Travel times in UK/Scotland
 

Hello! The question has come up for our trip to Great Britain- what are the various travel times to the following destinations:

1.London to Bath via Bus
2.Bath to Stonehenge via Bus

Can we do Bath and Stonehenge in one day?
Should we plan to stay overnight in Bath or take transportation back to York?

3.Bath to York via Bus

4.York to Edinburgh via train

We aren't sure how long it takes to get to these locations so it's hard to evaluate if we have too much planned or too little.

Thanks!

Michelle

I forgot to ask something else.

Some of our group are under the impression that we MUST go back to London to catch the train to Edinburgh.

Is this true? Can't we just catch the train in York?

Thanks again

MIchelle

Well, shortest bus ride from London to Bath is 3 hours and 15 minutes, check this website:

http://www.nationalexpress.com/neh.cfm

Stonehenge to Bath took us 1 1/2 hours in a rental car (roads go through little towns - slow driving). Bus would be longer.

You'd have to stay overnight. The shortest bus ride to York from there is 6 hours, and most are more like 9 hours. And Bath certainly deserves an overnight.

I'd do:

Day1:
London to Stonehenge (take train to Salisbury and bus to Stonehenge)
Stonehenge to Bath (bus back to Salisbury, train to Bath)
Tour around Bath in the afternoon, stay overnight. We stayed at Brompton House, a nice B&B on a quiet street a 5 minute walk from the Roman Baths.

Day 2:
Tour around Bath some more, then go to York. York, again, is quite far from Bath. You can check the same website for bus routes, but I'd look into trains here too.

BTW, Salisbury is a wonderful little town and is worth 1/2 a day too.

You have planned too much because of slow bus schedules and the large distance between Bath and York.

Good luck!
Karen

Violet, check this website for trains from York to Edinburg:

http://www.ukswebsite.co.uk/travel/trains.htm

You can go directly from York to Edinburg in about 2 1/2 hours.

Bath to York by train or by coach is a long journey.
www.thetrainline.com will help, as will www.gobycoach.
Long distance train journeys should be booked in advance, and collected from the station with a PIN that is give to you. Or you could have them delivered to your first address in the UK (by the way, Scotland is part of the UK, not seperate!)
You do NOT have to go to London to take the train to Edinburgh.
Have you thought about a Britrail pass. This allows a certain number of days' travel within a certain period. In your case, it cd. be 4 days in 2 weeks. 2nd class is fine, and you can use it on the airport trains, which is a help.

You could arrive in London, go to Bath and stay overnight, taking in Stonehenge, return to London, then take the train to Edinburgh, stopping off in York on the way back to London.
Return trips from London to Bath can be as cheap as $40 if you book ahead. If you book a trip to Edinburgh from London, you can stop off in York for free if you buy a certain type of ticket, which I think is a standard 2nd class saver, at about $120 each. Best bet is to go to www.gner.co.uk and find a phone number to ring. If you were to stop in York on the way up to Edinburgh, you would have to buy a series of point-point tickets, which would add up. Once again, if you got a Britrail pass, you could perhaps save money and have all the ticketing in one simple pass.

The advice to log on to www.thetrainline.com is good advice.
We have used it several times for travel from London to Wales to Motherwell to Edinburgh to London. Never a problem.
John

Thanks you guys are great!

Just returned from a 2-1/2 week stay in the UK. We spent most of our time in London, but we rented a car and drove to Salisbury. We stayed at the Cricket Field House Hotel for two nights. It was wonderful. Lovely room, king size bed, excellent breakfast. We drove to Stonehenge and Bath for one day. Would have loved to spend more time in Bath.

Recommendations for restuarants in Bath and Salisbury are "The Hole In The Wall" in Bath and "LXIX" in Salisbury. Both were excellent.