My boyfriend and I are planning to travel thru the UK, including Ireland, during late-April/early-May 2005 for about 2 weeks. I'm baffled by the numerous options for transport and am hoping someone who's been-there-done-that can offer some advice.

We want to have the flexibility to be able to see the sights that are not located in or near the major towns and want to be sure we'll be able to secure transport.

Coach transport is appealing for the price and range of destinations, but many of the flexi-passes (i.e. National Express) do not guarantee your seat on a particular route.

Rail also has a broad range of destinations but is more expensive.

At the moment, I'm leaning towards hiring a car because it would give us greater flexibility but I realise this is not exactly cheap either - especially if you take the car on the ferry to Ireland!

At this stage, I'd appreciate any and all advice - we'd like to see as much of the UK as we can (within reason) without spending a fortune on the transport... Thanks!

Hi there Emma! As a backpacker when I was in England I caught coaches only, the trains were just too expensive. I did have trouble getting to more isolated places I wanted but. Such as Dartmoor national park and the ruins in Tintagel although this was slightly off season (March) so there wasnt as many services. I might have had to catch 3 buses a day. Trains dont get much off the beaten track. With your short time frame Im guessing you wouldnt want to be catching numerous local buses which are time consuming. So a car could work for you, could be costly but. You have to weigh up time versus money.

ev

Check out the petrol price as well, coz it's quite expencive about 85p a litre
The coaches are quite good i would not worry to much about booking the trips, there is normally space on the coaches, this will give you more flexibility anyway. but remember it can take ages to get from one place to the next, a car is by far the best way as it's quicker and you will fit more in to your short trip. I personaly use trains most of the time coz i have a rail card and can't aford a car, the trains are generally better than the coaches.

http://www.megabus.com/
http://www.bootsnall.com/tk/transport/dec0...rlandlist.shtml

I love the trains here, well I love trains in general. I dont think they're too expensive, get a young person's railcard. Catching the train to scotland in a few hours. :thumbup: I like www.thetrainline.com myself.
as a side note, one of my british friends was telling me that he hired a car for something like 7 quid a day one time. if you want, I can find out where and how.

I really like the trains here too.

If there's an area you are particularly interested in seeing more of you might just want to rent a car in that area for a couple of days. You can also usually dpick-up and drop-off in different cities too. That's what I'm doing for a week long trip in April.

actualy starpiste has the best idea there is never a shortage of hire cars so you could pick one up when ever you want one, and may be cheaper to get one from here than booking before you get here. often i belive the cheap car hire is during the week i beliver there is somewhere in birmingham was offering £5 a day durring the week.