london to glasgow by train advise requested
 

My wife and I, recently retired but seasoned travelers, will be taking our first trip to Great Britain, arriving in London by air into Heathrow and will be taking a train the next day to Glasgow. We would appreciate any suggestions for travel tips, hotels for the first night and tips on buying train tickets. We will arrive on Sept. 10 at noon and will be meeting friends for 4 nights in Glasgow. Where would the best place to go for a one night stay north of London for travel to Scotland the next day.? Once we get to Glasgow, our friends will hopefully have local travel advise. We will have about a week to see the sights in London on our return trip, and hope to have the rail system figured out by then, but are having some problems with the first leg of this trip. We appreciate all of the sage advise that we have been able to gather from this forum in former trips and will appreciate any input. BumpI and Nana

"<i>Where would the best place to go for a one night stay north of London for travel to Scotland the next day.</i>"

You don't want to stay north of London -- you'd want to stay in central London near or convenient to Kings cross or Euston stations where you'd catch trains to Glasgow.

But if is was me -- since you will be visiting London at the end of your trip -- I'd just fly up to Glasgow directly from Heathrow the same day you arrive. You'd save the extra expense of travel into central London and a night in London. You might even be able to check your bags all the way through to GLA.

You'd have a day in Glasgow to unwind/recover from the jetlag before meeting up w/ your friends.

The only pleasant town north of London easily accessible from Heathrow by public transport and more or less on a direct train to Glasgow is Oxford (coach from LHR), but even there you'll have to change trains (do so at Stafford, not Birmingham New Street: you just stay on the train from Oxford longer, then get the same train to Glasgow, but staying on the same platform rather than the uncomfortable hike needed to change at Birmingham with luggage).

The only alternative is Watford (coach from LHR: train to Glasgow direct, no change required), but this would be a really gloomy way of starting a holiday.

Though unless you want to see Oxford, I can't personally see the point of this complication. The ONLY trains in Heathrow go to London and though there are thousands of buses to the rest of Britain from the airport, bus travel in Britain is generally slow because we've got a disgracefully overcrowded road system (comes of listening too much to all that green nonsense: the fast buses to Oxford are an aberration). If you don't want to go to London at first, just go straight to Glasgow.

Though Oxford's always worth a trip.

Why not take the night train? Book a sleeper, and you can sleep on the train (see seat61.com/CaledonianSleepers.htm ). Although it's only four to four and a half hours on the day train.

I think you should definitely take the train during the day, it is a lovely journey and you get to see a whole cross section of Britain. Check out your journey on www.thetrainline.com and you can buy your tickets there as well.
Bon voyage!
http://www.jeremytaylor.eu/England_1.htm

"the train during the day, it is a lovely journey"

In your circumstances, I strongly disagree.

The London-Glasgow train's nice for about two hours, and dull as ditchwater the rest of the time. So from the Glasgow area to a hotel in central London, getting a train is generally better than flying. And doubtless that's what you'll do

From Heathrow to Glasgow (starting off with over an hour by tube, bus or car to Euston or Watford Junction stations), the train's a pointless, mostly unlovely, time-consuming trip through the underbelly of Britain.

Either fly straight, take my Oxford tip or listen to someone with an alternative suggestion for going to Glasgow from Heathrow that doesn't involve starting with an unpleasant hour's journey in the wrong direction.

<<< Check out your journey on www.thetrainline.com and you can buy your tickets there as well. >>>

Except that they don't accept US CCs, they charge for CC use and charge for the booking.

Use www.nationalexpresseastcoast.com for booking tickets from abroad - no extra charges.

For OP the choices are 4 fold - in order of preference

1) Fly from LHR to GLA on the day of arrival. As you may not be able to check luggage through allow at leadt 4 hours to make the connection

2) Take the sleeper train from Euston to Glasgow - saves you a night's accommodation and means you miss out on a long haul boring train journey

3) Take a day train from Euston to Glasgow - again allo lots of time to make the connection

4) Overnight in London first then take the train the next day.

Of course there's an even better choice - fly to EDINBURGH when you arrive, stay overnight there and travel to Glasgow - an hour by train or coach - the next day

Personally, I'd not take the sleeper unlesss you're intent on saving some money. The trip is not long enough for a decent bit of sleep and after a long flight I find that a good night's sleep is mandatory. We've done the coach to Oxford, overnight there and then the train, and it works well for us. I prefer Oxford over London for just the one night but would definitely spend the night in a hotel (London or Oxford) rather than on the train. The other good option is, of course, getting a flight to Glasgow from LHR.

If you do decide on train travel, do as flanneruk suggested and avoid changing trains at Birmingham.

The London-Glasgow train's nice for about two hours, and dull as ditchwater the rest of the time.>

well i disagree and from the point of view of a tourist not to the U.K. before seeing the lay of the land will be interesting - from a jaded Brit no. did you come to Britain to see airports or to see the British countryside and desultory cities as well - see what Britain really looks like and not just see tarmacs and air terminals.

It is easy to break your journey in the Lake District - smack on (or right off on a spur rail line) the West Coast mainline London to Glasgow. I echo www.seat61.com as being a great resource on British train travel and i also always recommend www.ricksteves.com and http://www.budgeteuropetravel.com/id11.html - sites with tons of great objective info IMO. I have taken the Caledonian Sleepers several times between London Euston and Scotland - these are some of the most comfy overnight trains in Europe - breakfast served in your compartment, at least in first class.

http://www.scotrail.co.uk/caledoniansleeper/index.html - Scot Rail runs the Caledonian Sleepers - can book on their site.

Wow! These are wonderful suggestions. Thanks for all the input, and for those that may still come in. I am going to sort though all of this and make some decisions. Having never made this trip before, I would have never had these insights. dftatuwstout.