Upcoming All Line Rover trip

[asidhubrar1]

Hi everyone! I’ve been reading these forums regularly over the last couple of years – usually in my tea break in the afternoon while working remotely… – but this is my first post/comment. Thanks for maintaining and contributing to this great community!

I’m going on an All Line Rover trip for a week and a half starting on Friday (16th) and just wrote about my plans on my blog. Thought I’d share this here in case it’s of interest, and, while I should really have asked earlier since I’ve already made an outline plan, in case you have any advice for places I should make sure to go! Blog post is here.

In short, my goals for the trip are:

• Mainly: just have a great time travelling around, and seeing interesting new places!
• Visit places I’ve not been to before and find interesting
• Get a good variety of cities vs. countryside
• Ideally: not too much going back on myself, so I’m mostly travelling on a new route each trip
• Try out a good number (maybe all?) of our tram and (non-National-Rail) metro systems

I was planning on about 5 hours per day on trains (though some days signifciantly more or less), as I'd like to have time to explore a good number of the places I visit, and not be too tired! I'll be staying away from home for the whole trip.

My current itinerary, which I planned in fair detail to be able to get a sense of what’s possible, but which I want to be flexible with and may depart from significantly:

• Day 0: Finish work in London, go down to Croydon to go on the trams, then Night Riviera to St Erth.
• Day 1: St Ives branch and back, down the Falmouth branch and back via the St Mawes ferry and bus to Truro, Gunnislake branch until Bere Alston then bus to Tavistock.
• Day 2: Tavistock to Okehampton on the bus, Exeter, Axminster, bus to Weymouth, then up the Heart of Wessex line a little bit before stopping for the night at Yetminster.
• Day 3: Yetminster to Bristol, Cardiff, Ebbw Vale, bus to Abergavenny, Wrexham, Bidston (Borderlands line), Liverpool (Merseyrail), to Manchester.
• Day 4: Exploring from Manchester, fairly short day for a rest. May go to Glossop/Hadfield, Blackpool or just ride around on Manchester Metrolink.
• Day 5: Manchester to Edinburgh, via Lancaster and the Settle and Carlisle line. Edinburgh trams.
• Day 6: Edinburgh to Hull, starting on the Borders Railway to Galashiels, then a bus to Berwick, then trains to Hull from there.
• Day 7: Hull to Middlesbrough via Scarborough and Whitby (bus between those two).
• Day 8: Middlesbrough to Haltwhistle via Newcastle, some exploring on the Tyne & Wear Metro, and possibly visiting Saltburn and/or Bishop Auckland.
• Day 9: rest day in Haltwhistle to unwind a little before my long journey home
• Day 10: Haltwhistle back home to Cambridge. Could go via the Cumbrian Coast line, or visit Blackpool, Sheffield and Nottingham so that I go on every British tram system!

More details in the blog post. I’m not planning to write regular updates here or on the blog during the trip itself, but I’ll post something afterwards.

Any comments or suggestions you have are welcome!

 

[Techniquest]

Welcome to the forum!

I haven't yet read your blog, I will get to it soon I am sure though. One thing I must say straight off is on that day you're taking it easy around Manchester, I do recommend the journey to Hadfield and Glossop. Nice and scenic, and my limited experience of Glossop is that it's a nice little northern town, definitely worth a look around for an hour or two, grab a cuppa and have a stroll kind of thing. Buxton's also a good shout for scenery, same for the Hope Valley. Trust me it'll be more fun than Blackpool! Quite, here's a potential idea for that day:

Starting in Manchester, do the line to Hadfield (no idea what's there) and on the way back do Glossop. After a leisurely stroll, head back into Manchester for lunch, then out to Buxton. I'd like to recommend Vegan Shack, pretty much right next to Piccadilly Gardens, and their excellent lunch menu, when I was last there they had some bargain meal deals on and you'll get some amazing food. Even if you just get their fries, you will love them, I honestly can't go on about those enough I think I have talked myself into a visit to Manchester! Anyway, from Buxton you could do the bus down to Matlock (TransPeak bus I seem to recall, not yet done it myself) and pick up the train from there, another nicely scenic branch line, and take that to Derby. Then either head over to Nottingham for the awesome NET tram network, noting that the city looks like a good place to spend a few hours exploring, or from Derby jump on a train to Sheffield and try out the Supertram. I haven't explored Sheffield properly yet, so it is on my list to do but I think you might enjoy that too. After the trams, whichever one you choose, then it's a pretty easy journey back to Manchester. It's a fairly full day all in, but one you'll be able to take it easy on and absorb lots of beautiful scenery.

 

[Ayman Ilham]

Sounds like a very action-packed itinerary smart that you're also using buses to traverse across gaps in the network to save backtracking; I'd have done the same thing! I love the idea of using every tram network as well! My suggestions are, since you're planning to get off the Night Riviera just a few miles before the end, you might as well visit Penzance first if you haven't been there already, given its an iconic terminus and lovely town. You can easily get back up to St Erth then St Ives. Also, when you're up in Scotland, try and fit in a Highland trip if you can such as Inverness and Fort William (bus between the two) and ride two really scenic lines between there and Central Scotland.

Welcome to the forum!

I haven't yet read your blog, I will get to it soon I am sure though. One thing I must say straight off is on that day you're taking it easy around Manchester, I do recommend the journey to Hadfield and Glossop. Nice and scenic, and my limited experience of Glossop is that it's a nice little northern town, definitely worth a look around for an hour or two, grab a cuppa and have a stroll kind of thing. Buxton's also a good shout for scenery, same for the Hope Valley. Trust me it'll be more fun than Blackpool! Quite, here's a potential idea for that day:

Starting in Manchester, do the line to Hadfield (no idea what's there) and on the way back do Glossop. After a leisurely stroll, head back into Manchester for lunch, then out to Buxton. I'd like to recommend Vegan Shack, pretty much right next to Piccadilly Gardens, and their excellent lunch menu, when I was last there they had some bargain meal deals on and you'll get some amazing food. Even if you just get their fries, you will love them, I honestly can't go on about those enough I think I have talked myself into a visit to Manchester! Anyway, from Buxton you could do the bus down to Matlock (TransPeak bus I seem to recall, not yet done it myself) and pick up the train from there, another nicely scenic branch line, and take that to Derby. Then either head over to Nottingham for the awesome NET tram network, noting that the city looks like a good place to spend a few hours exploring, or from Derby jump on a train to Sheffield and try out the Supertram. I haven't explored Sheffield properly yet, so it is on my list to do but I think you might enjoy that too. After the trams, whichever one you choose, then it's a pretty easy journey back to Manchester. It's a fairly full day all in, but one you'll be able to take it easy on and absorb lots of beautiful scenery.

As a Manchester local, I 100% agree! Train to Glossop, there's a lovely chippy in town (Glossop Fish Bar) and also a picturesque square outside the station, then a bus to Buxton (route 61 IIRC), explore the lovely crescent, train back to Manchester, hop over to Leeds or Liverpool for the fun of it if you have time. Alternatively, you can take that Glossop to Buxton bus to New Mills (half route) for a train to Sheffield and explore any of the intermediate stops en route if you wish; of course, New Mills itself is a nice little town to explore.

 

[Trackman]

You are like me, planning everything, but things tend to go pear shaped so have a contingency plan especially if you have hotels booked.
Not done an ALR (All line rover) for years, but will do in the future. Never done a 14 days one lie you are doing!
Good luck on the ALR and I will keep an eye on your blog.

 

[Flying Snail]

It would be so much cheaper to not use an ALR for that itinerary, over £800 im rail fares alone for that is crazy. A mix of some advances with walk-ups and local rovers would save you hundreds.

 

[Ayman Ilham]

It would be so much cheaper to not use an ALR for that itinerary, over £800 im rail fares alone for that is crazy. A mix of some advances with walk-ups and local rovers would save you hundreds.

Maybe the 7 day ALR might work out better given they're missing out loads of days with the 14 day one.

 

[asidhubrar1]

Thanks all! I like the ideas for trips from Manchester – already had Glossop/Hadfield as a probable, but hadn't considered Buxton or going through to Sheffield, Derby and Nottingham. I think Glossop and Buxton with the 61 bus between might be the option I go for that day, so I can also spend some time on Metrolink and still have it be a short day, but if I'm feeling energetic might well do the Matlock & Sheffield option. That 61 bus is a very nice connection between 3 scenic lines!

I'd like to recommend Vegan Shack, pretty much right next to Piccadilly Gardens

Ooh interesting, I will definitely try to go there! I'm half-vegan anyway (vegetarian and no eggs, but do eat milk/cheese) and always on the look out for fun options. Bit out of the way, but if you ever find yourself in Amsterdam, this place was amazing.

Sounds like a very action-packed itinerary smart that you're also using buses to traverse across gaps in the network to save backtracking; I'd have done the same thing! I love the idea of using every tram network as well! My suggestions are, since you're planning to get off the Night Riviera just a few miles before the end, you might as well visit Penzance first if you haven't been there already, given its an iconic terminus and lovely town. You can easily get back up to St Erth then St Ives. Also, when you're up in Scotland, try and fit in a Highland trip if you can such as Inverness and Fort William (bus between the two) and ride two really scenic lines between there and Central Scotland.

Thanks! Yeah maybe I will do Penzance – I've been to the town before but never the station, and completing the whole Riviera route is a nice idea!

I probably won't go to the Highlands on this trip, as I've done Glasgow-Inverness a couple of times before and most of the way up the Far North Line once. I would love to do the West Highland and Kyle of Lochalsh lines, and did consider them – thought about going up the West Highland, ferry to Skye, attempt to get across to Kyle somehow (ideally not taxi but buses looked difficult), then up to Inverness, across to Aberdeen and down that way. But I ended up deciding not to since, with them being fairly isolated, I'd end up spending a lot of time on them, so I thought for my All Line Rover better to stick to areas with a denser rail network. I'd like to do those lines sometime though – maybe I'll do a Scottish rover another year.

 

[asidhubrar1]

It would be so much cheaper to not use an ALR for that itinerary, over £800 im rail fares alone for that is crazy. A mix of some advances with walk-ups and local rovers would save you hundreds.

£540 with my 26-30 railcard but yeah. I suppose I'm sort of wanting the ALR for itself – the idea of being able to be totally spontaneous, and walk from train to train without thinking about new tickets for the day or being tied to particular times and so on, is really appealing. I think on individual tickets I'd often end up buying one then wishing I'd got something else soon afterwards! I drew up the plan as more of a "give me something to help book hotels and get a sense of what's possible", am hoping to be spontaneous and depart from it. My guess is it wouldn't end up that much cheaper on individual tickets and rovers, especially if I went for mostly flexible tickets rather than advances; but I haven't calculated it so maybe it is a lot less.

You are like me, planning everything, but things tend to go pear shaped so have a contingency plan especially if you have hotels booked.
Not done an ALR (All line rover) for years, but will do in the future. Never done a 14 days one lie you are doing!
Good luck on the ALR and I will keep an eye on your blog.

Haha thanks. Yeah I've gone for hotels/Airbnbs that are cancellable on short notice wherever possible, and mostly planning to finish travelling for the day around dinnertime, so if things go wrong on the same day I can hopefully still get there just later into the night. I'm thinking of my plan as mostly something I don't need to stick to, but now that I have one it's hard not to get attached to the nice bits of the plan! Still, I think I'll probably depart from it by choice at least a few times, plus there's distruption of course.

 

[Snapper37]

Plus one for going onto Penzance and then coming back out, if got no better reason than using the showers. No west highland line? Always was a highlight for me was sleeper to Fort William - Mallaig - Skye - Inverness, then the sleepers south.