Early morning to Stonehenge’s inner circle (@EvanEvansTours)

Stonehenge is a prehistoric monument in Wiltshire, England, about 2 hours outside London. The monument consists of a ring of standing stones, with each standing stone around 13 ft high, 6 ft 11 in wide and weighing around 25 tons. Archaeologists believe it was constructed from 3000 BC to 2000 BC.

Tourists from around the world flock to Stonehenge to see these incredible stones. Most tourists can only view it from a distance, but 3 tour companies have exclusive access to provide inner circle access…. yes, as in you’re inside the Stonehenge circle. I found EvanEvansTours had a tour on Saturday morning, which included Oxford and Windsor Castle. Booking it wasn’t cheap, as it was over $300 for the 2 of us, and, we had to catch the bus at 5:15am. Was it worth it? Definitely!

So the only frustrating part of Evan Evans Tours was their lack of communication. I had to ask multiple times to confirm my booking, and also to make sure the pickup location was right. Who wants to end up missing the bus, right? So my pickup time at 5:15 was at the Marble Arch Amba hotel, and we were instructed to be there by 5:00 am. Daniel from Evan Evans Tours was in the hotel lobby to check us in, and the bus arrived a little early.

We had one more stop to make, and then made our way to Stonehenge. The tour company gave us headsets and earbuds so Daniel could narrate the tour without having to shout. When we arrived at Stonehenge, there was another group in the Inner Circle, probably for the actual sunrise. We killed some time by looking at the mock village at the visitor’s center, and the stone replica, before getting shuttled to the site. The Evan Evans tour said it was a sunrise event, it was not. However, it worked out since we got great photos without a lot of shadow.

Since our bus had 30+ people, we were divided into 2 groups at Stonehenge. I was in the second group, so for about half an hour, we were asked to walk the perimeter of the circle, like a normal visitor would.

At 8:30, our group switched, and we were inside the circle. Daniel was narrating the history of the monument, but I was realistic and knew that I wanted photos! So here’s my photo from the Inner Circle. We could be close to the stones, as long as we did NOT touch them. If security spots any of us touching the stones, we would be kicked out of the area.