Ancient Stones & Treasures of Wiltshire

Your holiday begins as you arrive independently in the cathedral city of Salisbury, where you meet the Tour Manager at our Georgian hotel. The Mercure White Hart Salisbury is in the heart of the city, a short distance from Salisbury Cathedral.

After checking in to the hotel from mid-afternoon, there's time to get to know the city. The parkland surrounding the cathedral (known as Cathedral Close) houses attractions such as the 18th-century Mompesson House, which featured in the 1995 film adaptation of Jane Austen's Sense and Sensibility. In the city's timeless streets, you'll find a marketplace, quirky shops and a large independent art gallery, Fisherton Mill.

This evening our group is welcomed with a glass of prosecco before our first three-course dinner in the hotel restaurant.

• Dinner

This morning, we are introduced to Wiltshire's long history on a guided tour of the prehistory galleries at Wiltshire Museum. Here, we find out more about Stonehenge and view the largest collection of Early Bronze Age gold on public display in England.

Our journey into ancient Britain continues as we drive to the World Heritage site of Avebury, known as one of the most important ceremonial sites of Neolithic Britain. First, we stop for lunch at the famous Red Lion, a traditional thatched pub set in the middle of Avebury's stone circle. Afterwards, a guided tour and talk introduces us to one of Britain's largest and most complex henges. Dating from nearly 5,000 years ago, the stone circle surrounds Avebury, and it is shrouded in mysticism and ritual. After the tour, there's free time to explore at leisure, maybe viewing Silbury Hill from the standing stones of West Kennet Avenue, a parade of about 100 monoliths stretching 1.5-miles of path to West Kennet Long Barrow.

Later, the coach takes us back to our hotel, where we enjoy dinner this evening.

• Breakfast, Lunch, Dinner

Two holiday highlights await after breakfast today as we explore Wiltshire's most famous sights.

Salisbury Cathedral boasts Britain's tallest spire at 404 feet as well as the world's oldest clock, dating from 1386. On a private tour, we uncover another treasure of the cathedral - the best preserved of only four original Magna Carta signed by King John in 1215. This significant document defended the rights and freedoms of individual citizens and has been entered by UNESCO into a register of the world's most important documents.

There's some time at leisure ahead of our special visit to the Neolithic site of Stonehenge. Arriving at this World Heritage Site just before sunset*, we visit the museum before our exclusive experience begins as we enter the inner stone circle of Stonehenge - which is usually roped off to visitors. During this once-in-a-lifetime moment, we are free to walk among these mystical 5,000-year-old stones, feel the history and enjoy a spectacular sunset. At the end of this extraordinary evening the coach takes us back to our hotel.

*Please note: on some departure dates we will visit Stonehenge at sunrise instead of sunset.

Please note: on the 6th July departure, there will be a free morning before we visit Salisbury Cathedral. On the 3rd August departure, Days 3 & 4 are swapped.

• Breakfast

With a free day ahead, you can continue exploring at your own pace. Just outside the cathedral, the Salisbury Museum houses impressive collections, from local archaeology and natural history to art. Among other fascinating artefacts, you can view stunning gold items from the Iron Age and Roman period. Other curiosities include the skeleton of the Amesbury Archer, found near Stonehenge, the scale model of a coal-fired engine which once ran along a track in the cathedral grounds, and items from Old Wardour Castle.

Two miles north of the town, you can find Old Sarum - an iron-age hill fort with views across the plains. This was the site of Salisbury's earliest settlement and boasts an impressive history in its own right. The Norman motte and bailey castle was built by William the Conqueror, and Queen Eleanor of Aquitaine was imprisoned here.

However you choose to spend the day, we regroup at the hotel for dinner this evening.

• Breakfast, Dinner

After breakfast, we set out by coach to Blunsdon station where we look around the railway museum before boarding a heritage steam train* for a round trip on the Swindon & Cricklade Railway. The 2.5-mile route passes two other stations - Hayes Knoll and Taw Valley Halt - as it rides through idyllic Wiltshire countryside. After we return, there's time to find lunch independently at the station's Whistle Stop Café before we head to Swindon to visit STEAM, the museum of the Great Western Railway.

An hour-long guided tour tells us how Swindon has become synonymous with railway history as we view displays of iconic locomotives and hear some of the stories of people who worked at Great Western Railway.

At the end of the afternoon, we transfer back to the hotel for dinner.

*Trains are steam-hauled where possible, however due to timetable changes or weather conditions, heritage diesel locomotives may be running instead.

• Breakfast, Dinner

A visit to Old Wardour Castle awaits after breakfast. At this historic site, we can look around and discover its ancient stonework. Built in the 14th-century as a luxury residence and fortress, it survived two dramatic sieges the castle before eventually being destroyed with dynamite by its owner during the English Civil War.

We are free to explore independently, and you could roam the castle, climb the steps to the east tower, or maybe walk down to the lake and discover the fairy grotto in the grounds.

From Old Wardour, we transfer by coach to Cranmore Station, where there's time to find lunch independently at the station café. After, we climb aboard a heritage steam train for a relaxing five-mile round-trip into the countryside around Shepton Mallet. On our return, we are free to explore the museum, miniature railway and access the engine shed, before a coach transfer back to our hotel ahead of our final dinner this evening.

*Trains are steam-hauled where possible, however due to timetable changes or weather conditions, heritage diesel locomotives may be running instead.

• Breakfast, Dinner

Wiltshire has impressed with its long and fascinating history. Magical Avebury and its many Neolithic monuments and an exclusive experience inside Stonehenge's inner circle at sunset provided unforgettable glimpses into the mysterious surrounding these UNESCO World Heritage sites. Viewing an original Magna Carta at Salisbury Cathedral and exploring Old Wardour Castle took us to the Middle Ages, while journeys on heritage railways evoked the charming nostalgia of the mid-1900s.

After breakfast today, your Wiltshire holiday draws to a close and, as you check out of our hotel, you can set off home or continue to explore Wiltshire independently.

• Breakfast