Don’t you all love those security lines at the airport? While we will all being doing some serious hiking once we get to the coast, first we have to get to the coast and for most of us that means flying. My understanding is that international fights are generally the cheapest around 4-6 months before the trip so I’m probably going to by a ticket in the next few months.
My current plan is to make my flights easy (meaning direct for me since there are lots of flights from Boston->Heathrow) so that means just flying into Heathrow airport in London and taking train/bus from there. So with that in mind I asked Google maps for public transportation from Heathrow to St Bees and it said 11.5 hours!. I then found if I first go to Euston Bus Station in London and then take a train to St Bees the total trip is 8.5 hours (Google you failed me). Driving this would take about 5.5 hours (making driving an option to save time). I also ask for public transit from Robin Hood’s Bay (end point) to Heathrow. That takes about 5 hours and driving is just slightly less at 4.5 hours (I’ll just take the train in this case).
We’re on the trail from June 6 – June 22. This means I will plan on getting to St Bees June 5th. The options I have are a red eye to get me to Heathrow around 9am June 5th and then go to St Bees. Or I can arrive in London June 4th around 8pm, sleep, and then go to St Bees. I’m probably leaning towards a red eye to get to Heathrow around 9am on June 5th and then the train to St Bees to get me there in the early evening, but if others prefer a car I’d be fine renting a car for a small group to do a road trip on this leg. The trip back is easier. I will just catch the train from Robin Hood’s Bay to Heathrow on the morning of June 23 and then catch a flight back to Boston in the afternoon.
What do others planning? Anyone want to collaborate on travel?
I don’t know whether to book a flight now to London from the east coast, or if I should wait to find out if I’ll be in California that week… I guess I’ll start keeping an eye on flights and see how long I can hold off.
In any case, I intend to take trains in and out of London. They’re fairly inexpensive and a nice relaxing way to see the countryside. (It’s not a long taxi ride to get from RHB to the nearest train station.) But I could be convinced of anything at this point!
I was thinking of getting a connecting flight up to Manchester or possibly flying direct to there. The train from there would only be 4 hours or so, and if there are enough of us interested we could investigate hiring a minibus to drop off us.
I booked my flights. I will be arriving in LHR at 9:15am on June 5th. I will be leaving from LHR at 5:25pm on June 23rd.
Will probably take trains unless others convince me to do something else. Ya!!
Still need to book a room in St Bees and Robin Hood’s Bay on the first/last day, but that can wait.
Moe, all 17 nights are covered, including first (St Bees on Friday June 5) and last (Robin Hood’s Bay on Sunday June 21)! Sounds like you just need a spot on Monday night somewhere in the vicinity of London…
Awesome! I’m arriving on June 5th in the morning (got to love those red eye flights) so I don’t think I’ll need any extra hotels.
What about the night of Monday June 22? You said you weren’t flying home until the evening of Tuesday June 23, right?
I probably need something then. And I’d probably do it in London like you mentioned.
Could you post or email us the full itinerary? You posted that nice map, but it would be nice to have the places we are staying.
I emailed the Google Maps link to all the walkers at the same time I posted the map to the blog. More than just a pretty picture, you can click on any of the dots to get all the details about each place!