Hello everyone,
I will be in London for 2 months this summer and want to travel RT - once to Oxford and once to Edinburgh during this time with the option of visiting some other places. I found the Britrail pass on RailEurope which sells for $385 (8 days in 2 months). Is this the best pass for me? Thanks for any advice.

Chances are it's not the best deal for you, although I understand that train fares are higher in the U.K. than in Italy, where I spend most of my vacations.

It would be worth your while to go to

www.railsaver.com

and enter your itinerary (enter returns to a few of the other places you are thinking of as well) and click on "Only if it saves me money."

If you want the convenience of freedom of travel go for the pass - hop on any train, etc. If not go to www.nationalrail.co.uk and you can get some incredible cheaper return fares to Scotland with non-refund, no-change, etc. that would probably be cheaper. But if you have plans for all 8 days of the pass even then it may be hard to beat. BritRail passes are not on sale in UK nor is there any reasonably priced equivalent.

I would approach this as follows: find out the best return fares you can get to the places you want to visit (so you're comparing apples), and see if it's more or less than $385.

You can do a day trip from London to Oxford, so that only uses up one of your 8 days. Edinburgh, however, should be an overnight, requiring two.

Apply similar analysis to other days out vs. overnights. Remember that most, if not all, of the British railroad companies offer "cheap day return" fares, which you should use for comparing prices.

And bus service such as the ones to Oxford for about 10 pounds return i think and just as quick as train and even more convenient if wanting to go to parts of London they go and the train doesn't. UK has extensive bus route but long-distance take much longer than train but can be incredibly cheap. Check out cheap national bus pass that used to be used but not sure now.

Thanks everyone, all comments were very helpful!!

So what did you find out and what did you decide?

FWIW, in 1998 we used the National Bus from London to Bath and were quite pleased with it. The bus seemed quite new, was a doubledecker with good views, and we could watch them load on our luggage.