Cheap London-edinburgh Rail fares - is there such a thing?

[Wimbledonwomble]

DS has expressed a wish to go to Scotland on the train. Sounds fun but we would be on a budget and would look to stay in a Premier Inn or similar for a couple of nights. We don't usually do trains and am horrified at the cost. Any tips to get a good deal 2 adults/2 kids? Probably October time.
Tia

trains are expensive. you could look into a family railcard. they cost £30 ish last a year and you could look at the relative costs with or without one.

it also depends on what time of day you are travelling and if its in school hols or not.

The cheapest way to go is a megabus but these take an age and can get really boring. have you looked into flights? a lot of the small local airports fly into Scotland and you can pick up some really cheap deals. use websites like skyscanner and momondo to find them.

Try a site such as tickety split. Often it is cheaper to pay different parts of the journey separately rather than as a through ticket. Also travelling at unusual times can be a lot cheaper. We used to catch the quarter to six am Train to London on a Saturday it was ridiculously cheap and we were in London for breakfast.

There's also a two together rail card which means you have save around a third ,the saving on a longish journey can more than pay for it

Cheap train ticket go on sale 12 weeks in advance, so look at 12 weeks from now as a rough price as to what October will be. Use a family and friends railcard as that will cut costs as well.

We bought a family railcard to travel edinburgh london for just under 80 return. So roughly 105 for 6 of us. Booked 12 weeks in advance

You can often get £30 fares, but it’s changing from Virgin East Coast back to being nationalised. I’d think they’d run promotional fares soon to get people to use it. Otherwise look at virgin west coast from Euston to Glasgow - it’s only 45 mins to Edi by train from Glasgow.

Family railcard and book advance tickets 12 week s before travel . 125 for five people return 3x adult 2 kids . Kids go cheap and rail card gets adukts a third off.kids don't have to be related to the adult

So for October half term count back 12 week s and dont try booking before then. look then for "advance" tickets. Diff trains may have diff prices.

Advance online tickets, specific trains, splitting the route, two singles on specific trains cheaper than a return. I go to London from the Midlands frequently, often out in peak and I rarely pay more than 40 quid, standard return is more than double that. Sometimes you can get singles for a fiver online advance.

If you give us your dates maybe we can have a crack at getting a good deal?

DS manages to get tickets for London Euston to Glasgow for £20 with his young persons railcard. Bus to edinburgh is cheap.

Book 12weeks in advance. We got it £110 return for 4 without a railcard with virgin.

Thanks all. Looks like the railcard brings it into affordable territory. Obv too early to book for October and also waiting to find out when school will have training day (usually one in October). Looking at Premier Inn for accommodation.

Sorry, bringing this up again! DCs have a training day the Friday before half term (19th Oct). Result! I just had a quick search & found return tickets for the 4 of us for £181.50 travelling up Friday, back Monday. That doesn't sound too bad so my question is, am I guaranteed to get a better price by waiting until 12 weeks before (& maybe using railcard)?? Trouble is, I'll be abroad then so will have to pray for decent WiFi!! Also need to decide whether to do 2 or 3 nights, but That's another issue!

Tia

Just tried looking 12 weeks from now (31/8-3/9) and am getting £291? Or is that because it's summer still??

If you do west coast virgin there could well be a sale soon... it's always a gamble though! The non advance fares are refundable less a £10 admin fee so that's another option.

Remember the Edinburgh Festival will be on in August and that inflates all travelling and accommodation costs

Try again in a few days and get a rail card

You can register to be alerted when the cheap fares come up (try trainline). Get a 'family and friends' railcard, it cuts the fare by 50% ish.
Friday is not usually cheap in Premier Inn. Sunday and Monday are often very cheap.