Easiness of England?

[nickelfish1]

Family trip booked in business JFK-LHR-SPU (days in Bosnia and Montenegro) DBV-DUB on Aer Lingus and then DUB-LHR-JFK. Due to cheerleading changing their camp/tryout dates my daughter is unable to go. No one really wants to do the trip without her and hubs thinks it's a "sign" to stay home. I'm trying to salvage something. I'm pretty sure I can knock off the connections and just keep the JFK-LHR segments since it doesn't change my award. I will mostly likely have to downgrade to economy and pay BA taxes to get home though...and will lose $600 in non-refundable tickets on AL. (If we canceled the whole trip we'd be out about $1500)

My question...I'm thinking about just my son (17) and I going to London on our own. I'd want to take the train to Peterborough and York. It looks pretty simple on a map. I really don't want to drive so I'm wondering if it's easy to do without one. Or are there better stops along that route that would be interesting? England hadn't been on my radar so I'm not familiar with it at all. I'm assuming ten days is plenty of time. ?

 

[SanDiego1K]

You'll have no trouble at all seeing London/UK by train. There are multiple websites that give ideas for day trips from London by train. Here is one I found:

https://www.aladyinlondon.com/2015/04/15-best-day-trips-london.html

I lived in London for a couple years. I had a book by Earl Steinbecker (sp?) that gave 40 or 50 day trips by train, and then a walking tour in that town. It was a great resource. There are also companies that give walking tours in London. You show up at a specified time, pay a few pounds, and off you go.

And you can do as you are thinking and take the train to York (don't know Peterborough) and stay overnight to explore the town. I love York.

There is such a wealth of things to do and places to go, your challenge is going to be doing a downselect. Remind yourself that there will always be another trip. This isn't your only opportunity, and you don't have to figure out the absolute "best". As long as you fill your days with enjoyable activities, it will be good.

 

[knick1959]

My question...I'm thinking about just my son (17) and I going to London on our own. I'd want to take the train to Peterborough and York. It looks pretty simple on a map. I really don't want to drive so I'm wondering if it's easy to do without one. Or are there better stops along that route that would be interesting? England hadn't been on my radar so I'm not familiar with it at all. I'm assuming ten days is plenty of time. ?

London is easy and actually recommended without a car. It's easily walkable although depending on where you stay, some of it can be non-trivial. My wife and I used the hop-on hop-off bus as basic transportation for 2 days. Riding it in a loop once gives a good overview of the city and where things are, then pick the places furthest away and use the bus to get there (2 day pass worked for us). It also includes 1 river ride, which is all we needed, and we just took the bus to get back around.

You can easily catch a train to Windsor Castle and back, too. However, we did rent a car in order to get us, slowly, to Cardiff, Wales and sites in-between. For me, driving in the UK was very challenging. I've driven on the wrong side of the road in the USVI, but when you put the steering wheel on the wrong side too, and throw in round-abouts every block (that rotate the wrong way) and I was bumping our small car off curbs and had trouble staying in lanes. I love a challenging drive in-general, but this was just unfair .

I'll PM you a link to my trip report in case if offers any ideas. London has much to see. I personally wouldn't do 10 days there, but you've already said you want some train trips - excellent idea.

Update: Reading over my notes from the trip, I am not clear whether our included ride on the river came from the HOHO bus, or from the London Passes that we also had purchased.

 

[nickelfish1]

[QUOTE="There is such a wealth of things to do and places to go, your challenge is going to be doing a downselect. Remind yourself that there will always be another trip. This isn't your only opportunity, and you don't have to figure out the absolute "best". As long as you fill your days with enjoyable activities, it will be good.[/QUOTE]

Yes, thank you for the reminder. We've been so entirely bummed out about having to bag our trip. Its the summer going into their senior year and we've been planning it since December as a last hurrah before they figure out traveling with friends is more fun. I have the four of us in business, on American to and from LHR, and you know how hard that is!!! That's painful to give up.

I've book marked your link...thank you!

 

[nickelfish1]

I'll PM you a link to my trip report in case if offers any ideas. London has much to see. I personally wouldn't do 10 days there, but you've already said you want some train trips - excellent idea.

Thank you! I'm starting to feel a little more comfortable about just the two of going. I'd do a couple days in London on the ends of the trip...but def don't want an entire trip based solely in London. I like the Hop on Hop Off bus.

Oh! Barcelona last summer. Sagrat Cor Chruch. Walked 1/2 miles to the bus stop, drove for like 45 mint's while people hopped, walked up a huge hill, took a trolley car, jumped onto a funicular, walked out and there we stood...in a parking lot surrounded by screaming kids on amusement rides. My kids were all, "Mom!!! We could have just driven here??? Are you kidding??!"

 

[smittytabb]

Family trip booked in business JFK-LHR-SPU (days in Bosnia and Montenegro) DBV-DUB on Aer Lingus and then DUB-LHR-JFK. Due to cheerleading changing their camp/tryout dates my daughter is unable to go. No one really wants to do the trip without her and hubs thinks it's a "sign" to stay home. I'm trying to salvage something. I'm pretty sure I can knock off the connections and just keep the JFK-LHR segments since it doesn't change my award. I will mostly likely have to downgrade to economy and pay BA taxes to get home though...and will lose $600 in non-refundable tickets on AL. (If we canceled the whole trip we'd be out about $1500)

My question...I'm thinking about just my son (17) and I going to London on our own. I'd want to take the train to Peterborough and York. It looks pretty simple on a map. I really don't want to drive so I'm wondering if it's easy to do without one. Or are there better stops along that route that would be interesting? England hadn't been on my radar so I'm not familiar with it at all. I'm assuming ten days is plenty of time. ?

As someone who had a one month BritRail pass at one point, I say absolutely trains are the way to do UK. This site is super helpful:
http://www.seat61.com/UK-train-travel.htm

I may be the best or worst person to answer this, but I would never drive in UK (or most of Europe where there is good public transportation).

Your biggest concern should be narrowing down what to do as I literally spent a month traveling by train in UK and have been back at least ten times since and feel like I have barely scratched the surface!

And you reminded why we never took those kind of trips when the children were in school. We had four competitive athletes and there was just no way to work around the schedules.

 

[nickelfish1]

And you reminded why we never took those kind of trips when the children were in school. We had four competitive athletes and there was just no way to work around the schedules.

Yep...our lives have been run by sports. This is the first year we've had an issue. Ugh. Did you ever take the ferry from the UK to Dubin? I'm thinking I actually may be able to keep that part (only three days) of the trip as well. Not sure I want to..but getting from London to the ferry seemed easy enough on the high speed.

 

[smittytabb]

Yep...our lives have been run by sports. This is the first year we've had an issue. Ugh. Did you ever take the ferry from the UK to Dubin? I'm thinking I actually may be able to keep that part (only three days) of the trip as well. Not sure I want to..but getting from London to the ferry seemed easy enough on the high speed.

Time opens up a lot when that is all over. Never have taken the ferry to Dublin.

 

[knick1959]

Yep...our lives have been run by sports. This is the first year we've had an issue. Ugh. Did you ever take the ferry from the UK to Dubin? I'm thinking I actually may be able to keep that part (only three days) of the trip as well. Not sure I want to..but getting from London to the ferry seemed easy enough on the high speed.

Not sure from what city the ferry leaves ... was this an important part of your trip? We drove to Cardiff (I'm sure trains go there, too) and flew AerLingus from there to Dublin for $100 or so in coach. I was going to rent a car in Dublin to get to some more remote parts, but after my experience in England, I bailed. We got around just fine, seeing Newgrange via a paid bus tour which was better than expected and a train to some other castle ... Malahide.

Both Cardiff and Dublin and surrounding areas have great things to see.

 

[nickelfish1]

Not sure from what city the ferry leaves ... was this an important part of your trip?

Not really. We were going to Dublin because it got us home from DBV on our business award for less than any other city stop over. It was a bonus city to spend three days on the tail end. It leaves from Holyhead and takes 4.5 hours from York. We could stop a night in Manchester if there is anything to see other than soccer. I've already given Aer Lingus 600 free dollars for nothing so not booking more tickets. Ha!

I have three choices:
Keep original return ticket DUB-LHR-JFK on same return date= no fees
Knock off Dublin segment and keep LHR-JFK on same return date = no fee
Knock off Dublin and come home four days earlier = downgrade to economy w/no mileage difference refund or pay BA tax difference for BA business class home
***Pay tax difference probably doesn't really matter since we won't be paying an additional three nights hotel/food/activity and we'll get some tax money back on daughter/hubs ticket cancellations.

I'm a little more inclined to knock off Dublin and save the extra costs of being away for three nights.

 

[carlos]

London is great place to visit, I travel to Europe for work and I make London my stop on some flights back to the US, been there 2 times this year and 4 times past 3 years, going again in July, I suggest if you have an extra 2-3 days to take train to Paris, its an awesome ride and Paris is another great city

 

[SanDiego1K]

Not really. We were going to Dublin because it got us home from DBV on our business award for less than any other city stop over. It was a bonus city to spend three days on the tail end. It leaves from Holyhead and takes 4.5 hours from York. We could stop a night in Manchester if there is anything to see other than soccer. I've already given Aer Lingus 600 free dollars for nothing so not booking more tickets. Ha!

I have three choices:
Keep original return ticket DUB-LHR-JFK on same return date= no fees
Knock off Dublin segment and keep LHR-JFK on same return date = no fee
Knock off Dublin and come home four days earlier = downgrade to economy w/no mileage difference refund or pay BA tax difference for BA business class home
***Pay tax difference probably doesn't really matter since we won't be paying an additional three nights hotel/food/activity and we'll get some tax money back on daughter/hubs ticket cancellations.

I'm a little more inclined to knock off Dublin and save the extra costs of being away for three nights.

I like Dublin and your teen might find it an adventure to take the ferry. I also prefer flying business class and that allows you to fly back as you booked. Manchester has no awesome tourist sights, at least that I've found. I'd definitely leave Manchester out. There are so many more interesting places.

You've got time before you sort your tickets out, other than perhaps canceling now for your hubby and the athlete. Keep playing with your itinerary. Keep a list of possibilities including what you want to see and do in London. We spent a full week in London early in our travels there. Download a UK map and add dots as you consider destinations. It sounds as though you want to go to York so sanity check locations for other places you are considering. Train fares do mount up, so you won't want to fling yourself around the country willy nilly.

 

[nickelfish1]

Train fares do mount up, so you won't want to fling yourself around the country willy nilly.

Good point!