I'm trying to purchase tickets for a trip in October for my 16 year old and I. From Bath to York to Edinburgh to London. We'll be staying two nights in each city. I get different prices (on-line) from Brit Rail, National Rail Inquiries, and the individual companies. What is the cheapest and easiest way to accomplish this? Thanks for your help. Barb in Washington State
Posted by
Minneapolis, MN, USA
8700 posts
The cheapest is to book well in advance to take advantage of any special discount fares on each individual company's Web site. You will have to register on each site before booking and you must give a UK postal code when doing so. (Use the code of any London hotel.) Then when it comes time in the booking process to pay, change the address to match the one associated with the credit card you're using. You'll be issued a confirmation code by e-mail for each booking. Bring the printouts and the credit card with you. Use them to retrieve your tickets from a FastTicket machine at the station.
Posted by
Yorkshire
1209 posts
Booking with any of the train companies should be cheapest, they sell each others tickets. Booking this far in advance should give the best prices too. If you have dates, and rough time of departures I'll have a look round for you. Stangely was finding tickets from Bath Spa to edale today , mid Oct and for a family of 4 , it totalled £22.
The first reply is the way to get round the booking from aboard and online snag.If not a phone call and credit card booking does work.
Posted by
Stockton, CA
152 posts
I'm registered with GNER and Virgin Trains, and used my home address. Remember, the country is divided into regions, each served by a different train company. The fares are as complicated as airfares, and vary by date of travel, day of week, time of day, etc. In general, the farther ahead you book, the cheaper the fares, although last minute fares can also be cheap.
Use this official site to check schedules: http://nationalrail.co.uk/index.html
Then, go to the specific rail company site to confirm the schedule and buy your ticket. You can pick up all the tickets at any automated machine in most train stations. Remember, they speak English, and buying by phone can be very quick and easy, especially if you already know the train you want to book.
We did the same route 5 years ago. It is a wonderful trip, and we had no problems with the trains whatsoever.
Posted by
OP
West Richland, WA, USA
4 posts
Turned out that Richard was correct. I ended up booking through South West for the whole journey. I was surprised to see the differences. Booking through SW the total was 130 lbs, checking with BritRail it was $866, and checking with National it was 139 lbs. Traveling from Edin. to Virginia Water (outside London) we'll be taking a bus/train/tube/train, so am really glad I listened to everyone about "packing light" - will have only one small bag to haul around. Still trying to convince my teen, tho.
Posted by
Scotland
505 posts
Barb...
The situation will hopefully change by the time you are in the UK, but you should be aware that Virginia Water is within the protection and/or surveillance zone for the current Foot & Mouth outbreak, so Windsor Great Park & Virginia Water (park) are closed to the public. In addition, most footpaths will likely be shut, as will any open farm etc. Windsor Castle is open.
You should keep an eye on the situation - the only effect would be on outdoor sites or things involving animals, so you may need to adjust plans if you are intending to attend a farmer's market, outdoor festival etc., and the outbreak has not been contained by your trip.
Kate
Kate
Posted by
OP
West Richland, WA, USA
4 posts
Thanks for the info, Kate. My cousin lives in Virginia Water and we will be staying with her at the beginning of our trip as well as the end of the trip. It will be nice if we could take some walks around, so we'll have her be our guide.
Posted by
southwest, Missouri, U.S.A.
1717 posts
Barb, this is not the cheapest way to travel in trains, but I recommend buying a ticket for a seat in a first class train, if traveling a long distance in England. When I traveled in trains in England in June of 2003, a ticket for traveling a long distance in a First class train car cost only 15 British Pounds more than being in a Second Class train car. Passengers in the First Class train cars were served a good dinner. The passengers in the Second Class train car were not served anything. I was in a Second class train car for a long trip in England : it was crowded with people, people were standing in the aisle, a female train attendant talking in a voice that was irritating tried to get most of the people seated, a baby near me was crying, a baby vomited near me. ... A man's loud voice from a speaker was saying numbers for a Bingo game. It was unpleasant. I walked through the First Class train car : it was quiet, the air was better, the food being served smelled good. Better seats