The stones, the castles, the lochs. Britain, in the days you actually have.
Which Stonehenge coach leaves early enough to beat the car park. What the Harry Potter studio costs once you add the transfers. Whether Loch Ness is worth fourteen hours out of Edinburgh. Reviews of every tour you can book across the four countries.
The four bookings a first trip to Britain is usually built around.
A film studio, a stone circle, a loch and a basalt coast. What each one costs, and what the people who went say about it.
01The one that goes weeks aheadHarry Potter Warner Bros Studio TourWarner Bros Leavesden, where the films were actually shot. Tickets go on sale in blocks and the school-holiday dates are gone within days.
02The big day out of LondonStonehenge, Windsor Castle, and Bath from LondonStonehenge, Windsor and Bath in one coach day. Long, and still the only way to reach all three without a hire car.
03The Highlands in a dayLoch Ness, Glencoe & Scottish Highlands TourEdinburgh to Loch Ness and back down through Glencoe. Most of it is bus, and the glen on the way is the part people talk about after.
04The Antrim coastGame of Thrones and Giant’s Causeway Full-Day Tour from BelfastThe Giant’s Causeway and the Game of Thrones locations out of Belfast. The basalt columns are real and the Dark Hedges are on the way.
Six places in Britain worth building a few days around.
A capital you could spend a fortnight in, a castle on an extinct volcano, a glen the road runs straight through, a dock full of Beatles, a coast made of hexagons, and the villages everybody photographs. The best day out in each.
Most of England is a morning train out of London.
Oxford and Cambridge are an hour each way, and the college walks are led by people who studied inside them. Bath is ninety minutes. Stonehenge needs a coach, and the ones that leave at seven reach the stones before the car park fills.
Britain has more castles than it has counties. Three ways to pick one.
A state room open for ten weeks a year, a fortress on an extinct volcano, or a ruin on a sea loch with nobody else in it. What each kind of castle day costs before you commit to it.
London: buy the timed tickets before you land, walk everything else.
The full London list →
The Eye, the Tower and the Abbey all run on timed entry and all three sell out through the summer. Everything in between them is free to walk. These three carry more travellers than anything else in the city.
- 1The London Eye Entry Ticketfrom $39
- 2Harry Potter Warner Bros Studio Tourfrom $117
- 3Westminster to Greenwich River Thames Cruisefrom $22
Timed slot, or turn up and queue
The Eye, Tower Bridge and Madame Tussauds all price a walk-up higher than a booked slot, and in July the walk-up has often gone by lunchtime.
St Paul’s dome, and the Abbey along the river
Climb to the Whispering Gallery before the coaches arrive. Westminster Abbey is ten minutes upstream and closes to visitors on Sundays.
Tea on a bus, a boat, or a hotel terrace
The Routemaster and the Thames sittings are the ones that go first. A hotel table is easier to get and roughly twice the money.
The days out more people book in Britain than any others.
The whole British catalogue →A wheel, a film studio, a river boat and a very long coach day. These are the ones travellers reach for first, and what earns each of them the slot.
1
The London Eye Entry Ticket
Ride one of London’s 32 glass capsules for a slow, 30-minute circuit 135 meters above the Thames. You’ll spot major landmarks from a calm, spacious pod, with standard or fast-track admission depending on your ticket. A free London Eye guide app helps identify what you see. Wheelchair access and free entry for carers are available.
From · $39
Read our review →
2
Harry Potter Warner Bros Studio Tour
from $117
3
Westminster to Greenwich River Thames Cruise
from $22
4
Madame Tussauds London
from $36
5
Stonehenge, Windsor Castle, and Bath from London
from $111
6
Loch Ness, Glencoe & the Scottish Highlands Tour
from $62
7
Tower Bridge Entry Ticket
from $21
8
Westminster Abbey Entrance Ticket
from $41
Britain keeps turning its filming locations into day tours.
Platform nine and three quarters is a wall in King’s Cross, Winterfell is a National Trust farmyard in County Down, and Penny Lane is an ordinary suburban street. The tours that go to them are better than that makes them sound.
- 1Harry Potter Warner Bros Studio Tourfrom $117
- 2Beatles Magical Mystery Tourfrom $30
- 3Game of Thrones and Giant’s Causeway Full-Day Tour from Belfastfrom $48
- 4Outlander Film Locations Day Trip from Edinburgh
What a day out in Britain really sets you back.
Every tour on the site, grouped by price. A good half of the best British days come in under the price of a theatre seat.
Walking tours, cathedral entries, city cruises and most museum tickets.
- 1The London Eye Entry Ticketfrom $39
- 2Westminster to Greenwich River Thames Cruisefrom $22
- 3Madame Tussauds Londonfrom $36
The long coach days: Stonehenge and Bath, Loch Ness out of Edinburgh, the studio tour with transfers.
Private guides, the multi-day runs to Skye, and the once-a-trip splurges that earn it.
Three things you can only book in Britain.
Castles and cathedrals stand all over Europe. A neolithic circle you can walk up to, the sound stages the films were shot on, and a loch with its own legend do not.
Stonehenge
The stones went up on Salisbury Plain in stages from about 3000 BC and nobody has settled what for. A standard ticket keeps you on the path that rings the circle. The inner-circle sessions run before opening and after closing, are capped at a few dozen people and go months ahead. The visitor centre sits a shuttle ride from the stones, which catches out more people than it should.
- 1Stonehenge, Windsor Castle, and Bath from London★★★★★★★★★★ 4.5 · 18,662 reviews
- 2Stonehenge, Windsor Castle and Bath with Pub Lunch in Lacock★★★★★★★★★★ 4.5 · 7,402 reviews
- 3Stonehenge Admission Ticket★★★★★★★★★★ 4.6 · 6,388 reviews
The Warner Bros Studio Tour at Leavesden
Leavesden is a working studio twenty miles north of London and the tour walks the actual sets: the Great Hall, Diagon Alley, the Forbidden Forest, Platform nine and three quarters with the Hogwarts Express standing at it. Tickets are released in blocks and never sold at the door, so the day gets decided weeks before you travel. Allow three and a half hours inside.
- 1Harry Potter Warner Bros Studio Tour★★★★★★★★★★ 4.7 · 26,588 reviews
- 2Warner Bros. Studio Tour with Transfers★★★★★★★★★★ 4.7 · 17,586 reviews
- 3Warner Bros. Studio Harry Potter Tour with Transfers★★★★★★★★★★ 4.6 · 9,709 reviews
Loch Ness
The loch holds more fresh water than every lake in England and Wales together and it has never been known to freeze. Most trips come up from Edinburgh through Glencoe, which makes a fourteen-hour day with about ninety minutes at the water. Starting from Inverness instead buys a cruise past Urquhart Castle and an afternoon back.
- 1Loch Ness, Glencoe & the Scottish Highlands Tour★★★★★★★★★★ 4.6 · 17,446 reviews
- 2Loch Ness, Glencoe & Scottish Highlands Tour★★★★★★★★★★ 4.7 · 11,381 reviews
- 3Loch Ness, Scottish Highlands, Glencoe and Pitlochry Tour★★★★★★★★★★ 5.0 · 6,854 reviews
Four British bookings that close before you land.
Most of this country can be sorted from a pub table the night before. These four run on release dates, opening seasons and capped slots that take no interest in when your flight lands.
- 01Harry Potter Warner Bros Studio TourStudio tickets are released in blocks, never sold at the door, and the school-holiday dates go within days of release.
- 02Buckingham Palace: The State Rooms Entrance TicketThe State Rooms open for roughly ten weeks in late summer and are shut to visitors the rest of the year.
- 03Stonehenge Admission TicketEntry runs on timed slots, and the inner-circle sessions before and after opening hours are capped at a few dozen people.
- 04Edinburgh Castle: Guided Walking Tour with Entry TicketScotland’s busiest paid attraction sells timed entry, and in August the Festival fills the city around it.
It rains in Britain. Plan a roof into every day.
Nowhere here is more than a couple of hours from weather, and the answer is the same in every city: a cathedral, a museum, a distillery, or somebody pouring tea. All of them are better in the wet than the walking tour you had pencilled in.
By country first, then by city
By kind of day: castle, ghost walk, distillery or coach
London, Stonehenge, Bath, the Cotswolds, York, Edinburgh: the run almost everybody does first.
Bath
The Cotswolds
YorkThe British reviews added most recently.
Keep going back through the new ones →
2-Day Eilean Donan, Loch Ness & Glenfinnan Tour
Read our review →
