honeymoon

image: weheartit

We have now pretty much finished booking our honeymoon. Earlier in the year, when we were going round in ever decreasing circles on where to go, we were offered a friends house in the south of France, so that formed the basis of the trip. we really wanted to do a honeymoon from a couple of bases, so we also booked a tiny flat in Paris for 5 nights at the end of the trip, and because the ash cloud happened soon after, we also decided to do ALL the travelling by train.

This next bit isn't intended as a boast, I just found out quite a bit about train travel while booking all of this, found some useful links and whatnot, and thought someone else might benefit from it too. If you have no interest, or have done this before, I suggest you turn off now.

We've managed to get tickets to London (from Carlisle) for £14 each. This is super cheap, believe me. We are a long way away from you Londonites, and has really made me think about overnight trips down to the big smoke as a reality rather than a dream. Anyway, I knew you could get cheap trail travel in advance, but I didn't realise it was that cheap. All train tickets are released at 3 months out from the travel date (except Eurostar, which is 4 months) and at 2 months out, UK travel prices suddenly drop enormously, and build up again as people buy them. so buy at 8 weeks out, and you can apparently travel most of the length of the country for a pittance.

I used thetrainline for this.

We are staying overnight in the premier inn next to Euston, and then leaving early the next morning on Eurostar, changing in Lille, and getting the TGV down the country to Montpellier. I have no idea when I booked them, but I got tickets for about £68 each all the way from London to Montpellier. the Eurostar website will book through journeys for you, even on into other countries, and I would heartily recommend their call centre, I have spoken to them several times and they have been nothing but helpful to me (especially Gary, but that's another story!)

For the return leg, we've booked the TGV up to Paris, which you can book on Raileurope it was only an extra £10 per person to go 1st class, so we booked that!

I think I left the return Eurostars a little late, as they were £60 each, but we are also travelling back on a Saturday, s that may have something to do with it. It was cheaper in the afternoon, and I thought we would have to stay over again in Londres, but there was a connecting train again for £14 each, which gets us home by 8pm.

With Eurostar you can even choose what seat you have, which is a really great option I think, although mine did get cancelled on the 3rd phone call to them about the return Journey, but its my fault really for not knowing my own age, and booking myself as a youth in the first place. ho, hum. That's where Gary came in, he was, as R called him, a hero.

If you are thinking about a holiday involving trains, I would really recommend going here, its a bit convoluted at times, but extremely thorough information on rail travel throughout Europe.

And no, we are not train spotters, just 6' foot tall people who think that planes should have more legroom, and we rather like the idea of being able to see landscape rushing past us all the way through France. Now I have to just limit what I take enough that I can bring tons back!