Travel plans

[dancerjodi]

It looks like we'll take a GNER train from London's King's Cross to Edinburgh on 4/10. The ride is about 4.5 hours and would give us a chance to relax and see a bit of the countryside. Catching an early train should be good timing for us to arrive at the B&B, relax a bit, and get out to the city for dinner. If we can get a reservation there we'll have dinner that night in Edinburgh at http://www.thewitchery.com/info.html (thanks to the suggestions of Tiamatlady). We'll be celebrating our 6th wedding anniversary which also marks 10 years (!) of Brian and I being together.

Now, getting back to London a week later seems to be a bit more tricky

I'm holding off on buying tickets for the GNER (I was planning on ordering them today) because getting back to London will be a challenge. Our plane to Boston leaves Heathrow at 11:00 AM on 4/17 and we'd need time to get back from Edinburgh to King's Cross and then over to Heathrow. If I had thought about this ahead of time I would have booked a later flight home. Hindsight 20x20 and all that!

The options I guess are trying to find something overnight (maybe a bus? or the Caledonian Sleeper train runs overnight but seems to get to London Euston at 8:00 AM, not enough time to get to Heathrow and allow a few hours for security issues). We could try to find a plane from Edinburgh back to London, though I'd prefer not to (hassle, cost, guessing they won't be running that late). Alternately we could check out a day earlier in Edinburgh, take the 16th to take a GNER train back to London, stay somewhere there the night of the 16th (maybe the place we're checking into on the 6th?) and then could get to Heathrow easily the next morning.


Do any of you seasoned travelers have any suggestions? Either way, it looks like this won't be figured out for a couple of days because I won't see Brian again until late tomorrow night, since he's got plans with friends in NYC.

Comments

[brigid.livejournal.com]

ryanair and easyjet are (or were) actually cheaper than the train, at least that was our experience.

Thanks!

[dancer.livejournal.com]

"ryanair and easyjet are (or were) actually cheaper than the train, at least that was our experience."

I'll definitely check them out. Thanks! :)

Re: Thanks!

[mrseff.livejournal.com]

See my post below - neither airline fly to Heathrow so don't plan on trying to sort it in one run. Your best best if you want to fly is to go to Gatwick, not Stansted or Luton - they are a pain in butt to get to and the trains are less frequent. Gatwick is a doddle, and you can get to Central London in about 25 minutes easy-peasy...

[tk7602.livejournal.com]

I emailed the restaurant about reservations.

[tiamatlady]

OMG I'm SO HAPPY you guys like the looks!
Expensive but worth it, make SURE You say "the downstairs dining room" and tell them it's for your anniversary.
and bring nice pants. *grins*

[tk7602.livejournal.com]

pants? no-one said i had to wear pants?!?!?! F that!!!

;)

i looked at the accomodations there. looked nice until i saw the 275 POUNDS a night! meep!!!

[tiamatlady]

Oh we didn't STAY there. We had dinner there.
That cost us about 150 pounds. But we had booze. GOOD booze, thanks to the wine expert.

You could go kilted I guess. Make sure you bring your formal gowns.
TO blind your enemy with opluence.

Men in kilts EVERYWHERE. The taxi driver assured us it was for the tourists. We approved! *evil grin*

[tk7602.livejournal.com]

but all things considered, ~ $50 a person isn't bad for a 10 years together dinner :-D

[pir.livejournal.com]

If you have an 11am flight I'd recommend getting back to London the night before either way to be more sure you make it.

[tiamatlady]

A flight will only take about an hour, and you get shuttled from connecting gate to gate. And stay behind the security so you only have to do that once. Might be worth the cost versus hassle.

BA is at, and this might have changed so I'd have to check, Terminal 4, which is hell and gone from the other terminals. It took us about a half hour between landing from Scotland to getting to the gate bound for home. It gave us about 10 minutes to spare.

PS - There's a pressie I want if you end up with time to kill at Terminal 4. I'll show you the wrapper. *Drools* I hate asking, but it's an addiction.

a few points to try to help

[mrseff.livejournal.com]

BA is still Terminal 4 from Heathrow but Ryanair doesn't fly to Heathrow - Luton, Standsted & Gatwick only. Ditto Easyjet. And don't even try to consider the money and time hassle to get from one of those airports to the other unless you've got plenty of both to waste!

There are affordable places to stay near Paddington and you can then hop onto the Heathrow Express - gets you to Terminal 4 in a mere 23 minutes total (v worth it)

[tisana.livejournal.com]

Wow. 6 years married. That is impressive. Happy anniversary (a bit early)!

[nepenthedreams]

Don't leave your plane flight to chance. I'd head back the day before and then stay in a hotel near the Heathrow express.

[mixedborder.livejournal.com]

>train from London's King's Cross to Edinburgh on 4/10. The ride is about 4.5 hours and would give us a chance to relax and see a bit of the countryside.

Mmm, that brings back memeories. I had my 5th birthday party on the train from Edinburgh to London King's Cross!