A few weeks ago we decided to take a small staycation and go down the country to see Stonehenge.
I’m not particularly interested in history BUT it is something that is truly iconic and I’ve always wanted to see it for myself despite everyone who I know who has seen it telling me not to bother!
It’s about a 5 hour drive from our home so we took it super steady and made a day road trip of it over the Saturday going down and the Sunday coming back.
On the way down we stopped at Bicester village which I’ve heard slot of through various peoples YouTube videos and Instagram posts. It’s a designer shopping village (Dior, Gucci, etc) and well worth stopping off at even if you just go to see the pretty lights and take photos like we did.
We spent the night at the Travelodge just down the road from Stonehenge. I was super impressed with it. The price was great (£30ish) and it’s literally 5 mins down the road from Stonehenge. Not much by way of parking spaces but we were lucky and managed to get one. There is no catering as part of the hotel (unless you count the vending machine) but there is a Shell garage, Subway, Greggs and Burger King on the same site. We went into Amesbury and found a Marstons pub (they have a great Vegan menu) to eat at on the evening. There are places to walk and drive to nearby to eat.
The next morning we headed to Stonehenge. You book a slot online when you pre-book your ticket (which they recommend you do) and then you are supposed to arrive within that timeframe. You can spend as long as you like at the site (within the opening hours!). The basic tickets will give you access to the site and you can do walks in the area and take photos of the stones. There’s also a shuttle bus to and from the stones from the visitors centre included but you can walk if you like. We walked so we were nice and warm when we got there as it was a cold day.
If you want to actually be able to get close to the stones you can book a special ticket online which will grant you access. You need to do this alot further in advance, it costs more and it will be at sunrise or sunset. Well worth it if you want the experience and some epic photos. If I’d have known about that early on we would of probably done that but I’m happy with what we did. I was awestruck by seeing the landmark in person. We even saw it in the distance as we drove up to the visitors centre and I started to tear up it just looked so epic.
The cafe on site is not so great for vegan options but you can get a drink to set you on your way at least.
As we sat in the cafe I started to look up places to eat on the way home that we might pass and, thanks to the Happy Cow app, I found this manor that did vegan afternoon tea! I couldn’t believe our luck!
We drove a few hours and landed there at around 2.30pm. I had prebooked online but only an hour and a half before so they hadn’t got our booking. They said it wasn’t a problem though and the cook make us our afternoon tea from fresh. It was epic. We brough most of the puddings home in a box as there was so much food!
After that we headed home, with a quick stop in Daventry to see where my boyfriend grew up 🙂
All in all an amazing and inspiring trip. It’s so important to get out even if it is for no reason at all. I come alive when I travel and we have so much fun even just driving our little bug around.
Here’s to the next adventure!
