I will be going to London for the 2nd time in early July. This time I would like to get out into the countryside. How easy or difficult is it to use the train system? And, is it realistic to stay in London and take consecutive day trips out of London. I want to go to some less touristy places such as Agatha Christie's house and Jane Austen's house in Chawton. My thanks to anyone with advice!
Posted by
Minneapolis, MN, USA
8700 posts
Trains are easy to use. If you'll be going relatively short distances, then buying point-to-point tickets will likely be cheaper than a railpass. If you do buy a pass, the logical choice would be the London Plus Pass. See this page for the details.
I just did some checking and found that Alton is the closest train station (one mile) to Chawton. Trains run frequently from London Waterloo to Alton, some being direct and some requiring a connection in Woking. Travel time in either case is a little over an hour. An anytime day return (round trip) ticket costs £17.00.
Posted by
Charlotte, NC, USA
3428 posts
We love the trains in the UK. We always used the BritRail pass- but haven't been in more than 2 years and I understand that they aren't quite the value they used to be. What we like is not having to commit to a specific place/date/time. I wrote an article about doing day trips by trains for AAA Carolina's "Go!" magazine- I'll put the link at the end of this post. Maybe you will find it helpful.
http://www.aaacarolinas.com/Magazine/2008/Jan-Feb/britain.htm?zip=28208&stateprov=nc&city=charlotte