Train travel questions

It's always worth checking on a Split ticketing App that you are getting a good fare.
I have used this and sometimes the fare is half the fare that the nationalrail site posts,
To be on exactly the same train.

With the traveling you are doing a Two Together rail pass ,£30, is near certain to save you money too

A good place to simply start is with The Man in Seat 61's website -- https://www.seat61.com/

Good indepth knowledge that will answer a lot of questions.

The UK National Rail website is: https://www.nationalrail.co.uk/#

The train to Edinburg is run by London North Eastern Railway (LNER) and departs from Kings Cross station. Upon landing at Heathrow take the Piccadilly line all the way to Kings Cross to catch the train. There are a number of different ticket options.

Split ticketing may save you money on journeys involving more than one train, but not on direct trains with no transfers. I believe all the journeys she proposes are direct trains. For those I would just go to the Nationalrail.uk website and put in the journey to let it show te various options, then pick the one I like—-usually the cheapest. If you buy ahead of time, you can get Advance tickets which are the lowest fares, but be aware that these tickets are for a specific train only and non-refundable. We have always but these and have not ever missed our train.

Examples of fares from London Kings Cross Station to Edinburgh, a journey of 4-5 hours:

Lowest Advance fare I can find, looking now for a train 4 weeks out: £29.90

Advance fare closer in, such as buying today for Monday: £51 to £57 ( note: pre-covid one could not get a cheap advance fare that close to the travel date; on some routes they would sell out 10-12 weeks ahead).

Walk-up fare for Off-Peak travel, flexible ticket: £110

Full Anytime fare, most flexible £263

Your other trips are much shorter and less expensive, like £8 to £12 for Edinburgh to Berwick-on-Tweed (Advance fares).

Note that a Two Together Railcard will give you a discount of 30% even with Advance fares, but if you get your Edinburgh tix in the range of £30-£40, it may not be worth the cost—-unless you are doing more train travel then stated. If you pay more than £50 for your tix to Edinburgh, then the Two Together Railcard might pay for itself, but check and see if it is limited to OffPeak travel before you commit to that. (I cannot remember).

There are now 2 operators on the London Kings Cross - Edinburgh Waverley East Coast Mainline route, the previously mentioned LNER and the new bargain basement blue train by lumo (no capital letters for such supposedly cool train company), and the route as yet unmentioned up the West Coast Mainline from London Euston into Edinburgh Waverley from the opposite direction which also has two operators, Avanti West Coast and the overnight Caledonian Sleeper which is a high class hotel on rails.

Thank you all so much! Very helpful comments!!!

If you want to take the train from London to Edinburgh, you might want to spend a day in London first. We did the arrive at LHR - Piccadilly line to Kings Cross - train to Edinburgh trip a few years ago and found it very difficult to stay awake so we could see the scenery. The motion of the train is very lulling! You might also want to consider lst class tickets for that segment. You will have a lot more leg room and space for your luggage - at least it was that way when we traveled. The views are supposed to be a bit better if you book seats on the right side of the train.

Are you open to renting a car for a day or so? That part of Scotland / England between Edinburgh and Berwick is full of ruined abbeys and castles. St. Abbs is on beautiful coast and Lindisfarne is very interesting. All would probably be difficult to access without a car.