Fly into London or Manchester?

Posted by dougandjulie (WI) on 02/08/25 04:37 PM

We are taking our first trip to England this June and are undecided on flights. We have three weeks and will spend the first week in York then a little over a week in London and finish in Bath. I initially thought going multi city flying into Manchester and back home via London would be the obvious choice. However at looking at possible flights out of Chicago, many fly into Heathrow and then connect to Manchester.

My question is: if we can get a direct flight from Chicago to London would is be just as easy to take the train from Heathrow to the city and then the train to York instead of flying to Manchester? We will be flying carryon only if that helps. We have enjoyed using trains in other countries and will be using them for all travel between cities and planned day trips.

Thanks, Doug

Posted by isn31c

Lake District, England

02/08/25 05:05 PM

9261 posts

Edinburgh is another possibility- seasonally on United.

York is basically the half way point of the London to Edinburgh rail line. So York is about 15 minutes further from Edinburgh as it is from London, offset by Waverley station being half an hour from the Airport, as opposed to Kings Cross being an hour from Heathrow. And Edinburgh is a far smaller airport.

Yes York is about an hour closer to Manchester by train than Edinburgh is- but with only an hourly train (compared to every 30 minutes from Edinburgh or London, and you lose time by waiting for a connection at some other airport (in Europe or the US) as MAN has no non stop Chicago.

So it is all swings and roundabouts with no clear winner in time terms.

Posted by dougandjulie OP

02/08/25 05:16 PM

69 posts

Thanks for the detailed comparisons and pointing out Edinburgh which I hadn’t thought of. Guess it might come down to price differences if any.

Posted by Frank II

Freedonia

02/08/25 06:00 PM

17031 posts

What you could do is fly open jaw. Fly into either Manchester or Edinburgh and fly home from London.

Use the multi-city option to get the best price.

Posted by dougandjulie OP

02/08/25 06:15 PM

69 posts

Thanks Frank, now I’m thinking Manchester might be out if we can get a direct flight to Edinburgh. I’ll watch prices for round trip out of London vs multi city into Edinburgh and out of London. I especially like the idea of dealing with a smaller airport and train stations when jet lagged.

Posted by Frank II

Freedonia

02/08/25 08:06 PM

17031 posts

If it's a big price difference, and round trip to London is much cheaper, then it's not really a big deal to go via London.

You can get from Heathrow to Kings Cross Rail station (where you get the train to York) on the Piccadilly line direct between the two. No changes. About one hour. You'll probably get a seat as the train originates at Heathrow.

There is another option if you don't mind changing your itinerary.

Fly to London and go directly to Bath. From Bath head up to York. From there head back to London for a few days, end your trip, and fly home from London

It's easy to get from Heathrow to Bath and you don't have to backtrack into London. (You have a choice of coach/train or direct coach with no changes.) From Bath you can get a train with one stop in Bristol--just a few minutes from Bath--to York. It bypassess London and goes North.

Use National Rail for train schedules. Use National Express for the direct coach to Bath. The Bath Rail station and the Bath Coach station are next to each other.

Posted by dougandjulie OP

02/08/25 10:00 PM

69 posts

Thanks for the additional info. I put track flights alerts on Google flights for several options and will see how the fares compare over the next couple of weeks. Unfortunately our days in Bath can’t be changed and it works better for us to have the trip be in June instead of stretching into July.

Really appreciate the confirmation from both of you that whichever way we do it is reasonable. Have always found good advice and answers on this forum!