Stonehenge & Windsor Day Trip
Saturday 21 May 2016 7:30am - 10pm
Collection outside International Student House at 229 Great Portland Street, WIW 5PN
£59
Fully guided day trip allowing plenty of time to explore Stonehenge and Windsor, with allocated time for a lunch break in Windsor. Travel by executive coach.
Visit two of England's most iconic sites in one day. Windsor Castle, the world's oldest and largest continuously occupied castle and the mysterious World Heritage site of ancient Stonehenge. No rushing, a gentle pace and plenty of time for lunch without squeezing too much itinerary into the time you have. On this tour we travel at a more relaxed pace, not with one eye on a stopwatch.
We depart London to travel west to the county of Wiltshire in the heart of ancient Wessex. We soon leave the suburbs of London behind us and encounter gentle rolling chalk hills where Neolithic man first settled after the receding Ice Age gave way to early farming methods. Evidence of these bygone times cover the landscape as our guide points out burial chambers and evidence of late Stone Age settlements. Then suddenly on the horizon we see Stonehenge. Standing on Salisbury Plain, stark, mysterious, awe inspiring, a monument as old as the Pyramids, as enigmatic and arguably as astounding. Yet the monument itself stands amidst conflicting opinion as to it's purpose, it's construction and it's alignments. Our guide will present the known facts, and the theories that are still debated, before you get your own chance to walk around the stones with your audio guide. After the tour of the stones there will be time to visit the Neolithic Houses and enter the fascinating exhibition and visitor centre.
After approximately 90 minutes at Stonehenge we depart just before midday from this prehistoric landscape and head towards Windsor Great Forest, through royal hunting lands and over to Her Majesty's the Queen's favourite residence and weekend home, Windsor Castle.
Built from the time of William the Conqueror in the late 11th century, and for most of it's time, the largest secular building project in Britain, Windsor Castle boasts lavish state rooms, a beautiful chapel for the burial of Kings and a number of galleries of fine paintings that are the personal collection of the Queen. Works by Rembrant and Da Vinci are on display and don't miss the wonderful Queen Mary's dolls house built in 1925.
We will begin our visit with a break for lunch in the old cobbled streets that surround the town. Cafes and historic pubs are plentiful, and once refreshed we begin a walking tour with an option to visit the castle at the end of the walk.
Before our return to London we will head from Windsor via historic Runnymede where King John put his seal to Magna Carta in 1215 and where we can follow the Thames as it meanders into the capital itself.
Tour includes
- Full day services of a tour guide.
- Return travel by executive coach
- Entry to Stonehenge with audio guide
- Windsor walking tour with your guide
Optional extras
- Entry to Windsor Castle with audio guide