orlandotraveler

My husband and I are going to UK for the first time; we're visiting friends who are in Glasgow Scotland, but we also plan to spend a bit of time in London.

Question: Is it better to fly into either Gatwick, Heathrow or Manchester than it is to gly into Glasgow? We were thinking of flying into Gatwick, Heathro or Manchester and then taking a train up to Glasgow. Then either a regional airline from Glasgow back to England, or take the train back. After reading a few postings about flying into either Gatwick or Heathrow, I'm thinking maybe we're better off just flying into Glasgow (we can get a flight Orlando to Manchester to Glasgow). Seems like it would be the most convienent and hassle-free, e.g., much less congested and probably less time to get a gate to land, go thru customs, get our luggage.. everything. Help? Can you offer some advice? Our friends actually have an apartment in Glasgow, so it makes more sense to me to get there first. We can't reach them for advice and are trying to book ASAP. Thanks so much for any advice!

willit

If you can fly into Scotland, then do so. Getting from London particularly is going to be time consuming and expensive. (Trains, if not pre booked on special fares, can be significantly more expensive than flying).

pavfec

Or you can fly into Glasgow and out of London and either fly between the two cities or take the train. The plane ticket is open jaw or multi-city. It'll probably save a lot of travel time and hassle.

owain

Yes, take the connecting-flight option if the price is at all reasonable. And use Manchester for the connection in preference to either London airport, because it's slightly smaller and a lot more efficient.

janisj

Yours is a perfect itinerary foor open jaw. Into GLA and out of either LHR or LGW (or vice versa)

Manchester is fine - but a long way from either London or Glasgow so wouldn't be that convenient.

If it were me - I'd just use the airport(s) that got me the best fare. If it happened to be Manchester, I'd take the opportunity to visit the Lake district and SW Scotland by car enroute to Glasgow.

But if you mainly just want Glasgow and London - do an open jaw . . . .

rkkwan

Also, several US airlines fly into GLA directly from the US - AA from Chicago, CO from Newark & US from Philadelphia.

Yorkyman

>(Trains, if not pre booked on special fares, can be significantly more expensive than flying).

If you can get a train cheap best to do so IMO .. there is some great countryside to see along the east coast main line and it will take you through York and then up to Edinburgh Travel time is about 2 hours to York and a further 2 to Edinburgh but .. waiting time in stations is far less than waiting times for plane, train are far more frequent ... both Edinburgh and York are worth an hour or so at least and you can see a lot of both of these as the train staions are right in the middle of the cities!