Bath In a Day? With Stonehenge?

Hi,

When in Southampton pre-cruise we would like to take a train to Bath and Stonehenge. Would it be possible to see the Roman Baths, Fashion Museum and Victorian Art Gallery in a day? Should we make Stonehenge a separate day, or could it all be fit into the one day? I suspect this is pushing it and not giving enough time in Bath to explore, but we have lots of energy and it would free up a day for something else!

Thanks for any info!

I wouldn't recommend squeezing it all into one day, but depending on your day/date it's possible.

If you check the opening hours for the various sights you'll see that the hours vary during the year.

In particular, 16 June to 31 August the Roman Baths are open til 10pm (last entry 9pm). So between those dates it's relatively easy..............

Train from Southampton Central station at 8.37am gets you to Salisbury at 9.15.

Stonehenge ho-ho from the station forecourt at 9.30 (buy your Stonehenge tickets from the driver - those tickets bypass the need to pre-book timed tickets) gets you to Stonehenge at 10.03am.

Depart Stonehenge on the ho-ho at 11.43, gets you back to Salisbury station at 12.15pm

Train from Salisbury at 12.40 gets you to Bath Spa station at 1.36pm.

Bath Spa station and all three venues are only a short walk apart, I guess an average of 10 mins each time.

Last admission to the Victorian Art Gallery is 4.40pm (you get chased out at 5pm), last admission to the Fashion Museum 5pm (out by 6pm), Roman Baths last admission 9pm (out by 10pm). You won't need to take anywhere near as long as that.

Then train back to Southampton.

So a long day, but perfectly feasible.

On other dates it's more difficult, and you'd probably do better to reverse the itinerary - go direct from Southampton to Bath, then get back to Salisbury in time for the last Stonehenge ho-ho. But I reckon you'll have to skip one of those Bath venues.

Again, its a matter of juggling train times (more limited on sundays), ho-ho times (start/finish/frequency vary during the year) and opening hours, so figure your itinerary or come back here with your dates.

Again dependent on your date - and your ship's latest registration time - it's possible to visit Stonehenge by train & ho-ho on the morning of your sailing.

There are the options of using a car service or renting a car, but it'd be difficult to keep the cost down to anywhere near using the train.

Whenever & however you do it you'll not have time for the historic city of Salisbury itself or its magnificent cathedral, and that'd be a shame.

If you took separate days for Bath & Salisbury/Stonehenge, what did you have in mind & have to sacrifice on that second day?

http://www.nationalrail.co.uk/

http://www.thestonehengetour.info/the-stonehenge-tour

http://www.english-heritage.org.uk/visit/places/stonehenge/plan-your-visit/

https://www.romanbaths.co.uk/opening-times

https://www.victoriagal.org.uk/visit

https://www.fashionmuseum.co.uk/about

JB :)

Thank you JB for the great info. I think we will separate out the two trips as you recommend. So it will be Salisbury and Stonehenge on Day 1 and Bath on Day 2. We were considering a trip into London originally, but we've been there a couple of times before so now I'm sold on taking two full pre-cruise days to see these other areas. The fashion museum in Bath looks very interesting. Any good ideas for restaurants that would be easy to get to in these areas or in Southampton?

Thanks again!

Thank you JB for the great info. I think we will separate out the two trips as you recommend. So it will be Salisbury and Stonehenge on Day 1 and Bath on Day 2. We were considering a trip into London originally, but we've been there a couple of times before so now I'm sold on taking two full pre-cruise days to see these other areas. The fashion museum in Bath looks very interesting. Any good ideas for restaurants that would be easy to get to in these areas or in Southampton?

Thanks again!

Fashion isn't my thing. All I know about fashion is to say "yes you look very nice in that"

For food, I can't help in Bath, been there many times but never stayed-over. TripAdvisor is your best bet.

But don't forget pubs - some have full-service restaurants, some have partial service eg order food & drink at the bar, some have beer gardens where you can eat outside. Pub prices tend to be lower - kinda important in Bath, which isn't a cheap city.

Being a tourist city, a lot of places add a service charge. It's perfectly normal not to add a tip on top of the service charge.

Salisbury is surprisingly limited for restaurants, my favourite Italian (scrummy tiramisu mmmmmmmm:cool:) closed a while back. But plenty of places for a lunchtime snack.

Southampton

In the West Quay / old town / waterfront area try

La Regata (Spanish) on Town Quay.

Two doors from there Ennio's (Italian).

Opposite Ennio's in the Royal Pier (onion-domed roof) is Kuti's (Thai, or they have an Indian outlet in Oxford Street).

Across the road from Kuti's, on the corner of Bugle Street, is The Dancing Man (pub/micro-brewery in Southampton's historic Wool House).

100 yards up Bugle Street beside the Dancing Man is the Duke of Wellington (historic pub, popular with CC members).

George's Greek restaurant (St Michael's Square) has been a Southampton restaurant for many decades. Boring/ugly 1970's building, unprepossessing surroundings but a warm welcome & excellent good-value food.

Not far from George's, in High Street, is the Red Lion pub - quite the opposite of George's because it's a fantastic old building but the food is a bit average.

We've eaten at all of those, perfectly happy with all of them.

And there's a big new foodie annexe to the West Quay Shopping Mall, between the Mall and the city wall - postal address Harbour Parade but known locally as The Forty Steps. It's been open about a year, more than a dozen restaurants many with outside seating and most serving what I call "trans-Atlantic" food. Have tried a couple but they're cloned chain restaurants, not our scene & attracting younger folk than us.

Southampton has plenty more & we can't eat at all of 'em ;), but sift some of those on their websites & on TripAdvisor

JB :)