Oldbury Tours -

Susanne Barker

What a wonderful tour. My sister and I had such a pleasant and interesting tour with Laurence. We talk about it often. His knowledge of the area and his background in archaeology made our visits to Avebury, Stonehenge and the sights along the way absolutely fascinating. I cannot speak highly enough about this tour. I have had other private tours that were good - this one stands out. Laurence drove expertly through an absolute downpour. When you are relying on someone to drive in the, potentially quite demanding, English roadways it is nice to feel confident in their driving.

Katie Van Demark

Laurence was a fantastic guide. He is a wealth of information. We saw Stonehenge at sunrise, and it was such a magical experience. Laurence catered the tour to our location, as well as the different age groups in our family (ages 10-45). We had lunch at a quintessential British countryside pub which was delicious. The tour definitely was a highlight of our trip.

Nathan Schomer

My family and I had a unique and memorable day out with Laurence. We had a full day of Stonehenge, Old Wardour Castle, and Glastonbury Abbey. All three were amazing, I think the kids (13 and 15) loved the Old Wardour Castle in particular, after seeing Versailles and the Tower of London it was a completely different castle experience (basically to ourselves in June, wandering an old functional, partially war-destroyed castle ruins). Awesome experience I would highly recommend to anybody interested in archaeology - Laurence also "pregamed" with us on the Stonehenge tour, showing us one of the sites the ancient builders may have used and lived in that was the site of recent excavations. (Pictures from Glastonbury Abbey and Old Wardour Castle)

Maureen Slaven

What a wonderful day! Laurence was an exceptional guide to this remarkable landscape. My husband and I wanted to go deeper into the history of Avebury and Stonehenge than we knew we would be able to with standard tours. Laurence was a font of knowledge and so adaptable to our specific interests. He was flexible with pick up and drop of points which allowed us to schedule this day easily within our tight schedule. If you are looking for a deeper understanding of Neolithic and Bronze Age sites of England, then I give Laurence the highest possible recommendation!

Chris Tilley

A great and full day out with Laurence who had taken the time to prepare the route and research the highlights for us. I think we took him off his regular patch with this request, but the tour of Savernake Forest and its ancient oaks, followed by a hike around Bronze Age Hill forts was great

Vivien Hui

I want to give a HUGE shoutout to Laurence with Oldbury Tours. Laurence has a minivan and does Stonehenge/Avebury and all other tours in the area.

Logistics:
We took the train from London Paddington to Swindon. He picked us up there and we learned about all things Avebury Circle including a tour of a cave. Then lunch at Red Lion, a cute English pub in the countryside. Then from there, it was a 40 min drive to Stonehenge. Then we took the train out of Salisbury back to London Waterloo station. It was a full day from about 7:30am out of our hotel, 9am arrival into Swindon to returning back to Waterloo at 6:30pm.

I emailed him to coordinate everything a few months before the tour. Great communication! We had such a fun time! Thank you Laurence!

Douglas Bell

A simply wonderful day of visiting prehistoric (and a few more recent) sites around Wiltshire. As we had already visited Stonehenge many times, we wanted to see some other early sites in the area. We told Laurence what we were interested in, and he devised a day that covered all of the requested spots. He even dd a few on-the-fly revisions to accommodate a late request. We were picked up and dropped off at our hotel, so it couldn't have been easier.
Laurence was a great host, very knowledgeable and patient with my endless questions. At our request he gave us a good amount of walking between the necessary car rides from place to place. We had a fine lunch stop within the Avebury stone circle.
If you want a personalized tour by an experienced guide to places other tours don't go, or even to more usual places, Laurence and Oldbury Tours will do it right. We plan on a "Part Two" with them the next time we are in the area.

April Rivers

We did a full-day tour of the Avebury and Stonehenge sites in mid-June of this year. It was truly a highlight of our vacation. Laurence's experience and historical/archaeological knowledge was invaluable. He provided much needed background and perspective on the locations we visited (including the Sanctuary, West Kennet Longbarrow, Silbury Hill, West Kennet Avenue, Avebury Henge, and of course Stonehenge) and on the area as a whole. It's clear that the tour was carefully crafted to facilitate a broader understanding of the entire UNESCO site, something we would have missed out of by going it alone or with a conventional tour. In the weeks before our trip, Laurence also made sure I planned the correct transportation from and back to London, patiently answering my questions and walking me through the booking so that it was virtually seamless and maximized our tour time. Highly recommended, and we hope to do another tour with Oldbury Tours in the not-too-distant future!