Puzzling through rail options
 

Thank you for reading this. We are a family of four (one 60+, one adult and two children under age 15). I'm trying to decide the best rail options for us, but I'm not making much progress.

I thought a Family & Friends railcard made sense, but it's not valid wholly within London or during peak weekday times (before 10am) in London or South East. So, looking at this schedule, would you recommend a Travelcard, plus a Family & Friends railcard, plus one (or maybe two, I'm not sure) regional railcards?

We'll be traveling a total of 7 days (only 5 consecutive, though).

Day 1
Heathrow --> London (Nat. Hist. Museum)
London --> Purley

Day 2
Purley --> London (Tower, Dungeon)
London --> Purley

Day 3
Purley --> London, Great Portland stop (day tour for Stonehenge)
London --> Purley

Day 4
Purley --> London (Buckingham Palace, Mews, Big Ben, Parliament, London Eye)
London --> Purley

Day 5
Purley --> London
London --> Kings Cross/St. Pancreas (Eurostar tickets, already purchased)

Day 11
Leeds --> Nottingham? not sure but eventually --> LHR-area hotel

Day 12
Hoppa bus from hotel to LHR

Help ... thank you.

Or would a Brit Rail Family Discount pass be an option? Does that really work *everywhere*? And if we opt for the Consecutive Days pass, what happens if we skip a couple days in between ... would that invalidate the pass, or does it just mean the pass is good, for example, for 8 straight days from the first day it's used?

Flexible
4 days in 2 mos.: $498 for all 4
8 days in 2 mos.: $730 for all 4

Consecutive
4 consecutive days: $398
8 consecutive days: $570

You're only proposing to get a train out of the Transport for London area twice: once for Paris, once for Nottingham.

All your other travelling is covered by an Oystercard or a paper Travelcard (Purley and Heathrow are both in Zone 6). Any other kind of pass is a waste of money.

Buy the appropriate Oyster or paper Travelcard, and book your tickets to Nottingham in advance to save money (up to 1800 the night before). www.nationalrail.co.uk (telling it there are four of you, and it'll show you the deals for family parties), or use the Cheapest Fare Finder (http://ojp.nationalrail.co.uk/service/farefinder/search) to show you whether there's a day or time during your stay this journey might be cheaper still.

Agree with flanner.

Is there a reason you are staying in Purley?

Check out the www.daysoutguide.co.uk for 2for1 deals if you bring a photo and get a 7 day paper travel card from a national rail station instead of an oyster. If you search this forum you will find lots of info.

Thanks. Re: Nottingham, though, we don't *know* if that's where we're going. It's our "buffer day" (depends on how everyone is feeling/coping) so we're not planning to finalize those plans until the day of.

We're staying in Purley because it was the closest place I could find an apartment for four people that we could actually afford, and one child is not very comfortable in big cities anyhow so we didn't want to be in London proper. I know it's a big of a hike, but where we live, we are 30 to 45 minutes from civilization in any direction, so it will be nothing new.

Kandace

Plenty of people commute into town from Purley (a fair number of people at my secondary school were commuting from around there and beyond), and it's a pleasant enough area to live in, as far as I know.