Britrail pass?

Old Dec 10th, 2003, 08:09 AM
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Britrail pass?

My sister and I are going to London in February 2004. We will be there for 8 days and want to see as much as possible! Does anyone recommend getting a Britrail pass for our adventures or taking individual day tours. Britrail is offering a special for about $300.00 for 8 days and I am thinking that that would be a better value than taking $100.00 day trips everywhere. What do you all think? Does the Brit rail pass go everywhere in England and Scotland and is it pretty easy to figure out? (We are in our 30's and can easily get around).
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Old Dec 10th, 2003, 08:16 AM
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BritRail passes generally do not make sense unless you plan on taking a lot of long distance train trips. If you are in London for 8 days you will likely want to spend most of your time in the city w/ one or 2 out of town train trips. There would be no reason to get any sort of pass for that sort of itinereary.

Just buy point to point tickets.
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Old Dec 10th, 2003, 08:20 AM
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Hi JH

Go to www.railsaver.com, enter your itinerary and they will tell you if a pass will save you money.

Also, the railroads in the UK do have specials.
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Old Dec 10th, 2003, 08:20 AM
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Hi, I ordered my 8 day rail pass from the Rick Steves site. It was a "off Season" pass good for unlimited travel within the eight day time frame for $212 plus S&H. It is good only for the months of Jan. and Feb.
So, to answer your question, yes, I do think it is a good deal provided you use the pass a lot during the 8 day period. Just think, you can go up to Scotland for about $30.00 on any train at any time.
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Old Dec 10th, 2003, 01:58 PM
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BritRail is the only way to go in the U.K. I've used them on all three trips & am planning a fourth. Not only does it save money over buying point to point tickets, it also saves time standing in ticket lines. Just hop on the train & go. There is a wonderful website at www.railtrack.co.uk where you can plan your journey - just enter where you want to go to & from and it will show you all the detrails. The trains in Great Britain go almsot everywhere though I suppose if you look hard enough you may find someplace inaccesable. But you have to buy the BritRail pass in the U.S. before you go, they don't sell them in the U.K. I ordered mine through British Travel International - www.britishtravel.com - they don't charge any shipping, the passes came in about a week, and you can also order the Great British Heritage Pass from same website which gets you into most castles & historic sites.

However having said that, if your plans are to stay in London the whole time, a London Travel Card would be a better choice.
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Old Dec 10th, 2003, 07:59 PM
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My experience is totally opposite to Daisy54's. While I would not be so bold as to suggest that Britrail is never the way to go, i have yet to find that it would be cost effective in over a dozen visits to the UK, with extensive train travel. The two times I bought the pass, I paid too much compared to what tickets would have cost. The other times, the cost of individual tickets did not come close to the cost of a pass.

The savings have increased in recent years, with the establishment of the two on-line ticket agencies and on-line sales by the individual train companies and with the facility to collect pre-purchased tickets at all major and many minor stations in the country. Together this makes it so easy to get the cheapest advance purchase tickets -- and no standing in line, either.

Daisy is right that the Britrail pass gives flexibility. That may be valuable to some, but I no more need that than I need the flexibility of buying full fare plane tickets.

Roger is the only traveler I know of for whom a Britrail pass makes sense.
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Old Dec 12th, 2003, 01:28 PM
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Hi there. I'm a college student and did a study abroad program this summer. I had a britrail pass and paid about 450 for it. I was there for a month and it was well worth the money as I was going some place every day. However, since you are only going to be there for 8 days, i wouldn't recommend spending 300 for it to be quite honest. I dont' know how old you are but if you are under 25 they have youth discounts. $300 sounds high to me for just 8 days. check the youth rates on that if you are eligible. best of luck, you'll have a blast. I miss it everday. Oh... if you are staying in london i highly recommend buying a subway pass. you can only get them in the US and they cost $25 per week. They were extremely helpful and worth the money. Getting access to zones 1 and 2 are the best way rather than all of them. everything you need to get to (all the main transtations and entertainment) are within those 2 zones. paying more for the other zones is not worth the money at all.
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Old Dec 12th, 2003, 06:45 PM
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Have you thought of the Days out of London Pass from Britrail. I've seen them for $145 for a first class pass for travel on 4 out of eight consecutive days. We used this pass when we were in London for 8 days and it seemed very convenient. We were able to visit Dover, Salisbury, Windsor and Brighton, and spent the rest of our time in London.
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Old Jul 12th, 2004, 07:36 AM
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I would like to ask...I come from HK, I would like to buy train pass for day out of London. Can I buy it in UK, such as London?
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Old Jul 12th, 2004, 07:56 AM
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Day trips by train are generally cheap. London-Dover, for instance, costs £20.80 cheap day return; that ticket is valid on any train after the morning rush hour and allows you to come back at any time the same day. Brighton and Windsor are nearer to London, so would be even cheaper. A rail pass could make sense if you're planning longer day trips such as York or Bristol; there are cheap tickets available for longer journeys, but these have to be booked in advance and the cheapest fares are unlikely to be available for journeys in the morning and evening which is when you'll want to travel for day trips. I would certainly pay extra for flexibility: on most main routes, trains are every hour or every half hour, so a ticket that allows you to travel when you like has big advantages.
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Old Jul 12th, 2004, 05:48 PM
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One thing about a BritRail pass no one has mentioned is that with the current exchange rate, you can buy quite cheaply in dollars. If you buy in Britain, you pay in pounds at almost twice the cost. It depends on how much you travel; we just finished a 3 week trip with an 8 day flexipass and saved a great deal over point to point tickets. But that is not always possible, depending on your plans. There are a number of passes, including a new one good only in England, not Wales or Scotland, which we bought, and which is somewhat cheaper. Many of the train lines are very lax about checking tickets; we traveled 8 times and had our passes looked at only 4 times. And with the pass, you don't have to worry about traveling only during certain hours. A number of our trips started early to maximise the time available in the destination city. You need to check on the fares to the destinations you plan, and then compare them to the cost of the pass. Be sure to translate pounds to dollars. We went to Bath, Warwick, Blenheim Palace, Stamford, Windsor Castle, Syon House, Salisbury and Stratford. Good luck, and happy traveling.
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