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Train travel in Wales in August. When to buy tickets

Posted by (Cleveland) on

Hello, My sister and I are going to Wales in mid August. We will travel by train from Manchester airport to Llandudno. From Llandudno to Caernarfon (I know there's a bus involved from Bangor to C). From Caernarfon to Cardiff. From Cardiff to Heathrow. We have a Two Together Railcard. Should I buy the tickets now? I was planning on buying tickets for the Llandudno to Caernarfon leg and the Caernarfon to Cardiff leg now. But wait on the other routes until we get there because we're not sure of departure times.

Thoughts?

Thank you.

Posted by
9612 posts

Llandudno to Caernarfon you can actually book as a through ticket if you use station code CFS.

Caernarfon to Cardiff - be careful - the cheapest tickets from Porthmadog are routed via Aberystwyth then the Traws Cyrmu bus to Carmarthen, then the train to Cardiff. That route is like crazy cheap. So if you want to do train all the way be careful to check it is routed via Shrewsbury and doesn't look too cheap to be true. I encourage the bus route but it is a long journey.

Manchester Airport to Llandudno is £45.40 on the day before railcard discounts, but only £8.50 Advance Fares (at 10pm tonight for tomorrow morning). I wonder if it is worth buying an Advance for a train say 90 minutes after landing, another one for an hour later, and another one for an hour after that.

Cardiff to LHR will obviously be cheaper now, but there will be advance tickets closer to the time, or use the frequent direct National Express bus.

Posted by
2768 posts

Bangor to Cardiff can be done by direct train in 4 hours 19 minutes. Paying today to travel today would cost about £54 each but pre booking a few weeks in Advance for specific trains >(no refund) would cost about £40 each (with Railcard - will be less). However, going this way means that you retrace your route as far as Chester. That being so, you may wish to take a bus from Caernarfon to Porthmadog and then use a train on the Cambrian line which goes down the coast as far as Aberdovey (Aberdyfi in Welsh) where the route then turns inland to cross mid Wales to Shrewsbury - where you change trains for onward that will take you to Cardiff. Going this way takes 5 hours 46 minutes from Porthmadog to Cardiff.
https://www.visitwales.com/destinations/north-wales/explore-cambrian-coast-railway-line

You can check the train prices and times/book on the following site even though you will not be travelling with Scotrail. By all means compare for clarity with other sites as well. Play around with dates to see how the fares vary over time. https://www.buytickets.scotrail.co.uk

Another way you could do the journey is Traws Cymru buses - and I do mean buses rather than luxury coaches!

Map of rail routes in Wales (grey = Traws Wales bus routes).

Don't forget to retain your tickets to get 2 for 1 entry into CADW Castles such as Conwy & Caernarfon.
https://tfw.wales/ways-to-travel/rail/savings-and-offers/cadw

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