you do book ahead, the public transit option only saves you, at most, about 80p per person—while still taking longer.)

Tours start around £47 ($61) out of London, and that covers round-trip transportation from a downtown location directly to the parking lot at Stonehenge, and include site admission (itself $23) and usually at least an audio tour if not a live guide. There are also loads of trips that add on other stops and sights in England's west country—the Costwolds, Bath, Salisbury, etc.

Getting to Stonehenge by public transportation (£28–£55 / $36–$71)

First, make your way to the nearby city of Salisbury. (Advance purchase tickets start as low as £13; last-minute around £40)

From just outside Salisbury train station, there is a special hop-on/hop-off double-decker bus to Stonehenge (thestonehengetour.info) that costs £15 adults, £10 ages 5–15 (family tickets for 2 adults and 3 kids: £41).

The Stonehenge bus runs hourly spring through fall (10am to 4pm, stopping at 2pm in winter), and half-hourly in summer (9:30am–3pm, plus a 4pm and 5pm run). Last bus back from Stonehenge is two hours later.

The bus pauses at stop in downtown Salisbury (New Canal Stand U), then Old Sarum, and finally lets you off at the Stonehenge Visitors Centre. As it is hop-on/hop-off, you can alight at Old Sarum to look around, and when you are done grab any bus continuing on; ditto for the return to Salisbury.

They also offer packages that include entry to various combinations of Stonehenge, Old Sarum, and the Salisbury Cathedral.

Getting to Stonehenge by car

Stonehenge is about 88 miles and 2.5 hours due west of London (traffic willing). Just take the M3, exiting after about 50 miles onto the A303 (signposted "The South West/Andover & Salisbury"), then right onto the A360 just after passing Stonehenge itself.

Note that you cannot actually drive directly to the Stonehenge site anymore, but rather to a new Visitors' Centre and parking lot about 1.6 miles west of it, just east of the Airman's Corner roundabout where the A360 meets the A344 and B3096. From here, every 10 minutes, a shuttle bus brings you to the actual site.

Trains links