How on earth do I book a train in the UK these days?!?

[MsFogi]

So I haven't used long distance trains since my 20s and I suspect in those days I just turned up with my student travel card and took whatever was available.
I am just trying to book for me and DD to go to some uni open days. How on earth do you book a train these days - is there no National Rail website to just search and book?!? Do I need to just hope for the best on TrainLine or do I need to work out which line each route is on...I am completely lost!!!
Can some wise MNer explain how a sensible person books long distance trains these days?

TrainPal is the best app to find cheapest split tickets I've found. Also yes to getting a TwoTogether railcard if you are doing lots of open days together.

I use split my ticket. Saves money by cutting journey tickets at boundaries.

The trainline is not the best! They’re a third party booking agent. You’re best to use the national rail website to get times and prices and that will take you through to book direct with the rail operator. Advance tickets are the cheapest but are only valid on the train you book. You might also benefit from a 2 together railcard if you’re making a few trips.

I do all that from the comfort of my sofa on Trainline then I don't need to worry about queues at the booking office or any other hassle on the day. Maybe it's eaise at mainline stations but my nearest station is quite small and always seems to have a queue

Why would anyone use Trainline when they charge a fee on top of the train ticket price? Madness!

Just use one of the train operating companies: no booking fee. You can check split tickets on a separate website and see if they are cheaper.

I don't know about "anyone", but I do it because they provide a useful service at a fair price. The same reason I buy electronics from the shop that gave me good advice even though I can get it cheaper online. 1 I don't want these service providers to fail because no one's prepared to pay them for their work.

You can book advance tickets at a railway station. Doesn't have to be the station you'll be travelling from. Just go at a time when it's not likely to be too busy - not morning rush hour.

@VisionsOfSplendour to be fair I have never tried Trainline etc to book tickets.
I rarely have to queue at stations (and I use the big London ones) - at Victoria there's a whole row of self service machines that are pretty much empty all the time.
My way works for me so I'm happy.

How far are the journeys? I live in London. If I were going to Reading or Cambridge or somewhere else pretty close I wouldn't bother booking in advance as the price difference isn't that much. I often travel up to Glasgow, though, and the price difference there is enormous. I allow a lot longer to get from home to Euston than I would for a casual journey around the city, so I can be sure of making the train I'm booked on. Worth it to get a reserved seat, as well as the price saving.

If one of your journeys is London to Oxford, I can recommend the Oxford Tube, which is a coach service. Doesn't take that much longer than the train, goes to the centre of Oxford from various convenient central points in London, far cheaper than the train. Turn up and go, no need to book.

Well this is eye opening. I had no idea Trainline wasn't literally the standard default way! Granted I don't use trains much, but still.

Can't believe all the love for train line when there are so many options that don't charge a fee like they do.

OP, there's a National rail website. Just search on the journey planner on there -that'll show all the times and price and different types of tickets available. It automatically shows the cheapest option (albeit not split ticketing) but you can select to view other ticket options if you wanted more flexibility/first class etc. You can then click 'buy tickets' at the bottom and it'll take you through to the operators website to complete the purchase.

Be aware that advance tickets are only for that specific train, so you can't decide to travel on a different train. Railcard is a good suggestion if your journeys are fairly expensive - just check it's valid on the journeys you're looking at first (on the National rail website you can change your passenger details to include the railcard).

Just a note about uni open days - I would suggest booking an unrestricted ticket for your return journey.
This gives you the flexibility to leave early if the uni is of no interest or stay a bit longer to have a better look around.

Veteran of many open days!

Compare ticket prices with a student railcard and a 2 Together to see which gives the better saving.