UK train travel advice for Dec/Jan trip (from Australia) ?!

Posted by randyallgreen@reddit | AskABrit | View on Reddit | 31 comments

Hi all,

We're visiting from Australia over December/January and are trying to work out the best way to get around.

Our rough itinerary is:

London → Bath
Bath → Cotswolds
Hire a car for exploring the Cotswolds
Return the car and take the train to York
York → Edinburgh

A few questions:

How easy is the UK train network to navigate for visitors?
Are there any rail passes worth considering, or is it generally better value to buy individual tickets?
What's the best station to travel from after returning a hire car in the Cotswolds and heading to York?
Any tips for travelling during the Christmas/New Year period? We've heard there can be engineering works and service disruptions.
What apps or websites do you recommend for planning journeys and booking train tickets?

We're thinking trains will probably be the easiest option for most of the trip, with a car only for exploring the Cotswolds, but would love to hear from people who've done something similar.

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LupercalLupercal@reddit

Weather will be miserable, you certainly won't be seeing the Cotswolds at their best

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If you can, I would drive the hire car to York.if it's a chain company they should let you do this. Getting between Cotswolds and York via train is expensive and lengthy (at least it was when I looked into it!).

As far as rail in general goes: it's pretty easy. I recommend getting an app such as "Trainline" as it automatically sorts split fares (this is when it's cheaper to buy two tickets for a journey than one single to cover the whole journey. Don't ask. It's a stupid system which prays on people who don't know).

If there's 3 or more of you on a journey together, often you can get a discount if you're all travelling together, which again should show up if you use the suggested app for ticket buying.

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randyallgreen@reddit (OP)

Yep!! We've opted for this option. Train from London-Bath, hire a car to take us to the Cotswolds then York. Train from York - Edinburgh

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Loose_Acanthaceae201@reddit

Imagine UK rail like a spider's web (er, a British spider, not Australian mass ballooning) centred on big cities.

Journeys along the spokes are the fast mainline/intercity routes. Possibly expensive, but relatively reliable. You don't need to be going from/to/through the hub to get the benefit.

Cross-country routes are much, much stickier: more difficult, less frequent and more often cancelled. You often end up doing two sides of a triangle instead.

London to Bath and York to Edinburgh are easy spoke routes. Bath is not on the same spoke as the Cotswolds, and that's why it might be more convenient to pick up the car a day earlier.

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randyallgreen@reddit (OP)

Thank you very much for this. Pretty much planning to drive between Bath and York now. And then train to Bath from London and from York to Edinburgh as you mentioned.

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MartinUK_Mendip@reddit

Make sure you're staying somewhere sensible between 24-28: trains stop early (like 8pm) on the 24th (Christmas Eve), no - or very few - trains run on 25th and 26th, and as 26th is a Saturday, the following Monday (28th) will also be treated as public holiday. And decent restaurants get booked out early (like October) for 25/Christmas and 26/Boxing Days, so plan for that.

Everything will slowly restart on Tuesday 29 only to again come down to a crawl on 1-3rd of January for New Years Day/weekend.
The trains, and country, will restart on Monday 4th January, bleary-eyed after two weeks of self-indulgence and family arguments.

Scotland takes New Year more seriously than England, so be patient if you're in Edinburgh by then.

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randyallgreen@reddit (OP)

We are thinking about being in Glasgow for NYE and Edinburgh around the 28th. Any wisdom on this plan of attack?

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Martinonfire@reddit

To be honest if I was doing this I would hire my car in London and drop it off in Edinburgh, plenty of the larger hire companies will allow this and it gives you far more freedom to explore.

For instance if you are doing York to Edinburgh then Lindasfarne (Holy Island) is pretty much a must visit, then Seahouse is near and you can take a boat trip from there to see the puffins etc etc.

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randyallgreen@reddit (OP)

We opted to hire the car from Bath - York. So hopefully the trains from London - Bath & York to Edinburgh are a breeze :)

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Few-Review3796@reddit

You can use the National Rail Enquiries website (national rail.co.uk) to plan journeys and also purchase tickets by directing you to the appropriate train company. Somebody has suggested the Trainline which is convenient but they do charge a fee for every booking. If you book directly with the train company you may be able to avoid the booking fee.

Also worth noting that there is a high probability of engineering works around Birmingham due to HS2 (high speed train line which is currently under construction) so that could affect your journey from Bath up to York. Also the Cross Country trains which you may need to use on this route are horrible and often overcrowded and a seat reservation is essential (if you can actually get to your seat). Driving may be the better alternative as suggested.

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randyallgreen@reddit (OP)

Thanks for the reply! We have gonna ahead and booked a car from Bath which we will be able to drop off in York :)

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everyoneis_gay@reddit

The only stations near the Cotswolds with direct trains to York are Cheltenham, Bristol (Parkway or Temple Meads) and Oxford afaik so you'll want to go to one of those from Bath and hire from and return the car to there.

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randyallgreen@reddit (OP)

Thank you! Do you know of some car hire retailers which I should look into? We have booked a car from Cheltenham for the Cotswolds but it's free cancellation so I'm happy to take on the drive from the Cotswolds to York. (Is the drive from Cotswolds to York easy enough?)

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everyoneis_gay@reddit

If you've already booked the car from Cheltenham it's not crazy timewise to get the train from there to York, you'll just want to check out prices in advance because full price tickets are super expensive (and you'll only get cheaper if you commit to a specific train - use the Trainline app for SplitSave tickets) so especially if there are two or more of you it would definitely work out cheaper in petrol to drive. I don't know what counts as an easy drive for you but you won't be on one motorway all the way up there, there are a fair amount of directions to follow if that's what you mean? Plenty of stopping opportunities though.

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randyallgreen@reddit (OP)

I've changed it up, my partner and I have booked a car through Enterprise, picking it up in Bath and dropping it off in York.

Now we just need to organise the train from London to Bath and then from York to Edinburgh, which I don’t think should be too difficult.

I feel like this will be a lot less stressful. And it will be a bit of an adventure driving around. (Grateful we drive on the same side of the road!)

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Ornery-Wasabi-1018@reddit

Id be very tempted to get the train Bath - Bristol, hire the car there for the Cotswold

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randyallgreen@reddit (OP)

Thank you for the advice so we have booked a car through Enterprise, picking it up in Bath and dropping it off in York.

Now we just need to organise the train from London to Bath and then from York to Edinburgh, which I don’t think should be too difficult.

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Papervolcano@reddit

The network is pretty easy to navigate. It is, however, bastard expensive. Book ahead. Off peak tickets are much more flexible than Advance tickets, which require you to use a specific train, but are more expensive. I’ve always found nationalrail.co.uk cheaper & easier to use than sites like thetrainline, and their journey planning tool isn’t the worst. Some ticket sites offer split ticketing (eg your London-Bath ticket might actually be London-Reading, Reading-Swindon, Swindon-Bath - staying on the same train throughout), which can help with the price, but also means you might not get the same seat for the full journey. Also, those sites charge high booking fees.

London-Bath/Bristol is easy - there’s a train from Paddington every 30 mins minimum. Depending where you’re going in the Cotswolds, might be useful to get a local train closer to your destination.

Heading to York by train - there’s a direct line that goes from (iirc) Plymouth up to Edinburgh that stops in Bristol and York. It’s about 4 hours direct, and easier than the other route (via London).

There’ll probably be some engineering works. On those routes, usually this means an amended service rather than rail replacement buses. This can be a pain and generally means overcrowding. Tbh this far out its difficult to estimate and not worth stressing about

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Dishtothefish@reddit

I'd suggest looking at split ticket sites. My dad used one recently and saved £30.

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mralistair@reddit

book in advance if you can, or buy a "off peak" ticket which is flexible. it's a busy time of year for trans and there is often engineering work as well.

a two-together rail pass might be worth it if there are 2 of you

it's easy. use national rail app / website. you can buy tickest through any of the rail companies (eg GWR)

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Herby-flower@reddit

I had some friends come over from Australia for a visit a few years ago, they went to their local travel agent who advised they buy train passes before they travelled. At the time their rail pass cost 500 Aussie dollars and they each could have up to 15 trips by train. They booked the trains when they got to UK.

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skifans@reddit

UK train travel advice for Dec/Jan trip (from Australia) ?!

Hi all,

We're visiting from Australia over December/January and are trying to work out the best way to get around.

Our rough itinerary is:

London → Bath
Bath → Cotswolds
Hire a car for exploring the Cotswolds
Return the car and take the train to York
York → Edinburgh

A few questions:

How easy is the UK train network to navigate for visitors?

Getting around is actually very easy. The most complicated bit is in the ticketing.

Are there any rail passes worth considering, or is it generally better value to buy individual tickets?

Absolutely worth considering Britrail. The price of advance tickets (anything else will be expensive for long distance journeys) are set dynamically and increase nearer departure. If your aim is to do this as cheap as possible buying advance tickets will before travel is probably going to be the way to go. But if you want more flexibility then absolutely check Britrail.

https://www.britrail.com/

What's the best station to travel from after returning a hire car in the Cotswolds and heading to York?

Probably Bristol Temple Meads, Bristol Parkway or Cheltenham Spa. All of which have direct trains to York. I don't know if there are any car hire places around any of them. You could use: https://www.enterprise.co.uk/en/car-hire/free-pick-up-drop-off-service.html if not.

Heading East to Banbury or Oxford could also be an option. Also direct trains to York. Particularly if you are more around the Chipping Norton area.

Any tips for travelling during the Christmas/New Year period? We've heard there can be engineering works and service disruptions.

Trains can be busy and having a ticket does not guarantee you a seat. You need to make a seat reservation (free but subject to availability) if you want to get a seat allocated for you. Otherwise you just have to find any unused seats or stand. Trains can be busy in the run up to the holidays and yes there can be work and service disruption.

What apps or websites do you recommend for planning journeys and booking train tickets?

Any official train operating company website is fine. They all use the same systems. So if say you like: https://www.lner.co.uk you can use that to book a Cross Country train from Bristol to York. You don't need to go on the Cross Country website for it. All train operating company's can sell tickets for any company at no extra fees. You can just choose whichever you like.

The thing to avoid are the third party agency's (Trainline, Rail Europe etc.) who do not run any trains themselves. They add booking fees and can make changes more complicated. They say they help with comparing the different companies but you can do that on the official operator websites as well. All train operators show all trains and even if you need to use multiple ones to complete a journey you can still buy a single through ticket covering all of them.

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SnooDonuts6494@reddit

How long is the entire trip?

How long will you spend in each location?

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TopCat0160@reddit

If you download the Trainline App it will advise you on the best options and allow you to book your tickets.

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LandofGreenGinger62@reddit

Oh, the train network is relatively easy to navigate - it's just that they're not that reliable! (Particularly CrossCountry who have a bad habit of cancelling trains at short notice...) As a resident, sorry to say it. But I was in Europe recently and marvelling a bit at how many trains there were, and how they all just went, on time, where they were supposed to... We used to be like that...

Also they can be pricey between major cities, so do investigate the fare-splitting option. And Lumo are a very well-priced, no frills option (and more reliable than some).

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CantSing4Toffee@reddit

I would personally recommend buying rail tickets direct with each rail operator, if there is an issue like cancellation or delay you’ll be given good advice and opportunity to get a part / full refund easily.

The Bible of rail travel anywhere is man in seat 61

West Coast line (Avanti) is not as well managed as the East Coast line (LNER). For your trip to Edinburgh reserve seats on the right side of the train for lovely coastal views.