milemission

Three of us(parents and a 12 years old) will go to London next week. Our
total trip will last 8 days.

I have been doing some homework and will appreciate some advice:

What is the best public transportation from Heathrow airport to our hotel(IC Park Lane)? Should I book "Express Airport transport" in advance?

And from London to Birmingham (Hyatt Regency Birmingham), which train should I book? There seems to be a few different ones. Could we take taxi after the train to hotel?

Need to go from Birmingham to Dublin to catch a flight home((Aer Lingus), which train should we take? Should we take a boat trip too?

There are a lot of information from other threads about where to visit in London, how about between Birmingham and Dublin?

Thank you so much for your help!

nux

Piccadilly Line from LHR to Hyde Park Corner. See the tfl.gov.uk website. There are many car service options.

From London to Birmingham Virgin Trains are quickest. See the nationalrail.co.uk website. Of course you can take a taxi after the train to the hotel..

There are no trains from Birmingham to Dublin, you would also need to include a ferry. EI and FR operate BHX-DUB as well.

stut

I would book Virgin Trains from London to Birmingham, particularly as New Street station is within walking distance of the Hyatt. If First Class isn't much more, it's worth it - decent lounge, 2+1 seating, decent on-board food & drink.

London Midland is a commuter service. It takes a fair bit longer, and gets very busy, with 3+2 seating on some trains. Only take if you really want to save money.

Chiltern from Marylebone to Moor Street is a very civilised way to travel, particularly on the Mainline Silver (or plain Mainline) services. Takes a little longer, but it's a pretty journey, and tends to have a predictable fare. Downside is that it serves Birmingham Moor Street rather than New Street, so is a short taxi ride from the hotel.

Swiss Tony

Just to add that Chiltern Railways run from Marylebone, which is that bit closer to your London hotel, up to Birmingham. They are a bit slower but tend to be significantly cheaper, too, and most of their trains are as comfortable as you'll get on Virgin from Euston.

Once in Birmingham, take a taxi, as it's a 10-15 minute walk from any of the stations to the Hyatt.

(beaten to it by Stut - this work thing getting in the way of FT...)

But to add, if you do get on a Chiltern Silver Train, off peak it's an extra £10 for a seat in the business zone, which is an old first class carriage, with free tea, coffee, soft drinks etc. In the peak it's £25 which is a bit punchy, especially for a family...

UKtravelbear

Birmingham to Holyhead by train would take almost 4hours at a cost of £20- £50 each and range from 0 - 2 changes depending on which trains you get and time of day.

Plus the cost (and time) of ferry and then getting to central Dublin (or the airport)

National Express (including the ferry) would be in the range of £35 but would be over night - leaving Birmingham at 22:00 and arriving in central Dublin at 06:30.

rcspeirs

You can buy a combined train/ferry fare to Dublin.
http://www.stenaline.co.uk/ferries-to-ireland/rail-sail
Though I'd just fly - much quicker.

rcspeirs

For the London to Birmingham train, the cheapest tickets are called "advance". These can be MUCH cheaper than the walk up fare - but you can only travel on the booked service. No flexibility - an "advance" ticket is not valid on any other train.
If you can't decide timings until the last minute, Chiltern tend to have cheaper walk up fares.

NewbieRunner

You can get a combined Rail & Sail ticket from Stena Line Birmingham to Dublin for £36.

London_traveller

I agree with the Piccadilly tube from Heathrow to your hotel. It's a stop-start journey but probably the quickest, all things considered. Also the cheapest.

For a train to Birmingham, if I were you I'd get the Virgin Trains service from Euston to Birmingham New Street. Look out for advanced 1st class options on their website - you can get some good deals and the complementary onboard service is very good on Virgin. You can walk to your Birmingham hotel from there but look at a map. I wouldn't say it's obvious and it's a few minutes' walk (maybe 10 mins with luggage).

For Birmingham to Dublin, take a flight. Very easy to get to Birmingham airport (one stop down on the main line from New Street, to Birmingham International. Flights will be pretty cheap. It's by far your easiest option to get to Dublin from there.

milemission

Thank you so much for all of your great advice!

Will definitely consider fly from Birmingham to Dublin which will give us more
time to see Dublin.

Would also appreciate some pointers for what to visit in Dublin (for 2 days), this will be our first time.

Thank you again!

UKtravelbear

If you scan down the first couple of pages you will see several threads which do that.

lwildernorva

Just to get you started: http://www.flyertalk.com/forum/u-k-i...r-layover.html. In the second post, UAPremExecflyer has added some other threads that touch on short trips to Dublin. You can use those as a way to build an itinerary for a two-day trip.

milemission

Thank you all for the useful information.

Also would you please help with how to get from Birmingham to Telford and Shifnal? Thank you so much!

RichardInSF

I've taken the train to both Moor St station and New St station and have walked from both to the Hyatt. I think it wasn't much different in how long it took, although the route can be a little confusing. It's also a pretty short taxi ride from either.

The_Bouncer

Both are a very easy and inexpensive train ride from New St. Take a Shrewsbury or Aberystwyth train, from memory.