Looking for transportation suggestions from Winchcombe to the northern Lake District. My wife and I are ending our Cotswold hike from Chipping Campden at Winchcombe in early June. We want to travel from Winchcombe to Keswick (Lake District). After a couple of days we need to go to London Heathrow airport. Suggestions?
Posted by
Royaume-Uni nul points, pas plus
2501 posts
Bus (W2 or 606) from Winchcombe to Cheltenham
http://www.marchants-coaches.com/Local-Bus-Service-Timetables
Train from Cheltenham to Penrith
http://www.nationalrail.co.uk/
Bus (X4 or X5) from Penrith to Keswick
https://www.stagecoachbus.com/routes/cumbria-and-north-lancashire/x5/penrith-keswick/xnbx005.i
Posted by
2394 posts
Be sure to advance book the train as turn up and go prices are very expensive = £106.50. (You may find it cheaper to split the train ticket at the place where you have to change from the Cross Country Train to Virgin Trains/ Trans Pennine Express - click details on the National Rail website & it will tell you where this is).
As an example, I have just tested for Tu 5 June. Using the 11.11 Cross Country departure* from Cheltenham and changing at Birmingham (New Street) for the 12.15 VIrgin train heading to Edinburgh (getting off at Penrith). Through ticket = £50.40 if pre-booked now. Spilt the ticket as follows CNM > BHM = £9.90 and BHM > PNR = £15 so Total = £24.90. (if pre-booked now). So, that is a lot of money that can be saved!
- This train is also going to Edinburgh - but goes via a different route.
PS. I would not make a long journey to Heathrow prior to catching a plane - you need to be in the London area in case something goes wrong with land transportation. If going by train from Penrith to London - your arrival station will be Euston (EUS) and the company will be Virgin West Coast > www.virgintrains.co.uk (It is usually easier to find the fares at www.nationalrail.co.uk). You would then need to travel out to Heathrow. The alternative is to go from Penrith to Birmingham with Virgin and then with Cross Country Trains to Reading - which has a bus link to Heathrow. (It is very risky to do all this on the same day as plane departure).
Note that trans-Atlantic flights also operate from Manchester and Edinburgh. Find these at www.skyscanner.net
Posted by
3122 posts
I second the advice not to travel from afar to catch your flight out of Heathrow. There are too many things that can go wrong on the day of departure.
If you only have a couple of days, it hardly seems worth it to spend the better part of a day traveling to Keswick and then back to Heathrow. Could you find some other destination nearer to the Cotswolds, or nearer to London, to spend that couple of days?
Posted by
2394 posts
I agree, it is simply not worth travelling all the way to the Lake District for 2 days.
Rail map:>http://www.nationalrail.co.uk/static/documents/content/routemaps/nationalrailnetworkmap.pdf