London takes three days. England takes the other ten.
What the Stonehenge and Bath coach day really costs. Whether Oxford beats Cambridge on one spare afternoon. Which Beatles tour actually goes inside the houses. Reviews of every tour you can book in England.
- 01 Stonehenge and Bath Coach west at dawn, stones before the crowds. from $7
- 02 The Cotswolds Honey-coloured villages and a pub lunch. from $91
- 03 Windsor Castle State apartments and the Long Walk, an hour out. from $45
- 04 The Studio Tour Leavesden, the Great Hall, the platform. from $17
A stone circle, a castle, the Beatles and an Oxford quad.
The four bookings a first England trip tends to hang off. What each one costs, and what the travellers who took it say.
01The one big dayStonehenge, Windsor Castle, and Bath from LondonStonehenge, Windsor and Bath in a single run west. More travellers book this than anything else in the country.
02The Liverpool morningBeatles Magical Mystery TourPenny Lane, Strawberry Field and both childhood homes, on the bus that started the whole industry.
03The eveningLondon Small Group Tour of Historical PubsFour pubs with a historian attached. The Great Fire, the plague and the gin craze, told over a pint.
04The college afternoonOxford University Walking Tour With University Alumni GuideInside the quads with a graduate who lived in them. Oxford closes most of these doors to anyone else.
The days out more travellers take than anything else in England.
Every England tour review →One coach run west has topped this list for years. The rest is the river, a film studio, a Liverpool bus and a pub crawl with a historian attached.
1
Stonehenge, Windsor Castle, and Bath from London
Leave London at 8am for Windsor Castle, Stonehenge, and Bath with Evan Evans Tours. Your guide handles the route and commentary while you explore at each stop. Castle and Roman Baths admission depend on the option selected. Guides such as Simon, Rita, Peter, and Omar have been praised for clear stories and good humor, but the day moves fast.
From · $111
Read our review →
2
London Big Bus Hop-On Hop-Off Tour with Optional River Cruise
from $39
3
London Small Group Tour of Historical Pubs
from $40
4
Beatles Magical Mystery Tour
from $30
5
“Blue Route” – City & Beatles Tour
from $27
6
Stonehenge, Windsor Castle and Bath with Pub Lunch in Lacock
from $123
7
Oxford University Walking Tour With University Alumni Guide
from $41
8
Tower of London and Crown Jewels Exhibition Ticket
from $49
London, then the cities a two-hour train reaches.
The Thames and everything built along it, a Mersey waterfront that still sings, two university towns with punts on the river, a Georgian spa city and a walled city in the north. Six starting points, and the best day out in each.
Stones, a castle or the honey-coloured villages. Pick the day.
England’s famous days out leave central London before eight and have you back for dinner. Three kinds of run west, what it costs to board each one, and how far it takes you.
England is a walking country with a pub at the end of it.
Lanes the Great Fire missed, a Ripper alley at dusk, college quads open to visitors for an hour a day, and the Snickelways of York. Guides here talk for a living, and the good ones are worth every pound of the difference.
What a day out in England actually costs.
Every tour on the site, grouped by what it costs. A good number of the best English days come in under the price of a West End stalls seat.
City walks, audio guides, cathedral and castle entry, the river boat and most of the ghost walks.
The full-day standards: Stonehenge and Bath, the Cotswolds, Windsor and the run out to Leavesden.
Private guides, black-cab days and the inner-circle access that only opens outside visiting hours.
London: the river first, the ticket queues second.
Everything in London →
Start on the water, because the city was built to be seen from it. Then the Tower and the Abbey on timed entry, and an evening in pubs that have been pouring since before the Great Fire took the street next door.
Westminster to Greenwich by boat
The cheapest sightseeing in London and the only angle that makes sense of the place. Tower Bridge opens above you, Greenwich has the Cutty Sark and the meridian, and the pier is a short walk from both.
The Tower, and whether the Crown Jewels are worth the queue
A Yeoman Warder tour is included and it is the best thing in the building. The jewel house has a moving walkway and a queue that doubles by eleven, so the first slot of the day is the only calm one.
Historic pubs, and who still pours straight from the wood
Plague pits, the gin craze and the Great Fire, told across four bars that were standing for most of it. Drinks are usually extra, which is how the price stays where it is.
Three things that only happen in England.
Castles and cathedrals stand all over Europe. A neolithic stone circle you can walk into, the four streets a band grew up on, and a working film studio kept as a set do not.
Stonehenge
The stones went up in stages across fifteen hundred years, and the bluestones among them were dragged from west Wales, a hundred and forty miles away, by people with no wheel and no metal. The standard ticket keeps you on the path around the circle. Inner-circle access exists, runs before opening or after closing, and is booked months out.
- 1Stonehenge, Windsor Castle, and Bath from London★★★★★★★★★★ 4.5 · 18,662 reviews
- 2Stonehenge, Windsor Castle and Bath with Pub Lunch in Lacock★★★★★★★★★★ 4.5 · 7,402 reviews
- 3Stonehenge, Windsor Castle and Bath Full Day Guided Tour★★★★★★★★★★ 4.5 · 5,346 reviews
The Beatles at home
Four addresses do most of the work: Penny Lane, the Strawberry Field gate, and the small suburban houses where Paul McCartney and John Lennon grew up, both now National Trust properties with capped group sizes. The Magical Mystery Tour bus has been running since 1983 and the guides are Liverpudlians who treat the material as local history rather than legend.
- 1Beatles Magical Mystery Tour★★★★★★★★★★ 5.0 · 9,266 reviews
- 2“Blue Route” – City & Beatles Tour★★★★★★★★★★ 5.0 · 8,562 reviews
- 3The Beatles Story Experience Ticket★★★★★★★★★★ 4.5 · 1,393 reviews
The Warner Bros. Studio Tour
The soundstages north of Watford were never dismantled. The Great Hall, Diagon Alley, Gringotts and the Hogwarts Express platform stand where they were shot, with the original props and the model castle at the end. Everything is timed entry, nothing is sold at the door, and school holidays go weeks ahead.
- 1Tour for Muggles The Ultimate Harry Potter Walking Tour in London★★★★★★★★★★ 5.0 · 4,684 reviews
- 2Original Harry Potter Locations Tour – Guided Tour of London★★★★★★★★★★ 5.0 · 4,117 reviews
- 3Warner Bros. Studio Harry Potter Tour with Superior Transport from London★★★★★★★★★★ 4.0 · 2,073 reviews
Four English bookings that will not wait.
Most of this country can be arranged the night before over a pint. These four run on timed entry, studio capacity and a ceremony that starts whether you are standing there or not.
- 01Harry Potter Warner Bros. Studio Tour with Transport from LondonLeavesden is timed entry with no door sales. Holiday weeks go out weeks ahead and the transport add-on goes first.
- 02Tower of London and Crown Jewels Exhibition TicketThe Tower is timed entry and the jewel house queue doubles by mid-morning. The opening slot is the only quiet one.
- 03Stonehenge Inner Circle Private Tour from London with Bath VisitInner-circle access to the stones runs before opening or after closing, in small capped groups booked months out.
- 04Changing of the Guard Guided Walking Tour in LondonThe ceremony follows the Army calendar rather than the tourist one, and it is called off in heavy rain.
It will rain. Book the day that does not care.
Two grey hours turn every outdoor plan into a queue under an umbrella. The fix is the one Londoners already use: go inside and make a proper day of it. The national museums charge nothing, the matinees start at half two, and tea is served under a roof by definition.
Borough Market at eleven, a Soho pub round at six.
Eating here got good in the last twenty years and the tours caught up. Market stalls before the lunch crush, a historian-led crawl through four bars, and an afternoon tea that will happily be served on a moving bus.
York sells its ghosts honestly, and the walls are free.
The Minster, the Shambles and two miles of medieval wall you can walk in an hour without paying anyone. After dark the ghost walks take the streets, and the good ones are theatre rather than jump scares.
Every York day out →
Liverpool sends everyone to the same four addresses, and it still works.
Penny Lane, Strawberry Field and two terraced houses the National Trust now owns, then a dock that has had a second life as a waterfront. The Magical Mystery Tour is the one nearly everybody books and the one nearly everybody rates.
- 1Beatles Magical Mystery Tourfrom $30
- 2“Blue Route” – City & Beatles Tourfrom $27
- 3Liverpool City Sights Hop On Hop Off City Tour – 24hr Ticketfrom $19
By place, London and the rest of it
By kind of day, walk, coach, boat or ticket
London, Windsor, Stonehenge, Bath, Oxford, York: the run almost everybody does first.
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