My daughter is studying in Scotland and she wants to visit some Universities in England during the summer. She has reserved places for open days/guided tours in some of them and now it is my turn to found out about transport/accommodation. Open days are normally from 9.30 to 3.00 or 4.00 pm and guided tours last only a couple of hours.
She finishes school on the 26th, so we can leave on the 27th or 28th of June.
We have to leave from Edinburgh airport or Leuchars train station and go to London to visit UCL and Courtland Institute (guided tours) on the 29th and 30th.
On July 1st, we have a guided tour of the University of Sussex in Brighton at 1.30 pm
On July 3rd, we have an Open Day at the University of East Anglia in Norwich.
On July 5th, we have a guided visit at Oxford Brooks at 10.30 in Oxford
On July 6th, we have an Open day at the University of York
We can take a couple of days after that and go back to Scotland for the weekend of 9/10 July... or maybe we will be too tired! (LOL)
My daughter is 17 and has been a couple of times in London, never in any other place in England, I don’t have much idea of distances, so my question(s) would be. Which would be the best way of transport to these places, where would you stay? For instance, would you do Sussex from London in a day trip. Which places are worth staying overnight? Something nearby that is worth the detour in the case there is time, like after the 6th or between the 3rd and the 6th?
Your help will be much appreciated. Thanks!!

I would stay in London through July 5 and do Brighton (1 hour by train), Norwich (2 hrs by train) and Oxford (1 hour by train) as day trips. I would then take the train to York and stay there until it is time to return to Scotland, touring the city and surrounding area.

Check out the BritRail England Youthpass, if she is under 26 - it allows fully flexible hopping on any train anytime to all those places - and compare with regular fares at www.nationalrail.co.uk - the beauty of the pass is that you can hop any train anytime and say to do this to York - having a fully flexible ticket so that when you are really done at York you just hop the next of the twice hourly or more trains back to London - rather than having to hurry to catch a non-changeable perhaps discounted train ticket you can also buy online - anyway the more days on the pass the better the deal - trains IME are faster and infinitely more comfy than buses, though buses run frequent routes and tend to be cheaper. Anyway for loads on British trains and passes check out these fantastic IMO sites - www.seat61.com; www.budgeteuropetravel.com; www.ricksteves.com. For current BritEngland pass prices check out the link at seat61.com to RailEurope and if buying a pass may give Man in Seat 61 the business as I suppose he gets a cut of whatever folks buy from RailEurope thru the link on his site!

PQ: Since I <i>think</i> the OP and her daughter live in Scotland, BritRail really isn't an option, is it?

lagdm: I agree w/ ron. Your travel will be much easier using London as a base and then hit York on the way home. Every town you are visiting is easier to reach from London then from each other.

The in-UK discount passes are at:
http://www.railcard.co.uk/

janis - that is not clear to me though it may well be so - I see daughter studying in Scotland - I assume perhaps that is so but my dear you can understand my confusion?

Tanks Ron and Janis, I think with travel times of 1-2 hrs it is best to stay in London, I think we will do that. PalenQ, my daughter has a Young Scot rail card (16-25 years old) would that be valid in England? I will check the links you provided, thanks!

Have you any recommendation for accommodation in London?

Accommodation. Try http://www.lsevacations.co.uk/

Yes, we are liing in Scotland. And I the Young Scot Card has a rail discount (I think is 1/3) for people under 18... but I would say is for Scotland. I will check that

If you are agreeing with the suggestion by Janis and me, and if you like to save money, you should be getting on to the train ticket buying pretty quickly. With only a week to go, many of the cheap restricted advance tickets will be gone, but there still may be some savings available. You especially want them for Edinburgh - London, London-York and York - Edinburgh segments, and the one to Norwich. You can find fares and schedules at www.nationalrail.co uk From that site, you can click through to ticket sellers. I'd suggest using East Coast.

Likewise, you have left it late for accommodations. You should probably repost that request, with some indication of budget and/or quality requirements. You need to decide location. Given that you are arriving at Kings Cross from Edinburgh and departing from there, and that your UCL visit is likely nearby in Bloomsbury, you may want to focus on the Kings Cross/St Pancras/Euston area. You can get a direct train as well from St Pancras to Brighton (a slower train than the one from Victoria station that I referenced above, since it stops everywhere). You will have to get to Liverpool Street station for the Norwich trip and Paddington station for Oxford.

That would be http://www.nationalrail.co.uk/ for the train info. Clicking on the one above with the missing dot takes you to a rip-off site

thanks for that correcto - somehow my 'uk' did not get a . in front of it but a space. You can also try www.thretrainline.com I believe - same info difference operator.