Stonehenge and Bath Day Tour From London (Evan Evans Tours) – Exploring UK’s Famous Tourist Attractions

I woke up early this morning because I was going on the Stonehenge and Bath day tour from London. These are two of England’s most famous attractions, and I was pretty excited. My tour agency was Evan Evans Tours, which has many positive reviews online.

Departure From Victoria Coach Station

After having breakfast at our hotel, we took the metro to Victoria Station. At the station, we followed the signs to the “Victoria Coach Station” exit.

After going out from the exit, we went into another train station, and followed the sign to the “Coach Station” exit.

Once outside, we saw a sign pointing towards “Victoria Coach Station”.

We walked along the direction of the sign for two minutes before crossing the road to Colonnade Walk.

We walked along Colonnade walk which had signs directing us to the coach station.

After about three minutes, we finally spotted Victoria Coach Station across the road.

We went into the station and turned right at the information counter.

And finally we had reached the Evan Evans Tours ticket counter! I showed the staff my Klook voucher on my mobile phone, and she handed me the tour ticket.

I saw a Pret a Manger outlet here, so you can buy a sandwich here if you’re hungry. For us we had already eaten breakfast at our hotel earlier.

After that, we went to our departure gate and boarded the coach after waiting for a few minutes. The coach left at 8.30am sharp.

In total, it took us about 15 minutes to get from Victoria Station to Victoria Coach Station, mainly because we were not sure of the directions. If you know the way it should take around just 10 minutes. You can refer to the google map directions for reference.

Bus Ride to Bath

While our coach was going through the bustling streets of London, our tour guide provided us with interesting information of the various streets and landmarks.

Once the coach got onto the main highway, she stopped speaking and we settled in for our long 2.5 hour ride to Bath.

Note that it is also possible to get to Bath by taking the train, if you wish. We chose to go on a day tour because we wanted to visit Stonehenge on the same day, and taking a guided tour would be more efficient.

Bath

Roman Baths

Pulteney Bridge

After a long but comfortable bus ride, we finally arrived in Bath! This quaint city is known for its beautiful Georgian architecture and rich heritage. It is also a Unesco World Heritage Site.

As our coach entered the city, I saw many beautiful Georgian style buildings, which were all slightly yellowish. Our tour guide explained that this was because most of the buildings in the city are constructed using local Bath limestone.

After alighting, our tour guide informed us that we had about 3 hours to explore the city. She also warned that if we did not make it back to the coach on time, it would leave without us.

Roman Baths

Our tour guide led us from the coach to Roman Baths, which is an ancient Roman bathing complex. This was our first stop in Bath.

She passed us the tickets and we joined the short queue outside the entrance.

We went on a Monday in April at around 11.30am, and there was only a group of students in front of us in the queue. I have read that the queue gets significantly longer after lunch. And the queues are also longer on weekends.

We got to enter the Roman Baths after queueing for just five minutes. We went into a beautiful Victorian reception hall which had a domed ivory ceiling. I collected a free audioguide from the counter.

Our guide told us to visit the washroom now if we needed to, because the only washrooms in the complex were located at the exit. After that, she left us to explore the Roman Baths on our own.

In total, the wife and I spent about 1.5 hours exploring the Baths.

The centrepiece is the Great Bath, which is a large pond filled with hot spring water. It has a shimmering green colour, which is due to algae growing under the sunlight. The Great Bath was once an enclosed area and therefore the water was probably much clearer.

There were even some people dressed up as Roman characters by the Great Bath. I asked a pretty “Roman lady” whether I could take a photo with her, and she replied, “Of course!”

Walking around the complex, I saw realistic film projections depicting the ancient bathing procedures of the Romans. I was quite impressed because from afar it looked like real people.

Temple Pediment

West Baths

There are plenty of other interesting attractions, such the Temple Pediment, East Baths, West Baths, Sacred Spring, and more.

On the whole I enjoyed my tour of this ancient Roman complex. The wife, on the other hand, couldn’t understand why I was so interested in these ancient stones and ruins.

For more information, you can check out my detailed guide of the Roman Baths.

The Pump Room Restaurant

The Pump Room Restaurant is a classy restaurant overlooking the Roman Baths. It offers British cuisine and live classical music.

We did not have time to dine here but we dropped by for a look inside the restaurant.

It was indeed a stately restaurant with elegant decor. A large chandelier hanging from the high ceiling serves as its centrepiece.

Bath Abbey

Bath Abbey is right beside the Roman Baths. This beautiful gothic church was founded in the 7th century and is a famous attraction in Bath.

The wife and I took many photos of this beautiful church from the outside. However, we did not pay to enter the church because we had seen pictures of its interior online, and did not feel that it was worth our time queueing to get in.

Street Performances

To our pleasant surprise, we came across plenty of street performances in Bath! I saw a man playing the violin beautifully in front of Bath Abbey, a guitar-strumming teenager singing on the street, and a classical guitarist performing in a public square.

It almost seemed like there was a roster system because after a performer finished his act, another performer would take over immediately.

Pulteney Bridge

From Bath Abbey, we walked for about 5 minutes to the North Parade Road crossing River Avon. Our tour guide had told us that this was a great spot for taking photos of Pulteney Bridge, a historic bridge in Bath that dates back to the late 18th century.

True enough, this was an awesome vantage point and we took many great photos of the bridge here.

Parade Gardens

We also saw the beautiful Parade Gardens from here. This scenic public garden is home to pretty flower displays.

However, when we got to the entrance of the gardens, we realised that we had to pay an entry fee of £2 for this “public garden”.

The garden looked like a nice and beautiful place to relax, but we decided to skip it because we were on a tight schedule.

River Avon

Instead, we decided to walk along the River Avon for a short while.

Bath Buns Rivalry

Sally Lunn Bun

Bath Bun

By now, we had already spent about 2.5 hours in Bath.

Before heading back to our coach, we went to check out the two famous “Bath Buns”: one is the Bath Bun sold by The Bath Bun Tea Shoppe, while the other is the Sally Lunn Bun sold by Sally Lunn’s Historic Eating House and Museum.

These two famous buns are often pitted against each other, and I was curious to find out which one actually tasted better.

My pick was the huge Sally Lunn Bun, which I found to be more fragrant and fluffy. The Bath Bun tasted just like any other sweet bun.

Beautiful Bath Architecture

Bath is home to plenty of beautiful Georgian architecture, and it was a pity that we did not manage to visit iconic landmarks such as the Royal Crescent and the Circus. However, I managed to take some pretty photos of other spots in the city.

Bus Ride To Stonehenge

After a pleasant morning exploring Bath, we boarded the coach again for a one-hour ride to Stonehenge.

I initially wanted to take public transport from London to Stonehenge, since that would allow for more time and flexibility to explore the attraction.

However, I soon realised that it would be a very long journey that entailed taking a train to Salisbury (1.5 hours) before transferring to another tour bus for Stonehenge (30 minutes).

In addition, the total cost of the train tickets, bus tickets and admission fees would also be very expensive.

I realised out that a more feasible way would be to book a guided tour with Evan Evans Tour, which would also include a trip to Bath.

Compared to making our own way there, the guided tour was significantly more convenient, efficient, and affordable.

Stonehenge Audioguide

While on the bus, our tour guide handed us a laminated map of Stonehenge, along with a nifty audioguide.

She then taught us to point the audioguide at different sections of the map, which would trigger an explanation of that respective section on the audioguide. There were even different languages available.

I was impressed by this technology and quickly began using the audioguide to find out more about Stonehenge.

I spent most of the bus ride listening to the audioguide, even though it was actually meant to be listened to while walking around the Stonehenge.

This was because I knew we would only have limited time to explore Stonehenge later. Therefore, I wanted to learn as much as possible while I had the time.

Stonehenge Shuttle Bus

After about one hour, we reached the Stonehenge Visitor Centre. There were some interesting Stonehenge-related exhibitions here, but we didn’t have time to explore these.

Our tour guide had informed us that we only had 1.5 hours here, and reminded us to return to the coach on time because it would leave on the dot.

Therefore, from the visitor centre, we went straight to the shuttle bus pickup point, where we took a small bus for about 200 metres to the Stonehenge. We didn’t have to buy any tickets because they were already covered by the cost of our tour.

After a short 5-minute ride through the lush plains, we alighted from the bus. We saw the Stonehenge in the distance and excitedly walked towards it.

Stonehenge

Stonehenge is a man-made circle of massive standing stones in Wiltshire, England. Having known about this mysterious monument since young, it was a very special and surreal moment for me to finally see it in person.

Based on archaeological evidence, this was probably the most sacred site for ancient people in Britain for thousands of years.

I looked at the prehistoric monument and imagined druids draped in white robes performing mysterious rituals within the stone circle.

Unfortunately, many of the stones have either fallen over or been moved from the site. It was a little sad to see the monument in such a state of ruin.

I had also imagined the stones to be bigger. In reality, the largest stones were about 4 metres tall.

That is still a huge size  of course, and till today we still do not know exactly how the prehistoric builders transported some of these super heavy stones.

Walking Around Stonehenge

After taking many photos of Stonehenge, the wife and I began walking on the circular path around the monument. There were many interesting information boards along the way.

We saw various Stonehenge attractions like the Station Stone, Round Barrows, Slaughter Stone, Avenue, and Heel Stone.

The Heel Stone is a large block of sarsen stone that weighs around 35 tons and stands at 4.7 metres tall. It was interesting to learn that the Heel Stone, Stonehenge and Avenue are aligned with the midsummer sunrise and midwinter sunset. This further proves that Stonehenge had special ritual significance.

Interestingly, I saw some sheep grazing on the fields near the Heel Stone.

For more information, you can check out my detailed guide of Stonehenge.

Going Back to London

Souvenir shop at the Visitor Centre

By this point, the wife and I had walked one complete round around the Stonehenge, which took us about one hour.

We walked to the shuttle bus pickup point to catch our ride back to the Stonehenge Visitor Centre. There were many people queueing but luckily we managed to board the first bus that arrived.

There were some Stonehenge memorabilia on sale at the Visitor Centre but we weren’t really interested. We headed straight to our coach for our two-hour ride back to London.

Stonehenge and Bath Day Tour Itinerary

Time	Activity
8.30am	Victoria Coach Station to Bath
11am	Explore Bath
2pm	Bath to Stonehenge
3pm	Explore Stonehenge
4.30pm	Stonehenge to London
6.30pm	London

Conclusion

The wife and I enjoyed our Stonehenge and Bath day tour with Evan Evans Tours very much. The guided tour was very well organised, and our tour guide was friendly and knowledgable. The only downside was that the tour schedule was rather tight, but that was expected since we were visiting two attractions in one day.