Hey, it's Kia. Traveling around the UK can sometimes cost more than hopping on a plane. From season tickets to split fares to buses and car sharing, there can be big differences in prices and it can be easy to overspend. Welcome to another episode of A Little Bit Richer, brought
to you by my friends at Legal &; General. Here with plenty of tips and tricks for traveling around the UK is travel expert, friend of the show, and the woman behind the travel blog and Instagram Big World Small Pockets, Steph Parker. Welcome back, Steph.
Hi. Thanks so much for having me on again.
I mean, you are incredible, and I'm really excited. As we spoke about before, I love traveling. So do you. Your Instagram shows us everywhere that you've gotten. But I think it's good... We've spoken about traveling abroad. Now we're going to talk about the UK because there are some great gems that you can get just staying in the UK. So we're going to get into all of that
on this episode. So I'm going to ask you, what are some of the best ways to buy train tickets?
Well, you're absolutely right when you say train travel can be expensive. I've got a little stat up my sleeve, which is tickets in the UK have increased by 40% since 2010, which is absolutely crazy and is why getting a good deal is so important. So the overarching top tip for train travel when you're buying tickets in the
UK is getting an advanced ticket. Actually, advanced tickets can still be bought on the same day as the train, sometimes up to two hours before departure. So the key thing is really, even if you've left it till the last minute, do check online. Never buy a ticket at a station. It'll always be more expensive. So yeah, check online. You may still be able to get an advanced
even the day of travel. However, obviously booking further ahead is going to get you a better price, right? I generally say around 12 weeks before you travel, and that's a good way to balance knowing that your plans are in place versus getting a cheap ticket because when you get these advanced tickets, they're not often refundable or flexible. So if your
plans change, you're then going to lose money. So it's that kind of balance between booking far enough ahead to know what your plans are, but also get a good deal. If you want to be very meticulous, you can go onto Network Rail and see when the timetables on
tickets will be released for your journey. And then you can go to a site like Trainline and get a ticket alert, so it'll send you an email when they become available, so you know you're getting the first tickets available, which are generally the cheapest ones. Rule of thumb, singles are quite often cheaper than returns in the UK, which-
Oh, good to know.
Yeah, it defies logic in a way, but always look for two singles versus a return, and always try to travel after 9: 30 AM, particularly Monday to Friday. You're going to get your off- peak fares then much more economical. And a bit like planes, sometimes midweek, traveling say lunchtime on a Tuesday or a Wednesday, is going to get you a better rate as well. When it comes
to actually booking, there's three online... Particularly, there's three kind of ways that you can do it. So the first is third- party comparison sites, sites like Trainline, Split My Fare, redspottedhanky. And these are third- party companies that bring together all the train routes. Really good for comparing different prices, for finding you split fares. But they do sometimes have
booking fees, so that's something to be aware of. The second option is to go with a train company themselves, like LNER or Avanti. And they sell tickets not only for their own route but for other train companies as well. So again, you can do price comparison. They're not always so great at finding split fairs, but they don't have booking fees. So yeah, you hedge your bets-
The way up, yeah.
Yeah. And the third one is to go direct to the train company that you're going to be taking the journey with. And they often run special offers, but again, they're not a comparison site. So essentially, shop around-
Shop around.
... between all of those three ways. And remember that you booked your train ticket with the company doing the route. So if you want to change or perhaps you need to get a refund because it was late or canceled... And yeah, really important to remember when you're booking train tickets that your ticket is only valid with the
operator that you've booked that for. So if later down the line you want to get a different journey that's run by a different operator, even if it is on the same route, you can't swap them out. So yeah, your ticket is only valid with the operator that you've booked for, so make sure you book for one that you need or is going to be useful for you
because you can't really chop and change between them. But trains never fill up, so you can technically buy a ticket till the last minute. And if you're taking a bike on a train, it is free to do that, but you need to reserve when you buy the ticket as well because there's only three to six spaces.
Yeah, there aren't very many spaces on trains. And I've seen people come on, and it really takes up the space if they haven't pre- booked and now you've got these big bikes on the train.
Yeah, exactly. So you need to reserve your bike in early because the spaces are limited.
That's really good, and I like the fact that you mentioned that some providers run their own special offers. I live in Ipswich, so quite often I have to come to London, and they actually run a special offer, which I didn't realize until I went onto the provider's website, that if you travel... I think it's after half two, you
can get this special ticket called Night Out in London. It's 16 pounds 50, and you can come down to London, and as long as you come back the next day before midday, 16 pounds 50. So it's meant to encourage people who live on that route to come into London, have fun, and then come back the next day.
Love that. I mean, I didn't know that. So we learn something every day. (inaudible) giving me the tips here. I love that. But yeah, exactly, that's what I mean about it pays to do your research, shop around. And there are some train operators like Lumo and Grand Central that are cheaper than others as well, so you can tend to look for those companies again or other offers that operators might be running to grab a deal.
Yeah, it's really useful. You touched on it a little bit there, so refunds. So I want to paint a scenario because I know everyone's experienced this. I definitely have the way I travel. You have a train ticket, right? You're going to go for your train. You get to the platform. If you're in my case, I've been to the platform and it's either been delayed severely or canceled.
If you're in that situation, should you try and get your money back or should you just write it off and say, " It is what it is, and let's just move on"?
Always try to get your money back. Again, it depends operator to operator. So it's a great reason to book direct, but then also check the Ts and Cs because sometimes even if you're only half an hour delayed, you can get some money back. And sometimes if it's delayed over an hour or canceled altogether, you can get a full
refund. And if you spent quite a lot of money because you've got a long distance train journey, then it's absolutely worth doing the research to make sure you get the correct amount of money back.
I love that. We're all about making sure we're saving those pennies around here and saving those coins.
100%.
So if anything's delayed or canceled, we're going to take your advice and make sure we get our refunds.
Do it.
If someone's traveling further afield, right, this is their staycation in the UK, they're going away and having their time. Sometimes you want to do it in luxury. You want to go in first class, but that can be pricey. I've looked at some of those prices, and they can be eye watering. But I know you are the woman to give us the tips. So do you have any hacks that we need to know when it comes to seat upgrades?
I've got a sneaky hack.
Oh, I knew you did. I knew you had one in your back pocket. Go on, Steph.
It's with a great app that I actually just recently discovered called Seatfrog. And what they allow you to do is bid for first class.
Wow.
So it runs on an auction basis, and you can get an upgrade for as little as eight pounds.
Eight pounds?
So that can be a real bargain, especially if you're on a long- distance train because first class you also get food and drinks.
I experienced that once, and I never forgot that.
So the eight pounds alone can pay for that-
That's crazy.
... stop you growing a sandwich on the way. So that can be really good. They also have some other quirky features like secret fares and train swaps, particularly on trains in the north, like with TransPennine Express. They've got relationship with several operators, so they're doing some really exciting things to help keep prices low.
Eight pounds, that is wow. I'm definitely going to have a look at Seatfrog now because-
If you're going up to Glasgow or somewhere from London- ... that's four or five hours, it's a no- brainer.
It's long distance. Thanks to you, Steph. So thank you for that. You mentioned again earlier as well about ticket splitting. And I've been on platforms when I'm coming to buy tickets, and there is this fair split thing, but I think a lot of people don't really understand what that means. So can you explain to us what is ticket splitting?
So in essence, instead of buying one long ticket for a train journey, you split it into two parts. It might even be three parts. So let's do a practical example. If you're traveling from London to Edinburgh, instead of buying a ticket from London to Edinburgh, you buy a ticket from London
to York and then from York to Edinburgh. Now what you do is you stay on exactly the same train, you even stay in the same seat, but you've just split the journey into two parts. It's a weird part of our train system in the UK where going through certain train stations lowers the prices. And you can save
a huge amount with split fares. However, obviously it's going to take a lot of research that nobody's got the time for to do, which is why these comparison sites are so helpful because they do it for you. So Split my Fair, Trainline, redspottedhanky. There's loads of others. They do it for you. And because it's quite complicated, they
don't always give you the same split fair. So again, it's worth shopping round because some have cheaper than others. Some charge a booking fee, so bear that in mind. And then you can either book through them direct or you can go with a train operator. So take the split research from the comparison site and go direct-
And go and do direct.
... to save a little bit more.
And then Railcards, right? So I've had a Railcard for a little while. But for anyone who doesn't know how rail cards work, what's the benefit of having a rail card if you can get one?
By and large, it's about a third off train travel, which normally they cost around 30 pounds a year, and you usually make that back in two to three journeys. So if you travel at all by train, it's basically worth doing. There's nine different ones in the UK, but there's four that I think are most relevant. That's the young person's Railcard, which is 18 to 25. Then there's another
one that's if you're age 26 to 30. There's another one called the Network Railcard that is great if you live in London or the Southeast because it's a geographically targeted one. And the other one is Two Together. So if you've got a partner or friend that you go away with a lot, that's great because you travel on the same
train together and you both get a third off. They normally last a year, the Railcards and they can be loaded digitally onto your phone, so it's really hassle- free. A few different companies sell them, Network Rail, Trip. com, Trainline. So what I recommend doing if you haven't got one already, is signing up to the email alerts on these companies because they often run deals to get them.
So then you're saving even more. And if it's an age- related rail card, like the young persons or the 26 to 30, sneaky tip, if you renew it the day before say your 26 or you're 31, you can actually get an extra year so you can get it almost till you're 27 or 32 respectively, if that makes sense for those different cards.
That's good to know. Season tickets. So I want to ask you, how do you choose the right season ticket for you and what your needs are?
Great question. Let's be really clear, season tickets apply to train travel only because they get confusing with travel cars. And so it's train travel, and there's a few different types. Generally there's a weekly one, a monthly one, a flexible,
and an annual. You've got to run the specifics on how many times a week you're traveling and whether you're traveling on- peak because if you are traveling say a lot for work on- peak, a season card is more likely to be valuable for you. But if you're only doing one day a week, it can often be better
just to buy a daily ticket. If you're doing two days a week travel, you might want to look at the flexible season card, which is eight days travel out of 28, so that might work out better if you're traveling two days a week. If you're doing three or more, you might want to look at a monthly or annual option. There's other benefits for getting an annual one.
You can access then something called the Gold Card, which then gives you money off travel in London as well. But you really need to work out the specifics. And actually Money Saving Expert have a great online calculator that you can use to work out if the season card is going to be worthwhile, because it depends which part of the country you live in, at what times you travel.
It's just working out what's best for your situation. That's good to keep in mind. Traveling by coach is one of my favorite ways to get around the country because it's just so scenic and so peaceful. And like I said, you're not behind the wheel. You can relax and take the load off. Can you give us some tips then that we need to know when it comes to traveling this way?
I think coach travel can get a bad name in the UK because people think it's long and it takes forever. Actually, on some routes it's not much longer than the train and it can be much, much cheaper. Normally, I book coach travel when I'm booking my train quite late in the day, bit disorganized, and I look at the prices and think, " Oh my goodness, there's no way
I can afford to pay that." And we'll look at a comparative journey, say with National Express, and it's usually under 50% of the costs. London to Bristol is a classic one that I do on National Express a lot. Got good friends in Bristol, so I go that way quite a bit from the capitol. And trains are astronomical.
But the National Express, because the route is almost all on motorway, it takes... I think it's only something like half an hour longer than the train, and it's a fraction of the cost. So yeah, so do check the routes with National Express. You can book through their website or app directly. And if you sign up to a free account then you don't have to pay a booking
fee for the coach tickets, which is good. And they do also do a young person's coach card that gives you a third off National Express coach travel as well. I think it's 18 to 25. And yes, you can save even more. And some of them are double- deckers. So if you get top seat at the front, you kick back.
Those are cool. I'm like a child looking out the window and thinking, "Oh my gosh, where are we going now?" It's great. I absolutely love it if you didn't get that already. Most people in big cities, for example, like London, they don't have a car because it's not maybe necessary. Like I said, we've got great transport links. But sometimes it can be crucial to have a car. And I know car sharing has become
very popular. What is car sharing, and can you explain a little bit more about how it works?
Three types of car sharing, and they are great if you live in an urban environment, particularly London, where, as you say, owning a car, parking, it's just so expensive. So yeah, three different ways of car sharing. The first is where you literally share a car on a journey with somebody, somebody that you don't know. And that's a
kind of community. There's a whole website called Liftshare where you can sign up, and people are reviewed, so there's a safety aspect as well. But yeah, if you want to get somewhere, and you don't want to take public transport, that can be a great option. The second type of car sharing is a bit like Airbnb for cars. So people let other people, strangers, use their cars for journeys.
Oh, wow.
So you can rent them like an Airbnb. There's a great website called Turo, T- U- R- O, particularly great for London. So if you want to go away with mates for the weekend, you want to hire a car, you can do that by hiring somebody else's car. And again, there's a review system and a safety thing all
involved. And the third option is when you use something like Zipcar, or there's other competitors, DriveNow, Enterprise Car Club. You share a car that's owned by a company with
other people. And they're parked on the street around London, and you can use them to either just take shorter journeys, or if you need to move a house or get some furniture that you saw off Facebook Marketplace or anything, go to Ikea, whatever, that's a great option for shorter journeys in London.
It's good to know there are options aside from owning your own car to actually still enjoy the benefits of what a car can bring you, but at a fraction of the price. You've given so many incredible tips, Steph, but what are your three top tips for everyone listening when it comes to traveling smarter?
First tip is if you are doing a longer UK trip, and you want to hire a car and you live in a city, don't hire it directly from the city center. Always go out to the nearest airport and hire it there. A, there's a lot more competition, so you're going to get a better rate, but you don't have to fight through the city traffic, worry about any
low emission zones. You just get it from the airport, and then you're straight on the motorway to wherever you need to go. And then if you're visiting other cities, don't park in them. Look if they've got a park and ride scheme because they're a lot more affordable. Tip number two is... It's a classic, but it's always take your own food because either the facilities are bad or
they're generally overpriced. So yeah, bring your pack lunch old school and save that way. And the third one is if you're traveling by rail to a major attraction in England, it could be there's cities included in the scheme like London, Edinburgh and Manchester, say Kew Gardens, the London Eye, there's loads of options. You can sometimes get two- for- one entry tickets to these attractions by showing that you've
traveled there by rail. I think it's called Day Out Tickets 2FOR1. It's a whole scheme.
Wow.
So there's a website, and then you register which attraction you are going to go and visit and on what day. And then when you get there to buy your tickets, you can see you've already registered, you show them your train tickets, and you can get two- for- one entry-
That's so good to know.
... which can be a great saver. Sneaky sideways tip if you're not traveling there by train because you perhaps need to drive there, you can still buy a train ticket for the last journey to the attraction-
(inaudible) . We love a good tip from you, Steph. We do.
And then you can still show that and get your 2FOR1 in. So yeah, if you're looking for a great day out in the UK, that can also be a super saver as well.
Amazing. Steph, this has been incredible. We have learned so much every time you come onto the podcast. So thank you so much for coming back.
Thanks so much for having me back. Always a pleasure.
Thank you. So many nuggets to help us travel around the UK for less. Next time, I'll be having friend of the show Koren Byrne back to talk to us about how younger generations are breaking the mold and redefining what family means and the impact this could have on our finances. I'd love it if you could review the podcast, spread the word, and help others get a little bit
richer too. Keep up with the show on TikTok and Instagram @legalandgeneral. A Little Bit Richer is brought to you by Legal &; General. Thank you for listening. See you soon.