Stonehenge

There was no way Brad was visiting London without checking out Stonehenge, the famous landmark that is so close yet so far from the nation’s capital. The historical site is located southwest of London, about 80-90 miles depending on which part of the city you start from.

Options to get to Stonehenge from London include picking out a guided tour that will take you to it, taking a train that will plant you close to it, or driving yourself. Our Stonehenge experience was slightly unique and required us to rent a car and drive. If you visit during regular hours, you can only experience the actual stones from approximately 30 feet away. While this is closer than most people get, why not get up even closer if you will probably only do this once in your life?

The Stonehenge preservation organization offers early hour and late hour Stonehenge Access tours that allow visitors to get up close and personal with the rocks (although touching is still prohibited). We purchased two of these tickets which each cost 45 pounds totaling 90 pounds which is approximately $116 assuming 1.3 pounds to 1 US dollar (for reference regular hour tickets are 19 pounds) These tickets must be requested in advance. We requested online and heard back via email in several days to officially book the ticket. The purchase allows a half hour tour between the hours of 5 AM to 9:00 AM in the morning or in the evening with maximum capacity of 30 individuals at any one time. Visitors are allowed to go into the middle of the henge and experience the true magic of the site (which apparently was free and legal back in the 70s, see this, as well as at specific times still today such as the summer solstice in June ).

Our tour was scheduled for 6:45 AM with arrival time 15 minutes prior. The early hour time slot meant that our only option would be to rent our own car. We rented from Europcar at the London Pancreas Station. This actually proved more expensive than we initially thought once insurance was factored in (our American car insurance does not cover rental cars abroad). In hindsight, we purchased the insurance because it was our first time driving on the left side of the road but we could have probably done without it (we did hit the curb twice but no damage done thankfully). We left our hostel located in Hammersmith at approximately 4:30 AM in order to allow some leeway in case we got lost. The drive was relatively easy and we only made 1-2 wrong turns when going through towns even with a GPS (we are not directionally gifted!).

We got excited as we came over a hill and saw Stonehenge from the highway! We drove past and found some signs pointing us to the visitor center. At first the entrance looked closed off, but a guard was there to wave us through to the parking lot when we gave him the name for our reservation. We arrived and waited outside the visitor center in the brisk dawn. The visitor center opens at 9:00 AM and was closed except for bathrooms at this time. The center itself is actually located about 2 miles from the Stonehenge site. We traversed this distance via a bus that was provided for us and it was much appreciated due to the cold air. With us there were probably 15-20 other people in the group (maximum capacity 30).

Stonehenge itself is a cool collection of monoliths. The stones are about 13 feet high and are arranged in a veritable circle, hence the name. It was constructed close to 4000 years ago and it’s shocking that it’s still standing. We were able to see the stones up close and being allowed to enter the inner circle made the experience more memorable. Our fellow visitors appeared to each have their own reason for choosing the intimate tour as well, some choosing to meditate, do yoga, or use divination rods in the inner circle. As for us, we just took pictures pretending to get abducted by aliens.

After our time at Stonehenge, we were welcome to walk the grounds and explore other ancient structures in the area (such as Woodhenge), however, we were tired and cold so we took the bus back to the visitor center and headed back to our hostel for a nap.

All in all, we were glad that we experienced Stonehenge the way we did. If you do not have the opportunity to do the early morning / late evening tour, visiting at normal hours would definitely be better than nothing too! And probably warmer!