Hello fellow budget hunters
Today’s post is all about how I find cheap ways to travel around the UK. It’s not going to be about fare dodging or dodgy hitch hiking – this is about using public transport the best you can for as little as you can. I’m going to try to make this as informative as possible so I will split it into sections. There will be no information on flights but check out the post on that even for domestic flights.
Train
Firstly I own a 16-25 railcard which saves 1/3 off trains, I highly recommend these as the savings add up. There are also savings for ‘two together’ cards or family railcards.
The next piece of advice is if you are traveling as a three then book a group ticket. These are available for 3 or more adults and cut the costs of your individual tickets.
Fare splitting – this is perfectly legal and there is a number of sites that provide you with the service of looking up if a train ticket is cheaper in multiple parts. I have done it for last minute trains and has saved me £20 each time. This also works for advance tickets and I think it is always worth a look.
Finally, look out for voucher codes, train company offers and super cheap advance tickets. Virgin often have sales where you can travel between Birmingham and London Euston for £5 without a railcard. You can often add those tickets for your travel to Birmingham for very cheap and get to London for £8.
There is a world of voucher codes and the best prices for train tickets are 6-8 weeks ahead of travel so that’s when you need to start searching if you have the luxury or if not use the other hacks.
Coach
We all know I love a good bargain and I will admit that Megabus is one of those! I regularly get £1 fares to London from Cardiff or £3. You can get your tickets from 10 weeks before and even up to hours before the tickets are so much cheaper than trains. We’re talking maximum £10 a journey so definitely worth a look if you don’t mind a longer but cheaper journey.
It is also worth checking with national express but their site is harder to find the cheapest ticket on. Both let you have the freedom of a toilet, wifi, a plug and somebody else driving.
Within cities
Trams or all day bus tickets – it might seem simple but if you think you will be getting more than one bus in a city it is so much better to get an all day ticket. Except in London.
In London I would recommend either using your contactless card or an oyster card. You can link oyster to your railcard and get 1/3 off the off peak tube fares but you can also hit the cap of £6.60 on both. After that amount you stop paying for journeys in those 24 hours. An all day travelcard is about £12 so you save so much in London on transport. They can be used on buses, water taxis and the underground.
Rent a bike, we have all seen the Boris bikes but they can be cheaper to get around.
Blahblah car –
This is another way of saving yourself money.
I hope this has helped a few people in how to save money in travelling the UK.
Until next time,
The Great Ambini
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Informative
Such useful information that will come in handy when we take my husband’s family to the UK in a couple of months. I just recently heard about the group/family tickets, so I’m hoping we can save a little money that way. Thanks for all the tips!
Oh I love this! Thank you for sharing about the card… we didn’t know you could do that and will have to next time because we found that our transportation was quite expensive and the cost could have been less if we did that instead!
This is wonderful! I’m currently living in London (from South Africa) and will definitely be trying out a few of these. We’be been so tied up on exploring Europe that we’ve forgotten about the rest of England haha! We need to explore more of this beautiful country so thank you for these tips ?
What an elaborate and an informative post! So glad I stumbled upon this blogpost, will save this for referencing back later
Very useful informations. I can find quite cheap ticket to London, since I already visited London I would really like to explore more of England.
I love Megabus, I used it often when I lived in Washington DC, I would to to NYC or New Jersey. I have never been to London, if I did I would certainly want to experience taking public transport on the train.
Really enjoyed reading this! Can’t wait to plan my trip to visit family soon! Thank you ?
I love using ‘trainline’ to find cheap train-fares around the country! You can get some really good deals, especially if you book in advance like you suggested! But Megabus is new to me – £1 from Cardiff??? thats crazy 🙂
Enjoyed reading your tips. The railcard is a really cool thing. Do they have tourist railcards as well? Thanks for such useful information.
Great post! England is so expensive and you’re right, the small savings on each trip really do start to add up. Had no idea they had a metro card for pairs!
Great tips! It was a sad day when I became too old for the young persons railcard! haha
What a useful post – perfect for exploring the UK if you don’t have a car!
Public transport in the UK is so good (well compared to my experiences in some other countries anyway!) I’ve caught the train from London to Edinburgh and back, and to lots of other places in between and never had any issues.
This is so useful! I’m from the UK myself and I couldn’t agree more about the wonders of Megabus, hahaha.
Been to London myself but super handy when I head back to explore a little more of the UK