Visiting Stonehenge
Summary
World famous . . . druids . . . very old . . . major cultural significance . . . yes, yes, yes . . . but it’s basically a small circle of stones. Its a must see in the sense that if you are driving by its worth jumping out to see, and, credit where credit is due, the new makeover has created a far better and more immersive experience compared to what it used to be . . . and, well, lets face it, you’re going to want to see it anyway. But, be prepared for it to be a bit underwhelming
3 Travel Tips
Top tip #1 – all of the above being said, the way that Stonehenge would deliver a truly unique and super fun experience would be if you joined for the summer solstice celebration party. Floating around with a bunch of temporary pagans and contemplating your existence over a 24 hour celebration sounds brilliant fun
Top tip #2 – the experience may feel more special if you get to walk into the inner circle itself. To do so you need to book way ahead and £64 per person. Would be cool though
Top tip #3 – if you’ve made it this far in search of ritual stone circles, be sure to also check out the nearby Avebury Stone Circle. It is far larger than Stonehenge (diameter of 350m / 1140ft), older (dating from 2500-2200BC), is free and has very few tourists. 60 of the original 144 stones are still clearly visible and you can see them easily in the straightforward walk through the local village and nearby hills. Only 35min drive from Stonehenge
Experiences nearby
The below map shows experiences nearby with a colour that reflect the Overall Score of those experiences
Other Famous Ancient Ruin Experiences
Score Detail
Background - how many times have you asked someone what a travel experience was like and the response was "amazing" or "awesome"? That response is nice to know, but it makes it hard to differentiate that experience compared to others. That is exactly what these scores are trying to do - differentiate the experience by giving a score out of 10 based on 6 categories and then giving an overall experience score
This overall experience score is calculated by: take the highest of the "Culture" or "Nature" score (1-10) + "Fun factor" (1-10) + "Avoiding the crowds" (1-10) + highest of the "Unique" or "World Famous score" (1-10). Then convert into a score out of 100
Extra detail - the logic being that I find all of the 6 individual scores important, but I don't want to mark an experience down just because it doesn't cover both "Culture" and "Nature", or because it isn't both "World Famous" and "Unique". Take the examples of Safari in The Serengeti and walking through Rome - they both appeal at opposite ends of the nature / culture spectrum, and you can have a fantastic time without needing to appeal to both sides. So, their overall scores aren't penalized for their lack of one or the other, and I've done the same for "World Famous" vs "Unique". But . . . I do think that the "Fun factor" of an experience is important, irrelevant of other factors, and so is "Avoiding the Crowds" (or where there are crowds that add to the experience). So, both of these scores are standalone