UK Rail Advice Needed
 

Would BritRail Passes for 3 people or individual Point-to-Point tickets be best for following scenario: 2 adults, 1 senior flying from US into Heathrow and heading to hotel in Belgravia area (tube,rail,or taxi) on Tuesday afternoon in late August. A few days later on a Friday mid-day, all 3 travelers hoping to take train to York. Two days after that, on a Sunday mid-day, all hoping to take train to Edinburgh. Will fly out of Edinburgh. Any advice (including when to buy the tickets & sites) would be appreciated.

No passes do not make sense for so few trips - point to point - but do look for discounts.

From Heathrow to hotel with 3 people one senior I would do a car service (not taxi) vs hauling luggage all over hell and gone.

Thank you for such a quick response nytraveler. I should clarify: the one senior is a spry 60-year old with one light bag. Would you still discount a taxi (I'm not familiar with what you mean by car service)? Also, do you recommend a time frame for checking for discounts on the website?

You can price the point-to-point by going to www.nationalrail.co.uk

You'll see that they are selling tickets for mid-July currently. Check for "Advance" fares to get an idea of pricing. So, in 3-4 weeks you could start looking at your specific tickets.

You'll save quite a bit with the pre-paid tickets but they are non-refundable.

A car service will be you best bet in from LHR (60 ain't that 'senior' BTW). Justairports.com for example. They will run approx. £35 for all three of you and be door-to-door w/o a tube change.

Or the tube - where you will transfer depends on exactly where the hotel is - most likely at Hammersmith.

<i>(60 ain't that 'senior' BTW)</i>

Indeed, many "seniors" I know are far fitter than people 20 years younger.

As for trains, between London, York & Edinburgh the trains are run by eastcoast whose website is the imaginatively named www.eastcoast.co.uk

Not only do they run the trains, they also give you a discount for using their trains - you can also see the booking window date on their homepage. For three people the fare can vary between £28.95 and £373.50 for London to York depending on departure date & time along with how much flexibility you want with the tickets

Passes would be good only if you wanted to hop on any train anytime - full-fare tickets can be awfully expensive but even then a pass may not be cost-effective for just two train trips - for lots of great stuff on British trains I always spotlight these IMO fantastic sources - www.seat61.com - a font of knowledge of discounted tickets and click on this sites's commercial link to RailEurope for current BritRail Pass prices; and www.ricksteves.com and www.budgeteuropetravel.com.

Each one of you has shared excellent info. Thank you.

Just one more question: Later in our trip just two of us are travelling from Paris to Bruges, and a few days later from Bruges to Amsterdam, and finally after a few more days from Amsterdam back to Paris. From what I've tried to gather, there are no longer Select or Flexi Passes that cover France and Benelux, right? I assume I have to do point-to-point for those purchases as well. Does that sound correct? (I realize this isn't a UK question, but just wondering if you might know.)

I defer to Mark Smith for this one - no pass covers France from what I can work out, but the Benelux pass still exists. Personally I'd just book ahead on Thalys as they do have some really good prices

http://www.seat61.com/Railpass-and-E...htm#Railpasses for overseas visitors

From what I've tried to gather, there are no longer Select or Flexi Passes that cover France and Benelux, right?>

Wrong

There is a Benelux-France Pass that covers France, Belgium, Netherlands and Luxembourg.

The Benelux-France pass even comes in a 2nd class version, a cheaper version than the Eurail Select or Flexipass which is first class only if over 25 - that said first-class has its advantages especially in Benelux where IME of riding many trains has seen SRO often in 2nd class whereas first-class may be sparsely full - since you cannot reserve seats on most trains in Benelux just hopping on is much nicer in first-class - indeed a first-class Benelux Pass may be a great deal.