A road trip without the roads
We’ve recently returned from a few days on the move, with my colleague Lewis and I spending four nights in four very different locations. The main reason for the trip was the first-ever affiliates mini cruise, organised by DFDS Seaways and A4U Events. This was an opportunity for like-minded website owners to get together, have a mini-conference, and then enjoy a trip to Amsterdam.
Our journey involved getting from Coventry to Newcastle last Tuesday (March 27) evening, sailing with DFDS to Ijmuiden, near Amsterdam, on Wednesday evening (arriving Thursday morning), and then making it to Manchester on Friday evening, in time for the Versus Cancer event at the MEN Arena. Fellow Flightmapping colleagues Mark and Toby also joined us for the cruise, and made their own way back from Amsterdam - Mark will be adding his own blog about this shortly.
Coventry to Newcastle
Eastern Airways operates up to three daily flights from Birmingham to Newcastle, and I’d certainly like to give them a try, as they are one of the few UK based scheduled airlines I haven’t yet flown with. I’ve seen one-way flights on Eastern from around £75, but by the time we came round to booking, the cost would have been about £180 each, which is a ridiculous sum of money for such a short flight. Many of Eastern’s routes are between cities which cannot easily be joined by train routes, but this is not the case on the Birmingham to Newcastle journey.
Virgin Trains offer plenty trains between the Midlands and the North East, but there are only three direct services a day between Coventry and Newcastle. Typical journey times are around four and a half hours - very comparable with driving, and competitive with flying, considering the time taken with check-in procedures, and getting to and from the airport (our office is within easy walking distance of Coventry station).
There are two major annoyances with this particular route. Firstly, it crosses several other rail companies’ major routes, making the stretch between Birmingham and York more delay prone than many other cross-country routes. The other irritation is that passing through these different cities means that there often large numbers of people wanting to get on and off at each station, so it can be difficult to find a good seat for the whole journey.
This was one of those occasions when buying a first-class upgrade made sense. First-class train tickets from Coventry to Newcastle are available from just £39 each way, but when we booked, the fare was £50. This still works out extremely favourably, compared to the £71 standard open single in second-class, as a saver return would have only had limited use for us. The extra space first-class offers, not to mention the quiet and the free snacks and drinks, was well worth the extra cost.
The train was on time for both legs of the journey, and we arrived in Newcastle just in time to see the sun going down over the Tyne. The view over the river was spectacular, and the way that Newcastle United’s magnificent stadium, St James’ Park, sits proudly above the city is truly breathtaking.
My only gripe would be the hassle that taxis have in getting out of Central Station - the meter was already on £5 by the time the driver had pulled out and driven round the block! If you are staying in a hotel in the centre of Newcastle, a taxi should not be necessary anyway, whereas other parts of the Toon can also be reached by the Newcastle Metro. We were staying on the Quayside, which is much less accessible.
Manchester to Amsterdam
Ideally, an early afternoon flight would have suited us well, but unfortunately Jet2 only operate two daily flights from Amsterdam to Manchester, morning and evening. Further details about this journey will be published shortly in our flight reviews section.