My wife and I are traveling with another couple (all 30s) to a trip to the U.K. We are flying into Heathrow and staying the night in London (on the advice of the Travelers' Helpline, thank you!) then taking the train to Edinburgh for two days before training back to London. We are considering another side trip during our ten day trip to Canterbury from London, so we are seriously considering a Britrail Flexipass 3 in 8 days. Here's my question - how easy is it to board the train day-of or to make reservations the day before or day of?
Posted by
Charlotte, NC, USA
3428 posts
We used BritRail passes ALOT in our more than 40 trips to the UK. We NEVER made reservations, either. Even for trips to Edinburgh. Just get the pass validated the day before you plan to travel, or the day of if you think you'll have time. Then be certain to follow the instructions about writing in the date on the pass when you travel. BUT WAIT to do so after you are on the train!!! That way if something happens and you don't travel, you haven't lost a day- you CAN NOT mark through or change things once you've written the day on the pass. Only once did we not have seats (in more than 100 journeys).That was on a short 10 min. leg of one trip. Apparently there had been a local football (soccer) team playing nearby. We stood in the vestibule between cars with about 5 others. Almost eveyone got off at the next station, and we had plenty of choices for seats. This was on a local 'sprinter' train that had no first class service. We always got the first class passes because we enjoy the larger seats with tables on our longer journeys. And we never had problems getting seats on trains with first class (such as the Edinburgh route). If you want to read about some of my favorite walks in London and favorite day trips by train, I re-did an article I had written for AAA Carolina's "Go!" magazine for TripAdvisor. Here is a link http://www.tripadvisor.com/Travel-g186338-c176673/London:United-Kingdom:London.And.Day.Trips.html
Posted by
Ithaca, NY, USA
740 posts
I agree that most of the time you don't need to book seats ahead. However, there are some exceptions. We took a train from Edinburgh to London on a Friday (arriving London about 5 p.m.) and even though we got seat reservations about 4 days ahead of time, we had to get seats in separate rows. When you're validating your travel pass, why not get seat reservations at the same time? It's free and you'll already be at the station window....why not give yourselves the peace of mind to know you've got seats? BTW, the four of you might like to reserve table seats. You'll all be together that way, plus it feels a bit roomier.