Stonehenge, England

When I went to London, one of the things high on my list was to see Stonehenge. This is a very popular UNESCO World Heritage Site that is known and recognized around thew world.

This prehistoric monument that is a Neolithic ceremonial area is one of the most visited sites in England. This iconic ring of large (12-13 foot tall) stones was likely constructed around 4000 years ago.

Stonehenge is about 2 hours out of London (time varies a bit depending on how you get there and traffic if applicable). There’s not much interesting to see along the route.

While you used to be able enter the ring and get close to the stones (and sometimes special visitors can still arrange for this privilege), now you are held back from getting near the actual stones by ropes that surround the monument and take you on a large path around it. The closest you can currently get is fairly far away, about 25 feet or so. In some places you are much farther than that, so don’t expect to examine the stones or really see anything particular about them at that distance. Even the impression of their size is diminished at such a distance, which was really disappointing for me. Given that you pay 20 pounds to get in, you don’t get much closer to the stones by “entering” the monument area than you are on the road that goes past.

Given the time taken to get there, and the distance from the monument, I felt like I’d wasted a day in England, going all the way out there and the cost (Entrance fee as of 2021 was about 20 pounds and transport there was around 40 pounds, and the whole trip takes 5-6 hours depending on how long you stay at the monument).

Having been there, now when people are going to England and ask about going there, I tell them to see if they think it is really worth it, or if there’s anything else they can see in the area, as I found it to not be worth it. I suppose it didn’t help that it was fairly dark and dreary that day as well.