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