Basil

Planning on 3 nights in Edinburgh with a day trip to Glasgow. Info on airlines, airports, approximate fees. Is it better to fly into Edinburgh or Glasgow from London and back? Thanks in advance!

rex

For fares that can be less than the cost of a decent lunch, take a look at ryanair.com - - they only fly Stansted (London) to Prestwick (Gatwick), but it's a short drive to Glasgow, if you're wanting/planning to rent a car anyway. Fares of two (yes, TWO) dollars are commonplace (plus, twenty dollars or so taxes) - - in fact, every sat on every flight has these fares through 31 March. How DO they do it!?

Best wishes,

Rex

JJBhoy

Basil,

As usual it's hard to argue with Rex's advice - Ryanair's Stansted to Prestwick service will almost certainly be the least expensive way to make this trip. Even if you don't want to rent a car, the railway station is right next to Prestwick airport & you can get the train direct from there to Glasgow Central Station - I think the journey takes around 45 minutes or so.

On the other hand you can also fly easyJet from London to both Glasgow & Edinburgh. Although they probaby won't be quite as cheap as Ryanair, easyJet do fly direct to the "main" Glasgow & Edinburgh airports so maybe you'd prefer to pay that bit more for the convenience. You'll find details at www.easyjet.com.

Jim

ron

I noticed recently that BMI were offering flights from Heathrow to Glasgow for £9. But I have yet to convince myself that, going from city centre to city centre, flying is better than taking the train. The extra travel time to and from airports, check in and security queues are just not worth it to me to possibly save a few dollars and at most, an hour in total journey time. But you have the alternate advice above from experienced travellers who have actually done it.

flanneruk

Listen to Ron.

You can get deals on trains, and on all the airlines that fly between London and Central Scotland (including Easyjet from Stansted and Luton to Edinburgh), if you play with enough time combinations

But if you're coming from Central London, the trains (for the deals: try the GNER and Virgin trains sites) are infinitely more convenient. Even on business, I've often found the trains time-saving because I could do useful things on them: the time faffing about with the planes was almost completely wasted. On my own time, I can read a book or have a proper conversation in the time otherwise spent waiting in security queues.

While neither the Edinburgh nor Glasgow routes rank among the world's great scenic railways, the northern half of both journeys is really quite attractive. And the whole of both routes is a great deal prettier than the panorama of Heathrow's fuel farms you'll have during the 45 minutes waiting your turn to take off.

All domestic travel in Britain (except walking or canal boats)is less reliable than we'd like. GNER's service to Edinburgh is among the most reliable -and possibly the most competently managed - transport service we have.

Basil

Thank-you flanneruk! I suspected that was the case. I live in Chicago and often go to Detroit, which is about 5 hours driving time. I have given up flying there (air time: 1 hour) because by the time I go through it all, it takes 5 hours! Thanks again!