Britain by BritRail: How to tour Britain by train

This guide explains how you can use London, Glasgow, Edinburgh, and Cardiff as base cities for day excursions to outlying points of interest - including the Isle of Wight, Liverpool, and St. Andrews.

Britain by BritRail is the only book on the market that features fully updated information on fares, schedules, and pass options; personally researched day excursions that take you throughout Great Britain; practical travel tips on keeping costs down, traveling light, conquering jet lag, exchanging currency, understanding British terminology; the latest information on the Chunnel and other Channel crossings. (5 1/2 x 81/2, 320 pages, maps, charts)

As we all know, the train has all but disappeared from the travel scene in the USA; in the United Kingdom, however, the train is alive and well. In using this book, you come away with the impression that not only is the train a viable alternative to other forms of intra-Britain travel, but it the preferred way to go in most instances.

Following an introductory chapter giving lots of valuable information on train travel in Britain, the rest of the book is divided into chapters by country by "base city". For each base city reachable by nonstop flights from the USA, the book provides some very useful information about the airport of arrival, including the location and hours of things like the banks or foreign exchange counters, baggage storage facilities, and most importantly, the different means of transportation between the airport and the center of town (time, cost, etc.) In point of fact, the entire cost of the book can well be amortised by using public transit, rail link, or shuttle service rather than taxis.

The heart of the book is found in the sections about rail travel, and the rail stations which the tourist is likely to use. If one is the type of traveler who needs very precise and specific directions to find things, this book does it all for you. Detailed information for each station is provided, including the location of the tourist office (if there is one), the currency exchange facilities, the location of baggage lockers and/or baggage check room, where to have one's Britrail pass validated, etc.

Furthermore, the author suggests, for each base city, a brief description of the major places to be visited, as well as a certain number of one-day sidetrips to points of interest easily reachable by train from the base city.

Finally, the book provides train schedules for trains between different base cities. While these are, of course, subject to change over time, they do provide useful information for the traveler, in particular the length of any given trip (in hours and minutes).

A useful book for anyone planning a trip to Britain.


Got to big and too heavy.   March 4, 1999
 8 out of 9 found this review helpful

I truly enjoyed and constantly used the 16th edition, 1996-97. I used it constantly, and it never let me down. The discriptions of areas to see were lucid and enjoyable. Never missed a train, and only bought the newer edition in case the time tables had changed. Now I shall have to compare time tables, and if the same, or almost the same, I shall take the old tried and true edition back to Britain with me. This newer edition would give me a hernia if I have to carry it about with me.