Advance Ticket For Train for London to Canterbury

Here is the website to do ticket pricing at
https://ojp.nationalrail.co.uk/service/planjourney/search

I noticed that with two week advance purchase the price was roughly 1/3 of the same day purchase price. The other station in London that could do this route is London Victoria.

You will have been in the UK for a few days prior to this trip so the risk factor of missing a specific train is fairly well mitigated.

You can save quite a bit if you book your tickets in advance purchasing an ”Advance” fare. For example, I just checked a random date in August and an Advance ticket was 14 GBP whereas an off-peak fare was 37 GBP. An advance fare limits you to a specific train and time.

p.s. The station is St Pancras (not pancreas :) ).

Just adding the train from Victoria goes to Canterbury East whereas the train from St. Pancras goes to Canterbury West.

Where in London are you staying? If near St Pancras, then it makes sense to take this newer, quicker, more expensive train. If you are staying near Victoria, then although this service is slower, there won’t be much in it when considering overall travel time door to door. This service is cheaper.

You can also go from Charing Cross, Waterloo East or London Bridge and change at Ashford.

It’s better buying online in advance from southeasternrailway.co.uk, the train operator. Tickets are cheaper if you opt for a specific non flexible timed train, but if you miss it, you will have to buy another ticket.

There is no best side to sit on with either line. Many prefer to face the direction of travel. I prefer the scenery on the Charing Cross route.

Thanks everyone for your helpful comments. I see I will need the train from Victoria Station as I need to go to Canterbury East!

Note that trains from Victoria are much slower than the high speed services from St.Pancras. Of course, much depends upon your starting point from a London hotel. Here is a short video of the train from St. Pancras to Canterbury.

The two stations in Canterbury are only about a mile apart.

We are staying at The Belgrave. So we'll more than likely take the slower train from Victoria Station, and then the faster train back from Bath. Just to experience both! Thanks for the video of the train station!

Do you mean the Belgrave near The Oval in South London?

If so it would be a walk to the bus stop and then 10 minutes to Victoria, but only 7 minutes longer to take the tube direct from Oval Underground station on the Northern Line for 17 minutes to Kings Cross St Pancras...

The Belgrave Hotel closest to the Pimlico Subway station.

Further thought....we'll more than likely take the faster train to Canterbury (because its direct) and the slower train back from Bath to Paddington Station (because its direct). Then Heathrow Express to the airport (spending the night). But then again....anything can change between now and next May!

We just did this exact route in May, taking the St. Pancreas quick high speed train to Canterbury, but on the return from Bath, found that it was a much quicker and more direct route using the bus back to London. Just about everybody on our tour did the exact same thing for the return.

Thank you Lucky Girl! I'll look into the bus for the return trip. Any idea if the bus will go directly to the airport?

You can take a train from Bath to Reading and then take the RailAir coach from Reading to Heathrow. I took this route a few weeks ago.

https://www.firstbus.co.uk/railair/buy-tickets