A quick advance note about transport

[pensnest]

I'm more than happy to do the minibus run again, with a Stansted pickup at around lunchtime on the Friday. IE if you are flying in to Stansted, you'll ideally arrive sometime during the morning on Friday! (Offer also open to London-dwellers who can get to Stansted in time.)

If anyone happens to be able to fly in to Luton, it'd be best if I could pick you up and then travel onward to Stansted, so an early/mid-morning arrival is best. Or arrive a day or two early, that's also fine.

Heathrow, however, is just not going to work, because of the geography. I don't think I can deal with driving the minibus for an hour to Stansted, a couple of hours back to Heathrow, and then another three or four hours northwards to Derbyshire. So, if you are arriving at Heathrow (or Gatwick), you'll need to

a) arrive early - I'll collect you on Thursday (or earlier), quite happily, and there will be beds available chez Pen, or else go into London and come up to Stansted by bus/train on Friday;

b) get yourself on a bus to Hemel Hempstead or to Stansted (both are possible, from the Heathrow bus station, but I have not investigated the timetable);

c) get yourself to the vicinity of Camp Sparkle by bus and/or train.

Anyone who is able to fly in to East Midlands airport or to Birmingham airport (may be a possibility for flights from the USA) will need to arrange collection details with nopseud. If you are only staying for the weekend, not the full week, it'd be *ideal* to fly in to East Midlands, because we can be sure to get you back there easily for your return trip.

As for the return trip at the end of the week, ideally you'll be departing from Stansted fairly late in the afternoon on the final Friday. There is an airport shuttle service that connects Stansted and Heathrow, so anyone with an evening flight from Heathrow can use that. Or, overnight at my place and have a lift to Heathrow on Saturday or Sunday. (Or, you might make arrangements to visit other London-dwellers for that weekend, in which case you can get a train or bus into town from Stansted.)


Obviously the details will have to be worked out when you know what flights you can get and where you'll arrive, but I wanted to let everyone know what's likely to work, and this should give you a place to start planning.

Comments

[trumpeterofdoom.livejournal.com]

*throwing out random suggestions* What about Manchester and Leeds airports as alternatives? I think it's relatively easy to get to Derby from Manchester, and getting on the train from Manchester airport is ridiculously easy as the station's right next to it.

[saba1789.livejournal.com]

Oh, this is incredibly helpful information! Thank you so much, Pen! :)

[ninjetti75.livejournal.com]

Eeeep, yeah, definitely gonna take a bit more coordination effort this time, so having this information now is definitely a Good Thing.

Thanks, Pen!

[ephemera.livejournal.com]

I probably won't be able to make it to camp, but that means that my house in London is available as a 'base camp' for people on the way there or back.

The Saturday night after might be a bit tight, as I already have a guest scheduled, but other than that -- open door policy!

[turlough]

I might want to take up on this. There was no flight home that fit with the trains to Emmaboda other than one from Gatwick at 11.55 on the Saturday. Though I think I've got to research how to get to Gatwick on a Saturday morning before I can decide.

[ephemera.livejournal.com]

Gatwick's a little tricky from mine - I'd guestimate about 2 hours, if the tube is running as it should do. (District to West Ham, Jubilee to London Bridge, mainline train to Gatwick is about the same time cost and cheaper than taking District to Victoria to catch the Gatwick Express train.)

It would be lovely to see you, though!

[turlough]

I beginning to think that Gatwick is inconveniently located for EVERYWHERE! Two hours isn't that horrible though (it's going to take me three to get to the airport here in Sweden!) but I think I'm probably prepared to pay a little more and have fewer changes - I hate changing when I've got luggage to cart around.

[bubbleforest.livejournal.com]

I have to leave on Sunday, so if I could get any help at all on trains and stuff I would really appreciate it, as I am a spaz about public transportation. Do you know how long it takes to get from Derbyshire to Stansted? And do I need to book a train ticket in advance? And finally, is there any way I could possibly get a lift to the train station that day? I promise to take care of the rest from there. ♥

[bubbleforest.livejournal.com]

Also, fadedsouls and I should be arriving at Stansted at 11.10am on Friday. :D

[pensnest]

We will certainly be able to get you to the train station (I looked at coaches, too, in case there was something more direct that way, but it doesn't look as though there is). What time do you have to be at Stansted on the Sunday?

[bubbleforest.livejournal.com]

Fantastic, thank you! I'm not 100% sure yet. Ideally I want to get the latest flight possible, which is 6.45pm. I probably need to be there two hours before for check-in, so 5ish?

[pensnest]

There's a train which gets you from Derby to Stansted at 1625, but it leaves at 1230 and involves three changes. The next one leaves at 1256 and arrives at 1647, with one change at Birmingham New Street from where it goes cross-country to Stansted. Journey time 3rs 25min, probably not that different to the car journey... Looks like the best bet, I think.

Hmm. Alternatively, if we got you to Birmingham New Street there's a train via London that would get you there for 1625. Assuming the tube trains were running properly... which is a big assumption, since there seem to be all kinds of disruptions to service on Sundays.

I'll get nopseud to check in on this thread in case there are other possibilities I haven't thought of.

[bubbleforest.livejournal.com]

That 1647 sounds like a good one! The less changes the better. Man, that's a long commute though. I was hoping picking a later flight would mean more time with you guys. :/ But thank you so much for looking into this, I really appreciate it!

[pensnest]

I can't remember which airport you fly in from, but have you tried looking into flights to Birmingham Airport instead of Stansted? It's a lot closer to Derbyshire, and we can assuredly make some arrangements for picking you up if you fly in to there. I'm pretty sure some of the budget airlines fly in to there.

[bubbleforest.livejournal.com]

Birmingham could work too, there's a flight leaving af 17.25, so I'd have to be there around 15.30. Would that mean a shorter commute? I'd arrive on Friday around 9.45.

[pensnest]

Much better - it looks as though it's about an hour from Camp Sparkle to Birmingham. It's less than fifty miles. :-) nopseud may have a better idea on how long it will actually take, but it looks like a good bet.

[bubbleforest.livejournal.com]

Yay, that sounds great! I'll definitely be counting on that then, I just need to hear back from fadedsouls before I book anything. But that's definitely much more manageable. Would that still mean a train ride or would there be a possibility of a ride to the airport, do you think?

[pensnest]

I'm pretty sure we will manage a car to the airport for you—at least, I'm recklessly commiting nopseud here, as I fear driving the minibus to an unfamiliar airport might be beyond my powers! But an hour each way is perfectly do-able.

[bubbleforest.livejournal.com]

<33333 Thank you, that sounds great! If it's not doable I'll totally figure out something else, you guys are going above and beyond to help us all in the first place.

[nopseud]

I think the AA's estimate of the travel time is a little optimistic, but I'm certainly willing to do it.

First, though, have you checked flights to East Midlands? That's much closer to the house and to me.

[bubbleforest.livejournal.com]

I haven't, but I can definitely do that now! Is it in Nottingham, because that's the only thing that comes up when I search for East Midlands?

Wow, okay, so I just checked now and the cheapest return flight is 1,200 pounds. :O That is a tad out of my price range.

[nopseud]

Ahahahaa! Okay, no. For that, you could probably pay for a taxi to drive you right home from the cottage :-)

Book the Birmingham flight, then.

[fadedsouls.livejournal.com]

OK, questions. It's looking like all the cheap flights from London to Bergen are going out of Gatwick these days. So, just how much trouble is it going to be to get there on the Friday (I plan to stay the whole week this time, yay)?

I can get a flight out of Heathrow of course, but it'll be twice as much as the one from Gatwick. And it means I'll have to change flights in Oslo, which is horrible no fun.

[fadedsouls.livejournal.com]

I can also get a flight out of Birmingham at 10:25 on Friday morning, relatively cheap. Would that be an easier solution for me you think?

[pensnest]

Ah - my procrastination about answering your first question has paid off! (It doesn't usually do that...)

To get to Gatwick, you'd have to travel in to London and then out southwards. It's perfectly doable, Derby is a pretty good railway station, and there are frequent services to Gatwick. But the train isn't cheap - £57!!- and it'll take a bit more than three hours, which would mean catching the train from Derby at 0517 to arrive at Gatwick at 0831 for check-in, so I think you'd be better off going via Birmingham! I'm sure we can sort out a means of getting you to the airport on the Friday morning. I don't think it'll be a stop-off on the way to Stansted, simply because you'd need to be there quite a lot earlier than we're likely to vacate the cottage, but there are trains from Derby to Birmingham if a car ride isn't possible.

If you want to fly *in* to Birmingham, talk to nopseud about timings and such; it looks as though bubbleforest will be flying in to Birmingham, too.

\o/

[fadedsouls.livejournal.com]

I'll be flying in with Mette, and I think I'll be flying out from Birmingham as well. Because it looks like I'll have to work Friday afternoon, so I gotta get home as early as possible, and if I fly out of Birmingham I'll be arriving in Bergen at 15:30. And since I start work at 16:00, that might just work, although I will be late.

It's a holiday weekend here, so my boss pretty much won't let me use one of my vacation weeks then...

Now all that needs to be done is booking the flights. Thankfully, I have an understanding mom who will let me borrow her credit card. :)

[ninjetti75.livejournal.com]

Okay, I've not actually started sorting flights out yet, for I am Very Broke and will have to wait a bit for that, but it shouldn't be a problem (I certainly hope, and you better believe I'll be begging friends and volunteering favors to make it happen if it comes to that!!)

ANYWAY, my new question is: you mentioned there's a shuttle service that connects Stansted and Heathrow, meaning exiting via Heathrow is doable for later flights if one simply joins the Stansted contingent. My question (twothree, actually...) is a) How long does that shuttle trip take, and when would the Stansted Contingent be departing the cottage (so that I can determine when a Heathrow departure would need to be) and b) if I have to ARRIVE vie Heathrow, does the shuttle service not run the other way? (and again, How Long Does It Take, so that I can be at Stansted mid-morning?)

So, LongStoryShort(TooLate), I'm asking for that aforementioned uninvestigated timetable to be investigated, Thx. ;D

four questions, five, wutevr. Halp?

[nopseud]

Oops, I missed this thread.

I can definitely give you a lift back to Birmingham airport fom the cottage on Friday morning, no problem at all.

[nopseud]

Overview of the Heathrow-Stansted options.

There are National Express coaches direct from Heathrow to Stansted. Especially on a Friday, though, there are VERY likely to be delays around the M25, so be generous with the amount of time you leave. They reckon between 1:30 and 2hrs for the trip, depending on time of day.

There are also train options, but those involve making at least a couple of changes of trains in London. The amount of time the train would take depends on a lot on which services you use.

[pensnest]

If you were able to fly in a day earlier, I could come and get you. I don't think there's time to do that on Friday morning because of picking up the minibus and getting it loaded up and off to Stansted.

[turlough]

Pssst, Pen! What time is "around lunchtime"? I suddenly realised I've got to get myself from Blackheath to Stansted on Friday morning and it would be nice to know how early I've got to get up :-)

[ihearthings-ii.livejournal.com]

Hi! Um. Sorry, I'm all late. I'll be in Stansted friday morning 11:10.

Also, I'm leaving on Thursday, and have to be in the airport around five-ish--- are there any trains going there? Because honestly, I tried looking it up myself, and it was sort of confusing. (when I finally managed to get some answers out of the damn thing, it was an answer that had me change trains and busses five times underway. I really hope that's not actually the best way to do it!)

[pensnest]

Hmm. It looks as though a train from Derby (I'm sure we can get you there) at around lunchtime goes via London St Pancras, you have to get the Tube to Liverpool Street, and the train from there to Stansted. A 1318 departure from Derby should get you to Stansted for 1642, or there's an option leaving at 1401 which goes via St Pancras and then Tottenham Hale (a Tube station) to get you to Stansted for 1701. It's actually quite quick, considering.

According to the National Rail website there are fares starting from £9.50, but I don't believe it, as I know what my Beast had to go through to obtain a ticket, hah! However, he did manage to get a ticket from here to Derby for about £20, which isn't too bad.

Go to the National Rail website, http://nationalrail.co.uk/ and put your details into the journey planner, starting from Derby, to check details. It may be easier for you to telephone to book an actual ticket, though - easier to negotiate with a human than a machine.

There are a couple of coach options, departing from Nottingham, but sadly the most convenient, direct option leaves at 1105 and gets in at 1510 (no changes, though), that costs £31.30 ; the next one leaves at 1140 and gets in at 1635, with almost an hour's wait in Milton Keynes. Hmm. National Express website is at
http://www.nationalexpress.com/home/hp.cfm. If the train is affordable, it's probably a better bet, and more comfortable than the coach.

[ihearthings-ii.livejournal.com]

Omg, thank you so much! :D