DebConf7/Travel

rolorsit debconf7:Travel has some information from the DebConf team about travelling to Edinburgh for DebConf7.

Please use this page to make suggestions / say how you plan to reach Edinburgh.

Whole world

There are many flight search engines, http://www.sidestep.com/ is for example good service.

From the UK

General principles: cheapest ways to travel are http://www.megabus.com/uk/ and also their megatrains, and the http://www.NationalExpress.co.uk/ funfares. Generally less than £10 each way from direct connections like Manchester, Sheffield or London.

Next cheapest are advance-purchase (AP) fast train tickets. The main schemes for Edinburgh are Virgin Value Advance and GNER Advance, but I rarely find the best deals on the GNER or Virgin sites! Use one of the trainline.com sites to hunt them - http://www.fgwtickets.co.uk/ has no booking fee and works on a no-javascript no-graphics browser. Much of England is available for under £25 at some times.

It seems that if the AP seats are full for any part of a fast leg, the ticket isn't available. That means you can sometimes get it cheaper by "splitting" the journey at an intermediate station, but that's a bit fiddly and you lose the protection against delays that having the journey all on one ticket gives you. Slow connecting trains add a fixed fee (typically between 50p and a few pounds) to an AP ticket and don't have quota. Some slow trains have their own AP schemes too.

Then, try regular National Express, other coach fares, the sleepers (slow) and regular train tickets like Saver Return (faster but more expensive). Most of England and Wales is available for under £150 return.

Moray (Edinburgh): I plan to walk to DebConf7.

MJR (Somerset): I'm using both Virgin train companies, Great Western and Northern Rail.

Glasgow [Prestwick]

Some notes: If flying by Ryanair to Prestwick, you can get half-price rail tickets to any railway station in Scotland by presenting an itinerary on the train when purchasing. At current prices, this makes the trip to Edinburgh a reasonable £6.35. For the record, the train journey is: Prestwick Airport Station -> Glasgow Central, walk/get free bus to Glasgow Queen Street, train -> Edinburgh Waverley.

If flying into Glasgow, which does not have its own railway station, you should buy a special ticket in the airport which gets you onto a bus service to Paisley Gilmour Street rail station. Here you exchange (for free) that ticket for a rail ticket, which you then use for the rest of the trip via the Glasgow rail stations as above.

Alternatively, there is a bus service from Glasgow International Airport, direct to Glasgow rail stations such as Glasgow Central, or Glasgow Queen Street. This takes slightly longer, but involves less changing, and maybe more convenient. Service number is 905, and runs several times an hour, from stance 3, at the airport, to buchanan bus station, via Glasgow Central, and Glasgow Queen street. Cheap travel insurance

From the rest of Europe

? (Oslo): Norwegian has a direct route from Oslo to Edinburgh. Probably the cheapest you can get as well.

? (Madrid): I found direct flights with British Airways for 86 EUR (including tax and everything)

? (All): Sterling no longer flies directly to Edinburgh at all?

From Oceania

From Australia

Use air france for cheapest tickets.

From South America

From Colombia

Alerios: I plan to get by air to somewhere in Europe and then use some other transport to get to UK.

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