You will be disappointed by prustage
I used to live near Stonehenge and visited it often. I also occasionally took friends over there who had come to visit. The overwhelming impression that most people came away with was one of disappointment. Stonehenge is of great archaeological significance, has been the subject of immense amounts of research, scientific papers, documentaries and books and looks great in carefully set up dramatic photographs. But the physical reality of the Stonehenge experience is that of seeing a bunch of rocks in a field from a distance under a grey, cloudy sky on a cold, wet day. The first time I ever went I could walk up to the stones and touch them. Today they are fenced off and you cannot get very near. But even if you could, the fact is Stonehenge is much more impressive for its archaeological significance than for its physical reality.
My recommendation is to include it in a two day trip to the West Country from London.
Head off in the morning and after a couple of hours driving you will see Stonehenge a couple of hundred feet away from the car as you travel down the A303 – this is almost as close as you would get if you stopped, parked and paid. By lunchtime you will be in Castle Combe – a very pretty English village that has appeared in more films and TV shows than I can count. Have lunch here in one of the two excellent pubs then press on to be in the beautiful city of Bath by afternoon tea. This is Jane Austen country and is the most perfect Georgian city in Europe. You can vist the Pump Rooms, Roman Baths, Royal Crescent and Bath Abbey then eat well in one of the many top-notch restaurants and stay overnight. The following day you can take in Cheddar Gorge and Wells Cathedral then either do the Wye valley, Symons Yatt and Tintern Abbey or tour the Cotswold villages before getting on the M4 and driving the three hours back to London. If you really want to you can take a small diversion down the A344 to see Stonehenge again but from the opposite side on the way back.
over 2 years ago
