I would like to travel to Orkney. I find I have to fly from the US to Manchester. After looking at the train time from Manchester to Thurso, I am thinking I should break the trip. Where would be a good place to break the trip for a day? Am I correct in going to Thurso or should I go to John O' Groats? Thank you for your help

There are ferries to Orkney from Scrabster near Thurso (www.northlinkferries.co.uk), Gills Bay (www.pentlandferries.co.uk), John O'Groats (www.jogferry.co.uk) or Aberdeen (www.northlinkferries.co.uk). At Aberdeen, the ferry terminal is very close to the railway station. Scrabster and John O'Groats have connecting buses from Thurso and Inverness stations.
Train times are on www.nationalrail.co.uk. Where you break the journey would depend on what time you get to Manchester, but Edinburgh might be one option. An alternative would to get the overnight sleeper from Crewe to Inverness (www.firstgroup.com/scotrail/index.php).

We have done this trip by car in 2002, using Pentland Ferries which do the shorter 1 hour trip from near John O'Groats. We drove up the east coast going and stayed overnight in a Travel Inn. On the return journey we took several days exploring the north-west of Scotland.

http://www.pentlandferries.co.uk/

I am not sure of the train connections but if you are not driving and it is mainly Orkney you wish to see, I'd consider flying. There is no direct flight but you can get connecions via Edinburgh or possibly Glasgow.

Well, you've presumably got your own reasons for doing it this way. But flying from MCR to a Scottish airport, then changing for the flight to Kirkwall, will save you an extraordinary amount of time - not far short of a day in each direction.

If you're set on getting a train, the obvious place to stop for the night would be where you're changing - and most train routes require you to change several times.

Almost all train options require you to change at Edinburgh and Inverness. If that's what your choice comes down to, it's a complete no-brainer. There are a few nice places near Inverness, but as a place to overnight it's about as desirable as the Liverpool or Manchester overspill towns near Manchester airport.

Some options have you changing at York, but you'll probably get there too early in the day to bother overnighting. Might be a good place the night before the flight back though, if the times work out.

Assuming you arrive in Manchester in the morning , this is what I would do. Take either the 8:33 train to Leeds, Edinburghand Inverness at 3:08 or the 9:27 via Preston, Glasgow Central, Glasgow Queen Street, Perth and Inverness, again arriving at 3:08. Then, early the next morning you can take the bus to the ferry and then join up with a tour group or a Private company like Puffin Express from Inverness. Good luck and let me know if I can be of help.

Certainly look at flights MAN-Aberdeen, at www.flybmi.com (from around £80 return).

Plus Eastern Airways for Manchester-Inverness, although likely to be pricier (£140 is the cheapest fare as far as I can see, and most flights quite a bit more).

There are some bits of the route to Thurso which are spectacular and worth seeingfor the hell of it. But if you're looking for an easier way to get there, either take the train to Edinburgh or Glasgow or Aberdeen and fly; or take the train to Aberdeen and take the ferry.

the ferry journey is really top if the weather is nice.