ALR:-- How hard is it deciding what to do?

[Mike99]

Hi,
I'm thinking of doing my next ALR in early spring next year, probably late March time, and I'm facing the same old problem, what to do!.................
1, Mileage, yep thats a possibility, thumping up the West Coast and East Coast Mainlines,
2, Scotland........ yep thats an option, got some southern surburban routes out of Glasgow to do to complete all passenger routes in Scotland,
3, Few odd branches to complete............yep thats a good idea, Whitby and Bleanau Festiniog, Morecambe to Heysham but they use up a lot of time;
and then......
Sleepers for overnights or B&B's or to go home each day but I live on the South Coast so uses up valuable time......... and so it goes on...

It's just so complicated (tongue in cheek), you'd think planning a ALR was easy.... what do you all think or prefer to do on an ALR?

I've done 7 day and 14 days ALR's, but I'm not sure I have the energy for a 14 day bash or have I!!

Regards
Mike

 

[Techniquest]

I find it more fun to have plenty of flexibility in ALRs, otherwise you lose the best bit of one, almost unlimited travel for a week or two! I think my trip reports from my 2011 and 2012 ALRs will show how much I used this approach.

It does take some deciding what to do, agreed. I had to do that to a degree to know where to book some of my hotels and sleeper train journeys, took some doing to figure everything out!

 

[FQ]

Maybe a combination of all of them, Fareham-London-Edinburgh-Glasgow-London-Night Riviera could be done in a day. The next you could head up to north Wales, maybe by going Penzance-Bristol-Cardiff-Llandudno and then to Blaenau Ffestiniog and back for a B and B/Hotel. Then you could head to Lancaster to get to Heysham and back before heading over to the North East, maybe to Darlington to do Whitby the next day.

You don't have to do what I suggested but you might want to do something like it to tie in what yo said above.

 

[Bevan Price]

Sleepers OK - if you can get enough sleep in a moving train. If you get disturbed sleep, you are liable to doze off for a while in the following day or two, and will miss seeing parts of your journey.

B&B - better than sleepers in my opinion, if you can afford. Lower costs tend to be in seaside resorts and medium-size towns rather than big cities. Out of the main tourist season, you probably won't even need to book in advance.

Home for the night - the cheapest option, and (subject to restrictive hours of availability), you can cover much of England (South/Midlands) & South Wales and get home the same night.

For Scotland, I would suggest B&B in somewhere like Ayr, Stirling or Perth. For Northern England / North Wales, somewhere like Blackpool, Scarborough, Morecambe, Rhyl or Llandudno should have good B&B availability in March (provided it is not Easter Week).

 

[Mike99]

I hadn't thought about Easter!! must double check

 

[Kite159]

Easter weekend falls quite early in April next year, 3rd to 6th April.

School holidays will no-doubt vary between having the weekend in the middle of the 2 weeks to having the weekend at the start of the 2 weeks off.

 

[Mike99]

Luckily I sleep very well on the Scotland sleeper, I've boarded a few times at Crewe and been fast asleep to almost Aberdeen, Crianlarich and Inverness