Traveling in May

[kileybeth]

its 31.72gpb or 50.80 usdollars
does this sound good?

[nitsansh]

kileybeth said:

Ok
I just booked a flight on ryanair from london to brussesl for 31.72gbp. That is for two tickets. So from there we will start our 5 day pass and buy p2p tickets for our short train trips. Is this all good?

Thanks
Kiley

Gee... when I say early I don't mean go and buy them right now... no need to panic! You can safely wait till a month before travel, and on most cases one week ahead is safe...
Ok... so you got air tickets London-Stansted to Brussels-Charlroi... I didn't warn that Ryanair is notorious for flying from the furthest airports that can still be associated with cities... the express train Liverpool Street to Stansted takes 42 minutes and cost IIRC 13 pounds, which is nearly the price of the flight... as usual, bus is cheaper but slower.
For details of travel from Charlroi airport to Brussels see Ryanair website... this trip could take more than an hour by bus.
The total cost of a trip London to Brussels should be about 70 Pounds, or 110$, and take 4-5 hours.

[kileybeth]

The total cost of a trip London to Brussels should cost you about 70 Pounds, or 110$, and take 4-5 hours.

by this you mean train ticket, etc. etc.

[nitsansh]

kileybeth said:

I already booked a flight on ryan air from London stansted to brussels s charleroi

What date is the flight?
The quote I get for late May is even lower, 27.72 pounds... you can't get lower than 0.99 Pound plus taxes... but travel to/from airports will probably cost more...

[nitsansh]

kileybeth said:

The total cost of a trip London to Brussels should cost you about 70 Pounds, or 110$, and take 4-5 hours.

by this you mean train ticket, etc. etc.

By this I mean Stansted - Charlroi flight, plus travel London-Stansted and Charlroi-Brussels.
Check Ryanair website (see destinations) for details about travel to airports. For Stansted you can travel by train (Stansted Express from Liverpool Street) or bus. For Charlroi, IIRC, you can take a bus from Brussels or train to Charlroi and bus to the airport.
If Ryanair site doesn't have the info, you can find it here:
www.charleroi-airport.com/eng/index.htm
This is NOT Brussels main airport, which has good connection to the city.

[kileybeth]

Ya we got the .99 price and with all the taxes etc. it came to 31.72

[kileybeth]

And i checked out those websites looking at the different transportation options. For us this works well provided we actually get to where we want to go! We also want to pay for as much as we can while in the states as to not have to worry about travel expenses (obviously we know we have to but the less the better).

[nitsansh]

See travel details here:
www.baa.co.uk/main/airports/stansted/getting_here_frame.html
www.charleroi-airport.com/eng/aerop_art_liaisons.htm

According to Ryanair, the bus company illegally over-charge passangers on Brussels-Charlroi bus.
See their statement:
We understand that the drivers of the buses that operate between Brussels Charleroi Airport and the Gare du Midi in the centre of Brussels and are attempting to charge a fare of €10 each way. The bus company is contractually limited to charging a maximum fare of €6.20 each way. Ryanair is pursuing legal action to enforce the terms of the contract and prevent the bus company from wrongly charging a fare of €10. We expect the case to come before the courts in Brussels in early 2003. Passengers should resist paying more than €6.20 each way but in the event that the higher fare is paid, passengers should retain their used tickets their used tickets until the completion of the Court case.

Stansted Express train cost 13 Pounds one way.
Bus to Stansted (1.40 hour!) cost 10 Pounds.

So, on top of the flight fare you should add 13 Pounds and 10 Euro, or about 30$ for each person. That makes the total cost of the trip 110$ for 2 people. This is 40$ less than 2 Eurostar youth tickets.
If you travelled by bus (8-9 hours), that would cost each person 28 Pounds, or about 90$ for two.
One benefit that bus London-Brussels has is that you can travel by night and sleep (if you can do that sitting up) with no extra cost, so you save accomodation for the night. If the avarage hostel bed is 20$, that's a saving of 40$.
Perhaps more significant is the time saving. If you travel by night you spend no "quality time". You can spend all day sight-seeing before and after a night journey.
If you take the Eurostar, your net travel time is 2.40h, but you have to check in 30 minutes before departure (Eurostar is the only train that require that!), and also allow time to travel to/from station, so this trip actually consumes about 4 hours of your precious time.
For air travel, add to the net flying time (about an hour) an hour for check in and up to half-hour for check out, plus travel time between cities and airports. If it takes an hour to travel to each airport, this seemingly short one-hour flight becomes 4.5 hour journey, not including travel to city terminals.
Usually, for journey of up to 4 hours by train, it's faster than flying.

[nitsansh]

kileybeth said:

Ya we got the .99 price and with all the taxes etc. it came to 31.72

I guess the 4 Pounds difference is for credit card booking charge.

[kileybeth]

Ya i read all of that about the overcharging etc. on the ryanair website. Pretty much the trip is all set then, i have to do some time calculations etc. etc. but for the most part i think that part is all good.

Thanks,
Kiley