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.

A Few Updates

Despite how excited I am to go to Europe, I haven't been doing much planning in the past 2 months. Actually, the truth is that Guitar Hero (a very addictive game!) was distracting me. However, I still have a few updates to talk about. First off, I have to talk about the backpack I bought last week. After much looking around, below is a picture of the backpack I chose except mine is red, which gives off a great "I am Canadian" feel!
For some reason I am super excited now that I have the backpack! A few of the most important features I was looking for in a backpack were the following: 1) a daypack for sightseeing around cities; 2) a zip cover for the straps (ideal to protect the straps while checking in your luggage at the airport and hostels); 3) between 65 and 80 liters of packing space (this was an educated guess for what I needed, check my packing list); 4) finally, I wanted a lot of pockets on the inside to organize my stuff. The pack is made by Mountain Equipment Coop, which also offers many other backpacking essentials on their website.

I was given some good tips about how to fit and pack a backpack. You want to try to pack the heaviest items in the center of the pack, with medium weight items below, and light items on top. This puts the center of gravity of the bag in the ideal position. In terms of fitting the backpack, you want the waist belt to be on the top of your hips with the shoulder straps resting lightly on your shoulders. Most of the weight should be transferred to your hips (about two thirds) with one third going to your shoulders.

Secondly, Jack, Josh, and I have bought our airline tickets and are flying on Air Transat. We are leaving on the 8th of September and returning November 19th (72 days). In addition to Air Transat being the cheapest flight out there, we were fortunate enough to get a discount through a family friend. With taxes the flight will cost us $458; regular price would have been about $490.

Finally, you can check out the updated/real route we will be taking in Europe. We also have our first and second hostels picked out. In London, we are going to stay at the Meininger City Hostel. In Edinburgh, we are staying at the Castle Rock Hostel. Well that's all I have for now. Hopefully I'll beat Guitar Hero soon, so that I can spend more time on posting.

Juggling Flights

I have briefly been looking at flights to Europe from Toronto throughout the past 6 months or so but September is quickly approaching and I need to dig deeper into this subject. I hope that by the end of this post you will have a good idea about flight costs and where to look for the cheapest flights. I am certainly no travel agent but I will try my best to present a thorough overall view.

The original plan was to purchase a one-way ticket, because of the long length of the trip, and then while in Europe find a flight back home. However, this is not a good idea despite its attractiveness. You can save a lot of money by purchasing a round trip pass. You're better off spending money on an extra week in Europe and waiting for the return flight than spending a lot of money on a one-way ticket. In other words, an extra week in Europe will be cheaper than the difference between one-way and return trip tickets.

I have compiled all relevant flight data in a spreadsheet (follow the link below). It includes different departure dates from Toronto to a chosen city in Europe, the airline, one-way and round trip prices, and the source. Note that all prices include taxes and fees.

Click Here To See Spreadsheet

Wow! Air Transat appears to offer the cheapest flights; I would never have guessed that. Even the travel agents I spoke to agree that Air Transat is generally the cheapest. Air Transat flies to London, Amsterdam, and Paris. Of the 3, London is the cheapest. The prices are based on a 10 week trip starting the first week of September.

In conclusion, we are going to fly round trip with Air Transat.