Hi! I we are planning a trip to the uk, we fly into london at Gatwick on August 24th, spend two days in London, and then we are going to creamfields August 27 and 28 and from there want to spend another two or three days in england, then go up to scotland and explore around, and fly out of scotland on September 5. We are trying to figure out the most cost efficient way to get around. I think we would like to have a car for Scotland, but we won't need one while at Creamfields, and have read that its very difficult to drive in London. I guess my deliema is if we get a britrail pass for while we are in england before creamfields, a rental car for afterwards, and a ticket for busses to get around london it was going to be over $1000 for two people, any suggestions?

Personally prefer training around like a local

seat61.com U have to train a lot to break even on pass.

Have done your route by car carrentals.com after my LON time

Very nice in rural areas expensive and a hassle in cities.

Cheapest is bus or pass like eurolines.co.uk but

more for backpackers/flashpackers ok not great but good

price under 9 quid per day on some rates.

Happy Planning,

Also favoring train would be a huge drop off charge usually

for one way although some of the Renault Eurodrive

lease programs do not have these leases tend to work better

for me over 2 weeks.

'Training around like a local'??
Where I live in England (North Yorkshire) we all have cars and avoid the trains!

Before making any decisions, you need to work out whether you can actually get to Warrington by train over the August Bank Holiday weekend.

Britain's railway system is constantly being worked on - and bank holiday weekends are when train traffic's at its lowest, so many lines close. My own local line is closed the rest of the week beginnning August 28 as well. Work out your rough itinerary fromthe maps, and your journey's feasibilty from the "Engineering works" page, at www.nationalrail.co.uk.

I can't even begin to understand your maths. If you arrive on August 24, you've got just two days (25&26) for pre-festival stuff. There's no alternative to public transport in London (except the infinitely pricier cabs), and no point in spending less than 2 days there.

So your timetable virtually has to be:
Aug 24: recover and see a bit of London
25& 26: London
27 (early) train to WArringtonm if poss
28 Stay at Daresbury till late
29 Pick up car, from Liverpool or Manchester airports, (obviously Liverpool's best), after spending day putting bags into Liverpool left luggage and visiting the World's Greatest City (TM), then heading off north
30-Sep 4. Visit northern England/Scotland

You need only one railway ticket (London-Warrington Bank Quay or Liverpool), and need to book it now. Prices go up daily. No need to prebook the ticket to Lpool from Warrington.

Hey, thank you so much for responding. I should have said that we are actually flying into dublin on August 19, and from there flying into London on the 24th. Our flight lands at like 0800, so we have the day on the 24th to explore London without having to wory about needing rest. Creamfields is like 30 minutes outside of Liverpool in Daresbury. I have another question, if we don't rent a car before creamfields, the bus system doesn't start til 0900, but gates open for campers at 0600, is there a train or bus that runs that early or can we take a taxi?

Sorry for spelling errors, I guess I should start previewing my post before hitting submit.

The only public transport to the Creamfields site (a field in the middle of nowhere, about a mile's walk from the village of Daresbury)are the buses from Liverpool, Manchester and Warrington laid on by the event organisers.

The only other buses to anywhere near the site go to Higher Walton from central Warrington (www.transportdirect.info) Walk in the Chester direction along the main A56 Road, and the pedestrian entrance to the festival site is opposite Holly Hedge Road

But what are you trying to do here? I can't imagine you'd want to spend the previous night in Warrington, you can't get by train to Liverpool or Warrington from London by 7 AM, and there's nothing going on at the site that early anyway.

The nearest hotel to the site, a boring and relatively pricey, pedestrian-unfriendly but clean place on the A56/M56 junction is about 2 miles away.

If you get the first train of the day from central London to Warrington, the nearest mainline station (which you need to book now), you should arrive in plenty of time to get the bus or taxi to the site in time for the first act, assuming music starts around 11. If you spend the previous night in Liverpool, the early buses will also get you to the site in plenty of time for the acts.

I wouldn't wish a night in Warrington (a legend in Britain for tedium)on my worst enemy: taxi-ing to the site from Liverpool or Manchester is a colossal waste of money.

So to recap:
- For your (now) three days in and around London, a car makes no sense and it's almost certainly a complete waste to buy one of those rip-off Britrail things. You need a London Oystercard or Travelcard, and if you fancy a day out of town a simple day return railway ticket to Winchester or Oxford will cost you about £20
-you then need a simple single ticket to Liverpool or Warrington. This must be booked as far in advance as possible.

- The best locations for someone used to driving on the wrong side of the road to collect a hired car will be Liverpool or Manchester airports.There are direct trains every 15 min from Warrington Central (which is not the same station is Warrington Bank Quay, the station with direct trains from London) to Liverpool South Parkway, a 5 min bus ride from Liverpool airport.