The Misson is: I am going to be in England 2 weeks, with the husband. We will spend 2 days in London, go to Minehead (Hello Butlins), back across to Shenfield, and then take commuter trains into London most of the week, with 4 days of “undecided” at the end. (Paris and Scotland are fairly close, who knows what mood we will be in?). The dollar is weak, and I am on a budget
The Question is :What is the sane way for 2 people to do this? I hear a lot of recommendations for Britrail passes, but they seem expensive. Do they even work on commuter trains?
The Problem is: I would have to buy the railpass this week, before I go. They aren’t for sale in the UK. Trying to compare prices is really hard for an innocent tourist who doesn’t really know what station she will use or when to leave. We could rent a car for when are out of London. Does renting a car for 3 to 5 days make better sense for 2 adults?
We will get travelcards to use the buses and tube in London. I think I can buy them there or here. I could use advice from natives and tourists. Thanks
My wife and I recently spent a fortnioght in England, about a week of which was outside London (Midlands and Yorkshire). We took a bus to a city in the Midlands, then hired a car there for a week to get around. The only problem that I found was that we couldn’t hire or return a car on Saturday afternoon or Sunday (most of the car hire places seem to be closed then), so I had to adjust things around that.
I don’t think you need to buy travel cards for London Transport in advance, though you might save a few pounds doing it. We just bought daily tickets as we went while in London, usally getting off-peak ones which start at 9:30 am.
Take a look at:
Rail Europe and click on “British Products” for lots of information. Decide what you’re interested in, and then either order direct, or get thee to a travel agent.
Central London 7-day travelcards - 2 x £19
London-Taunton (which IIRC was the route I suggested to get you close-ish to Minehead) - £53 return, off-peak
London-Shenfield £8 day return (why on earth are you going to Shenfield?!)
Heathrow Express £43 (which I consider an extranvagence, the tube takes longer but costs about £4)
So far that totals £146. Add £90 for a trip to Edinburgh, and you’re looking at about the same cost as the Britrail pass (£234). All of the fares I’ve listed are ones you can buy on the day of travel, mostly for journies after 9.30am. So (provided the Britrail pass will cover you for the journies you want to make), it’s convenience vs. flexibility.
Ten days in a hire car looks like being well under £200. But don’t forget to factor in fuel costs, which make American eyes water - I’d suggest budgeting £1 for every ten miles, which makes for £40 round-trip London-Minehead, and £80 London-Edinburgh. My suggestion would be to only hire one for while you’re in Minehead, because that’s an area of the country that needs a car to explore properly (and deserves exploring 
)
I’d go for car hire. Public transport is shocking in terms of expense, cleanliness and reliability. Seriously if I’m going back to the UK for a week, sometimes even a weekend I’ll hire a car as it works out about the same price wise and can’t be beaten for convenience.
The big car hire companies should be open until at least 17.00 on Staurday and there should be arrangements for people wishing to drop off cars ‘out of hours’ ie a place to leave keys etc. A good idea would be to choose either an aiport or station as your pick up point as they’re more likely to have longer opening hours and from airports there will be a shuttle service to get you back into the nearest city.
Agreed, but with the notable exception of parking in London - it is very expensive to use the parking garages, and parking on the street is dangerous, as it is prowled by over-zealous (some would even say criminally so) parking wardens.
Grim
Sorry, I should have specified for getting from one conurbation to another or going into smaller cities. In London yes, use the tube and in other cities use the ‘Park and Ride’ facility if they have one - these are large car parks outside the town/city centre with frequent shuttles buses taking you into the centre - you pay a price per car and pay the bus driver.
If possible avoid trains. They are horrible things! And you will spend more time then you should waiting in cold train stations for trains that have been cancelled or delayed.
Butlins and Essex. Either you have family there or you have met the world’s worst Travel Agent!
The Shenfield line isn’t too bad - it arrives at Liverpool St, which is in the Financial district of the City, and is well linked for everywhere else. Don’t even contemplate driving in London, it’s a horrible experience (and you’ll get tickets because it’s a foreign country and you’re bound to do something wrong, even without knowing).
Some trips might be more economical (if somewhat slower) by National Express Coaches
More than somewhat 
That’s true. But if you do hire a car at all, swotting up on the road signs and markings will help - perhaps 90% of them are self-explanatory, but the other 10% are enough to catch you out!
When I travelled via train in UK 4 years ago, they were on time and clean.
there was one car on the train to Durham that had been a smoking car–OMG! Made my eyes water (it would have been better if there had been people smoking in it, I think!). But we switched carriages (cars?) and it was fine.
I used a Britrail pass and it was wonderful–and I didn’t think it was too expensive–but I did go from London to Durham etc. For short hops, I dunno.
to all the Brits here: I find your public transport to be quick, easy, clean and fairly non-hassle. I have not tried the London buses, but the Tube, taxis, ferries, trains and Hovercraft are all good. And the people who work them all seem civil (well, ok, there was the nasty guy in the Durham train station, but one out of how many?). I would never attempt to drive a car over there-too much traffic!
Did I go to the same England or was it a subsection of Eurodisney and I couldn’t tell for all the drugs? 
Not always. Whilst I will constantly bitch about the Virgin trains service between London and Birmingham, its not that bad really, all the time. The trains, when they are running (avoid weekends, for that is when they carry out “engineering works”), aren’t too bad, and are certainly the quickest way to get from A to B.
I fully agree. I find that the type of person who steadfastly refuses to use trains is also the type of person who turns up two hours late, complaining about the traffic on the M1.
Oh, and you can plan around weekend engineering works in advance.
Exactly. Whereas I can, on average, be in Central London from Central Birmingham, in under two hours. It takes a hell of a lot longer than that by car or coach.
That’s not my experience!
My fiancé lives in Manchester so I used to get the train there and back at least once a month. I find trains extremely unreliable. And due to the fact that they are yet again doing engineering work, I have not been able to travel to Manchester since December. My fiancé always has to visit me now, as I would be unable to get back home on a Sunday. Well, not unless I’m prepared to do an 11 hour train journey that normally takes less then 3 hours by train. And it would not be 11 hours on a warm train either, about midnight until 6am would be in a freezing train station.
In the summer I needed to rely on trains to get me to work. Yeah, that was fun. 
I hate trains! Can you tell?
Okay, I’ll stop my mini rant now.
AngelicGemma – My boyfriend lives in London. We tend to do the trip between Birmingham and London once a week, and barring stuff like they’re running hopelessly late, or there’s been major fuckups, it takes me just over two hours from the University of Birmingham to Euston Station. Its pretty good going. There have been a couple of times when its taken longer, but that has been due to major fuck ups, or I’ve been travelling at the weekend and there’s engineering work going on. However, its not too bad.
Even when I was seeing a guy who lived in Edinburgh (and I was in Birmingham), the trains were pretty damned good – I consistently got into Edinburgh half an hour to an hour ahead of schedule.
However, travelling to my parents’ place is crappy. But then, that’s because they live in a godforsaken town in Lancashire.
I guess it all depends on train operators.
Angua what have you got against Brummies?