TWA884

It's not just "driving in Europe," it's driving on the other side of the road.

lhrsfo

That's hardly very difficult - it's not as though the roads are empty.

roki

Yes, that's what I meant, really. I should have specified, since not all of Europe does that :P

Jenbel

One advantage of flying out of CDG (and apologies if someone has already flagged it) is that your departure taxes will be lower than from LHR for a longhaul. There's a £300 - £400 differential between me flying EDI// AMS-HKG and EDI-LHR-HKG in J.

stifle

That benefit is as much due to the base fare being lower as the taxes, and it'll narrow further later this year when air passenger duty is cut for flights over 4000 miles*.

*Technically, flights to countries of which the capital is over 4,000 miles from London

roki

I priced out the award flight from LHR first, and the difference between LHR and CDG as a departure city was, if I recall, somewhere in the ~$250/ticket range. The $500 my wife and I saved departing CDG definitely was a factor in structuring the trip the way we are!

So, as of now, we're looking at beginning the trip in London, taking the train to Edinburgh (as much for the experience as anything), and flying EDI > CDG.

We're considering splitting our time in London between two hotels (Mercer + Riverbank, both in the Club Carlson brand) for two reasons:

1) I'm not sure we could do 8 nights using the Club Carlson 2nd night free credit card option for that many back to back reservations (2x2x2x2 alternating between my wife and me).
2) For Borough Market, the London Eye, National Theatre, and other south bank activities, it seems like a slightly better launch point.

Really, point #1 is the major concern to me, and it may be unfounded. I know 2x2 reservations are fairly common, but I'm not sure 8 nights will go smoothly. Even checking in and out and/or changing rooms isn't something I really want to have to deal with.

Swiss Tony

You're going to waste a lot of time packing up & moving hotels (probably moreso for the contingent with the child).

Also, the Riverbank isn't well located in terms of public transport. You're a decent walk from any tube stations, services in the immediate vicinity are limited and buses are rather infrequent on that road.

If you're taking the train, book 12 weeks out, avoid weekends, find the cheap first class tickets and get seats by the window on the right hand side of the train. Oh, and take an ipad or something for the little'un.

roki

Wasting time is precisely what I'm trying to avoid. Good point on the Riverbank location...from the photos I was envisioning it much closer to Southwark, but google maps clearly shows it's not. I know the system will let me book 2x2x2x2 at the Mercer, but I wonder if I'd have an issue requesting a contiguous booking (one room).

As of now, we'd looking to head up to Scotland 9/13/15, which is a Sunday. While it is the weekend, is it likely to be much better Monday? A test pricing 12 weeks out right now shows the cheapest 1st class seat as £64 for Sunday and £72 for Monday. I imagine the train might be busier on Sunday, though. Between the 5 of us (including the infant), we have 3 iPads, a Nexus 9, and a Kindle Fire HDX, so we might be set there :P

Swiss Tony

Engineering work takes place at the weekend and journeys on Sundays are typically slower, too. Oh and the free catering in First Class is significantly better on a weekday.

If you can book the room without any shenanigans then I'd say it's fair game. The hotel will be recovering the cost from HQ, so they shouldn't have any quibbles.

Microwave

I would definitely do Three. I'm stuck with Vodafone on my iPhone and have Three on my iPad. Often when I'm out in the country I will have full bars of nearly-useless GPRS on my phone while my iPad has 1-2 bars of snappy-fast 3G. Food for thought. Probably easiest if you can have someone get the SIMs for you now, but may not be feasible–I don't think Three will ship them overseas but not sure on that point. Any Three store should be able to sell them to you though.

If you pay only a percent fee, contactless may be worth the fee (2.5% of the daily price cap would be somewhere around 25 US cents) as you'd not have to carry around an extra card. Just my thought though, it's preference. Some details on foreign contactless cards on TfL services are here:
http://tfl.gov.uk/fares-and-payments...on-this-page-1
All AmEx and nearly all MasterCard are good now, Visa aren't as clear but may be worth the try. If it doesn't work at first try, whether that's at Heathrow or Kings Cross, plenty of places nearby to get an Oyster as a backup plan.

Took the Highland Chieftain (Inverness to Kings Cross) a couple of weeks ago at the weekend, and breakfast was a packaged cold croissant and pre-mixed muesli with yoghurt, while lunch was a packaged sandwich with a small bag of crisps. This is definitely different and a sizeable step down from weekday service.

stut

Just make sure you don't accidentally end up in the quiet carriage, or you may be subjected to tuts and hard stares...

The journey itself has high and low points, but once you get past Biggleswade (hello!) it becomes flat, pretty much all the way to Darlington. You do have the cathedrals at Peterborough and York, and the magnificent station at the latter to break it up, but this is definitely the stretch to have your tablets and Kindles out.

After that, it gets a lot more impressive.

Jenbel

Not on an award ticket it isn't! All due to taxes...

roki

Trip planning update:

My brother and sister-in-law are very keen to take an overnight trip to Cardiff to see the city and have dinner with some acquaintances there. My wife and I wanted to as well, but I didn't think it was really wise to try to fit it in, although I didn't make it to Wales last time I was in the UK, and I'd love to spend some time in Cardiff. We are going with them, but personally, I feel like cutting time out of London for an overnight jaunt to Cardiff is a bit of a shame, but I lived in London for 6 months, and did a lot there. I'm pretty easy-going on the planning portion, because the other 3 people in our foursome have never been. So, Cardiff it is. We're therefore planning to break our Mercer reservation in half (2x2 > Overnight in Cardiff > 2x2) which does solve two other potential problems:

1) We can book the Mercer starting the 4th instead of the 5th, giving an easy, convenient place to crash when we get into the city
2) It separates the bookings, which alleviates my 2x2x2x2 concern.

The Mercer should (I think?) be willing to hold all our major luggage, so we can just pack a light backpack for the trip to Cardiff. I'm looking at club Carlson Cardiff properties, and there seem to be some nice (and affordable) near city centre. Anyone have further recommendations on that?

Also, my wife and I were planning to book the W=A Caley in Edinburgh for the 3 nights there, but the rate jumped from £55 + 20K C&P to £124 + 28K, and suddenly I'm not nearly so interested. The Hilton DT also jumped from 30K/night to 50K/night (I thought it was category-based??). So, now we're back to the drawing board for hotel stays in Edinburgh.

Lastly, I need to look into hiring a car while in Edinburgh. But it does feel like this trip is coming together!

Hopefully the overwhelming feedback won't be that we're crazy to quick-trip to Cardiff. My wife and I are high-energy and not bothered by long days of travel, but I'm a bit concerned about my brother and sister-in-law with a 1-year-old. I didn't realize how important the side-trip was going to be to them, though. I guess if it's no fun, at least I'm not to blame!

stifle

Check the Hilton Edinburgh Grosvenor as well.

roki

I was looking at that property (originally for my brother and sister-in-law). £109/night for compact double, £119/night for standard, and £154/night for king/deluxe.