britrail pass & sightseeing -

Is it correct that you can pretty much see most sights in Great
Britain via train travel, without needing a car? For instance can I
take the train from London to Salisbury, then from Salisbury to Bath,
then take a bus to Stonehenge, then take a bus back to Bath, then take
the train to Canterbury from Bath and from Canterbury to Dover and
then Dover back to London?I realise I wouldn't do this all in one day,
but just theoretically, is this the way it works?

Are there always buses at train stations to take you to a nearby
sight if its too far to walk?

"soulofcicero" wrote in message
om...
Is it correct that you can pretty much see most sights in Great
Britain via train travel, without needing a car?

No. But you can see a lot of places by train and/or bus.

For instance can I
take the train from London to Salisbury, then from Salisbury to Bath,
then take a bus to Stonehenge, then take a bus back to Bath, then take
the train to Canterbury from Bath and from Canterbury to Dover and
then Dover back to London?I realise I wouldn't do this all in one day,
but just theoretically, is this the way it works?

Yes, if you are asking the question in its broadest sense. What you can't ever
guarantee is that the bus timetable will be integrated with the rail timetable.


Are there always buses at train stations to take you to a nearby
sight if its too far to walk?

always - Only in Switzerland. Sometimes in the UK.

JohnT

"soulofcicero" wrote in message
om...
Is it correct that you can pretty much see most sights in Great
Britain via train travel, without needing a car? For instance can I
take the train from London to Salisbury, then from Salisbury to Bath,
then take a bus to Stonehenge, then take a bus back to Bath, then take
the train to Canterbury from Bath and from Canterbury to Dover and
then Dover back to London?I realise I wouldn't do this all in one day,
but just theoretically, is this the way it works?


A Britrail pass would be pretty poor value for this route.
Except for Bath all the towns named are in the London
commute area and provided you travel off peak you can get
good value tickets for immediate travel. Even better, if
you buy a 'network card' for discount travel in this area.

A britrail pass is only good value if you want to make long
(what is known as ) Inter City journeys to Manchester,
Edinburgh etc. You can actually get good value tickets
to these destinations as well, but only by booking several
weeks (or months) ahead for a specified train and this
is a bit inconvenient for a tourist who doesn't know how
many houre he will want at a specific destination.

Are there always buses at train stations to take you to a nearby
sight if its too far to walk?

Often this is not the case. You have to plan this very
carefully.

tim

tim wrote:

A britrail pass is only good value if you want to make long
(what is known as ) Inter City journeys to Manchester,
Edinburgh etc. You can actually get good value tickets
to these destinations as well, but only by booking several
weeks (or months) ahead for a specified train and this
is a bit inconvenient for a tourist who doesn't know how
many houre he will want at a specific destination.

Even then, providing you travel offpeak, you can keep the costs
relatively low. Just over £50 to Manchester from London, £80 to
Edinbugh. You have to be on the train a lot for the Britrail pass to be
worth it. Still, a standard rail fare (peak) from London to Manchester
is a jaw-dropping £180 return, so if it's _absolutely_ necessary to take
those trains then the pass might be worth it, if they're valid on those
services, which I presume they are. Needless to say, not many people
travel on those trains (some of them are practically empty) and the ones
that do have no choice, or have access to some kind of discount.

David

--
David Horne- (website under reconstruction)
davidhorne (at) davidhorne (dot) co (dot) uk

It seems to me you save money with the pass.

An 8 day "Britrail England Consecutive Pass" is $215, and includes Gatwick
Express. Gatwick Express alone costs $20. At raileurope.com the London to
Salisbury ticket is quoted at $82. Salisbury to Bath ticket is $23, and
Bath to London $82. So, $20 from airport upon arrival + $187 to Bath (82 +
23 + 82), plus $20 from hotel to airport when leaving = $227. $227 - $215 =
$12 saved by buying the Consecutive Pass and using it for nothing more than
to/from airport and Salisbury/Bath trip.

"soulofcicero" wrote
| Is it correct that you can pretty much see most sights in Great
| Britain via train travel, without needing a car?

There are quite large parts of the country, especially Wales and north of
the central belt of Scotland, where there is no railway. However you can do
a great deal using trains and also local buses.

| Are there always buses at train stations to take you to a nearby
| sight if its too far to walk?

No. In many cases the bus station is inconveniently nowhere near the train
station. However most of the touristy towns will have a hop-on hop-off
tourist bus trundling round the main attractions, and they will often pass
the train station or close by.

Owain

On Sun, 22 Feb 2004 19:50:27 GMT, "G Scotty"
wrote:

It seems to me you save money with the pass.

An 8 day "Britrail England Consecutive Pass" is $215, and includes Gatwick
Express. Gatwick Express alone costs $20. At raileurope.com the London to
Salisbury ticket is quoted at $82. Salisbury to Bath ticket is $23, and
Bath to London $82. So, $20 from airport upon arrival + $187 to Bath (82 +
23 + 82), plus $20 from hotel to airport when leaving = $227. $227 - $215 =
$12 saved by buying the Consecutive Pass and using it for nothing more than
to/from airport and Salisbury/Bath trip.

Most of us are smart enough to take everything on Raileurope with
a grain of salt. For instance, http://thetrainline.com has a
London-Salisbury saver *return* ticket for about UKP 25 with a
Network Card (recommended if you're going to be using trains much
in southeast England since it give you and three others in your
party a 1/3 discount; see http://www.railcard.co.uk).

************* DAVE HATUNEN ) *************
* Tucson Arizona, out where the cacti grow *
* My typos & mispellings are intentional copyright traps *

"Hatunen" wrote in message
...
On Sun, 22 Feb 2004 19:50:27 GMT, "G Scotty"
wrote:

It seems to me you save money with the pass.

An 8 day "Britrail England Consecutive Pass" is $215, and includes
Gatwick
Express. Gatwick Express alone costs $20. At raileurope.com the London to
Salisbury ticket is quoted at $82. Salisbury to Bath ticket is $23, and
Bath to London $82. So, $20 from airport upon arrival + $187 to Bath (82
+
23 + 82), plus $20 from hotel to airport when leaving = $227. $227 - $215
=
$12 saved by buying the Consecutive Pass and using it for nothing more
than
to/from airport and Salisbury/Bath trip.

Most of us are smart enough to take everything on Raileurope with
a grain of salt. For instance, http://thetrainline.com has a
London-Salisbury saver *return* ticket for about UKP 25 with a
Network Card (recommended if you're going to be using trains much
in southeast England since it give you and three others in your
party a 1/3 discount; see http://www.railcard.co.uk).

and even without the network card you can get a return to Bath
for GBP 34/42 (depending on the day of the week). This is valid
via "any reasonable route" which includes via Salisbury and for
break of journey on the return only, so this could be used for a
London-Bath-Salisbury-London trip (but not the reverse).

Tim




************* DAVE HATUNEN ) *************
* Tucson Arizona, out where the cacti grow *
* My typos & mispellings are intentional copyright traps *

"soulofcicero" wrote in message om...
Is it correct that you can pretty much see most sights in Great
Britain via train travel, without needing a car? For instance can I
take the train from London to Salisbury, then from Salisbury to Bath,
then take a bus to Stonehenge, then take a bus back to Bath, then take
the train to Canterbury from Bath and from Canterbury to Dover and
then Dover back to London?I realise I wouldn't do this all in one day,
but just theoretically, is this the way it works?

Are there always buses at train stations to take you to a nearby
sight if its too far to walk?


Don't waste your time with Stonehenge. There are far better attractions in the British Isles
than - lets face it - a bunch of rocks.

"G Scotty" wrote in message ...
It seems to me you save money with the pass.

An 8 day "Britrail England Consecutive Pass" is $215, and includes Gatwick
Express. Gatwick Express alone costs $20. At raileurope.com the London to
Salisbury ticket is quoted at $82. Salisbury to Bath ticket is $23, and
Bath to London $82. So, $20 from airport upon arrival + $187 to Bath (82 +
23 + 82), plus $20 from hotel to airport when leaving = $227. $227 - $215 =
$12 saved by buying the Consecutive Pass and using it for nothing more than
to/from airport and Salisbury/Bath trip.



Now I know how tourists are ripped off You get a return to Bath from London and
a return from Bath to Salisbury. Or just get a return to Salisbury via a Bath route. 1 ticket! You can break the
journey to visit Bath
when returning from Salisbury. Cheapday return is only £25 from Gatwick to Salisbury.

www.thetrainline.com