I want to get a 8 day railpass with the free childpass feature for our vacation Scotland/London this June.

I can buy the pass online. Then I want to book the Sleeper train from London to Inverness and addition travel around Scotland and back to London.

After I purchase this pass online and I immediately start to book my other train travel?

Do I need to book my train travel ahead of time for trips from Inverness to Edinburgh, etc and pick the times we want to travel - now? Or does the pass let us just "hop on board"?

I've never travel around Europe by train so I'm pretty ignorant about this stuff.

First, is this an 8 day consecutive or flex plass? In any event, with the exception of the sleeper you can just jump on any train at anytime.

Sometimes there are different rules depending on whether you live in or outside Europe. Try to enquire from whoever you are buying your ticket from. Although no doubt sleeping on the train is fun, it can also be a great way to see the country, so have you considered a day journey instead? For example there's an 08:00 from Kings X to Edinburgh, change there & arrive @ Inverness 17:07.
Useful websites: www.thetrainline.com & www.virgin.com/uk, www.gner.co.uk & www.firstgroup.com/scotrail

We are staying in inverness for 2 nights and going to Loch Ness and John O'grates

Just curious, are you going to Orkney or doing a train trip up and back. Also, not to bash, but IMHO you can see Loch Ness in about 15 minutes and Inverness is not a place I wold spend time in if I could avoid it. Nothing wrong with the town, just not much worth spending time. The train from Inverness to Kyle of Lochalsh is very scenic, much more so that the ride up and through Thurso.

Yes once with the pass in Scotland you can just hop aboard any train. No need to plan ahead. You can make reservations for a few quid if you want on many trains. The pass gives you passholder fares on the Caledonia Sleeper trains to Scotland (don't run on Sat eves i think) - a private cabin with breakfast i had. If you've never traveled on trains in UK or Europe i advise getting BETS free European Planning & Rail Guide (free at www.budgeteuropetravel.com) as it has lots on UK trains and will answer many of your questions. The web site also has a lot on British trains and railpasses. If you're paying a handling fee or mailing charge you can avoid it thru BETS as well as they don't charge any except for rush service. www.ricksteves.com also has lots on UK rail travel.

thanks PalQ - great information.

In answer to Ricardo: We are taking the sleeper from London to Inverness for the experience and to get somewhere new while we sleep. My son did a school project and report on Loch Ness - so we have to do that. Our plan right now is to arrive via sleeper train at 8 am. Get rid of our luggage somehow (either storage at Train station or hotel - not booked yet) then take a tour (starting at 10 am) which includes the 30 min. boat trip along with a visit to the castle and the Ness 2000 Exhibit. Total tour is about 3.50 hours. So we will have some down time that afternoon to do nothing. The next morning we are taking a private 10 hr tour up to John o'Groats leaving Inverness around 7 am. Our focus will be on wildlife and we will make the day to our liking - the reason for the private tour. So we will be back around 5 pm.

The next morning will plan to leave for Edinburgh - staying at the Dalhousie Castle for 2 nights about 20 miles from town. We want to take a trip to Dunnottar Castle in Stonehaven - not sure yet whether to take the east coast train down through Aberdeen & Stonehaven (which requires a change of trains somewhere first) or take a train directly to Edinburgh, head to accommondations and then go to Stonehaven the NEXT day without dragging luggage and spend that day in Edinburgh.

The following day we don't need to be back in London until mid-night so we have another whole day to hang out at the Dalhousie Castle, take the Falconry tour etc.

Not sure wheither to Fly back to London or take the 4 hour train ride - for the views.

Any thoughts would be great.

We are firm on our 2 nights in Inverness and 2 nights at the Dalhousie Castle so it basically the transportation that I'm trying to get accomplished.

Thanks for everything.

On your way back to London, think about taking the train with a stop over at York for a couple of hours.

Hi N,

>I want to get a 8 day railpass ...

Before you buy any railpass, go to www.railsaver.com, enter your itinerary and click "only if it saves money".

You will have to pay extra for a sleeper, and you can't always do just a sleeper reservation online.

Do You have suggestions for York to do in a couple of hours?

Can we just hop off and then back on another train in York on the same day?

If you are using a Britrail pass you can get one train and take a later one. As far a what to do in a couple of hours, You could walk the old walls, visit the Minster, walk the old part of town the "shambles" or something your son really might like. Very near the rail station is the Train Museum. It is full of old steam trains, most in working order. They have several cars from the royal family train and much, much more.

RogerDodger: York looks very interesting. I was planning on booking my train travel ahead of time - would I make my train reservations in 2 seperate parts Edinburgh/York then York/London - or just wing-it that day? We will be traveling on a Wednesday in June.

Thanks

It depends. If using a rail pass I would just wing it. I rarely use point to point tickets, so I am afraid that I can't answer the other part of your question. If possible, please try to allow more time for York.

Booking advance tickets online can save money but you lose flexibility - how do you know how long you want to stay in York - maybe it will be cold and rainy and a short look is all that you can tolerate - or maybe a gorgeous day where you wish to stay longer. The value of the pass is you can hop any of the 28 or so UK train lines - all with different ownerships - with online tickets you're restricted to one train line - like in York you may find more than one line serving it. You're traveling enough that even with online advance purchases the money you'd save would not be much in my opinion for the flexibility you'd lose - and if you compare the pass to walk up unrestricted tickets - the pass is a no-brainer. Can also use pass on Heathrow and Gatwick express trains to and from airport. With pass and Caledonia Sleeper i took from London to Inverness a while back i paid 39 pounds for a single compartment - nice sheets, good breakfast, friendly attendant - a two-person compartment may be a bit less - mine was first class and stanard class could be less. Remember night trains are one day on the pass.
Watch out for Nessie!

PalQ - with your pass - did you make a reservation for that Caledonia Sleeper?

Yes i did but only on the same day, in the afternoon. I would reserve in London as early as you could however - it seems you must go to Kings Cross station to do it - only way i found, not at other stations. Actually i believe the night trains leave from Euston - perhaps i went to Euston to reserve - not sure but only a hop skip and a long jump from Kings X. Don't believe you can reserve online with pass - perhaps you could be phone.

for specific information for the sleeper why not e-mail to [email protected]

You probably can also reserve the sleeping berths when you buy your BritRail pass if you are going the pass route - the agent can also reserve the Caledonia Sleepers i think.

Nancy, I just returned from a wonderful trip to Scotland, and posted a trip report this morning. Back to your post of 4/3, not sure if I've missed something in the conversation, but unless you stay overnight in your places enroute (ie: Stonehaven or Aberdeen, and possibly York), you will be hauling your luggage, no? You will not be able to do Dunnottar Castle with luggage! IMO it would well be worth a sleepover to see Dunnottar, and your hotel or guesthouse will more than likely be willing to hold your luggage, as mine did, until such time as your train leaves after you have visited the castle. Can't speak for York, but I again doubt that you will want to haul luggage as you tour there.

FWIW, I ended up deciding against my 8-day Rail Pass (Scotland only, however) and was very glad of it for the added flexibility of being able to then board as early in the mornings as I needed to, rather than waste hours by having to leave after 9:15AM, which the Pass requires. But then, I love to get an early start on the days when I travel, and that's not for everyone. I made reservations for all my train segments, but still was able to ignore those and hop on earlier or later departures within the same day--so there is still some flexibility and security at the same time, even without the Pass.