travelingtedrows

My teenaged daughter and I are planning a trip in May/June to visit old friends who live outside Newcastle. Since my daughter says she doesn't remember much about London, we'd like to spend some time there. I'm considering renting a car. My friend feels that we'd have an expense similiar to trains but with more flexibity. I've looked at this trip from many different angles and need some new perspectives and advice on practicalities. We have to do London before we leave.

At this moment, the basic plan is fly into LHR, drive to NC (and yes, I know it's a 4 hour+ drive), visit our friends and then work our way back south. We'd be able to see some different parts of England Once in London, we'd turn in the car, spend a few days and fly home. This is all very changable.

Any thoughts, suggestions or more creative things of thinking this through? I feel like there might be some aspects I'm missing.

jamikins

Is there a reason you would fly into London? I would fly into the north to save time...

janisj

LHR to Newcastle will take longer than any 4 hours. Count on 6 hours w/o much traffic. Or it could take much longer. And you don't want a car while visiting London for sure. How many days for the drive south?

IMO it Makes much more sense to fly into Manchester or Edinburgh (each one is about 2.5-3 hours from Newcastle), or even better, into Newcastle if you can get a connection - like flying into Dublin and Dublin to Newcastle.

Then after you are in the north of England, and assuming you are taking several days to drive to London, rent a car. You could return the car at one of the London airports and travel into London by public transport. Fly home from LHR or LGW.

If you just have a day rt two to get to London --you won't need a car -- train to York. Spend the night/explore. Train to London.

annhig

driving all that way just to come back is madness - i know 'cos I live here.

fly [or train] to the north, then drive back - if you have at least 3 days to do so. otherwise - don't bother. you will not see enough to justify the effort involved.

flanneruk

The train from Newcastle to London passes through Durham, York, Darlington, Grantham and Peterborough. All(as well as Newcastle) have exceptionally fine things to see.

An off peak train ticket, at £109 (or 35% less for you if you buy a senior railcard) lets you get on and off the train as often as you like. While diverting to, say, Stamford or Whitby adds a bit (you buy a local return), it still gives you huge flexibilty. It also means you're not having to worry about what to do with (and how to pay for garaging) your car.