Heathrow to Cambridge, Cambridge to Canterbury

LHR to Cambridge: easiest is direct national express coach https://www.nationalexpress.com/en

Cambridge to Canterbury: best is train from Cambridge to Kings Cross, walk across the street then train from St Pancras to Canterbury West https://www.nationalrail.co.uk/

I agree with Ramblin On. Those will be easiest.

You are doing the Southern England tour which is in my future I hope. And 7 days in London, life doesn’t get much better than that! I’m jealous and hope you will write a trip report. Enjoy!

Thanks Ramblin’ and Frank II, for the advice & info links. That sounds easy enough. Can we get tickets for the coach and trains on the day we need them (even if they cost more) or do we need to get them in advance?

Judy B—this will be our 3rd RS tour and I’ve never done a trip report. I’ll have to read some so I know what to do. Thanks!

You should be able to buy the tickets on that day. Or.....for the train, you could buy an all day single ahead of time and decide that day which trains you want to take. They can be bought online.

all above is the way I would have said, and about tickets too

Regarding the Cambridge to Canterbury journey, you can buy on the day, but a walk-up ticket costs £52.30 each (ouch).

I like to save money, or at least don't waste money unnecessarily, so what I would do is book an Advance ticket on the slower Cambridge to Liverpool Street station route (£8), take the Tube from Liverpool Street to Kings Cross/St Pancras (£2.40), then travel on a pre-booked Advance ticket from St Pancras to Canterbury West (£14).

That would save £27.90. Each. All for a bit of planning.

This gives us good options. The coach to Cambridge looks easy enough, but we are looking into a driver for the trip from Cambridge to Canterbury. Yes, it will cost more, but we can leave when its convenient for us and do some sightseeing on the way.

If that doesn’t work out or is outrageously expensive, we’ll do the two trains. It’s easy enough to get advance tickets on-line for those.

Thanks for the help. We are all set.

If you have a driver unless you go into London for the ferry or tunnel (way out of the way and unlikely unless you want to go by Isle of Dogs) you will go over the Queen Elizabeth II toll Bridge between Essex and Kent. Be aware the area for several miles each side of the bridge is very industrial you will mostly be seeing big trucks, and the bridge is very very high.

Just a caution if you are scared of heights. (It is a narrow tunnel the other way).

In a few years (OK - several) there will be another crossing downriver.

That’s good to know. Hopefully our driver will be somewhat talkative during that part of the drive, if that can be done safely. Or we’ll use that time to read up on our tour locations or listen to RS audio files. It still seems like a better option for us since we will have all of our luggage. Even though we travel light, we’ll still be uncomfortably loaded up for public transportation. If our tours were in the opposite order (London first, then Southern England), we would most likely have no issue taking trains or the Tube.

Understood. You do know that the journey Cambridge > Kings Cross > St Pancras > Canterbury is trivial by train?

Possible platform other than 1 at Cambridge but unlikely, all on the level. If you need another platform there are lifts.

Kings Cross into the station all on the level, then easy small road to cross ( there is a pedestrian crossing) into St Pancras and the lifts and escalators up to the Javelin trains (up to 300 kph) are just inside the door.

The train to Canterbury is step free and loads of room for luggage. The train from Cambridge may or may not be step free (probably) but if not just a half step, and again plenty (but a bit less than the Javelin) of luggage space.

Your only slight concern might be from Canterbury West to your lodgings, but there are plenty of Canterbury taxis just outside the station...

Good luck with whatever you wind up with...

If you wish to hire a driver for the day, that's fine. But I also agree with Nigel about the train.

If you can lug your luggage on the RS tours, you can easily handle it on the train.

I have taken both of the trains on those routes.

Ok, you’ve convinced us to reconsider. Is there a direct train from CBG to Kings Cross? We are only finding routes that change trains in Tottenham Halle or Peterborough.

I usually refer folks to National Rail https://www.nationalrail.co.uk/ which is a great official one stop shop for all things train in the UK, and I strongly suggest that you become familiar with the website and the associated app.

But in your case, as I perceive a lack of knowledge or confidence in the trains, I will give you the websites of the companies which operate the trains between Cambridge and London Kings Cross (known as KX), and between St Pancras and Cambridge West which may be of extra help to you.

The absolutely fastest trains between Cambridge and London go to KX and are operated by Great Northern which is https://www.greatnorthernrail.com/ . They also allow downloads of actual timetables whereas National Rail doesn't easily. The direct link to the timetable in effect after the end of this month is at https://timetables.greatnorthernrail.com/GN/#/timetables/1084/Table%20A You can see that xx:44 and xx:14 are nonstop to KX. The integrated timetable also shows services to St Pancras from Cambridge too.

Southeastern High Speed company webpage is at https://www.southeasternrailway.co.uk/tickets/more-ways-to-travel/high-speed . Their link to the current online timetable is at https://timetables.southeasternrailway.co.uk/#/timetables/666/Table%201 - the current fast trains are at either xx12 or xx:10.

I hope this help you...

All of your responses have been helpful! We’ve been using the National Rail website all along and will be purchasing our advance tickets for the Cambridge to Canterbury route today. We are on the fence about the LHR to Cambridge route because if we miss the early coach, we’ll spend the better part of three hours in the airport before the next bus. A private driver for that trip might be worth it to maximize our time in Cambridge.

Thanks everyone, we are all set.

I don’t wish to make this confusing but…

The discount tickets referred to earlier are called Advance. This type of ticket is not available on the Cambridge to Kings Cross route. Only Anytime or Off-Peak tickets are sold, and whether you buy today (in advance) or on the day they cost the same.

Where you can save money is by buying Advance tickets from St Pancras to Canterbury West.

When you buy train tickets in the UK you need to know the name of the cheaper tickets and when they go on sale. They may not be on sale for your dates in May – check and make sure before you buy. It’s not a case of simply buying tickets online weeks before you travel as you could still end up purchasing full-price tickets.

No wonder we couldn't find the ticket prices mentioned earlier in the thread. Another related forum post mentioned that navigating Brit Rail is a dark art. No kidding!

We will wait a bit and see what discounted tickets show up. We also looked at a Two Together Rail Card which looks like it will save us 30% off full price. We may do that if we if our routes are eligible and we get antsy waiting for a discount.

Jony, I highly recommend the discounted Rail Cards, like the one you mentions for two, or the Senior RailCard. You can almost recoup for the 30 pounds you pay for a card (good for 1 yr) in just a couple of train or bus journeys. You can buy them digital online.
Just as an aside what hotel or b&b are you staying at in Canterbury? Thanks

We also looked at a Two Together Rail Card which looks like it will save us 30% off full price.

It is actually 1/3 off, usually calculated at 34%. Not just off full price, but on virtually all usual fares and most operators. Trains only, not buses.

The only two main restrictions are that you must travel together (with the card or app and of course the ticket) and that if you travel M-F it must start after 9:30 am. But you wouldn't want to be on sardine trains. Any time weekends and Bank Holidays.

I know that this is an old thread (2 months since we heard from Jony but perhaps this will help them.

We did end up getting the Two Together rail card and used it to buy tickets from Cambridge to Canterbury and also from Bath to London. The savings on those two fares more than covered the cost of the rail card. We may use it for a side trip or two and perhaps on some restaurants or other activities. Our trip is just a couple of weeks away and we are super excited to finally be traveling again!