England is smaller than you think. Plan it that way.
Stonehenge and Bath in a day and back for dinner. The Beatles in one Liverpool morning. York’s walls after dark. Every tour in England, priced, timed and ranked by the travellers who went.
Stonehenge by eleven, Bath by two, home for dinner.
All Stonehenge day trips →
England’s greatest hits are day-trip distance from one another, which is why the coach out of London is the single most-booked thing in the country. These three carry the most travellers; the full list splits the rest by how long you want to be on a bus.
Stonehenge, Windsor and Bath in one run
Windsor before the crowds, the stones on Salisbury Plain by late morning, then Bath’s crescents and the Roman baths with just enough daylight left to walk them.
Cotswold villages, Oxford and Warwick Castle
Bibury and Bourton in the morning, a college quad at lunch, a Norman keep in the afternoon. Four counties of golden limestone and no motorway worth mentioning.
Ten lakes, Wordsworth country, no schedule
Minibuses that can get up the passes coaches cannot. Windermere, Grasmere, the Kirkstone road and enough stops to be out of the vehicle more than you are in it.
Six Englands, and how far apart they really are.
The capital, the Lakes, York’s walls, Bath’s crescents, the two university towns and Liverpool’s waterfront. Nothing on this list is more than five hours from anything else on it.
The England bookings you cannot make at the door.
Most of England can wait until the morning of. These cannot. They run on timed slots, advance release dates and a fixture list that does not care when your flight lands.
- 01Tower of London and Crown Jewels Exhibition TicketEntry is timed, and the Jewels queue is at its worst between ten and two. The first slots of the day walk straight through.
- 02Harry Potter Warner Bros. Studio Tour with Transport from LondonNothing is sold at the gate. Studio Tour tickets are released in advance and the school-holiday dates go first.
- 03Changing of the Guard Guided Walking Tour in LondonThe Guard does not change every day, and the ceremony is called off in bad weather. Check the day before you build a morning around it.
- 04Chelsea FC Stadium Tours and MuseumStadium tours stop on matchdays and for European nights, so the fixture list picks your slot, not you.
London is thirty-two boroughs pretending to be one city.
The Tower opens at nine and the Crown Jewels queue starts at ten. Borough Market eats best mid-week. The Ripper lanes only work after dark. Nobody sees London; you choose which London you came for and book that one properly.
Liverpool sings, Manchester argues, York haunts.
Three cities inside ninety minutes of each other, and not one of them is a smaller London. Penny Lane and the Cavern, a Mancunian cocktail night staged inside a mock prison, and the most-walked medieval walls in Europe.
What a day out in England actually costs.
Every tour on the site, sorted by what it charges. A very good English day starts at about the price of two pints and a pie.
Walking tours, pub crawls, punts, cathedral tickets and ghost walks — the everyday England, and often the best of it.
- 1Beatles Magical Mystery Tourfrom $30.44
- 2“Blue Route” – City & Beatles Tourfrom $27.74
- 3London Jack the Ripper Guided Tour with Ripper-Visionfrom $27.74
The full-day classics: the Stonehenge coaches, the Beatles routes, food walks with lunch built into them.
Private drivers, the Studio Tour with transport, and the small-group days that hold the group to eight.
Things England invented and never stopped doing.
Cathedrals and castles are all over Europe. The Whitechapel walk, the four-o’clock tea ritual and a singalong bus down Penny Lane belong to England alone.
The Ripper Walk
Five murders in the autumn of 1888, in streets that mostly still stand, and a case that was never closed. The walks run nightly, year-round, and cover perhaps a mile: Mitre Square, Durward Street, the alleys behind Commercial Street. Several guides now project period photographs onto the original brickwork, which is why the tours start after dark and not before.
- 1London Jack the Ripper Guided Tour with Ripper-Vision★★★★★★★★★★ 4.5 · 4,840 reviews
- 2Ghost, Ghouls and Gallows Tour : Guided Tour with Boat Ride★★★★★★★★★★ 4.5 · 3,212 reviews
- 3Ghost Bus Tour of York★★★★★★★★★★ 4.5 · 2,404 reviews
Afternoon Tea
Credited to Anna, the seventh Duchess of Bedford, who could not last from luncheon to a fashionably late dinner. The stand is eaten bottom-up: sandwiches, then scones, then cake. Cornwall puts the jam on first and the cream on top; Devon does the opposite, and both are prepared to discuss it. The good rooms are booked weeks out.
- 1Afternoon Tea Bus Tour – 1960s Routemaster Bus★★★★★★★★★★ 4.5 · 2,032 reviews
- 2The Kensington Palace Gardens Royal High Tea★★★★★★★★★★ 4.5 · 934 reviews
- 3Afternoon Tea River Cruise on the Thames★★★★★★★★★★ 4.0 · 884 reviews
The Beatles Trail
Lennon met McCartney at a church fete in Woolton, and Liverpool has never quite got over it. The trail runs Penny Lane, Strawberry Field’s red gates, the Woolton hall itself and the two childhood houses, before ending on Mathew Street at a Cavern rebuilt from the original bricks. The Magical Mystery bus does the whole circuit with the songs playing.
- 1Beatles Magical Mystery Tour★★★★★★★★★★ 5.0 · 9,266 reviews
- 2“Blue Route” – City & Beatles Tour★★★★★★★★★★ 5.0 · 8,562 reviews
- 3The Beatles Story Experience Ticket★★★★★★★★★★ 4.5 · 1,393 reviews
England’s most-booked days out.
The full England list →The tours more travellers take than anything else in England — and what each one actually gets you for the money.
1
Stonehenge, Windsor Castle, and Bath from London
Luxury coach day trip from London to Windsor Castle, Stonehenge, and Bath, with expert guide, timed stops, and included entrances options.
From · $111.09
Read our review →2
London Big Bus Hop-On Hop-Off Tour with Optional River Cruise
from $39.77
3
London Small Group Tour of Historical Pubs
from $40.22
4
Beatles Magical Mystery Tour
from $30.44
5
“Blue Route” – City & Beatles Tour
from $27.74
6
Stonehenge, Windsor Castle and Bath with Pub Lunch in Lacock
from $123.49
7
Oxford University Walking Tour With University Alumni Guide
from $41.59
8
Tower of London and Crown Jewels Exhibition Ticket
from $49.44
It will rain. England has had centuries to plan for it.
There is no dry season here, only a wetter one — roughly October to January, and it is not subtle. Everything below happens under a roof: a museum, a pub with a fire in it, a tiered stand of scones, a cellar with the lights down. Weather cancels none of it.
By place — London out to the coast
London979 tours
Liverpool84 tours
York65 tours
Oxford66 tours
Bath44 tours
Manchester43 tours
The Lake District33 tours- Every place in England →
By kind of day — pubs, castles, ghosts, punts
Two weeks in England: seven stops, one rail card.
Windsor
Stonehenge & Bath
The CotswoldsThe newest England tour reviews.
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