Need help with England Shows. Travel Wise

lanexang188

Hi,
Heading from Boston to England shows. Traveling with family of four. I have to 2 tickets only from 10c. I was planning to fly into Leeds and eventually make my way to Milton Keynes and then finally London. My wife mainly wants to see London. Should I just stay in London during entire stay meaning I would have to find transportation to both shows from London. Any help would be appreciated.

Thanks,

Dayle

dottles

Accommodation in both Leeds and Milton Keynes are at a premium now, but London is always at a premium!!
I wouldn't recommend London to Leeds/vice versa - you'd be unlikely to be able to get back after the gig by train that's for sure. Milton Keynes is doable and they will run special/additional trains back to London from the nearest train station.
You may pay extra to fly into Leeds, maybe check Manchester as it is only an hour or so by train. It might also be somewhere preferable to Leeds for your wife?

ldent42

I've never been to England, but this is what I'm doing:
train to Leeds from London day before the show, staying at a hotel which is less than a mile from the hotel, which should be about a 20 minute walk. I'm spending the day after in Leeds as well, might take a day trip to York if there's nothing else to do. Then the day before the Milton Keynes show I'm taking the train back down to London where I have a hotel booked a few blocks away from the Euston Station. That way I won't have to deal with the tube after the MK show, just the train back to London.

Unless you are ok with spending a 300+ GBP per night you are unlikely to get a hotel in MK right now.

lanexang188

thanks for the help.
dottlles: I might take your suggestion of staying in Manchester. Could I get a train to and from concert easily? Are there more attractions and sights to see in Manchester versus Leeds? As this is our first time in England, I am trying to make it fun for my wife and son. They are going along for the sightseeing tour and not the actual concerts. After Leeds show.. I think I would be able to stay in London for the duration of the trip. From London, is it easy to get to MK and back?? Once again I really appreciate the help.

dottles

Hiya,
I'd check the National Rail site for the trains to and from Leeds/Manchester - unfortunately I'm the other side of the country so don't know the exact times but I would think for sure there will be trains until midnight or so http://www.nationalrail.co.uk/
The Visit Manchester site might help with the things to do in Manchester, it certainly has decent shopping, some museums, attractions etc especially if your son likes football (soccer). This will be in or nearly in the school holidays so there will be stuff around for children I should think. There is also some nearby places such as Liverpool and Chester which are easy to reach and good places to visit. http://www.visitmanchester.com/
Yes, I expect there will be extra trains from MK to London so it is easy as it is a direct train to a central London station.

defsteve

Leeds as a city is nicer than Manchester but it depends what you want out of your trip.

It also depends how much flights are for you to fly into Leeds, Manchester or one of the main London airports (Heathrow or Gatwick)

If I was doing the same trip I would do it as follows :

1. Fly into Leeds before Arena show (Sunday?)
2. Stay in Leeds Sunday, Monday and Tuesday
3. Train to Liverpool from Leeds on Wednesday. Stay 1 night
4. Train to London on Thursday. Stay in London
5. Train to Milton Keynes Friday morning
6. Hotel Milton Keynes Friday night
7. Train to London Saturday.
8. Fly from home Heathrow whenever

But it all depends on your budget, where you fancy staying, what you want to do, when you are arriving and leaving, etc, etc.

We are travelling to USA in May. Flying into Columbus, hitting Rock on the Range and Rocklahoma before doing Route 66 from Oklahoma across to Los Angeles. Bit of an adventure. Your trip is similar in that you are doing something for the first time. Enjoy yourselves!

defsteve

Also check the following sites for hotels in Milton Keynes

www.hotels.com
www.expedia.co.uk
www.lastminute.com
www.ebookers.com

Plenty of hotels within a 6-10 mile radius of National Bowl for less than £150 a night. Be sure to check several sites as hotels are sometimes cheaper on one site than another for the same hotel/night. Also, sign up to the email lists for the above as they are always sending out 10-20% off vouchers for hotels.

defsteve

But if your wife wants to mainly stay in London.......

Fly into Heathrow or Gatwick
Stay in London
Train to Leeds the day before the Arena show. 2 nights in Leeds
Train back to London on Wednesday 9th.
Train from London to Milton Keynes. Stay 1 night
Train back to London on the Saturday.
Heathrow or Gatwick

Just did a quick check on skyscanner.net for flights

All the same dates (Boston Logan to UK Saturday 5th July. Returning Monday 14th July)

Boston - London. Cheapest is approx £639 ($1056)
Boston - Leeds (via London). Cheapest is approx £800 ($1323)
Boston - Manchester (via Dublin). Cheapest is approx £700 ($1157)

You can get cheap train from London - Leeds (takes approx 2.5 hrs with 1 change) booking EXACTLY 12 weeks in advance (to the day) from either thetrainline.co.uk or www.virgintrains.com.

If booking via virgintrains they do a discount for booking more than 3 on the same journey. LInk here : http://www.virgintrains.co.uk/tickets-offers/group-travel/

Sorry if this is too much at once. Haha!

lanexang188

Defsteve: thank you so much for the input. Just reading it now... And you're right...information overload. But i really appreciate the help from a fellow PJ fan. I am use to going to shows with my brother.. He is along for the trip also. So if it was just two of us, it would me easy. Two BIG PJ fans in England for two shows...anything goes! But as I wanted to bring my wife and son to see England. This trip has to be modified to accommodate family. Looking at all options. Thanks for the help.

moretonbayfig

Ianexang, I'm also flying to UK with a family of 5 for the Leeds and MK shows. We are flying into London on the 7th and jumping onto train to Leeds for a 2 night stay. Then a few nights in London and taking train up to MK and back on the day. We're also planning to take the kids to Legoland Windsor. Not sure if this helps, but we worked out that this would be the best for our situation

rw160510

if you are planning on going to legoland make sure you pick up a 2 for 1 offer from somewhere when you get over here. Kelloggs cereals were giving them away on their packaging recently. It's £48ish per adult so well worth searching out. Take a packed lunch too if you can. It's loads of fun tho, who doesn't like Lego star wars models?

moretonbayfig

rw160510 said:

if you are planning on going to legoland make sure you pick up a 2 for 1 offer from somewhere when you get over here. Kelloggs cereals were giving them away on their packaging recently. It's £48ish per adult so well worth searching out. Take a packed lunch too if you can. It's loads of fun tho, who doesn't like Lego star wars models?

Cool. Thanks for the tip. My sister lives in London, I'll ask her to keep an eye out for me

lanexang188

thanks for all the help.

decided to do this...any input would be also greatly appreciated
sat 5th fly Boston to Liverpool.
sun 6th stay in Liverpool.
mon 7th stay in Manchester
tue 8th Leeds
wed 9th train to London
thu 10th London
fri 11th take coach bus from London to MK and back. Big Green Coach I guess..
sat 12th enjoy last day in London
sun 13th fly back to Boston

this is taking into account that I can find accommodations in each city.

sound like a decent plan??

Brotherjohnno9

Just jumping in here cause i can probably help with Liverpool as that's where i live. It should be easy to find good quality cheap accommodation. The city is one of the biggest tourist destinations in the UK at the moment and there's lots to see and do. Let me know what sort of hotel you want and i'll make some recommendations. I'm sure staying in Manchester will be the same. Travel between all of those northern cities should be really easy and journey times very short.
While in Liverpool you'll want to see the Beatles sites I guess? Let me know what interests you and i can make some recommendations there too.

eddiec

lanexang188 said:

thanks for all the help.

decided to do this...any input would be also greatly appreciated
sat 5th fly Boston to Liverpool.
sun 6th stay in Liverpool.
mon 7th stay in Manchester
tue 8th Leeds
wed 9th train to London
thu 10th London
fri 11th take coach bus from London to MK and back. Big Green Coach I guess..
sat 12th enjoy last day in London
sun 13th fly back to Boston

this is taking into account that I can find accommodations in each city.

sound like a decent plan??

Check in 6th, check out 7th, check in 7th, check out 8th, check in 8th, check out 9th- That is a lot of checkin in and checkin out in 4 days, especially after an overseas flight. By the time the concert rolls around you'll be wrecked. I would suggest skipping Manchester and staying in Liverpool for 2 nights. This way you can rest up a bit and not have to worry about getting to another city the day after you arrive. Then on the 8th you can catch the train to Leeds, probably only an hour longer from Liverpool than Manchester.

bmulvany

eddiec said:

lanexang188 said:

thanks for all the help.

decided to do this...any input would be also greatly appreciated
sat 5th fly Boston to Liverpool.
sun 6th stay in Liverpool.
mon 7th stay in Manchester
tue 8th Leeds
wed 9th train to London
thu 10th London
fri 11th take coach bus from London to MK and back. Big Green Coach I guess..
sat 12th enjoy last day in London
sun 13th fly back to Boston

this is taking into account that I can find accommodations in each city.

sound like a decent plan??

Check in 6th, check out 7th, check in 7th, check out 8th, check in 8th, check out 9th- That is a lot of checkin in and checkin out in 4 days, especially after an overseas flight. By the time the concert rolls around you'll be wrecked. I would suggest skipping Manchester and staying in Liverpool for 2 nights. This way you can rest up a bit and not have to worry about getting to another city the day after you arrive. Then on the 8th you can catch the train to Leeds, probably only an hour longer from Liverpool than Manchester.

Yes I agree it could be better to just go to either Liverpool or Manchester

Another option depending on which city you want to go to most is to get a bus from Liverpool airport direct to Manchester city center. It only takes an hour or less and is not very expensive. It leaves every hour from just outside the main door.

http://www.terravision.eu/liverpool_manchester.html

Brynglas

Hi lanexang188 ,If you do end up travelling to and/ or staying in Manchester, I can help. I live close to the airport and am going to the Leeds show.(Leeds is an easy drive from Manchester.). If you need help in arranging accomodation etc. I can probably also assist.
There is plenty you can do and see in Manchester. particularly iif you're music fans!

lanexang188

hi
flight is booked. boston to manchester on july 6th. only thing that is solid is july 9th-12th in London. other than that no clue what to do. what should i do from landing in Manchester to the Leeds concert? stay in manchester all those days and travel up to Leeds day of show? any help would be appreciated.

thanks all