Day rangers/rovers

[FrostedOrange]

Sleepers will be where I spend most of my nights on my ALR, although I'll be on the cushions. Not spending all that money for a berth, I can sleep quite happily when tired enough on the cushions so that'll do me. I expect I'll be spending a lot of money on coffee, Pro Plus and energy drinks (most likely Emerge as it's only 30p a can at Asda) or any combination of that lot, but hey.

Oh, and welcome to the forum FrostedOrange

Thanks Techniquest Yeah we're not splashing out on berths either, except for perhaps the night we do London to Inverness. It'll be... Interesting!

 

[Techniquest]

I have to confess to laughing at the idea of wanting to do yourself in after a night on the benches at Holyhead! I can understand that though, it's terribly boring in Holyhead.

Admittedly, the grand plan does indeed feature the cushions all week long (well, except for Saturday night when there's no sleepers, so an all-nighter on FCC and Southern probably), however I am now considering your most valid point and booking a hostel for the night when up in Scotland on one of the nights. Problem is my ALR is not going to a tight plan, more of the style of "Day 1, South East. Day 2, Scotland. Day 3, Anglia/Essex" and so forth. There's no real definitive plan, except for remembering to avoid the restricted stations and TOCs, so booking accommodation is going to be tricky unless I solidify my plan a bit more.

Still, I won't know for sure I'm doing an ALR in August until payday on Friday. Once that's here, I'll see if they've sorted out my tax return. Otherwise I'll have to wait until the 29th of July to book the ALR, and by then I'm going to struggle to get any reservations on the Scottish sleepers!
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Thanks Techniquest Yeah we're not splashing out on berths either, except for perhaps the night we do London to Inverness. It'll be... Interesting!

Well I'll let you know how I get on and advise you further on whether it's a good idea after my ALR

 

[FrostedOrange]

Cheers for that Don't really want sleepless nights to ruin the ALR...

 

[Bedpan]

Admittedly, the grand plan does indeed feature the cushions all week long (well, except for Saturday night when there's no sleepers, so an all-nighter on FCC and Southern probably),

No overrnight serviceon FCC, or at least not the northern part of the Thameslink route , on Saturday nights (assuming you mean the early hours of Sunday morning). Ther last down train arrives at Bedford at 02.48, and then nothing back until 05.52. I've almost become a cropper on that one myself!!
If you were to travel after September 11, you could do train to Letchworth and then bus to Peterborough and back, which takes pretty well all night.
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Nobody's mentioned the East Anglai Day Ranger-I wasn't keen until I did it, and then found it was an excellent day out, better in many respects than the West Midlands one.

Route was Cambridge-Norwich, Norwich-Sheringham, Sheringham-Norwich, Norwich-Lowestoft, Lowestoft-Ipswich, Ipswich-Cambridge.

 

[Techniquest]

Ah right, I had been hoping for a good run up to Bedford and back on a 319 in the early hours of the Sunday morning (good thing you knew what I meant), looks like I'll have to settle for some 319s and 377s on the Brighton Main Line instead, unless I switch tactics and try a TPX all-nighter.

Thanks for pointing that out Bedpan, I'd have not known otherwise and been stuck in Bedford for a few hours rather than racking up the miles!

 

[flymo]

The best rover/ranger I've done recently was the 'Freedom of the North East' 7-day one. Cracking value at about £87 (its gone up since then) so just over a tenner a day. From Newcastle I got down as far as Retford, got to other places such as Sheffield, Huddersfield, Hull, Scarborough and across to Carlisle and many new lines to me in Yorkshire. The only thing I missed out on was the Cleethorpes and Barton on Humber lines as there were rail replacement buses on during the validity of the rover.

Still, excellent value though.

 

[island]

This has kind of gone beyond a ticketing question, hasn't it