to think it shouldn't cost a thousand just to visit family

[number5namechange]

a few hrs away on the train?

So both me and dh don't drive due to medical issues/lack of confidence.So use public transport.

We are going to visit his family in a few weeks ( monday to Wednesday) with a grand cost of one thousand pounds!!!
That includes train fare for 2 adults and 3 kids. Premier inn with breakfast. We also have to pay for our own food when there. Some spending money ( 200)

I found a new off peak flexible ticket when I had a short notice trip to London recently.

As long as you weren't arriving in London before about 11 or leaving after about 3, you could get on any train.

It wasn't as cheap as an advance saver type ticket but it was less than half the price of a fully flexible ticket.

If you need to travel by train, it's really worth looking into how to do it cheaper as there's a lot of ways to save loads compared with the full price.

Why are you counting the food shop? Presumably you would still need to eat if you weren't travelling?

YANBU, rail fares are fucking ridiculous to get around this relatively small country. Even with stupid fuel costs, driving is cheaper for a family.

Sure, you can book cheaper tickets if you make a wish on the 12th of never under a blue moon while standing in a fairy ring at a minute past midnight.

Going to Edinburgh from the SE of England a few years ago it was much cheaper for us to fly there than go on the train, even factoring in the cost of getting to and from the airport. Apparently they would realise cheaper tickets three weeks before travel. Well, bully for them, I had my accommodation booked several months before travel and wanted to make damned sure we could all get there, not hazard a guess as to whether cheap tickets might be available just before we go.

Lots of Premier Inns charge that much. They vary massively due to the area, time of year, whether it's the weekend or not and if there is an event on in the area.

They aren't all £30 a night and that's even more true now.

release not realise

I am amazed at the number of people on this thread who are just accepting of the awful train service in the UK. We pay more than double the rest of Europe for a poorer service. In many cases we are subsidising the European services e.g Arriva (German), Abellio (Dutch) are investing UK profits in their local services.

What family are you visiting? Is it close like parents or inlaws etc or extended? Are they wanting you to visit to see your children? What is spending money for? Are you visiting just to see family or to see sights and attractionsetc, is it a holiday or purely family obligation? If its close family and family obligations then why can't you stay at their house, why can't they pick you up from station and why are they not providing the food?

It costs what it costs op

What’s the point in debating whether it would be nice if it was cheaper? It isn’t

I think I would have stayed a couple more nights for that. The train fares seem really high. I can go between 2 cities that are 90 miles apart for 30-50 return if I book in advance and go off peak.

But what choice do you think people have? If you don't/can't drive and are reliant on public transport, there aren't really any other options but to suck up the hassle and expense of the train.

I mean, where I live there's no bus
service and no such thing as Uber - if you can't drive it's either train or booking a local taxi several weeks in advance.

You could fly but you'd still need to travel the two+ hours to the nearest airport

Thankfully both DH and I drive, but if you don't then yes, life is bloody expensive.

Where the fuck are you going from Edinburgh for that price; the north pole??!!

Public transport in this country is just extortionate, not to mention unreliable and often very uncomfortable. I drive everywhere, I would LOVE to be able to use public transport more, but not enough to risk being stranded somewhere or late for something important.

Some of the last few times I've caught a train, for example 1)Visiting niece at university in a huge northern town, reserved a seat-wasn't available and had to stand. Fine for me really, but wouldn't have been for everyone and wasn't pleasant. Didn't drive as was worried about parking. 2)Going to an interview. Had to ring my Mum and beg a lift (thank gawd she was available) as the train was cancelled and by the time I'd got myself back home on a bus or even a taxi, I'd have risked being late. 3) Day/evening out with friend in a different city. Didn't' drive as wanted to drink alcohol with dinner/post dinner. Train was cancelled but another was leaving from a different station luckily-had to pay for an (expensive) taxi to the other side of said city because had I walked I would have missed it. Also went to meet friends another time I've just remembered, I can't remember exactly what happened but the situation with trains meant we were almost an hour late and had to change when I'd purposely travelled at a time where there was a direct one. Ugh. No thanks.

I am off on a tangent but yes OP YANBU to want a whinge about how expensive travel is, but it is what it is. You've had some good tips on how to make things cheaper-it does seem that picnic food is a good idea, or asking family if you can use their kitchen depending on circumstances (I am also intrigued as to what these are)!

Driving a car is not cheaper than buses and trains, when you look at the annual costs - MOTs, insurance, repairs etc. It is very expensive to maintain. I'd say OP got a good deal for a big family of 5.

Edinburgh to Thurso next week, family of five plus railcard £154 return. How far are you travelling on that is costing £250 by taxi? Van your relatives meet you closer to the station? If they're not putting you up then it's a VERY big ask for you to be spending an extra 250 quid just to get to their area.

And even as a family of 6 we couldn't spend £300 on food and spending money in 2 days - why on earth are you including grocery shopping?

But once you've bought the car and paid all the other fixed costs, petrol does often work out cheaper than public transport especially if more than one person is traveling.

Many people have a car because they need it to get to work without unreliable or slow public transport so once they have the car they might as well use it for most journeys.

Agreed

Have you seen the cost of owning a car lately?

That seems bonkers, jubilee week, we travelled to London (150 miles away). 3 adults, 2 kids. Premier Inn in Central London. All meals. Plus 3 major London attractions including 2 paid for. Plus multiple taxis due to mobility issues with eldest member of group. It was about £125 per head, if we had used tubes would have been less than £100 a head. Your costs seem very high

Visiting family wouldn't normally include spending money and food. If you're going to visit family surely you don't need spending money - aren't you going to be at their house? And wouldn't they give you meals if you've travelled all that way? I would of course give a contribution towards the food.

When travelling a distance to see family I'd also expect that they'd put us up. It must be close family if you're spending that much to go and see them? I understand that a family of 5 is quite a few people if its a small space, but for the sake of 2 nights? A couple of air mattresses on the living room floor would be fine.

Of course for what is the equivalent of a weekend away (which is what you're doing) I'd definitely expect to be spending at least £1000.

Driving a car is not cheaper than buses and trains, when you look at the annual costs - MOTs, insurance, repairs etc. It is very expensive to maintain

Most families need a car for regular journeys though not just longer trips. So having a car and then paying train fares makes it a lot more expensive. If we didn't have a car there would be no way to get to a lot of places we go to regularly, there is no public transport alternative.

Edinburgh is in the far south of Scotland. Even Inverness is only two-thirds of the way north in the mainland, and roughly middle-ish of Scotland as a whole.

A 'few hrs away on the train' from Edinburgh doesn't get you very far north.
For the destination sleuths, a Premier Inn narrows it down considerably.

It's only £200 per person though. For an entire holiday, that includes rail travel, taxi fares, food, drink and spending money. That's super cheap. Everything seems worse when you're the parent paying for all 5 people. If you were going away with 4 mates, and only liable for your share @ £200, you'd be thinking it was a bargain.

You could have booked the Premier Inn for a lot less if you'd done it a few months ago. Trips during Scottish school holidays are always going to be expensive.

Seems sad no one from DHs family could pick you up rather than having to take a taxi and that you have to pay for meals when you are there.

Next time either book it months in advance or use the £1k to get the coach to somewhere nice and book a holiday cottage.

You have been very vague about ‘up north’ but if you are going to Inverness, you’ll find a coach considerably cheaper and it will take exactly the same length of time as the train!

With that level of spending money it does sound more like a mini break with the visit to relatives being incidental.