Britrail passes

I can't recommend these more highly if you are in the US and traveling to your final destination by train.  With my "4 days in 2 months pass,"  I can ride the Heathrow Express and on to Berwick, go to Edinburgh for the day, spend another in Glasgow, and then reverse to Heathrow for $239.
With the pass, it's cheaper and just as fast to take the train from London as it is to fly to Newcastle or Edinburgh and drive for an hour.

The trip I'll be making from Southampton to Berwick costs 81 GBP.  I'll then have 3 days more to explore.  The pass is good on any train at any time, except for certain trains at Christmastime.  You show up and get on. 

A few weeks ago, my sister and I went to York for the afternoon.  We couldn't go into the Minster because there was a service going on.  Perfect excuse to come back again.  No, Little Shambles is the perfect excuse to come back.

I can't recommend these more highly if you are in the US and traveling to your final destination by train.

I totally agree Chris.

Rail travel in the UK is generally excellent (in spite of all the criticism it gets) with services which are usually clean, safe and reasonable frequent.  The vast majority of trains arrive on (or close) to time, and the network is still quite extensive.

The Britrail pass is a bargain.  It's only for sale OUTSIDE the UK and it allows visitors to travel at a small fraction of the prices us natives have to pay. Personally, I'm bitter about this; it seems a very strange situation where tourists who clearly have the money to visit and tour the UK are being subsidised by the locals who have to use the train and pay the (higher for them) cost as a necessity.

OK - I'm off my soap-box.  Enjoy Southampton, Glasgow, Edinburgh and Berwick.  You might like to take in North Berwick too ... I think that came up as part of someone's "top 5" in a recent post, and I can recommend it too.   Train from Edinburgh Waverley and, no, it's NOT a suburb of Berwick!

You can though, with some networks get railcards.  We have a family railcard from Network Southeast.  It cost about £20 and entitles us to 1/3off Adult tickets and %60 off children!  You must travel with children, but it does cover your entire party.  If you're going to be taking more than one or two trips a year with the family, it's well worth it.   

You can though, with some networks get railcards.  We have a family railcard from Network Southeast.  It cost about £20 and entitles us to 1/3off Adult tickets and %60 off children!  You must travel with children, but it does cover your entire party.  If you're going to be taking more than one or two trips a year with the family, it's well worth it.   

Oh - I agree, there are plenty of special fares and deals around - but the degree of the saving on Britrail is breathtaking.  I did a comparison in February, and found that an 8 day pass cost 140 pounds (converted to UK currency) whereas the equivalent 7 day rover ticket (again a special fare) for a UK resident cost 338 pounds.

Or let me put that another way ... if I took the 07:23 from Chippenham into London this morning (a journey of just 85 minutes), and came back this evening .... then made the same trip next Monday ... I would have spent the same amount of money as a Britrail pass costs. And, no, I couldn't get any discounts on this journey with any loyalty card scheme.

Do you do loan children 

Edit to correct typo - Graham