My 10 your old daughter and I will be taking a trip to Paris in July of 2018 for a few days. We will take the chunnel to London and stay a few days there. From there we will take the train to York for a night. We will need to get back on the train and head to Dalkeith/ Edinburgh area for a few nights and then up to inverness and that area. I lived in Dalkeith for 6 months in 1997 so it is a reunion trip for me. I am wondering what the best train pass (?) service would be to purchase for us to make this route. I can certainly make reservations on line as we get closer to knowing where and when we will be there. A lot has changed in 20 years and would love advice. We are so excited, me especially. Thanks, Shelley
Posted by
Basel, Switzerland
8889 posts
Shelley, a pass is probably not the best way way to go. It will probably be cheaper to buy advance purchase tickets for each journey.
When you buy an advance-purchase ticket, you can only travel on that train, or within a time period, and seat reservations are included.
You can look up train times on the National Rail site: http://www.nationalrail.co.uk/
This will then re-direct you to the correct railway company for prices and booking.
Times and booking for next July will not yet be available. The annual timetable change is 2nd Sunday in December (10th December 2017), so you may not yet be able to find times past that. I suggest you do trial queries for the last week in November to get a feel for times and prices.
For your Paris-London trip (please do not say "chunnel", and you can't "take" the Channel Tunnel, as it doesn't move, it is a Eurostar train), go to the Eurostar website: https://www.eurostar.com
Posted by
OP
2 posts
Thanks for advice, especially what to call things. 20 years ago we called it the Chunnel.
Posted by
Seattle, WA
16353 posts
Buying Eurostar tickets 5-6 months in advance will,save you a lot, especially if you buy them on the UK site, not the US one. Here is what I found for one adult and one child for March 14, 5 months from now:
$68 on US site, £39 on UK site. https://www.eurostar.com/uk-en
For London to York, you best price is an Advance ticket as Chris F mentioned. These tickets are purchased in advance, include free seat reservations, and are good only on a particular train. Using the National Rail,website in Chris’ link, I see a price as low as £12.80 for a date 11+ weeks out, versus £77 for a ticket for Monday.
Posted by
2425 posts
For Edinburgh to Dalkeith - purchase an off peak return to Eskbank for £4.90 > pay on the day at Edinburgh station. Trip takes around 20 minutes. (Eskbank is the nearest station to Dalkeith - as far as I know. If you have local contacts, ask them what is the best thing to do). You could take the bus from Edinburgh to Dalkeith. Find buses here:> http://www.traveline.info
Now, you could just go from Edinburgh to Inverness but how about a circular tour of Scotland’s best bits? Scotrail have such a ticket for £89 =https://www.scotrail.co.uk/tickets/combined-tickets-travel-passes/grand-tour-scotland-travel-pass
However, I would also check out how this compares with just paying for each leg - maybe Glasgow to Fort William; FW to Mallaig & ferry over the Isle of Skye (local bus would be cheap); back to trains for Kyle of Lochalsh to Inverness and finally Inverness to Edinburgh.