I am visiting the UK in September with the missus. We intend going from Haywards Heath to Yorkshire and on to Glasgow finishing up at Prestwick where we will take a Ryanair flight to Stanstead and on to Europe. Probably we will spend about 14 days in the UK.
My question is what are my best transport options in the UK?
I looked at rail but it was going to cost the two of us about 200 pounds. I then looked at hiring which was a little dearer but which would be much more convenient. The problem there was the one way with the drop off in Prestwick. I don't want to have to drive down to England just to drop off a hire car but I think that I will get a big price tag on a one way hire. The hire car website I looked at was rather coy about the charge which made me suspicious.
Looking at the cheap car thread TVM said that his rellies buy a banger for a two month trip in the UK. I hadn't thought of that. 14 days seems to be a short time for banger buying and there is the cost of insurance to take into account not to mention the time taken to find a decent banger.
What would you folks advise?
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Expat - an interesting question, would also appreciate some wisdom on this issue we are due to visit blighty in September - Gatwick, London, East Anglia and maybe some parts of southern England to boot. I hate trains, domestic flights are purely the start of exorbitant taxis and a lack of personal transport is very annoying at the best of times but during a 'holiday' will be a real pain. Normally we borrow the good mothers car but I think the sort of mileage we will do would be unfair to her.
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Two thoughts
First. You can get the rail journeys much cheaper than 100 quid each, but you need to understand the (stupid) way that the rail companies sell tickets, and you need to book a long way ahead.
If (and I realise this is a big if) you know exactly what date/time you intend to travel, go to the GNER web site three months before your travel dates and book tickets. London to Yorkshire is available from 15 pounds if you book ahead. To make this work:
Choose off peak travel times.
Buy separate tickets for different legs. If you go to GNER and search for Kings Cross to York/Leeds etc, you will see the cheap tickets. If you try to buy a through ticket from Haywards Heath you will not see the cheap options (because this involves more than one train operating company and the Alice and Wonderland economics of the rail system means they won?t ?share? the cheap deals)
The rail companies don?t release cheap tickets until three months before travel date. I could explain why they have this stupid rule but it is so complicated and so daft you?d loose the will to live.)
The second thought. If all of that makes the train too much hard work ? have a look at hire car through the Ryanair/Hertz link. There is no drop off charge when you book through their site. The no drop off rule applies so long as both airports are served by Ryanair. (Gatwick and Prestwick qualify).
Personally, I would expect the hassle on arranging insurance on a banger to be very hard work ? but maybe others can advise ways to shortcut that.
Slight thread creep ? but you do understand the very strict rules about flying with Ryanair? No guarantee on connecting flights. Strict 15kg baggage limit. Strict 40 minute check in deadline.
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you could cut costs by only renting on those days you actually need a car
i would also consider national express coach ? depending exactly where you start and stop each leg it can be easier
manchester to glasgow flights are v cheap if booked well in advance, arnt there similar deals from leeds/bradford?
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I understand from TVMs previous thread that his relatives bought a banger as they were here for a while. If you are here for two weeks, factoring in time to get a car, insure it and hope it doesn't break down might not leave much holiday time.
Think its got to be car hire to make sure you have an enjoyable time!
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Your comment about booking the trains in segments seems a good idea however I think I might pursue the Ryanair car hire. If I don't have a drop off charge things become much more affordable.
I am also finding out about Ryanair. Strict this and that. Must book over the Internet which means paying by credit card. Big credit card charge. I now see how they can make an airline pay with one penny tickets.
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Ryanair service is good for what it is: a flying bus from A to B. You get exactly what it says on the booking, and anything extra costs extra. Travel light - you can book in extra bags, but it pushes up the cost quickly. It can be worthwhile comparing prices with the competition - even "full service" carriers (e.g. BA, EasyJet, ScotAir) as Ryanair aren't always the cheapest.
You'll often find that Hertz have a promotion on a particular class of car via the Ryanair website. When I looked for a car at East Midlands, a Mondeo was the almost the same price as a Focus. Automatics, MPVs and 4x4s often aren't available via Ryanair (or EasyJet, AFAIK). Try Enterprise too - they also tend to have desks at the secondary airfields and sometimes undercut Ryanair/Hertz depending on the class of car you want.
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>The rail companies don't release cheap tickets until three months before travel date. I could explain why they have this stupid rule but it is so complicated and so daft you'd lose the will to live.)
Every time I see John Major doing his what-a-nice-ordinary-cricket-loving-ex-PM-I-am act, I take a moment to remind myself that we have him to thank for our shambles of a railway. Only 'shambles' is the wrong word - it suggests something unintentional; Major's lot made the railways like this on purpose.
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Hi, Coach travel may be the answer, forget the rail unless you want to be wound up by useless staff & confusing ticket fiasco's & extremly overpriced, frustrating & very unreliable!. I have actually given up with trains now altogether. A banger may be the answer & dump it at a rail station when finished to help someone else out when a trains cancelled or there gold card isn't big enough to cover the fare!. To insure the banger you could pay monthly so one installment & off you go.
Flights have lots of if's & buts so be prepared. If you hire a car from airport or ( anyware) by a disposable camera & take loads of pics before & after you have used it with identity in the back ground.
Have a great trip.
Regards Doc
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Looking at the cheap car thread TVM said that his rellies buy a banger for a two month trip in the UK. I hadn't thought of that. 14 days seems to be a short time for banger buying and there is the cost of insurance to take into account not to mention the time taken to find a decent banger.
Norwich Union does temporary insurance, but a cheaper option is to take out a year's insurance and cancel it within the 14 day statutory cancellation period. Policies on this vary, but I paid only a £19 admin fee (didn't pay the cost of the insurance for the 2 week period).
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...a cheaper option is to take out a year's insurance and cancel it within the 14 day statutory cancellation period.
Unless you're unfortunate enough to be involved an accident, where you may then have to pay the full year's premium.
Check the terms of the policy carefully - for my insurer, if I wrote off the car and was paying the premium by installments, I'd have to pay the balance of the premium (or have it deducted from my payout) and the policy is deemed closed from the time the car is written off.
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I would hire. You will have hassle and many unknowns with a banger.
A car of course will give you far more versatility and flexibility to see the country, divert as you fancy, etc. The journey will be part of the holiday. Bit difficult on a train or coach, never mind a plane.
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Have to be damn lucky to get away with a cheap secondhand car. Hire.
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good one hj
still the insurance hassle though
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eh? what's good about it? This thread starts off with debating '£200 for 14 days travel' and has reached £1000 for a month and that's without the 10000 miles worth of fuel!
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Let me explain then
Hj"s example was of a man taking an unusual piece of equipment for one month dropping a grand and walking away
where would you get the use of one of these bikes for 10,000 miles and it only cost less than £250 a week or £32 a day
Any dealer will have a car that he would gladly rent out for a few weeks to a sensible driver knowing that the extra mileage will not affect resale and the money will help pay the day to day bills ,heck there could be a nice sideline business here something like renta wreck or similar,im surprised no one has thought of it ;-)
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it's ok I did realise it wasn't a direct comparison. Nice to do if you can afford it.
I'd be severly tempted by the banger route though - hang on, that's what I do anyway... Bought a Rover 214 last November for £200 with 12 months t&T on it, all it's cost me so far is a £20 alternator out the scrappy ( and even that had a 30 day warranty on it) OK no street cred but it's done fine so far.
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Looking at the HolidayAutos website (they use other hire companies and act as some sort of broker) then it looks like they do not charge for one way hire either.
If you wanted something like a Focus then it's £262 for 14 days and smaller cars cheaper. Now the good thing about booking via HolidayAutos is you can purchase their collision damage waiver for £2.50 a day and it's a bargain compared to hire companies super CDW.
Last July/August we had a HolidayAutos booked car with Hertz in Italy. Within 1 hour an HGV parked in the boot on the Autostrasa* and it was of course a right off. Luckily we survived (just). Hertz took their standard excess charge from me for the right-off (which itself was cheaper due to HolidayAutos - ?400 I think). and then I claimed off HolidayAutos and got the full amount back in a couple of weeks. All for about £20 for the cost of their cover.
I can recommend HolidayAutos. I personally also get a discount with them via a company benefit scheme which includes loads of companies (Motivano?)
* Anyone stuck in traffic around Milan Malpensa that afternoon.... sorry it was my accident that closed down the roads. The HGV that hit us was then run into by a tanker of some sort. Goodness knows what might have gone into that! Italian Police are still investigating apparently!
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Just tried it via our discount website and it come back as a Focus sized car for £223 and a Mondeo for only £249. Surely a way for others to get the discount because once on the HolidayAuto website via ours, there's no personal details that are obvious. And this is from the home PC so not related to checking IP addresses etc.
Now a Fiesta 4-door for £200 for 14 days with one way trip is quite a bargain IMHO.
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