August 17, 2014

Stonehenge Tours from London versus Public Transport

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This recent article in the Independent Newspaper proves that joining a Stonehenge guided sightseeing tour from London is far easier, faster and much cheaper than attempting to use Britain’s complicated public transport network

Tourists left baffled by Britain’s ‘peculiar’ transport system

Foreign tourists trying to reach Stonehenge by public transport must put up with Stone Age speeds, a new report has found.  Barriers to Overseas Visitors’ Use of Public Transport”, commissioned by VisitBritain from Social Research Associates, slams the UK’s transport operators for baffling overseas visitors and dissuading them from venturing beyond London.Visit Stonehenge

Britain’s “peculiar” transport system makes access from London to some leading tourist attractions exasperating. The journey to Wiltshire’s ancient stone circle begins with South West Trains from London Waterloo to Salisbury. Next, tourists must take a six-minute walk towards the city centre, followed by a half-hour bus ride to Shrewton. “Here, a wait of up to an hour can occur, until a Connect2Wiltshire bus continues on a 20-minute journey to Stonehenge,” say the researchers. 

The 9.5-mile segment from Salisbury station to Stonehenge can take two hours, averaging below 5mph. The report calls it: “Public transport at its most fragmented and unhelpful.”

Many visitors are barely off the plane before their public transport problems begin. The Heathrow Express from the UK’s main gateway into the capital is described as “the most expensive airport connection anywhere”. The report say the operator “steadfastly refuses to provide any onward journey information on the train”.

A Heathrow Express spokesperson said: “Our on-board TV provides onward tube and taxi travel information which is supplemented by on-board announcements detailing the location of the taxi rank and London Underground stations at Paddington.”

The report also criticises UK train operators’ refusal to use any language other than English or Welsh on websites. In contrast, German Railways’ site offers nine languages, while French Railways provides English and German translations.

The report concludes: “While persisting with our peculiarly British way of doing things, we have to make the adverse impact on visitors as little as possible.” 

Baffling public transport has not dulled overseas visitors’ appetite for the UK. The first six months of this year set a new record for incoming tourism. On average, 90,000 visitors a day arrived in Britain between January and June – up eight per cent on 2013.

Full article here: http://www.independent.co.uk/travel/news-and-advice/tourists-left-baffled-by-britains-peculiar-transport-system-9669957.html

Be wise and book a guided sightseeing tour!

Stonehenge Guided Trips
The Stonehenge Tour Experts
http://www.StonehengeTours.com

 

May 23, 2012

Russians go crazy for Stonehenge Tours

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By the time you read this, the Olympic Torch Relay will be well underway on its 70-day run. Depending on when this gets posted, it may even have got as far as Weston-super-Mare, the unchallenged jewel of the north Somerset coast whose beautiful beaches, near-perfect all year round weather and magnificent pier (newly reopened just a year ago) will form the perfect backdrop for the . . .

Sorry. Eagle-eyed readers may have noticed from the blurb to the right of this piece that Weston is, in fact, the seaside resort, which I have the honour of representing as its Member of Parliament. So I may be just a touch partisan in my assessment.

For all that, though, the Torch Relay is undoubtedly a rather brilliant way of bringing the excitement of the Olympics to the widest possible UK community. Its light will – figuratively, and to an extent, literally – shine on places and people that very often get overlooked, especially in a year when – necessarily – the nation’s capital is the main focus.

Summer Solstice at Stonehenge

Summer Solstice at Stonehenge

So I’m very happy to pay tribute to all the local and national media who will magnify this light as it progresses.  Hopefully it will not just get us all in the mood for the Games themselves, but also remind us what a brilliant, diverse and beautiful country we all share.

Part of the operation behind making this all happen involves social media, of course. Pictures and stories will fan out from the torch as it snakes around the country. And one of those doing the blogging, tweeting and whatever the verb is for posting stuff on Facebook as the torch progresses, is VisitBritain.

“17 per cent of German tourists want to go to the Highland Games”

There’ll be news on Love UK, VisitBritain’s Facebook page (with around 800,000 fans) along with an app to help them pass virtual flags around the world, and live tweets from @VisitBritain, while their corporate feed, @VisitBritainBiz will unveil daily ‘killer facts’ about what foreign tourists look for in a visit to the UK.

For example, 17 per cent of German tourists want to go to the Highland Games, 41 per cent of Russians would like to see the sun rise at Stonehenge and a rather modest 19 per cent of Americans fancy going shopping at Harrods.

Each of these gems derives from up-to-date visitor surveys which will delight and inform and, if deployed with skill, create a never-ending stream of conversation openers and pub quiz fodder.  Enjoy.

  • By
  • Minister for Tourism in UK Government at The Department for Culture, Media and Sport (DCMS).

Needless the say ‘The Stonehenge Tour Company’ offer private guided tours with Russian speaking expert guides

The Stonehenge Tour Company – www.StonehengeTours.com