Best place to park off M3 to catch train into London?

[Winterstormsu]

Can anyone help advise easiest place if driving from SW along A303-M3 to edge M25 to then park for 48hrs to catch train into London? Taking my teen DDs to catch a show & have a night away and at the moment the cost of train is ridiculous (even with railcards) so now looking at whether to drive to edge M25 and then train into London?

Also is it still cheaper to get a travel card or better to tap in out using contactless on tubes & buses? Not been for a trip to London since pre-Covid so rusty on my city travel skills despite living there 20 years ago. Best app for bus use? Thanks

Lots of people come to Richmond and park in old deer park car park (you do pay for parking). Or there are streets in southern Teddington where you can park for free and take the train in. Or look at just park as there are often driveways near stations you can use

It’s cheapest to use a caontactless card and tap in but if your kids don’t have them I think you have to get travel cards for them.

some people book airport hotels at Heathrow with free parking and go in and out on Elizabeth line.

Thanks @DogTiredAllTheTime i hadn’t thought of Justpark will check it out. I just assumed we’d catch the train but at 3-4x price of driving it’s bonkers.

I’m a Londoner and use the bus times app but tbh if you aren’t familiar with the city, Citymapper is the best one as it will give you all the options and detailed instructions!

Not sure about parking but I haven't used a travel card for years because I buy my train tickets online now and then just tap in and out. The daily amount is capped, but if you are only doing a small amount of tube/bus it might be cheaper than a travelcard. Just looked at my statement and I did Waterloo to Kings Cross for £2.80 recently.

Coach trip can be under a tenner from the West Country!

City Mapper is good but I tend to just use Apple maps for all my navigation now, it's very detailed for public transport.

Thanks lucky they both have contactless cards so that would work well for a short trip.

Where in SW are you travelling from and when? I live in Devon and often buy return train travel to London for under £100 in total for myself, DH and two teens (under 16). Timing is important when buying tickets - too early and the cheaper ones aren’t yet on sale, too soon and they’re all sold out. Happy to help find cheaper tickets if I can.

thanks I’ll check out city mappier. I’m quite happy jumping on off buses and using online map just rusty. Took the DDs a few times when younger just not been in to central London in the last 5yrs.

Thanks i think I could be looking too far out then as I’ve just realised I’m at 12.5wk mark so maybe if I look next weekend it will be cheaper as I’ve just seen at the 12wks mark the cheap tickets get released. I’d much rather train in then I get to chill out more. I travel with work on train and the cost of those tickets make my eyes water sometimes.

Basingstoke, has a big car park lots of trains that take 45mins to Waterloo. Will probably be quicker than driving further and getting tube, train fare might be a bit more though southwestern trains do an evening out fare that is much cheaper after 1pm and the parking will be cheaper.

DDs are 16 & 18 so cost of train tickets is higher than if both under 16 but I do have railcard options.

Thanks @Needanadultgapyear I was wondering about Basingstoke

Have you got a Family and Friends Railcard? If not it’s well worth looking at getting one. I was going to say Basingstoke or Hook.

Richmond is the place you are looking for- Old Deer Carpark!

I was going to suggest Brookwood but not for the next 6 months as it should be a 15 min drive from the m3 to the station but we have bad road works on the junction

Do you know about the 16-17 Railcard (50% reduction) for your younger dd? And the older one could get a 16-25 Railcard (30% reduction). You often make your money back on the first journey, even though they're expensive. It's SO annoying when you no longer have an under-16, family tickets and railcards are no longer available to you and it makes a massive difference!

You could also get a two-together Railcard for you and your elder dd (instead of a young person's one for her) as then you both get a discount. But only if you are travelling together.

Tickets are supposed to go on sale 12 weeks in advance, but I'm trying to buy a few different tickets in that time frame at the moment and I notice that they don't, always. If you can't buy an advance single at any time on the day you want to travel, it is likely they are not on sale yet. Give it a couple of days!

So annoying that you need to be so on it to get a decent price.

Make sure both children have 16-25 railcard. It will pay for itself with uni open days etc and uni or visiting uni friends after that. Family and friends one is great but with children that age has limited other occasions you might use it.

Another vote for Basingstoke.

If your DDs already have railcards you could look at the network railcard for yourself, it works on the SW Rail network (and SE England generally I think) but has some limitations. Avoiding the morning rush hour on weekdays is the main thing I think. Also if it's a weekday, parking at SWR stations gets much cheaper from midday.

The other things is, do you have a particular show in mind or booked? If not you can get same day reductions at many West End shows, my friends and I sometimes go up to London having chosen and booked something that morning.

I park in Farnborough. Lots of public car parks (pay by phone) in walking distance of the station. Good train service to Waterloo and it's cheaper than Basingstoke or Woking.

There are some great just park spaces very near Richmond station; I use them often for going into London from Hampshire