Great place to visit. Clean toilets and cafe basic but ok. Staff helpful and coaches are a bonus to stones in hot or poor weather.
Thanks for leaving your review - we'll pass on your thoughts around the staff who, we know, will be glad to hear this!
Stonehenge is owned by the National Trust and managed by English Heritage, either membership will allow access. I made a huge mistake and left my National Trust card at home. Not to worry, it’s not the first time and the ticket office at other sites just checked out my details and let me in. Not the case here!! (I should add those other sites were NT and not EH). It was an invitation for the membership ticket clerk to tell me all the reasons why she was unable to check my membership. “Did I have a picture of my card? Did I have an email from NT with my membership details”? “No sorry I don’t have either”! I then phoned the NT membership line who after asking a few security questions gave me my membership number so back I went to the ticket desk to try again. “I have my membership number” “No, I can’t do anything with just the membership number, I can’t issue a ticket because of what we were told in training”! Her training gave her permission to refuse me entry.
While I know it’s my fault for not having my card with me surely it’s not too much to expect the staff to find a way if issuing a ticket?
I ended up having a coffee and a sandwich in the restaurant which was really in a mess, the floor was covered in detritus and most of the table had litter on them. Incidentally when I asked the counter assistant if I could have my sandwich toasted she relied “I can’t do that because it is s cold item”. I resisted the temptation to say ‘yes that’s why I would like it toasted’ and sat among the debris to eat my cold sandwich.
Am I being unreasonable here or is that English Heritage are pretty crap at resolving customer service problems?
I'm sorry to hear of the difficulties you experienced when you visited Stonehenge. Stonehenge is owned by English Heritage. The fields to the left and right of the road to the monument are owned by the National Trust. We have a close working relationship with the NT and because of this NT members can visit Stonehenge free of charge on production of their membership card. However, being two separate organisations, we do not have access to the NT's membership database and so we cannot confirm whether the membership number you provided is current or valid. It is for this reason we were unable to give free entry on this occasion.
I will pass on your feedback to the cafe manager. Thank you for taking the time to leave us a review.
Some decry the entrance cost, but whilst not being able to walk far, but not "perambulatory challenged" (Disabled), the shuttle was greatly appreciated. In a way the shuttle is a type of visitor control, and it works very well. Having seen Stonehenge many years ago prior to the Visitor Centre and shuttle being in operation, uncontrolled access would be chaos, and damage to the stones would be irreparable. To be able to see the stones and wonder how many people it took to construct and design it, and why it was constructed makes one stop and think. With visitors being kept at a distance, good images of the stones can be taken, better than having people spoiling them. Yes, maybe it is expensive, but expense is relative. I am sure there are ways whereby visitors could reduce their costs. In my humble opinion, well worth the visit. The people who built it were in their own way and time geniuses. As yourself, what buildings being constructed now will still be standing in 5,000 years?
Thank you for your review. We really appreciate the positive feedback.
First off, we had dreadfull weather at the site and that probably helped to ruin the experience, but Stonehenge was the greatest disappointment of our England trip.
Off course, as an archaeologist, it was great to finally see stonehenge in the flesh, however you only get to walk around the henge in a wide circle and that way you hardly get a good impression of its size and structure.
So basically you pay 20+ GBP for a 5 minute busride (from visitors centre) to look at the stones from a distance while you allready did see the stones for free from the A303 way on your way to the visitors centre.
I'm sorry you had such bad weather on your visit - on the plus side you can at least say you have experienced a real British summer!
As an archaeologist I'm sure you'll understand that we are duty bound to protect the fragile archaeology buried just under the surface around the monument, much of which has never been excavated. It is just not robust enough to withstand the 1.5 million visitors who visit the site each year. However, we do allow access to the stone circle nearly every day. Tickets for our Stone Circle Experience need to be pre-booked but they allow visitors into the stones before we open or after we have closed most days.
Our audio guide receives very high praise on TripAdvisor and there is also a museum and special exhibition on site which helps to bring the stories of the stones to life for visitors. This part of the visitor experience is missed if just viewing the monument from a passing car.
Booking through trip advisor worked very well. Free parking and fast tracked entry, also cheaper than many other agencies.
