Five ways to reach the stones from this port, and the one that decides value is not the fare. It is whether the entry ticket is inside it and whether the day ends back at your ship.
Ninety minutes at the stones with the entry ticket inside the fare, plus Salisbury and two hours at Windsor. Ends in London or at Heathrow rather than back at the port.
From $237 per person
Free cancellation up to 24 hours ahead.
The shortest coach that includes the Stonehenge entry ticket. Six hours, port to London, with your cases in the hold and drop-offs at both London addresses and Heathrow.
From $188 per person
Free cancellation up to 24 hours ahead.
Five hours out and back in a private car, an hour at Salisbury Cathedral and ninety minutes at the stones. Admission is bought separately at both. Priced for the vehicle, not the seat.
From $592 per group, up to 3
Free cancellation up to 24 hours ahead.
The shortest way to the stones and back: two and a half hours with a driver-guide, starting any time between seven and seven. Car park and ferry fees covered; entry tickets are yours.
From $289 per person
Free cancellation up to 24 hours ahead.
A Heathrow transfer with the stones folded into it, three to four hours for a vehicle carrying up to seven. The listing names no entry ticket either way, so confirm that before you travel.
From $805 per group, up to 7
Free cancellation up to 24 hours ahead.
The stones are closer to Southampton than to London, and the shortest run there and back takes two and a half hours.
Check availabilityForty miles west across Salisbury Plain, with no direct bus and no rail station near the site. Every option here solves that with a vehicle, and what separates them is whether the entry ticket is inside the fare and whether the day ends back at the port.
Two are coaches that continue to London. Three are private cars, two of which return you to Southampton and one of which drops at Heathrow. Nothing here is a walk-up proposition: the site is timed-entry and the road is the only way to it.
Forty miles from the docks against ninety from the capital. That is why the shortest tour here is two and a half hours and the London equivalents run most of a day.
Three of these start and finish in Southampton, which is the only shape that works when your vessel sails the same evening. The London day trips cannot do that at all.
English Heritage sells Stonehenge as a timed ticket in three tiers with no single published adult price, so a fare that already covers it removes a genuine unknown from your budget.
One of these starts at seven in the morning. Arriving as the site opens puts you there before the coach parties out of London have reached the plain, which changes the experience more than any other decision.
A vehicle kept to your party means somewhere to sit out a shower on open chalk downland with no shelter of any kind. One traveller changed out of soaked clothes in the van before continuing to the airport.
The comparison that decides where to book, and the answer depends entirely on where you are staying rather than on the tours themselves.
| From Southampton | From London | |
|---|---|---|
| Distance to the stones | About 40 miles | About 90 miles |
| Shortest option | 2h30 out and back | Most of a day |
| Returns you to a ship | Three of the five do | No |
| Entry ticket included | On the two coaches | Usually |
| Time at the stones | 90 minutes on the coaches | Typically 90 minutes |
| Suits | Cruise passengers | Visitors based in London |
| From | From $188 per person | Not sold here |
Check availability from From $188
All five include the vehicle and the driver. Two include the Stonehenge entry ticket. Two state in their own exclusions that admission is not covered. One names neither, and for that one the honest answer is to ask the operator and buy the ticket yourself.
None of them includes Salisbury Cathedral admission, which is £12.50 booked ahead or £14.50 on the day and lasts a year. None includes food. None includes the Stone Circle Access experience that puts you inside the ring — that is a separate English Heritage product sold outside normal opening hours.
Buy the entry ticket online in advance whichever tour you take, because booking ahead saves up to fifteen per cent and the entry is timed. Last entry is 4pm from late March to early September and 3pm the rest of the year, so an afternoon start is tighter than it looks.
Fares run from From $289 per person for the shortest out-and-back to From $805 for a seven-seat vehicle to Heathrow. Two of these buy the whole vehicle rather than a seat, so work the sum for your party size before comparing the numbers. The road distances are on the map page.
It is timed, sold in three tiers and up to fifteen per cent cheaper booked online, whichever of these you take.
See the private out-and-backAnyone who wants to walk among the stones. General admission keeps you on a path about ten metres out, and no fare here buys the after-hours access that goes inside the circle. If that is the trip you want, book it directly with English Heritage and build the day around the slot you are given.
Anyone whose ship is only in port for a few hours. Even the shortest option is two and a half hours before you count getting out of the docks, so a window under four hours is better spent on the post cruise tour from Southampton to London that stay inside the city — those are on the walking tours page.
And anyone already based in London for several days. You will see the same stones from either end, and doing it from a Southampton port day only makes sense because you happen to be closer. Everything from this port sits together on Southampton Tours.