Day Trip London to Liverpool

Information without recommendation: Couple and a half hours by train, plus whatever time it takes to get to Euston Station, plus whatever time it takes you from Liverpool Lime Street to what you want to see. Maybe two trains per hour, cost will vary with departure time. National Rail has a journey planner somewhere on their site to get you past the semi-wild guesses from me.

This is the official trip planner: http://www.nationalrail.co.uk/ Note that day of the week and time of day can vary the price wildly and that pre-booking can save you a bunch of money but that ticket is good for that train only. You can search around for discount tickets and broker sites but this is a good starting point. TIP: If you prebook be sure you have the credit card you booked with because that's how you identify yourself at the ticket machine in London. =Tod

Just one clarification required on Tod's advice. There are 3 types of ticket that are relevant to almost every train pricing question we get on this forum: 1. The cheapest tickets are the 'Advance' tariff, which can be puchased as far ahead as 12 weeks from the date of travel, or as late as the day before, but are not available for purchase on the day of travel. The cheapest fares sell fast, so prices increase the later you leave it. This is the only kind of ticket that is valid on the train it is booked for and invalid on any other train, plus it can only be changed until the day before and can never be refunded. Only available as singles, not returns, so you just buy two single Advance tickets. If you can book 3 months ahead and commit to specific trains then you could get to Liverpool and back for as little as £46.50 per person 2. Off-peak, which offers lower prices if you don't need to travel during peak hours. You can buy these on the day and use any off-peak train, but the cost would be £77.30. There is no advantage to buying in advance and the earliest train you could use out of London would be the 09.40 3. Anytime fares. Designed for business travellers and priced so that only people whose employers are paying would even consider this fare. £289 return, but completely flexible

I would advise not travelling on a weekend (My thoughts only - particularly Sunday as this is the day engineering works tend to be in operation) and check to ensure that the ticket you book - should you decide to come to this great city :-) does not involve any changing of trains. The trip that doesn't involve a change should take on average about 2hrs 15 mins. With change about 2hrs 40 but you have the extra hassle then of whatever that brings. The Virgin Pendolino website: can be found here... Seating plans for the Pendolino Trains can be found by clicking here Look out for some great offers - sometimes 1st class tkts can be bought that are not much dearer than those for the standard class. Gary

Thanks for the ideas & suggestions. Still mulling it over, we may or may not end up doing Liverpool. I know we'd love it but the travel time might be a bit much. Can't wait to see London though. :)

If it's something you want to see, go for it. In March my family took a 2.5 hour train ride from London to spend a day at the Tank Museum. We were pretty tired when we got back but counted it well worth the time and energy. Then again we had six nights in London and it was our second visit so didn't feel we were losing out on sights in town.