Thursday, August 16, 2007

Getting Around The UK

The Eurail pass is incredibly handy for travelling from city to city in Europe. However, the United Kingdom likes to be difficult and has presented travellers with a problem; what is the best way to get around the UK? Well, the answer didn't come easily but the three of us believe we have found the best way. Actually, the truth is that we can't take full credit; a good friend told us about the 'secret' rail line that runs in the UK. He lived in London for a year and thus, is always full of great tips.

The original thought was that we would take a train from London to Edinburgh, a train from Edinburgh to the coast, a ferry to Northern Ireland, and then a train to Dublin. In addition to the complexity of this plan, it is very expensive. A Britrail pass and ferry ride would have cost us about $350 each.

We knew there had to be a better option. Fortunately, there is one; the 'secret' rail line! The GNER (Great North Eastern Railway) offers discount trains from southern England to northern Scotland. A ticket from London to Edinburgh is going to cost us less than 20 GBP (~$40 CAD). We were ecstatic until we found out the train does not run to any cities that have ferries to Ireland.

To solve this problem we are taking a Ryanair flight from Edinburgh to Dublin. I highly recommend this to everyone. Not only would our original plan have cost us a lot more but we would have lost precious time. By taking a flight we are giving ourselves more time and money; it is an $80 CAD, one-hour flight. All I have to say now is "nice try UK, but we have cracked your travel dilemma."

By solving the UK travel dilemma we are nearly finished planning our trip. Despite my desire to start my trip, I am saddened by the fact that the planning process is almost over. Don't get me wrong, I have been eagerly awaiting this trip for years but the planning process has been a great experience. It has presented challenges, fun, debates, and most certainly rewards, like saving over $200 in UK travel. All in all, every part of this trip has been extremely rewarding and I wish everyone could have the opportunity to experience this.

Update (22/08/07): I booked the GNER train tickets today but I had to do it over the phone because the internet booking seems to only be for UK residents. It took me awhile to figure out how to make an international call but eventually I figured it out. If you're calling from Canada the number is 011-44-#. 011 is for an international call. 44 is the UK 'area code'. Finally, # is the phone number for the business you want to call; however, if the number starts with a 0, remove the 0. I may have just made it more complicated but it's not too bad.

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