More Scotland questions

[krystee]

Thank you all for the tour recommendations when I hijacked the thread below!

I have two more questions:
1. Direct flights to Edinburg are $1,440. Direct to London are $400. We are on a budget. How much of a hassle would it be to fly to London and take a train to Edinburgh?

2. Are there any great tour companies that do the whole travel package, so basically flights and a tour that lasts the whole trip?

[jamaicam]

Mar 7, 2019 12:34:57 GMT -5 krystee said:

Thank you all for the tour recommendations when I hijacked the thread below!

I have two more questions:
1. Direct flights to Edinburg are $1,440. Direct to London are $400. We are on a budget. How much of a hassle would it be to fly to London and take a train to Edinburgh?

2. Are there any great tour companies that do the whole travel package, so basically flights and a tour that lasts the whole trip?

In relation to 1, fly to London! The train to Edinburgh is gorgeous - once you get to York, you get amazing scenery. Just avoid travelling on a Friday evening as the trains will be busy. Also if you can, travel in the week - routine trainline works happen on a weekend not in the week, and those can cause nasty delays/bus replacements. 

[erbear]

Mar 7, 2019 12:34:57 GMT -5 krystee said:

Thank you all for the tour recommendations when I hijacked the thread below!

I have two more questions:
1. Direct flights to Edinburg are $1,440. Direct to London are $400. We are on a budget. How much of a hassle would it be to fly to London and take a train to Edinburgh?

2. Are there any great tour companies that do the whole travel package, so basically flights and a tour that lasts the whole trip?

Not $1000 of a hassle. I'd do this.

no help on #2, sorry. I don't do tour companies bit I am sure they exist and are good.

[mrsukyankee]

I've gone on the train twice - it's fabulous. You can buy food and whatnot on it...or buy it at the station. We usually get a bottle of something to drink along the way up. But if you want quicker, you can also fly very easily to Edinburgh from London and probably very cheaply.

[frlcb]

Definitely fly to London, but if you aren't planning on spending time in London then I would just fly to Edinburgh from London, so you don't have to bother with getting into London to get the train.

[mcsangel2]

I would probably book a separate flight LON-EDI. The train takes about 4 hours, if it's dark you won't see anything, and you have to schlep all the way from Heathrow (presumably) to the city center to the train station. If British Airways flights are too much, check out EasyJet (but you would likely have to change airports for that).

[cajunmom]

Mar 7, 2019 12:34:57 GMT -5 krystee said:

Thank you all for the tour recommendations when I hijacked the thread below!

I have two more questions:
1. Direct flights to Edinburg are $1,440. Direct to London are $400. We are on a budget. How much of a hassle would it be to fly to London and take a train to Edinburgh?

2. Are there any great tour companies that do the whole travel package, so basically flights and a tour that lasts the whole trip?

Where are you flying from? You previously said you just have a week, right? That's including travel days? If that's accurate, I wouldn't spend the time on the train. Are you set on particular dates or do you have any flexibility? Do you have a particular aversion to layovers? Or by direct to you not mean non-stop? Sorry, not sure if I'm making sense, lol. I have lots more I'd like to say but I'll let you answer these first, haha. 

[krystee]

cajunmom we are flying from Chicago. I love London and my mom has never been, so I am considering taking the train one way and spending a few hours in London before we get on the train. If we did that, I would add an eighth day. That is the max we can be gone, though. My H will have the two kids alone without much help, and his job typically gets him home after daycare closes, so he’ll have to leave early every single day.

We are okay with layovers, but not long ones. We would rather be on a train than in an airport.

Forgot the date question! We are set on September, but exact travel dates are flexible.

[cajunmom]

Mar 8, 2019 19:08:01 GMT -5 krystee said:

cajunmom we are flying from Chicago. I love London and my mom has never been, so I am considering taking the train one way and spending a few hours in London before we get on the train. If we did that, I would add an eighth day. That is the max we can be gone, though. My H will have the two kids alone without much help, and his job typically gets him home after daycare closes, so he’ll have to leave early every single day.

We are okay with layovers, but not long ones. We would rather be on a train than in an airport.

Forgot the date question! We are set on September, but exact travel dates are flexible.

Okay, I'm on my phone riding in a car so can't do a lot of linking but I'm looking in the Google flights calendar and found a number of options in September for less than $1k, some as low as $672. Those aren't nonstop but most only have 1 layover. Have you tried searching that way?

As an aside, Chicago was our layover (from New Orleans) when we went to Scotland last year 😁😁. This upcoming trip we have 2 layovers but the tickets were cheap so 🤷‍♀️.

[sometimesrunner]

I know nothing about Scotland, but I regularly see Chicago-Scotland flights on my Pomelo alerts. (Both Edinburgh and Inverness)

[pittpurple]

We fly the United Chicago-Edinburgh direct flight often as we have familiy across the US - play around with the dates a bit if you aren't fixed on specific dates and see if it helps. Midweek flights are cheaper - we usually fly on Tuesdays or Wednesdays.

The issue is the getting from airport to train station in London - it's definitely a faff. The train from London-Edi is fine, you can book ahead and get seats and it wouldn't be $1000 but you would have to build in leeway dates in case of any flight issues so you would have to break up your trip a lot. You'd have the Heathrow Express and then another tube journey to get to Kings Cross. Flights get in early morning from the states so I guess you could theoretically get a flexible train ticket and try to come straight here but that will be much more expensive and make for a really, really long day. If you are finding cheap flights to London and your mom hasn't been, would you consider staying in London for a week? Or nearer London?

Otherwise you'd have to fly to London, give yourself 1-2 nights, train to Edinburgh and then train back to London with an extra day at least at the end as well. So you'd end up with maybe 4-5 nights in Edinburgh instead of 7. Which is fine as well but might not be the best use of a week.

Have you checked open jaw tickets - fly into Heathrow or Edinburgh and back from the other to see if that helps at all?

[wise_rita]

I cannot believe the price difference is that huge!

I also am impressed how cheap the London flights are. Hot damn!

[lolo]

krystee

We used this company www.rabbies.com/en/scotland-tours/from-edinburgh. It has been some time now--it was somewhere in the 2010-2012 range--but I was really impressed with them. We were meant to go to be Loch Ness but there was a really bad accident and the road we needed was completely blocked. The guide managed to pull together a doable itinerary on the fly, and we still had a wonderful time.

The pace of these tours is always a little faster than I prefer--I like to linger and let it soak in--but there is at least a little more flexibility with the small coach.

ETA: If you do end up adding on time in London and are going to fly, you can also check the London City airport. Depending on where you base yourself, it's much easier, quicker and less expensive to get there than any other London airport, and I've taken extremely affordable flights on BA to Edinburgh.

I've also done the train several times and people are right that it's really pretty. If you aren't sure about doing it in one go, you could overnight in York. It's well worth a visit too.

[Waffles]

Definitely fly to London, that price difference is crazy! I'd look into flying to Edinburgh from London if you don't fancy staying there a day or two.

[marytini]

If you take the train from London to Edinburgh, read the following link. I actually followed along (in reverse) to see all the sights along the way that he mentioned.
www.seat61.com/london-to-edinburgh-by-train.htm#journey