Cheap flights to the UK??

[taylor91]

I bought my notebook to write all the costs and prices down. You know your excited when the research book gets you going.

lol

Hey, it's fine, you could always ask this question on the uk boards and see if anyone is from anywhere you are thinking of visiting... get some inside information
I would advise buying tickets for the train in advance though, they can be really expensive if you buy them on the actual day.
Tickets for 4 people can vary dramatically, Just put some random dates in as I can only look up to 3 months in advance, but if you travelled from London Kings Cross (one of the main stations and location of platform 9 3/4 from Harry Potter) to Edinburgh Wed 8th June 2011 one way for 4 adults... £75!! I'm actually shocked at that 3 days earlier its £200 so you can see the change in price.
Feel free to ask any more questions and I can help as much as I can

 

[chimo2u]

A hi from the UK If you are wanting to take the train from London to Scotland I would recommend buying your tickets as soon as they are released (usually 3 months in advance of the date of travel) and play around with the times... at the moment I can book a ticket London to Edinburgh for £37 per person which takes 4 hours 30 mins...http://ojp.nationalrail.co.uk/en/s/planjourney/query. Obviously will go up with inflation but with petrol prices rising over here like crazy, I would advise the train Petrol is around £1.37 ($2.16CAD) a litre at the moment!!
I am from Yorkshire in the North East of England, but I can tell you both Scotland and London are beautiful.

Hi my husbsnd's Family is from Yorkshire, nr Doncaster

 

[Honeystar120608]

I've finally started pricing things out. I've been buying Scottish magazines at a shop here in town. it's the ONLY place that sells them (just got some new ones and so excited to flip through them tonight..yes..I lead a very exciting life. lol)
Since there were a few that showed interest in the progress I've made and will make, I will post any great finds that I seem to find 'good'. If anyone wants to hop in and correct me at any time. DO SO! I don't mind AT ALL!

So I was happy last week when I found flights with IcelandAir for all 4 of us at $3298 06/13-06/23, however I just checked AirTransat and 4 seats come up at $2805 for around that same time frame. Gives me much hope!!! This is out of Halifax (YHZ) to Gatwick.

Any suggestions, advice, about flying into Gatwick vs Heathrow?

Train rates that I've found, so true about booking as soon as they come available (3months prior) at 55.70 pounds...I didn't write down for 4 people, but I assume so. This is one way.


Off to a pretty good start!! Going to take some more time tonight to price out hotels based on the suggestions here.

 

[webworm]

This MAY happen next June (2012) and I'm trying to get an idea of the cost.

We would need to fly out of Moncton New Brunswick, potential to fly out of Halifax as well. But any more than a 3 hour drive on our return is just too much. Otherwise I'd assume Bostom would be our cheapest bet.

Anyway, Just took a peak, Air Canada from Moncton, last week of June, last 2 weeks of June, into July. Somewhere around there to take advantage of the long weekend, and kids will be out of school. Total came to $6205 for the 4 seats. Is this normal? I knew it's be a lot, but I was hoping to stick around $1000 a seat if not less... am I dreaming?

Most of our trip will be in Scotland, but if you have any suggestions on hotels for a family of 4 in London and any city in Scotland, it would be much appreciated. Inverness is our main destination as we are sort of doing a ancestoral vacation so to speak.

Right now I see nonstop flights out of Boston for June 2011 for $928 including taxes. Bangor with 1 stop is around $1100.00

 

[Honeystar120608]

Right now I see nonstop flights out of Boston for June 2011 for $928 including taxes. Bangor with 1 stop is around $1100.00

For 4?? Really?? Which airline?

--edit--

Just looked up on kayak.com, those prices appear to be for 1 passenger. Out of Halifax right now I have found a price of $2805 for all 4 of us. But thanks very much for looking! If you have any other tips please let me know!

 

[Honeystar120608]

Just thought I'd hop on here and update. Prices right now for this June with Air transat and Canadian are at $2785.56 for 4 seats, plus the $136 seat selection.
Both companies are using Thomas Cook... previous posts had mentioned that one company is better than the other...do they not normally both use TC?

I am really confused with hotels in London. I have checked out the HOHO bus tours. I like theoriginaltour.com company with the fish and chips. Thank you pp for that mention. They also have a kids club bag for the 2 kids. On the Original Tour (one of 3 routes) they even have commentaries for the kids. So this is a huge deal for us. However, you have to pick up the kids packs at their main tour location in Trafalgar square. So I've been pricing out hotels in that area (walking distance), which will give us a great starting point every day and we can take advantage of the fish and chips, or the bangers and mash since that is a good price! BUT holy crow expensive!! Over $2000 CA for 4 nights in London?? I've been trying hard to find something that will accomadate all 4 of us, it's rare. We'd need 2 rooms. ANY SUGGESTIONS PLEASE?? That's more than the flights!
The idea is that we fly in at 5am, try to get a hotel room by 8am and take it from there. I don't know if we will be tired or hungry or wide awake and ready to go. But I figured on 3 full days in London, so 4 nights.

Then train it to Scotland. (I have yet to start my searching for costs there yet.)

 

[phabric]

Check out the Comfort Inn Victoria, 18-24 Belgravie Rd. They seem to have rooms for 4. I checked June 12-13 you can get a room for 4 for 99GBP or 84 GBP pay in advance. It is not often you find rooms for 4 in Britian. I usually take 2 twin beds to give us bed size since we are use to a queen bed. There are regular bus, HOHO bus, restaurants, pubs, stores, grocery store, Buckingham Palace, The Mews, The Mall, The Royal Gallery are all close by.
Also try the Holiday Inn.

I would not just look in the Trafalgar area. The kids bag, you get has only a couple of pages in it. You can ask for the bag when you get on any of their bus or if they only give it to you at that one stop, get off and see Trafalgar square and get back on another bus and ask for it. You ask the conductor to buy tickets for the Sherlock Holmes fish & chips. Our bus stoped across the street from the pub to change drivers.

Buy HOHO tickets online to save money.

 

[Honeystar120608]

Check out the Comfort Inn Victoria, 18-24 Belgravie Rd. They seem to have rooms for 4. I checked June 12-13 you can get a room for 4 for 99GBP or 84 GBP pay in advance. It is not often you find rooms for 4 in Britian. I usually take 2 twin beds to give us bed size since we are use to a queen bed. There are regular bus, HOHO bus, restaurants, pubs, stores, grocery store, Buckingham Palace, The Mews, The Mall, The Royal Gallery are all close by.
Also try the Holiday Inn.

I would not just look in the Trafalgar area. The kids bag, you get has only a couple of pages in it. You can ask for the bag when you get on any of their bus or if they only give it to you at that one stop, get off and see Trafalgar square and get back on another bus and ask for it. You ask the conductor to buy tickets for the Sherlock Holmes fish & chips. Our bus stoped across the street from the pub to change drivers.

Buy HOHO tickets online to save money.

I had tried the Comfort Inn, and it wouldn't take my dates, but they were all 4 night stays, so I bumped it up to july and got a price. Even though I'm sure July rates are a little more than June, I got a rate far better than anything else. It's a room with 2 beds, that's all that is required! And it includes some sort of breakfast.
Now, this is a silly question... but... that hotel isn't too far from a HOHO bus location at Victoria station. Now, I'm not a big city girl, never really had to walk with 2 children in a big city. It is showing on maps.google.com that it is an 8 min walk from one of the main bus points to the hotel. So, not that I couldn't do the walk2-4 times a day back and forth... that is fine. But with kids makes it a bit harder. Especially when they are tired. So any recommendations there? Do I suck it up...lol. Or would that be a case to get a taxi or would that be way too much $$....just trying to think about all angles.
I do really want to be able to stay at this comfort inn, looks like it will work great.

 

[phabric]

Another hotel to try is Premier Inn. They have rooms for 4.

You might be able to use the regular bus to get to the street for the HOHO. On the regular bus, they do not use money. We used the Travel card for the regular bus.

On the hotel site, there is always Contact Us with an email address, you might try contacting the hotel direct by email and ask them about getting to the HOHO.

Check out this site www.londontravelpass.com. You buy the number of days of travel and show the card to the driver, unlimited travel for that day. Others use the Oyster Card, where you put a deposit down 3GBP? then add GBP (at tube stations I think)and each time you use the bus they subtract an amount for that trip. I am not too sure about the Oyster Card as both times, we have used the Travel card, maybe someone from the UK board can explain it more.

Another site www.visitbritainshop.com is good for the travel card. I think you need zones 1-2.

Here is some more sites for hotels.

www.lunasimonehotel.com (B&B)
www.londontown.com
www.easy-london-hotels.com
www.hotellink.co.uk
www.hotel-london.co.uk

 

[sandraB]

We are a family of 4 going to the UK this coming July. We are flying out of Halifax on Icelandair, and it was less then 1000/person, for peak season! We have done Icelandair to Paris, and really enjoyed the layover in Iceland. We did the Blue Lagoon, and it was a highlight of our trip. Even the airport is really nice, I got some great duty free buys last time! It also makes it two shorter legs instead of one longer one.

We are staying at a Premier Inn in London, as it was very hard to find rooms for 4 that included breakfast, and were affordable. I spent hours looking for hotels!

 

[living20057]

We stayed at Premier Inn London Kings Cross location. I was very satisfied with the location and the room.

 

[phabric]

If you use www.maps.google.co.uk and put in this information, from: Eccleston Bridge Rd/A3213 to: Grosvenor Gardens/A3215. It is a 5 min walk to their stop at the bottom of Grosvenor Gardens.

 

[Honeystar120608]

We stayed at Premier Inn London Kings Cross location. I was very satisfied with the location and the room.

Did you use the HOHO buses? Wondering on location in regards to their routes.