Exploring the History of Windsor Castle, Stonehenge & Bath: Our London Day Tour Review

Everyone has heard of Stonehenge and it is one of the most famous sites in the world, but realistically in the photos it doesn’t look that special.  But it is one of those travel bucket lists; something you should see if you are in England.  When planning our itinerary and doing some research, I came across a tour on Get Your Guide that included Windsor Castle, Stonehenge and Bath.  It was costly ($600 CAD) for two adults, and our baby was free, but it had good ratings and was a full 12-hour day where you got to see a lot.  You could customize the tour and pay less if you didn’t want entrance in the above 3 attractions, then you’d just explore the towns, but we decided it was worth it and booked the full package.

It was going to be a long day; we had a lot of miles to travel and a lot of sites to explore.  We loaded up on snacks and had to get to Victoria Street Coach station at 7:00 AM because the tour was going to leave at 7:30. To save some time, we took a quick Uber to the station instead of the train.  We got there bought a quick convenience store breakfast, waited around a bit and were off.

Windsor Castle

We had a lot of driving to do but our guide was informative and interesting throughout the ride.  And luckily the bus was roomy, it had AC and a washroom.  Our first stop was Windsor Castle.  We drove through Windsor, a cool little town and queued up to get into Windsor Castle.  Windsor Castle is the oldest and largest occupied castle in the world, so you have to go through “airport like” security to enter.  It wasn’t really as strict as the airport and we were actually in quickly.  Windsor Castle was cool and had a ton of interesting history.  It was built in 1070 by William the Conqueror and was meant to defend London from attacks from the West.  It was a favorite castle of the Royals, being close enough to London, but far enough away from the pollution.   There were also several significant battles and it was and is one of the homes for the royal families, still to this day.  Because of this we were not allowed to film or take photos inside but believe me when I say the place was impressive.  But even from the outside the castle grounds are impressive which you can see in the photos.

We had about an hour and a half to explore and were warned to make it out before the changing of the guard ceremony, otherwise we’d be locked in and risk missing the bus.  So, we wasted no time, we decided to skip the line for the audio tour and explore on our own.  We explored the State Rooms which were quite amazing.  There were a million fireplaces, paintings and a lot of cool weapons and armor on display.  There was security throughout, but we had to act as security on our own as our daughter tried jumping on the royal bed and the throne at one point.  She ran around and wanted to climb on everything, especially if it was off limits.  We skipped Queen Mary’s Doll house and headed to the cafeteria for a snack and a quick beer, it’s a long day with not a lot of time to eat lunch.  We then headed to St. George’s Chapel, again we weren’t allowed to film but the architecture is quite cool and many of the monarchs were laid to rest here.  We saw Queen Elizabeth’s tomb and even King Henry VIII.

We were strapped for time and tried to rush but got stuck in the castle grounds for the changing of the guard.  We had witnessed the ceremony at Buckingham Palace the day prior and didn’t care to see this one but we were out of luck.  It was better than Buckingham Palace because it wasn’t as crowded and we had a good view.  The only problem was people kept walking on the grass despite large and clear signs saying not to, and the ceremony was put on pause on several occasions with one of the security guards angrily at the tourists.  Luckily for us other travelers were stuck inside, and we only ended up being a few minutes late to the bus.  We were the 2^nd last group to get back to the bus and we were on our way.

Stonehenge

Now it was time for a long ride to Stonehenge.  Our guide provided a lot of information on the way and despite being exhausted I only dozed off a few times.  Stonehenge dates back more than 5 000 years and the area of Wiltshire has human history dating back 10 000 years.  It is believed this area was where the first people in England originated. While most of England was covered by forests at one time, the area was a natural plain because of the chalk layer underneath the soil which made it hard for forests to grow,

Surrounding Stonehenge were ditches where 50 peoples remains dating back thousands of years ago were found.  There were also post holes with 8 000 year old wooden remnants found surrounding the site.  The reason and origin of the wooden posts being unknown.   Just like the posts there is lots of mystery surrounding Stonehenge.  We know when it was built and out of what, but why and by whom is still in question.  What is known is that the rocks are between 2 and 8 tons, most coming from Wales and some coming from as far as Northern Scotland.   It is amazing that during the Stone Age, without the use of metal tools, the people were able to bring the stones so far and assemble them so perfectly.  What is known is that there was a burial tomb there and the arrangement of the stones is astronomical, as they are aligned perfectly with the Winter and Summer Eclipses.

Our guide explained how some people are extremely fascinated by Stonehenge, while others just see it as it is, a bunch of rocks in a field.  Learning history was interesting and seeing Stonehenge up close, wasn’t amazing, but it was quite cool.  We also got to see the huts that the ancient people of the area would have lived in and saw how they were able to move the stones. 

Beware, if you are going to Stonehenge on your own, you’ll need to walk quite a far distance from the carpark or you can pay to ride in one of the electric shuttle busses.  The shuttle buses are the only vehicles allowed close to Stonehenge to help preserve the stones, which weren’t always so well protected.

Roman Bath’s in the Town of Bath

The final stop of the day was to the UNESCO World Heritage Site of Bath.  Bath is not a heritage site because of the Roman Baths but actually because of the history of the town and the architecture.  The town is quite charming and it’s interesting because all of the Georgian style buildings need to be built of the same locally quarried limestone.  The buildings of the town are virtually all the same colour… it sounds boring but it looks quite nice.

Back to the history, when the Romans occupied England, Bath was one of their favorite towns because of their love for  public baths and the naturally occurring hot springs of the town which allowed it all to be possible.  But after the fall of the Roman Empire, the town was left unattended and with several changing empires and building styles, the baths were built over, only to be rediscovered over 1000 years later.  When discovered in the 17^th century, Bath became very popular during the Georgian period for British aristocrats.  The water was believed to have healing powers and people would drink it by the liter to cure all sorts of ailments, not realizing it was actually bad for them.  It was a town for the rich and was filled with lavish parties.  Now it is a UNESCO heritage site and a cool town to visit.

Honestly, this was the one attraction we could have saved money on.  We shouldn’t have paid for entrance into the Roman Bath and should have just spent more time exploring on our own.  The museum and Roman Baths were cool, but nothing spectacular.  It was also hard to listen and learn with our girl running around like a madwoman.  And it just wasn’t that interesting; the history of the town was more fascinating to me.  One cool thing was you get to try the water, but only a class, not by the liter.  It tasted like warm penny water.  Anyways, we rushed through and managed to have time to go for a quick, and excellent, ice cream before heading onto the bus for a long bus ride back to London.