Edinburgh & Dublin

Edinburgh & Dublin are the last two places we need to plan ahead for in our trip next week! We've got the place to stay in London and found a hostel in Paris for the three nights we'll be there.

The only other places we want to see (this trip at least) are Edinburgh and Dublin. Dublin might be out of our budget, but I would hate myself if I didn't see Edinburgh. We just want to go for one night, because this was originally just to see and experience London, but we'll still be there 25 days and nights so that should be good enough...

Anyways, does anyone have any personal experience with trains from London to Edinburgh? The cheapest one I found was on www.raileurope.com and that is $280 each for the round trip... So 140GBP each for round trip. I must say I was surprised at how expensive trains are. Anyone know any cheapers? Any good hostels for Dublin or Edinburgh?

Any direct sites for transport to Dublin? First page or so of google didn't help much with Dublin, I tried "buy transportation from London to Dublin." Three were guides of how to do it (ferry or plane, obvioulsy.) But no services that offered both the train and ferry with prices. Is there a company that specializes in this or are we going to have to do two separate companies, one for the train and one for the ferry?

Thanks again as always. You guys have made htis trip a lot less stressful in the planning part and a lot more secure/comfortable! It's going to be amazing.

So any direct links or personal experience would be great!

Anyways, does anyone have any personal experience with trains from London to Edinburgh? The cheapest one I found was on www.raileurope.com and that is $280 each for the round trip... So 140GBP each for round trip. I must say I was surprised at how expensive trains are. Anyone know any cheapers? Any good hostels for Dublin or Edinburgh?

Unfortunately trains are just about the most expensive form of travel in the UK these days - there was an article in my local paper (when I lived in the UK) stating that it was cheaper to fly from London to the Caribbean than to get a open-dated return train ticket from London to Glasgow!

You could try www.thetrainline.com to see what their prices are like, or perhaps Megabus/Megatrain who offer bus tickets from £1 each way and train tickets from about £10 each way (www.megabus.com - unfortunately, the site is down for maintenance right now - should be back up in an hour or so if their timing is correct). A much cheaper option, but a longer journey is to go on a National Express bus to Edinburgh (www.nationalexpress.com) - it's only £15 each way at the moment, but the drawback is a 9-hour journey!

I'm not sure about Dublin tickets because I've only ever been up to Scotland and not over to Ireland.

Alternatively, you could fly there - easyjet have flights from Gatwick to Edinburgh from £26 per person one way and ryanair have flights to Dublin from £59 round trip.

The train from London to Edinburgh is Fab!!!   You hope on at King's Cross, no security to fuss with, grab your seat and then enjoy the scenery for 3.5 hours.  It's really lovely up past Newcastle.  If you want to treat yourself, have lunch/dinner in the dining car.  When you get to Edinburgh you are right in the centre of the city.  Depending where your hotel is and how much luggage you have, you may not need a taxi.  Just be careful as Edinburgh is quite hilly and you might find yourself lugging your stuff up a few hills.

As for prices - that sounds about right.  It's about the same price as flying, but without the hassles of checking in etc.  Be sure to get a fast one.  There are some that make a lot more stops than others and it slows down the journey time.

My favorite hotel is Tigerlily's.  It's a really cute boutique hotel.  It is also a very yummy restaurant, cocktail bar and even a nightclub later in the evening.  Although I have never been to the nightclub.  It's within walking distance of most things.

We took the train+ferry from London to Dublin in February and it was BLISS. So infinitely more chilled than budget airlines, we're definitely doing it again. The combined rail & sail tickets are £27 each way, no matter what the season or time. Seat 61 explains the different options. We decided to take a different ferry company on the way up and back so we could compare, and frankly, they were both about the same...

There's also a similar rail & sail deal to the Netherlands for £59 one way, but it changed to a really awful "floating truckstop" ferry about two years ago and as of now I can only recommend that route if you pay extra for the private cabin!

We took the train+ferry from London to Dublin in February and it was BLISS. So infinitely more chilled that budget airlines, we're definitely doing it again. The combined rail & sail tickets are £27 each way, no matter what the season or time. Seat 61 explains the different options. We decided to take a different ferry company on the way up and back so we could compare, and frankly, they were both about the same...

There's also a similar rail & sail deal to the Netherlands for £59 one way, but it changed to a really awful "floating truckstop" ferry about two years ago and as of now I can only recommend that route if you pay extra for the private cabin!

I REALLY want to do this when we have a bit of money to spend!

National Eexpress also have trains now (think they took over GNER) and they seem to be a bit cheaper than some of the other operators:

http://www.nationalexpresseastcoast.com/

National Eexpress also have trains now (think they took over GNER) and they seem to be a bit cheaper than some of the other operators:

http://www.nationalexpresseastcoast.com/

That's where I book my trains! I just booked Cornwall to London for under £15!

How do you know what kinds of trains they use? I definitely want to be able and look out to see the view. I've always wanted to ride a train and to do it in England for the first time while going to Scotland is probably the best possible way. Is it pretty much true that every train will have windows and you can choose the seat if booking in advance? How much extra does it usually cost if you want your own cabin?

Thanks again as always. I'm glad to see that after you guys posting nationalexpress.com that I wasn't fully exploring the website. Before I had just thought there max prices were average.

How do you know what kinds of trains they use? I definitely want to be able and look out to see the view. I've always wanted to ride a train and to do it in England for the first time while going to Scotland is probably the best possible way. Is it pretty much true that every train will have windows and you can choose the seat if booking in advance? How much extra does it usually cost if you want your own cabin?

UK trains are not like the big US trains with sleeping cabins and two decks (I've spent a total of 5 days on Amtrak trains in the past!). All trains will have windows, and unless you go in first class, all seats are basically the same - no private cabins or sleeping cars in the UK (mostly because a large number of train passengers are commuters and only spend a couple of hours on the train each day). Each carriage seats maybe 70 people - some seats are doubles facing the same way (i.e. like on a bus or plane), some have tables between 4 seats. Your train will probably either look like this: Virgin Train or this: First Great Western Train.

You can book seats in advance (although you don't really get a choice apart from window or aisle - they may just assign you to a seat in a carriage) or you can just get on and sit anywhere you like as long as it's not first class or already reserved. Most trains have a quiet carriage where you are asked not to make a lot of noise (i.e. don't use a cell phone, don't play music or be disruptive etc.) and you'll usually find a service car too with food and drink, books and magazine (although, be warned, train food is expensive - it's better value to buy some food in the supermarket to take with you on the train).

Sounds good. I thought I heard a few people say they bought sleeping cabins to Edinburgh from here, but maybe I was wrong. No big deal anyways, it's probably pricey. We'll just have to arrive early so we can sit by windows. I would be totally bummed if I couldn't see the English countryside on the way. We'll have to buy some food for the trip. We might have totally forgotten being as how we've never commuted by train for 6-8 hours.

Sounds good. I thought I heard a few people say they bought sleeping cabins to Edinburgh from here, but maybe I was wrong. No big deal anyways, it's probably pricey. We'll just have to arrive early so we can sit by windows. I would be totally bummed if I couldn't see the English countryside on the way. We'll have to buy some food for the trip. We might have totally forgotten being as how we've never commuted by train for 6-8 hours.

Actually, I just checked online and there are sleeper carriages available on some trains (5 routes only - from London Euston station to Glasgow, Edinburgh, Fort William, Inverness and Aberdeen. I didn't realise this was the case as I've never travelled on the train from London to Scotland and so have never come across a train with sleeper carriages (since I've always lived in the south west of England). However, I would assume that they could be expensive compared to your average tickets (and the journey up to Edinburgh by train is only 4 or 5 hours long and you'll probably have to change trains 1 or 2 times during the journey anyway, unless you pay extra to travel on the sleeper train, so it might not be worth it).

Edited to add: It may not be worth arriving early to get a window seat because: a) all the window seats might already be reserved and b) depending on the route you're taking, the train may not arrive at the platform until 3 minutes before it is due to leave. Unless the train route starts in London, the train will just pull up at the station at the time it's due (or possibly late, judging by the train service), everyone will get on at the same time and the train will depart a minute or two later - it's like waiting at a bus stop for the bus to arrive - you get on, sit down and it starts moving again. You'd probably be better to just book a window seat when you buy the ticket (although the windows are big, so you can see out no matter where you sit).

Oh okay. I was just afraid it wouldn't allow you to choose window seat. Anyone know if national express or thetrainline does this?

If you were going to Dublin and Edinburgh for the first time, which would you stay for 2 nights and the other for 1 night? We might just do 1 night / 1 night, but I'd like to stay at one or the other for 2 nights if it works out. I always want to get the best bang out of my buck when paying for transport, so I figured it'd be Dublin... since that's going to be more expensive to get to. It seems we could manage to see most of what we wanted in Edinburgh in a full day + another half day, whereas Dublin seems like it'd need two fulldays and a half day. What do you guys think?

Personally, I'd would be concerned that 1 night wouldn't allow you to see anything worthwhile. If it were me, I'd choose one place and use that time to see more of it. But it sounds like you've already worked out a schedule that works for you, so go for it. Good luck!

Having been to both Edinburgh and Dublin, I'd say you could do Dublin in a day but Edinburgh needs a few days to see everything worthwhile, there's so much there.