on day trips flexibility to me is a kew - I do not want to wait for 9:30am or whatever the vfirst off-peak time is nor do I want to peg myself into some non-peak return time - I never know how long I would want to stay in say Bath, a long poke - if I book a non-changeable ticket I may either not have enough time or perhaps I will have too much time and will be twiddling my thumbs perhaps., So flexibility is priceless to me on day trips - but I suppose if I were staying in Maidenhead and going just to London it would not matter that much.

PalenQ, the railpass was an excellent suggestion but further research says it excludes bath or any reading line. Might consider this for the oxford and salisbury/stonehenge.>

where did you see it excludes Bath - I read that it does include Bath - some years ago this pass excluded travel on Reading line from Paddington - anyway to be sure call Byron at www.budgeteuropeteravel.com and ask - I have bought passes from him for years and he will have the definitive answer as to whether it includes Bath or not as I believe it does - according to conditions of the pass I have for 2012 anyway.

Switsmile - he was at least in 2012 the conditions of use of the London Plus Pass (which I do not know if is offered in 2013 - I will check on that).

London Plus Flexipass

"Comes in three versions: a 2-out-of-8-day flexipass, 4-out-of-8-day flexipass or 7-out-of-15-day flexipass. A few of the many cities that this pass can be used to visit: Bath, Stratford-upon-Avon, Oxford, Canterbury, Salisbury (for Stonehenge), Windsor, Dover, Brighton, Hastings, Portsmouth, Southampton, Bournemouth, Ely and Bristol. In addition, the pass gives you 2 one-way coupons valid on the Gatwick, Heathrow or Stansted express trains for high-speed transfer to and from London's airports."

The question of whether the pass includes Bath is, of itself, meaningless. The important question is whether the pass includes trains from Paddington to Bath.

If it doesn't, then the pass is close to useless, requiring from Maidenhead three changes of train, and sometimes well over 3 hours each way for the dubious privilege of a "flexibility" that takes you, usually changing at Reading, Basingstoke and Salisbury, on a conducted tour of the South East's boring (but phenomenally densely packed) railway system. The "inflexible" route takes less than half the time, and involves just one, same-platform, train change.

If that's the case, the pass is just an American travel agent's albatross: costing a fortune and stopping you from doing anything you might actually want to do.

Flanner, you are right about the time difference between the two routes from Maidenhead to Bath, but are forgetting the very English sscenery of the Wylie valley between Salisbury and Warminster, the Westbury White Horse, and the valley of the Wiltshire Avon between Bradford on Avon and Bath.

Flanner had good information if you want to do day trips to London -- under the section: Off-peak Travel Cards.

When we go to London (every few years) we stay with friends in Brentwood, Essex (a similar distance as Maidenhead is to the center of London). We wait until after morning rush hour peak time (9:30 a.m.), then get the off peak travelcard. It's about 15 quid now. We take the commuter train from Brentwood to Liverpool Street station; then can use the pass for all travel in London -- Underground; bus service, etc.

I don't recall there being any evening rush hour restrictions on the card, and I'm pretty sure we used it during that period of time at some point.

We looked at other options, including a 7 day pass, and it just made more economical sense to purchase the off-peak pass.

If that's the case, the pass is just an American travel agent's albatross: costing a fortune and stopping you from doing anything you might actually want to do.>

Noi I believe that could be very dated info as I have myself used that pass on trains to Bath Spa station on the main line and yes to take any other route would be an all-day affair. And it is only Bath and Bristol that are described as possible on the London Plus Pass - not other destinations in that area so it appears to be valid to only two cities - unless the full conditions say otherwise.

http://www.britrail.com/images/stories/britrail-map.pdf

This map should clear which pass travels to where.

I'm convinced by flanneruk's off-peak rates to and from London. The only reason I need to be early going to London is probably to visit the Tower of London for its jewelries to avoid the long lines. I'm just concerned that tickets to Bath are so expensive without advance booking (50 pounds). I assume Salisbury is about the same. Oxford at 30 pounds and Windsor the most negligable among them all due to its proximity to Maidenhead. But the posts are good information and I do appreciate all the time spent on your responses.

Switsmyle - thanks - that concurs with what Byron at Budget Europe Travel told me today on the phone about the new BritRail South West Pass - that it is only valid on Southwestern Trains - only on trains of one rail franchise or he thought.

He also said the London Plus Pass was indeed valid on mainline trains from Paddington via Reading to either Bath Spa or Bristol Temple Meads (and no farther than those two stations. Your map confirms those things. Adding Bath and Bristol to the London Plus Pass greatly expands its viability for anyone going to those two remote places timewise - for folks not wishing to wait until off-peak departure times but leave as early as they want (maybe some of the discounted tickets do too but I think not - 9:30 or earlier is Verboten but I am not sure that that is still in effect for all discounted tickets. But anyway flexibility in return times is key for me at least as I never know how long I will want to be in a city that I do not really know.

Thank you everyone, just wanted to post the results in relation to my post. Bought daily off peak 1 day travel card to London (£14.90) which covered the rail to Paddingtom, tubes bus, boat; all transpo basically which is perfect for my visit to London (3 days). We left between 10 to 11 which i would not advise as it takes 2 hrs to reach a monument. But we couldnt wake up before 8 so it is what it is. 1 time we had an incident which delayed our trip for an hr and a half, this means visiting just 1 monument for that day. Too bad. I ended up booking Bath tickets in advance (£35.50 RT), bought tickets to Windsor on the day we visited (£4.5 RT) and Oxford was done by car as my friend kindly drove us. I believe that if we bought tickets on the day, it wouldnt have cost more than £15. Overall, buying tickets separately was cheaper than the season ticket or the rail pass question which I posted. Also, I was able to borrow an Oyster Card which I did not use at all for my trip.

On another note, the weather was freezing cold even though supposedly "Spring has Sprung". Wish I had visited last yr, 20 degrees I heard for the same period.

And for Stonehenge, we did join the Madmax one day tour and felt it was good value as some sights were difficult to reach by public transportation.