Britrail pass 1:st class 3 days

[dtrain]

Hello all,

I am a tourist visiting friends in Bristol one week in April.
I have bought two 1st class britrail passes (England only) for 3 days for me and my girlfriend. We are going to use them Saturday 9:th April- Monday 11:th of April. I'm afraid we don't have any flexibility with the dates, since we've planned other activities in the suroundings of Bristol the other days.

Now to my question. We would like to see certain places and also enjoy good first class service (e.g. nice trains, lounges, food, drinks and nice seats). Since I've heard that the first class services could be non-existing on some routes (especially in the weekends) I would appreciate if someone wanted to give me some tips of nice routes.

The places we want to go too: Cornwall (Penzance?), Brighton, Oxford, Straftord-upon-Avon, Lake District (Oxenholme?) and Liverpool or Manchester.

We're aware of that we won't have that many hours to stay in each place...

Is there any night train services that we could use?

Also: feel free to recommend other must-see-places
Thanks all!

 

[bb21]

I'm gonna be short as i'm on my phone. If you go to Cornwall on Friday or Sunday then you can use the Night Riviera sleeper overnight to London. It's free for you in seated portion but a supplement is payable for a berth.

Also see if you can get an HST into Cornwall from Bristol. It's far more comfortable than a Vomiter.

 

[Mike395]

Hi there!

First of all, I just want to say you'll have a great 3 days - despite their bad press sometimes, British railways on the whole offer a really good service on Intercity routes

In terms of routing to see all the cities mentioned, I would suggest the following rough itinerary

Day 1:

Bristol-Penzance (I also recommend a stop in Exeter if you have time )
Sleeper Penzance-London Paddington .

Day 2:

London Victoria - Brighton
Brighton - London Victoria
London Euston - Oxenholme
Oxenholme - Liverpool/Manchester (IIRC a change at Crewe is required - could be wrong here as its not my end of the country )

Day 3:

Liverpool/Manchester - Stratford-upon-avon (Via Birmingham)
Stratford - Oxford
Oxford - Bristol (via London)

 

[mullin]

If you were going up to Oxenholme I'd recommend taking the train from there to Windermere and have a wander round the lake. Could even get a direct train from windermere into Manchester if you are lucky enough

 

[John @ home]

I would suggest the following rough itinerary

Day 1:

Bristol-Penzance (I also recommend a stop in Exeter if you have time )
Sleeper Penzance-London Paddington

That won't work because day 1 is a Saturday and there are no sleepers on Saturday nights.

 

[Mike395]

Whoops so it is....my mistake!

 

[dtrain]

Thanks!

The route suggestion sounds very good! I will definitely go for something like that . Will also do a little bit of reading about Exeter and maybe go for a stop there...

Can anyone recommend a particular nice train company for first class travel, or nice lounges?

 

[Mike395]

Best FC operators in my opinion are East Coast, Grand Central and Virgin Trains (FGW are supposedly very good as well, but never used them so cant comment)

There was a site created by a member here a while back which pointed out the FC facilities/reviewed each operator, but dont know if its still about (and cant remember who it was!)