Most people who visit Stonehenge see it from behind a rope, and honestly, that’s still a pretty special sight. But if you want to actually stand inside the stone circle, among the sarsens and bluestones themselves, there are three ways to do it. I recently experienced the newest of these, the Stonehenge Explorer Tour, and it completely changed how I understood this place. This isn’t just a “get closer to the stones” tour either. It’s built around the whole UNESCO-listed landscape, not just the circle everyone photographs, and that context made all the difference to me.
The three ways to stand inside the stone circle
English Heritage, who manage Stonehenge, offer three different routes to private access inside the stones. There’s the new Stonehenge Explorer Tour, which is the small-group, landscape-led experience I did. There’s the longer-running Stone Circle Experience, an early morning or evening visit where you’ll be inside the stones with a much larger group.
And during August there’s a daily prize draw that gives one lucky visitor and their party exclusive, private time inside the circle with nobody else around. I’ll walk through all three, but the Explorer Tour is the one I want to focus on, because it’s genuinely a different kind of experience to the other two.
The Stonehenge Explorer Tour: my pick of the three
This is a proper deep dive into who built Stonehenge and why, not just a photo opportunity by the stones. Groups are capped at five people, so when you’re inside the circle it’s just you, four other guests at most, and your two guides. That’s a world away from being one of forty or fifty people shuffling through.
It runs for about three hours and costs £295 per adult (£195 for children aged 12 to 17, and it isn’t recommended for under-12s). If you want the whole group to yourselves, all five spots can be booked out for £1,475. It runs several days a week year round and you book directly through English Heritage’s website.
The tour starts at the visitor centre, where you meet your two guides, and then you’re driven by private vehicle out to Durrington Walls and Woodhenge, both a short drive from the stones themselves. This is where it got interesting for me. Durrington Walls is believed to be where the people who actually built Stonehenge lived, and Woodhenge, a wooden version of the same alignment, was only discovered in 1925 from an aerial photograph.
Archaeologists think it was used for celebrations, because they’ve found artefacts scattered around it, including food remains that came from all over the country, unlike at Stonehenge itself, where almost nothing has been found. It really brought home that Stonehenge was the place of the dead, while Durrington Walls and Woodhenge were the places of the living. Understanding that split changed the way I saw the stones once we got there.
From Woodhenge we hopped back into our special vehicle to head for the tour highlight: the stones. We had about fifteen minutes inside the stone circle while your guides fill you in on more interesting details. You get that time to take photos, ask questions and just stand there taking it in.
A major highlight of being inside the stone circle is the chance to see the altar stone. This is the most sacred of all the stones at the site and only the top is visible inside the circle. It is not possible to see this stone from behind the ropes as it is underground.
Back at the visitor centre you’ll receive a fantastic goody bag, a snack and a hot or cold drink before experiencing the 360 degree films and meeting a model of a neolithic man as well as some other interesting artifacts and exhibition items.
I went in August and had a genuinely gorgeous day for it. Being inside the circle has a proper magical feel to it. Standing that close, you really start to appreciate the scale of these stones, and it makes you wonder all over again how on earth Neolithic people moved and raised them roughly 4,500 years ago, well before the wheel and without any animals to help haul them into place.
My two guides were brilliant. They were clearly passionate about the site and had story after story that brought the theories about the people who built it to life, rather than just reeling off dates and facts.
One thing worth knowing: you can’t touch the stones inside the circle (nobody can, this isn’t unique to the tour), but there are a couple of stones back at the visitor centre you’re welcome to touch, which is a nice consolation.
Is the Explorer Tour worth £295?
For me, yes, especially if you have any real interest in history or in Stonehenge itself. The stops at Durrington Walls and Woodhenge aren’t padding either. They genuinely add to the experience, because instead of the visit being purely about the stones, you come away with a sense of the entire landscape, which is what the UNESCO listing is actually about.
I left feeling like I finally understood the fuller picture around Stonehenge, how it all connected, and just how significant and spiritual this place clearly was to the people who built it, even though we still don’t know exactly what that significance was.
The alternative: the Stone Circle Experience
If £295 is more than you want to spend, or you’d rather do an early morning or evening visit, the Stone Circle Experience is the long-standing way to get inside the stones. It’s priced from £70 for adults and £40 for children, runs before opening or after closing, and lasts about an hour. Groups are much bigger though. You’ll be inside the circle with roughly twenty to twenty five other people at a time, out of a wider group of up to around fifty. It’s still a special way to see Stonehenge up close, just a far less intimate one than the Explorer Tour.
The August lottery
Every day throughout August, anyone who’s booked an advance ticket to visit Stonehenge is automatically entered into a daily prize draw. One winner and their party get private, exclusive access inside the stone circle with no other visitors around, similar in spirit to the Explorer Tour but completely down to luck rather than something you can book. If you’re visiting in August, it costs you nothing extra to be in with a chance.
Tips for visiting
Whichever option you go for, you’ll be outside for a good stretch of time on Salisbury Plain, which is properly exposed to the weather. Wear sensible shoes (there isn’t a huge amount of walking, but you’ll be on your feet for most of it), bring a hat if it’s sunny, and pack a layer or an umbrella in case it isn’t. Dress for the weather rather than the forecast, because Salisbury Plain has a habit of doing its own thing.
I experienced the Stonehenge Explorer Tour as a guest of English Heritage. However, as always my opinions are my own.
Amanda O’Brien is the creator and editor of The Boutique Adventurer. She has visited 80 countries and is a member of the British Guild of Travel Writers as well as the IFTWTA. She is passionate about wine had has just completed Level 3 of the WSET. Born in Australia, she lives in London.