A cheap way to get from York to Cornwall

[daniel3982]

Travelling down to Cornwall to meet my family for a holiday in July and have been taken aback by how much the fare might be so trying to figure out the cheapest way to get there.

Reckon it'll be around £60 each way using a combination of advance fares via AXC or EC & FGW but would need to book pretty sharpish.

However had a look on Megatrain & it seems if you book the furthest away weekend you can at the moment (26th May) it's only £10 from London to Exeter! Had a look at booking later on the same day from Exeter to Penzance & it's only £6 even though it's another 3 hours!

If I booked York to London as soon as it comes out that's about £15, add a couple of quid for the tube journey and that makes York to Penzance for £33 each way... If I got the megaplus bus-train down from York to London for £1 the whole thing could be £19!

That has the cheapest way to get to Cornwall, unless anyone can think of any better!

Only thing is it's a bit of a risk for me as the fares obviously don't get released until a lot later which means that if anything went wrong or they stop doing them, I'd be paying a lot more by then.

What is the Waterloo - Exeter journey like?

 

[Oscar]

The cheapest Advance Purchase ticket from York - London is £10.25. There is also an Advance Purchase ticket for £13 which often seems to be around for longer.

 

[daniel3982]

Even better... Would need to be travelling down to London on a Friday night though, just checked for the last possible Friday to book on the engine & it says £14.60 so don't know if they put the price up on Friday evenings or if the cheapest tickets just get snapped up that quick!

 

[142094]

Prices will be the same regardless of the day for advances, but Friday night is one of the most popular times to travel which is why the cheapest advances sell out more quickly.

 

[MikeWh]

The cheapest Advance Purchase ticket from York - London is £10.25. There is also an Advance Purchase ticket for £13 which often seems to be around for longer.

Even better... Would need to be travelling down to London on a Friday night though, just checked for the last possible Friday to book on the engine & it says £14.60 so don't know if they put the price up on Friday evenings or if the cheapest tickets just get snapped up that quick!

You need to buy EC advance tickets on the EC website to get the cheapest prices. They discount their own advances by about 10%. The £14.60 becomes £13 when booked on eastcoast.co.uk.

 

[TEW]

It is worth looking at London-Penzance through Advance Purchase tickets with FGW all the way, they start from £15 each way, although availability varies quite a bit depending on when you travel. It can still be cheaper than using SWT trains to Exeter sometimes though. Looking now travelling on the 4th July there are fares for £15 from London to Penzance on trains at 13:06 and 17:03.

 

[daniel3982]

It is worth looking at London-Penzance through Advance Purchase tickets with FGW all the way, they start from £15 each way, although availability varies quite a bit depending on when you travel. It can still be cheaper than using SWT trains to Exeter sometimes though. Looking now travelling on the 4th July there are fares for £15 from London to Penzance on trains at 13:06 and 17:03.

Cheers, couldn't see any cheap ones on the Saturday before we're travelling (the 14th) but will keep an eye out and see if we can nab one of these £15 tickets.

 

[4SRKT]

Whatever the cheapest option turns out to be, it sure won't involve Cross Country!

 

[extendedpaul]

Megabus/megatrain are often very late in putting tickets on sale but there is at least one £1 seat on most services. For example, week commencing 14th May has only recently been added and the £1 price from York to London is still available for Tuesday 15th.

You just have to keep checking - last year they added almost two months worth in one go. There are usually plenty of £5 tickets if you miss the £1 ones.

 

[daniel3982]

Yep been having a look at splitting in numerous ways but none that work. The cheapest fare finder says you can get from York to PNZ for £28 but doesn't show a single journey in that price range on any date!

 

[dave87016]

If you have a railcard then York - Exeter/Plymouth or Penzance ( depends where your going) via London can sometimes throw up cheap tickets I did the same going from Hebden Bridge to Paignton via London