Advice needed.... Stansted to Bristol and back

A friend of mine is going visiting for her birthday to Bristol and pressed me to come along. I didn't think I would go because on a few occasions I poked around on the internet and everything I was coming up with was 1600:- and flying through someplace else. Then someplace called www.kayak.com came up with a RyanAir flight for 418:- total, round trip, non stop. I bought the ticket. Still don't know if I will go, but at that price, I figured the worst case is I'm out 418 kronor. I just couldn't pass it by at that price, even as much as I despise RyanAir.

So then I look on the internet to see where Stansted is, and it turns out it is north east of London, and Bristol lies directly due west of London, so not the best of luck there.

The flight arrives at 11:00 Wednesday night, and leaves at 6 Sunday morning, so that doesn't work out well either. This is on the 26th through the 30 of May by the way.

I look at trains and it looks like it is around £60 round trip, if I travel the night the night I arrive, and come back in during the Saturday, maybe in the morning. This would give me a day and a night in London.

So what I am looking for from you seasoned English people, is the cheapest alternatives. If I do this, I really need to do it on the cheap. So I am looking for the most inexpensive alternative, all the way around. Is there such a thing as a cheap place to stay Saturday night in London? Would I be better off staying near the airport that night? Especially since I need to be at the airport at about 5 am Sunday morning? I have never been to London, so I wouldn't mind spending an afternoon poking around there on Saturday, and maybe the evening too.

Hertz will rent me a Toyota for the entire trip for 820 kronor, maybe that would be the way to go? But then there would be gas costs and parking while in London, or maybe parking it outside of town somewhere and take a tube or bus in to town?

Anyways, I am thinking of different alternatives, and as I said, looking for the cheapest way possible to pull this off. The car is only £15 more than the train, plus gas. I don't know how much time in Bristol I will be on my own, but it is going to be some, and maybe there is someplace I'd like to go where a car would be handy?

And then there is the matter of a place to stay, I need cheap alternatives, all nights. If I took the train in and out, I could spend a couple of nights traveling and staying in the airport and only need 2 nights lodging in Bristol, but I suppose I could do the same with the car.

So you English guys, brainstorm around some here and tell me what you think!

Any ideas could fly, and anything that would make this cheap enough to make this doable would be greatly appreciated!

Hi - first things first - Stansted is in Essex (yes I know it says London Stansted, but this is an evil lie designed to fool unsuspecting travellers ) so to get to London proper you'd need a train journey/car trip - it's a good 40 mins away.

As you rightly say, Bristol is west of London , but a long way - its a good couple of hours drive out, so Stansted is rubbish for getting to it. Is there another airport that you can fly into? Bristol has a small airport itself I believe, or there is always London City airport which might work out better.

Sorry, that's probably not a lot of help in terms of getting you to Bristol - but hopefully gives you a bit more of an idea of where things are in relation to each other? Best of luck

As you rightly say, Bristol is west of London , but a long way - its a good couple of hours drive out, so Stansted is rubbish for getting to it. Is there another airport that you can fly into? Bristol has a small airport itself I believe, or there is always London City airport which might work out better.

Doing a Kayak search myself... putting Stockholm in the departure city, to Bristol I found £311 (1 connection each way), to Heathrow I found £138 (1 connection each way) and to Stansted it's £27 (non-stop with Ryanair) - so I can see why Stansted is appealing to the OP! Looking at other airlines: to Birmingham = £237; to Manchester = £126; to Exeter = £406; to London City = £166.

So, in all, if the OP doesn't mind travelling all the way from Stansted to Bristol via public transport, I think that's the cheapest option! National Express has coaches from Stansted to Bristol (with a 40-50 minute stop at Heathrow on the way) for about £46 round trip.

Whereabouts in Bristol will you be? If you're going to be spending most of the time in/near the city centre, then you probably won't need a car to get around and can get a train or bus to Stansted from the centre easily (not too far to walk to, or get a local bus to). In terms of cheap lodging in Bristol, I think there's a youth hostel or two around, otherwise, you're looking at around £50 per night in a hotel.