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DISCOVER THE GREAT WEST WAY: PRIVATE GUIDED TOURS / TRANSFERS 2021
The Great West Way is a new sightseeing route, stretching between London and Bristol. It follows a 125 mile route based on the one of the first Great Roads commissioned by the Kings of England.
Get off the beaten track to discover the towns and villages that make up this diverse meandering path through southern England.
It’s for slow travellers just as interested in the journey, and the colourful characters encountered along the way. And the big adventures that lead to unexpected diversions. The long-awaited pilgrimage to Stonehenge, perhaps, that leads to the secret stones of Avebury and 4,000 years of history you never knew existed. It’s about saying yes to new experiences and delighting in smaller, simple, special things – as well as the superlatives
5 reasons to visit the new Great West Way from London to Bristol
The Great English Countryside
The stately homes (and impressive castles)
The vibrant and varied culture
Cosy pubs
The picture-perfect villages
We offer private customised guided tours / transfers departing from London, Salisbury, Bath and Bristol following the Great West Way. These are ideal for individuals, families and small groups visiting the area. Our custom guided tours can be full day, overnight or even 3 – 5 day tours. We have many years experience and would be delighted to assist with your travel plans. Drop us an email with group size, anticipated travel dates and we wll send some options and prices.
Great West Road Links:
Visit Britain
DISCOVER THE GREAT WEST WAY
Visit Wiltshire
Wanderlust
The Stonehenge Travel and Tour Company
Stonehenge and Salisbury Guided Tours
The Local Experts
A chance to meet Stonehenge ancestors. Neolithic long barrow burial mound discovered between Stonehenge and Avebury.
A “house of the dead” dating from more than 5,000 years ago could contain the remains of the ancestors of people who lived around Stonehenge, archaeologists have said.
A Neolithic long barrow burial mound in a place known as Cat’s Brain is being excavated by University of Reading experts and students UNIVERSITY OF READING/PA
A Neolithic long barrow burial mound in a place known as Cat’s Brain, in the Vale of Pewsey, Wiltshire, is being excavated by experts and students from the University of Reading in the first full investigation of such a monument in the county for 50 years.
The barrow, which is in the middle of a farmer’s field halfway between the important monuments of Avebury and Stonehenge, was spotted by aerial photography and assessed by geophysical survey imagery.
It consists of two ditches flanking what may be a central building covered with a mound made of the earth…
Stonehenge Travel Co, Salisbury, Wiltshire
Was Avebury Stone Circle a Square: Wiltshire Avebury neolithic ‘stone square circle’ discovered.
An ancient “square stone circle” has been discovered under the Neolithic stones at Avebury in Wiltshire.
The “surprising find”, which is 30m (98ft) wide, was made by archaeologists from Leicester and Southampton University.
The square of megaliths also appears to have been erected around the remains of a Neolithic house, which sat at the centre of the colossal stone circle.
The archaeological survey revealed a unique square megalithic monument at the heart of the World Heritage Site
It is thought to be one of the site’s earliest structures.
The discovery of previously unknown megaliths inside the monument has been greeted as a “great surprise”.
Read the full story on the BBC website
Join us on a Stonehenge and Avebury guided tour and hear all about this new theory
The Stonehenge Travel and Tour Company
The Local Stone Circle Experts
The Great West Way: Wiltshire to star in long-distance touring route.
VisitWiltshire has secured funding for its plan to create one of the world’s long-distance touring routes between London and Bristol with about a quarter being in Wiltshire.
Avebury is one of the World Heritage destinations to be highlighted on the Great West Way
The project is currently operating under the working title of ‘The Great West Way’, and aims to create a world class tourism experience, winning new business and market share for Britain, raising awareness, boosting the visitor economy and transforming the visitor experience along and around the route.
‘The Great West Way’ is one of a number of successful projects to receive funding from the £40m Discover England Fund administered by VisitEngland.
It is a Government-funded programme of activity aimed at offering world-class English tourism products to the right customers at the right time and will be supported by match funding from partners in the public and private sectors.
VisitWiltshire is leading on the project with a £250,000 grant to be spent between October and March 31, 2017.
The project will include:
- Concept testing and case study analysis
- An environmental assessment and economic impact study
- Developing a brand proposition and messaging for the route
- Developing new pilot itineraries for launch in key target markets.
Those supporting the bid include Local Enterprise Partnerships and towns along the route, transport operators, arts and heritage organisations, World Heritage Sites and Areas of Outstanding Natural Beauty, tour operators, guiding companies and a wide range of tourism businesses.
Sally Balcombe, VisitEngland chief executive, said: “We had an exceptionally high number of submissions far outweighing the allocated funding available and following a rigorous applications process we are delighted to work closely with those excellent winners on building world-class ‘bookable’ tourism products showcasing the best of England to international and domestic visitors.
“VisitWiltshire’s project will test the concept of a long-distance touring route in England that will promote places to visit and stay and feature an outstanding, high quality local food and drink offer, providing visitors with a new and exciting experience of rural England.”
And David Andrews, chief executive of VisitWiltshire, said: “We are delighted to have secured funding for this project, and particularly pleased that it has been so well received by so many partners.
“We now have the opportunity to open up a new touring corridor to encourage visitors to travel west of London, creating compelling road, rail, canal, cycling and walking tourism experiences.
“For an international visitor, this route presents many of England’s most iconic attractions – London, Bristol and Bath, the Stonehenge and Avebury World Heritage Site, Windsor, Castle Combe, Lacock and the Cotswolds.
“The aim of the project is to encourage visitors to tour and explore more of the region using a range of new itineraries to experience less-well known areas, slowing and lengthening visits.
“This new project will create a new and exciting addition to England’s existing tourism offer.”
The Discover England Fund was announced by the Government in November 2015, which is aimed at supporting tourism partly through joined-up geographies, themes and transport.
Article by Bruno Clements Wiltshire Times
The Stonehenge Travel Company
Stonehenge and Salisbury Guided Tours
Stonehenge VIP Private Access Trips: Custom tours departing from Salisbury, Bath and Southampton.
Exclusive Private Guided Stonehenge Inner Circle Tours. Ideal for individuals, families and small groups.
In the evening after Stonehenge is closed to the public, or at dawn before it is open, we can arrange exclusive private access for you to visit this awe-inspiring prehistoric monument and walk among the giant sarsen stones towering 6.4 m high and weighing up to 50 tonnes. Go beyond the fences & after the crowds have gone home. Walk amongst the stones & experience the magical atmosphere within the inner circle.
Our local expert Stonehenge tour guides are considered as the very best in Wiltshire!
Our custom special access tours visit Stonehenge in the early morning (sunrise) or evening (sunset). Walk amongst the stones and stand within the stone circle!
Join a local expert on our VIP Stonehenge guided tours
Normal viewing only permits access from the path that surrounds the circle. Stonehenge dates from 3100BC, and you will be walking where very few people have access. Your guide will explain some of the theories behind this amazing feat of Prehistoric construction.
A unique photo opportunity….
Explore the beautiful Wiltshire countryside in the luxury of your own private car, MPV or mini bus, enjoying the knowledge and expertise of our professional Stonehenge guide.
Our private access tours can also include Bath, Highclere Castle (Downton Abbey), Salisbury Cathedral, Windsor Castle, Winchester, Avebury Sone Circle, Silbury Hill, Lacock Village, Glastonbutu, The Cotswolds or where ever you want to visit. Many of our clients choosing to depart from one location and be dropped off in another
Tour / Transfer example itineraries;
Depart Southampton | Visit Stonehenge, Bath and Salisbury. Ending in London.
Depart Bath | Visit Stonehenge, Salisbury and perhaps Windsor Castle. Ending in London.
Depart London | Visit Stonehenge, Salisbury, Avebury. Ending in Bath.
Depart Salisbury | Visit Stonehenge, Avebury, Lacock, The Cotswolds. Ending in Bath
the list goes on…………
Stonehenge Private Tour Prices departing from Salisbury, Southampton and Bath.
Passengers Price
Medium Car up to 2 from £245.00
Large car up to 5 from £345.00
Extra large up to 8 from £445.00
Minibus up to 16 from £695.00
We are pleased to offer this service from London, Bath, Oxford, Salisbury and all U.K airports / seaports
Visit our website for more tour information or contact us today. Tours@StonehengeTravel.co.uk
Approved VisitWitltshire Member
The Stonehenge and Salisbury Guided Tour Company
http://www.StonehengeTravel.co.uk
tours@stonehengetravel.co.uk
Archaeology Day Tours of Wiltshire’s World Heritage Sites.
Stonehenge and Avebury form part of an UNESCO World Heritage Site which stands testament to the ages. The explanations behind why the sites are located where they are and what their exact purposes are still remain a mystery to this day with a magnetism that has drawn people to them for centuries.
We are pleased to offer exclusive Archaeology Tours visiting both Stonehenge and Avebury throughout 2016. We believe we offer an excellent up-to-date specialist service; giving you the opportunity to learn in great detail about these amazing prehistoric sites, but also leaving you time to explore your surroundings by yourself.
Stonehenge, Avebury and Bath Guided Tour from London
Britian’s most beautiful landscapes
Tour Leaders are qualified archaeologists
Walk the paths of ritual specialists and builders of Britain’s most fascinating and awe-inspiring prehistoric sites, at Stonehenge and Avebury.
Explore the Roman and Georgian history of Bath.
Guaranteed small groups 8 – 18 participants.
This feature-packed archaeological tour takes in the iconic stone circles of Stonehenge
Small Group Guided Tour of Avebury
and Avebury and a delightful break in the beautiful Roman city of Bath.
Leaving from London by luxury mini coach, this Stonehenge tour will explore its iconic standing stones with expert analysis by a trained archaeologist. Nearby Avebury is an even more impressive site, covering a much wider area and you will also encounter Neolithic burial tombs and the less visited ancient site of Woodhenge.
Mid-day is spent in gorgeous Bath offering history of a different era. There are colorful remnants of its glorious Roman past to see and regency mansion houses from Georgian times. The famous Roman baths are a must see.
Guided tour itinerary:
The morning starts with a visit to Durrington Walls and Woodhenge, home to the ‘Stonehenge Builder’s’ village and the most convincing evidence for human sacrifice. We then travel a short distance to Stonehenge. We enjoy a leisurely paced walk through the landscape immediately surrounding Stonehenge, visiting the Stonehenge Cursus, Bronze Age burial mounds and walk along the Stonehenge Avenue. We complete our morning at Stonehenge with a guided walk around the stone circle, our archaeologists bringing to life this enigmatic, ancient and mysterious monument.
At mid-day we arrive at the beautiful Georgian city of Bath. Here we allow our guests aprox 2 hours to enjoy the centre of this city, famous for Jane Austen, Bath Abbey and the Roman Baths. We also use this opportunity for our guests to have lunch.
We conclude our visit to Bath with a coach tour of the most impressive examples of architecture Bath has to offer, visiting the Assembly Rooms, Royal Circus and Royal Crescent.
The Afternoon is spent at the Avebury World Heritage Landscape. We visit Silbury Hill, the largest man-made hill in prehistoric Europe. We enter the 5500 year old burial chamber of West Kennet Long Barrow, entering a sacred space originally reserved only for ritual specialists and the dead.
We finish by visiting the largest stone circle in Europe at Avebury, with its beautiful medieval village situated inside. As John Aubrey in the 1600’s notes [Avebury]…”does as much exceed in greatness the so renowned Stonehenge as a Cathedral doeth a parish church.”
Please also note as part of the Stonehenge, Salisbury and Avebury Archaeologist Guided Tour, the detailed walk around the Stonehenge Cursus, Stonehenge Avenue and Bronze Age burial mounds only runs between March to October, this is due to time restrictions in the winter months
View 2016 Tour Departures and book now
We also offer a Stonehenge, Bath and Salisbury guided tour
Bringing History Alive……………..
Links:
STONEHENGE & AVEBURY WORLD HERITAGE SITE
VISIT WILTSHIRE WORLD HERITAGE SITE INFORMATION
Stonehenge and Salisbury Guided Tours
The Stonehenge Travel and Tour Company
http://www.StonehengeTravel.co.uk
Visit Avebury Stone Circle, Wiltshire
Situated in southern England in the county of Wiltshire the village of Avebury is close to two small streams….the Winterbourne and the Sambourne which unite to form the source of the River Kennet. After being re-inforced by a number of springs this beautiful English river rapidly gains in stature as it passes through the North Wessex Downs on its way to Reading where it eventually flows into the River Thames of which it has become the main tributary. The waters of the Kennet therefore pass through London before reaching their ultimate destination in the North Sea.
Small Group Guided Tour of Avebury
Around 4,500 years ago, when the site of England’s capital was a thinly inhabited marshland, the area around Avebury almost certainly formed the Neolithic equivalent of a city. By coincidence this waterway has become a link between the two largest cultural centres of their day to have ever existed in the British Isles. As London now contains most of England’s largest buildings Avebury is the location of the mightiest megalithic complex to have ever been constructed in Britain. This henge with its enormous ditch, bank, stones and avenues survives in a much depleted state but the nearby Silbury Hill which is the largest man-made mound in pre-industrial Europe still dominates the surrounding landscape. The two largest surviving British long barrows of West Kennet and East Kennet are also prominent a short distance away and in recent years the remains of two massive palisaded enclosures have also been found. The quote that antiquarian John Aubrey made of Avebury……”it does as much exceed in greatness the so renowned Stonehenge as a Cathedral doeth a parish church” recognises the true importance of what has now been largely absorbed into the modern landscape of Wiltshire. If we could return to the time when the Romans occupied the British Isles it is a sobering thought that we would have to go back as far again to find an Avebury that was already several centuries old.
The history of the modern village is inevitably linked to the prehistoric monuments that surround it. Abandoned for several thousand years the land around the stones became occupied once more when people of the Saxon period began to settle in the area. Their arrival and subsequent development of the present village was to have a dramatic effect on the history of the stones. The relationship between the local inhabitants and the monuments has now added an unfortunate dimension to the Avebury story that helps make it one of the most fascinating historical sites to be found in the British Isles if not the world.
It remains a magical place as so many who have been there will agree. A visit to Avebury is a very personal event. It still seems to retain, somehow, the spirits of all those who laboured in its creation or whatever it was that led them to create it. If you have never been there a visit will not be an empty experience. You will come away with a head full of questions and probably a realisation that somewhere over the years modern society has lost something important.
The Stonehenge Travel company operate guided tours of Avebury and Stonehenge departing from Salisbury.
Avebury links:
http://www.avebury-web.co.uk/avebury_now.html
http://www.english-heritage.org.uk/visit/places/avebury/
http://www.nationaltrust.org.uk/avebury
http://www.visitwiltshire.co.uk/things-to-do/avebury-stone-circle-and-avebury-manor-and-garden-p134483
Stonehenge and Salisbury Guided Tours
Mystical County, Magical Tours…..
www.StonehengeTravel.co.uk
Salisbury Museum Festival of Archaeology Planned in Salisbury. July 2015
Salisbury Museum, home of the Wessex Gallery of Archaeology, is hosting a new Festival of Archaeology during the weekend of 18/19 July 2015.
The grand opening of the new Wessex Gallery attracted 2,241 visitors in the space of 6 hours on the 12th July last year. The
Wessex gallery grand opening
gallery is beautifully designed to display many important finds from the Stonehenge World Heritage sites and England’s “Valley of the Kings”.
Alex Langlands, archaeologist and presenter of BBC TV’s Wartime Farm said, “With Stonehenge, Avebury, Old Sarum and the cathedral at Salisbury, there are few counties in the south of England that boast a better line up of archaeological sites. However, as an archaeologist, the real jewel in the crown for me is the Salisbury Museum.
“Following enthusiastic responses to the Wessex Gallery from both public and press, the museum has planned this larger Festival, fuelled by a passionate ambition to inspire further public engagement in archaeology. The Wessex Gallery, led by energetic museum Director Adrian Green, has set its sites to become a major international resource at the centre of England’s ancient archaeological heartland.
“The Festival falls within the ‘Digging Season’ and before the schools summer holidays. The weekend will include presentations and lectures, set against a big showground event. Leading figures in the British archaeology community will be present to debate, make presentations and engage with the public.
“Tucked away in the cathedral close, the Salisbury Museum is an absolute treasure trove of archaeological goodies. In particular, the Wessex Gallery is a hugely impressive exhibition that will have any visitor beguiled. I’m really looking forward to the Festival weekend that the museum is hosting.”
Full article in the Blackmore Vale
Stonehenge and Salisbury Guided Tours
The Stonehenge Travel Company
http://www.StonehengeTravel.co.uk
Stonehenge and Salisbury Guided Tours 