Transportation for Day trips to Bletchley, Windsor

We spent six hours at Bletchley and still didn’t see everything. If it were me I would get there early. It’s a fascinating place. (And another plug for their podcast—the interviews with people who worked there are so interesting)

It’s easy to take the train to both Windsor and Bletchley.

Yes, really looking forward to Betchley, and it is really straight forward to get there. My question is about train ticket prices. Is there something in terms of pricing that I'm missing, the tickets are quite pricey.

Jules, what dates are you planning for Bletchley? I'm seeing some roundtrip fares for £35 for two together with a 9:31 arrival. Your less than a 10 minute walk to be entrance.

These are for Advanced Single tickets with Two Together Railcard applied. Earlier trains were around £60 roundtrip.

Disclaimer: We've never used the Two Together Card, so I'm sure if I've got this wrong, someone will be by to scold me.

Claudia, I don't go to Twins games, but I'm talking about the train ticket prices. Just to be clear, I'm going to Bletchley. I just want to make sure that I don't miss a less expensive option for transportation.

Jean, thanks for taking a look at this. I am looking for times that arrive by 9:30 when Bletchley opens. I've looked at both the National Rail site and LNER. I'll be there in September, but I've been checking lots of random dates, and I don't see cheaper tickets until trains that leave at 9:21

Try West Midlands Railway for Bletchley.

Also, did you see Premier Inn Sale?

Jean, ah, yes, thats about 20 GBP cheaper! I'm not familiar with that company? Looks like they use the Two together also. I locked into Premeir Inn a couple months ago with a nonrefundable. Not sure I want to look! ;)

Jules,
West Midlands Railway are the only company to stop at Bletchley for now until services to Oxford start, whenever that is.
They run all outer suburban trains from Euston, as far North as Crewe, Birmingham and Liverpool. They are also just introducing a brand new fleet of trains on that route.
There is a fare hack in the Peak- travel contactless to Watford Junction, swipe out. Then buy paper Cheap Day Return tickets with 2T WJ to Bletchley. Take the 0938 Birmingham train, 2nd stop Bletchley, arrive 1001.
That way you get the Two for One offer at Bletchley.
Currently that is rostered as a 12 car train.
Repeat on the way south, changing trains and swiping In at Watford Junction.
In effect this is split ticketing, just done in an intelligent manner.
There are cheaper ways to Watford Junction using London buses from Zone 6 tube stations, but we dont discuss them on the forum because they take too long for forum folk.

PS- Using Advance (train specific) tickets back from Bletchley is a bad idea, you don't know how long you will be there for.
Waterloo to Watford Junction contactless each way £13.10 peak, £9.40 off peak, or to Bletchley £28.40 peak, £14.40 off peak;
Watford Junction to Bletchley contactless £18.50 peak, £10.90 off peak.
Waterloo to Euston £2.90 or £2.80
Euston to Bletchley £25.50/£11.60

No railcard discount at any time

Paper Tickets before 2T off peak discounts-
WJ to Bletchley -£18.50/£10.90 Single; £29.40/£21.80 return.

Euston to Bletchley singles - £25.50/£11.60 or returns £37.10/£23.20

This is a sure fire way to make your head hurt from the high level maths!!

I locked into Premier Inn a couple months ago with a nonrefundable.

Nonrefundable rates are usually quite a bit cheaper, so I would imagine that your cost difference was negligible.

Jules - I can give you my perspective, having faced the same cost question on Bletchley. It was a few years back, but not ancient history.

I was set to buy expensive tickets arriving as Bletchley opened to give us the entire day. The ticket seller (this was before I became proficient on apps and I don't like machines if there is an in person option) talked me out of it to save money. I was right - we wished for that additional hour at the end of our Bletchley day. It would have been worth the expense for me, personally. We are the type of travelers that spend lots of time on exhibits, reading and listening to audio guides - others may not need or desire an entire day. Based on my experience - I'd say go with what feels right for you.

For whatever it is worth (probably not much), we just a week ago faced the same dilemma in doing a day trip from London to Chatham Historic Dockyards. This was going to be a last minute decision and I knew we wanted the entire day. I couldn't find an easy beat-the-system cost option for our travels. So, top dollar both there and back. But, the cost was worth it to us - full day, our schedule. I was ultimately pleased with our decision. I figured this would be the one time I traveled to Chatham - I'm happy to have paid a bit more in transport to do what we wanted - we can make up the extra cost with a cheaper meal sometime!

isn31c, thanks for the explanation and information! Plus, I did not know that Bletchley had a 2 for 1, not sure how I missed that. Thanks

ORDTRaveler, I understand, we are also people that spend WAAAY longer than anyone else at museum/exhibits.

Jules guess I misread which ticket cost you felt was high. Going to delete my reference to the Minnesota Twins.

Yes train tickets for travel in the UK can be costly. I understand your concern.

My thought is this. You want to go to Bletchley. You’ve traveled from the States. Borrowing from NIKE….. Just do it!!!

Believe you will throughly enjoy Bletchley Park.

Jules. I'm glad you found the West Midlands Railway site.

I wouldn't hesitate to book your return time. Bletchley Park closes around 5. We arrived around 10 and only spent about 4 hours due to hubs attention limit. I could have easily spent more time.

Nonrefundable rates are usually quite a bit cheaper, so I would imagine that your cost difference was negligible.

But you may also save by having paid when the exchange rate was more favorable - if you had booked with the cancellable rate, you'd be paying more for those GBPs when you check in.

I must stop getting invloved in confusion like this...

However, one thing leaps out of Jules' later comment that the LNER website has been used. As far as I am aware, that detects foreign IP addresses and switches to an LNER branded version of Omio.com in order to handle foreign currency transactions. And it you take the full price before 09:30 flexible day return price and convert it into US$ at a rate that gives Omio a little something for their trouble, you will get something close to $76.

When I tried National Rail it got really creative and hightlighted something which I thought had died out decades ago - on this route single tickets do not have the same rules in both directions. So it suggest before 09:30 buy an Advance ticket, price can vary but in this answer it was £18. You've already decided what time you want to go so fixing the train with an Advance ticket isn't a hardship. You want flexiblity coming back and that's when it got interesting, because the Off Peak Day Single is the same price in both directions - £11.60, but FROM Bletchley the afternoon/evening time restrictions for travel from Euston don't apply. So my enquiry got a combined price of £29.60

The simple answer is go at a weekend when the 09:30 off peak threshold doesn't apply and you can the Off Peak Day return for £23.20

I haven't added anything for Underground because for Waterloo to Euston I'd use the bus! The Underground Northerr line is so deep you spend nearly as much time on escalators and walking through corridors as you do on the train on that journey! Pay on the bus with contactless card or device.