Salisbury Travel Forum

Hello,
we're planning a short trip to Salisbury, Stonehenge and Bath - 4 or 5 days.
Apart from the cathedral and a walk around the city, are there many other sightseeings in Salisbury? Would a full day be enough to visit Salisbury and Stonehenge?
Is it worth to book a guided tour to Stonehenge (which company?) or just get a local bus there?
Which is better - faster and more frequent connections - (train or coach) to go from Salisbury to Bath and to Southampton?
How far is the coach station from the center?

Any other tips for the visit or for accommodation are also welcome.
Thanks,

Susana.

Well, my trip to Stonehenge, Bath and Salisbury is about 10 years away. We were there with our own car, although, i must admit, driving on the wrong side is quite unusual and probably difficult. You can spend a lot of time in Stonehenge if you want to get into the details - that is in fact, walking around with a headphone and checking a lot of different stations with explications. We didn't do that. We just took a look and walked around and that took perhaps half an hour (i have to say that my boyfriend indeed was not impressed by the sight!) For us it was ok to see it and to get a rough overview. Salisbury - i cannot remember at all, Bath was nice as a city... but more and about transportation, i am sorry, i cannot tell you...

I did Stonehenge and Salisbury in one full day. After spending the morning in Stonehenge (opens at 9:30am), I went to Salisbury's Cathedral. While in there I visited the church and the exposition of Carta Magna, don't know if it's still there. Planned also to do the museum, but finally missed it not because of time but because I was with friends that decided to stroll around downtown instead. Had time also for some shopping and dinner. I think that, although a bit tight, you could do Stonehenge, the Cathedral and the museum all on the same day.
In my case I didn't take any guided tour, just took the local bus to go to Stonehenge, and once there you get at the entrance the free audio tour on your native tongue with all the info necessary for the visit. It was very complete, didn't feel the need of a guide or a group tour.
Have a great time!
Flor de Maria

Salisbury is a beautiful city. If you are going to do a fairly thorough visit of Stonehenge and Salisbury Cathedral (we took the tour to the top) and then walk around Salisbury, I would take two days.

I agree, two days would be better. Salisbury is a beautiful city full of history, with buildings, shops & pubs hundreds of years old. Just walking around the centre looking at it all can take quite a while.
The cathedral itself can easily take two or three hours, it's huge and again it's full of fascinating history. Magna Carta is still there - it was written in 1215 and this is one of only 4 copies still existing. Cathedral Close is also worth spending some time exploring, with its stunning houses and several interesting museums.

Thanks for your tips.

Salisbury is a beautiful city but forget Stonehenge as it is overhyped and a waste of time - you will spend longer getting there than you will looking at the worthless piles of rock.

Getting to Bath and Southampton is easy from Salisbury by train

Most visitors from London come to Salisbury by train - buses depart from outside the Rail Station at 10.00 am then every hour until 2.00pm - the journey time is 25 minutes and they give you 45 minutes at Stonehenge or 1 hour 45 minutes) which many people consider to be quite enough for the reasons given in the other replies !

Trains run from Salisbury to Southampton approx every 30 minutes.

Phil G.

I would do Stonhenge in afternoon and Salisbury in the morning to avoid the crowds. You can also get lots of deals from the tourist information office.