Advice: travelling by train in England, Heathrow-Bovington, Heathrow-London

[FrancesFarmer]

Hi,

I'm an Irish user of Mumsnet and need some advice about transport in England. I'm bringing my DCs to England on holidays later this summer. Without boring you with all the details of our itinerary, we will need to do a return trip from Heathrow to Bovington. I won't be driving and I'd prefer train over bus, unless it's far more expensive or inefficient. As far as I know, we will have to travel from Heathrow into London and from Paddington to Wool, which is quite near Bovington.

I tried booking online and the total for two adults and two children came to STG 179, which seems somewhat expensive. Is there any way of doing this trip at a lower cost - any sort of rail card for tourists I could buy?

We will also be doing a day trip from Heathrow into London - I was also wondering what the best option here is.

Thanks in advance!

I can't find it that cheap tbh!

You need to look on nationalrail.co.uk then when you decide what ticket you want to buy you will be redirected to one of the train companies to buy it.

If you buy a family and friends railcard (currently 10% off, so google for code, makes it £27) then adults get 30% off tickets and children get 60% off). Seems crazy to buy one just for a holiday, but it could well end up saving you money.

A day return is cheaper than a period return, advance tickets are cheaper than the walk on fare, and the sooner you buy, the cheaper they are likely to be, but you book onto specific trains, so if your flight's delayed you may miss your train.

Another thing you could do is split your journey. For example it may be cheaper to buy a ticket for the Heathrow express then a separate ticket for london to wool.

When are you actually travelling?

Yes, on some random days in august you can get from heathrow to london for £59.40 and then from london to wool for £78, if you book onto specific trains. I think this is slightly cheaper than the whole journey. And i also think you would save buying a railcard. It is unnecessarily complicated though.

Have a look at Megabus / Megatrain and see if you can get a cheap ticket from London Waterloo as far as Poole. Then buy a ticket from Poole to Wool. Travel from Heathrow to Waterloo on the Underground. Heathrow Express sounds like a rip-off.

You will save £60-£70 on the standard fare with a family & friends railcard. Have a google see if there are any special offers - sometime they do a free promotion over the summer. Also travel off peak.

Also have a look at National Express Coaches.

When you say Heathrow, where do you mean exactly, as there may be more options.

There are coaches from Heathrow to places en route to Wool, like Basingstoke or Winchester. Liekly to be a lot cheaper than going into London and out again.

From Heathrow for a London day trip, just get a Zones 1-6 Travelcard or Oystercard. Look up visitors travelcards. the Piccadilly line gets you into central London in just over half an hour - much cheaper than the Heathrow Express.

Have a look at transportdirect.info but take it with a pinch of salt.

This is what I would do, depending on my starting point at Heathrow (it's a big place, several terminals etc)

National Express coach from Heathrow Central bus station to Poole. Train from Poole to Wool (about 10 minute walk between bus and train stations). Bus from Wool to Bovington.

Or if I could get a Megatrain ticket for a fiver each way, tube to Waterloo, buy extra ticket for Poole to Wool on top of the Megatrain ticket so I would travel straight through to Wool. Bus to Bovington.