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Planing trip to england may 2023

Doxical

TS Member
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F.L.Y.
Hi, maybe some folks rememeber my thread regarding a journey to England. Well because of certain pandemic it didn‘t happen. This time I‘m going to try again in 2023. I already did a bit of research, but I still need help. That‘s why I‘m asking you guys.

This time my friends won‘t come with me, so I can be a bit more independent.


My first draft of a route looks like this:


First day; Saturday – Flight to London, sightseeing afternoon

Second day; Sunday – sightseeing continue

Third day; Monday – Thorpe Park

Fourth day, Tuesday – London before midday, travel to Stoke-on-trent afternoon

Fifth day; Wednesday – Alton Towers

Sixth day; Thursday – Alton Towers

Seventh day; Friday – back home


I want to visits the parks weekdays and I also want to take my vacation in may. To save some money I consider buying the Merlin Discovery Pass. I have just to make sure I visit during the valid times.



Now to my questions:

I don‘t know which on site hotel I should chose for Alton Towers. I can‘t drive so I prefer spending the night nearby. Enchanted village or the AT hotel? Something else? Dog and Partrigde Country Inn?


Does someone want to join me for my trip? So I can get some company and you can lead me around. I was never been to Thorpe or Alton. But I have been to London about 10 years ago.



I am happy about every tip and answer.
 
Hi, maybe some folks rememeber my thread regarding a journey to England. Well because of certain pandemic it didn‘t happen. This time I‘m going to try again in 2023. I already did a bit of research, but I still need help. That‘s why I‘m asking you guys.

This time my friends won‘t come with me, so I can be a bit more independent.


My first draft of a route looks like this:


First day; Saturday – Flight to London, sightseeing afternoon

Second day; Sunday – sightseeing continue

Third day; Monday – Thorpe Park

Fourth day, Tuesday – London before midday, travel to Stoke-on-trent afternoon

Fifth day; Wednesday – Alton Towers

Sixth day; Thursday – Alton Towers

Seventh day; Friday – back home


I want to visits the parks weekdays and I also want to take my vacation in may. To save some money I consider buying the Merlin Discovery Pass. I have just to make sure I visit during the valid times.



Now to my questions:

I don‘t know which on site hotel I should chose for Alton Towers. I can‘t drive so I prefer spending the night nearby. Enchanted village or the AT hotel? Something else? Dog and Partrigde Country Inn?


Does someone want to join me for my trip? So I can get some company and you can lead me around. I was never been to Thorpe or Alton. But I have been to London about 10 years ago.



I am happy about every tip and answer.
The Chained Oak B&B is only a short walk from Towers and is apparently very good. Might be cheaper than the resort hotels too.
 
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Seems a good trip plan, you should have plenty to do in London without paying more since there are so many free museums plus you'd get the Merlin London attractions if you got a discovery pass. If you are planning to go in May then note that 1st and 29th May are bank holidays so you would not be able to use the discovery pass. Out of interest where are you from and where are you flying into?
Edit: done the maths, if you are planning to do one day at Thorpe and two days at Towers midweek then it is currently cheaper to just buy the tickets (two days at Towers is £10 extra) but it would be worth getting a discovery pass if you also want to do the London Merlin attractions (Madame Tussauds, Dungeons, Shrek's Adventure, Sea Life and London Eye), exclusion dates 2023 have not been announced yet but in the past mid May weekends have not been exclusion days.
 
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I would say drop a day at the Towers and squeeze a day in at Blackpool, real chalk and cheese event, but the travelling would be tricky.
 
What country are you traveling from if you don't mind me asking? Just asking out of curiosity.

I almost always stay in Enchanted Village these days if staying on resort. The breakfast is as horrid as it is in all the hotels but for some reason it almost always comes out the cheapest to stay at when compared to ATH and Splash. No idea why.
 
I would say drop a day at the Towers and squeeze a day in at Blackpool, real chalk and cheese event, but the travelling would be tricky.

A day at Blackpool would be great however it could be a little bit of a problem as they have said that they don’t drive. Could be a bit tricky trying to get from Blackpool to Towers using public transport but getting a full day on park from opening to close at each one doing that. Maybe it’s better to just have two days at Towers to enjoy it at a more relaxed pace.
 
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Seems a good trip plan, you should have plenty to do in London without paying more since there are so many free museums plus you'd get the Merlin London attractions if you got a discovery pass. If you are planning to go in May then note that 1st and 29th May are bank holidays so you would not be able to use the discovery pass. Out of interest where are you from and where are you flying into?
Edit: done the maths, if you are planning to do one day at Thorpe and two days at Towers midweek then it is currently cheaper to just buy the tickets (two days at Towers is £10 extra) but it would be worth getting a discovery pass if you also want to do the London Merlin attractions (Madame Tussauds, Dungeons, Shrek's Adventure, Sea Life and London Eye), exclusion dates 2023 have not been announced yet but in the past mid May weekends have not been exclusion days.
The last time I visited London was during a school trip. I loved the museums about natural science and technology, but we didn't have much time to take a look at every section. I would like to visit it again.
I'll fly from Berlin, Germany.

I consider doing London eye and sea life. But you're right, if I ONLY want to do theme parks, the merlin pass isn't worth it. Furthermore I probably won't use it again after this trip.

I would say drop a day at the Towers and squeeze a day in at Blackpool, real chalk and cheese event, but the travelling would be tricky.

Blackpool isn't on my list of interest. Besides I'm not doing ride counts at all.

If the park hours are a miserable 10-4 though you'd want two days to be able to enjoy everything and get rerides in.
^This

Other consideration:
There is a chance I'll miss out Nemesis because of the retrack. Well, I can live with that. It won't be the last visit hopefully.
 
The Chained Oak B&B is only a short walk from Towers and is apparently very good. Might be cheaper than the resort hotels too.
I have looked more into this and I'd say I'm quite fond of this location. Thank you for the suggestion!


Would be a shame but a reason to come back another time. 🙂
After the recent news it's pretty clear that I won't experience Nemesis sadly. Well I'll just close my eyes while riding Nemesis Inferno and imagine being on the other Nemesis.
 
I have looked more into this and I'd say I'm quite fond of this location. Thank you for the suggestion!



After the recent news it's pretty clear that I won't experience Nemesis sadly. Well I'll just close my eyes while riding Nemesis Inferno and imagine being on the other Nemesis.
No problem!
Yeah it's a shame, but Nemesis is only being re-tracked and will open in 2024, so I'm sure you'll get to ride it one day!
 
By far the hardest leg of your travel arrangements will be getting yourself from a nearby train station to Alton Towers without your own transport. Public transport options in the area are woeful.

I think you would need to stay in either Stoke-on-Trent or Stafford the night before and then get either the 32A or X41 bus in the morning at around 8.40 - note that there is only one service from each town per day - and on the second day take the return service at around 17.30, spend another night in Stoke/Stafford and travel back to London the following day. The other option would just be to fork out for a taxi but that's unlikely to be a cheap option. Of the two options, Stafford is probably the nicer town to stopover in.

Worth checking the bus timetables closer to the time of your trip as well just in case either of those routes get scrapped before you travel (a distinct possibility!)
 
If it was me, with this being a trip of a lifetime sort of thing I'd just get a taxi from the train station to a hotel by Alton Towers that afternoon/evening so the next day you can get into the park ASAP instead of being stuck on a bus. Probably the same after your second day getting a taxi from outside the park and get a late afternoon/early evening train back down to London.
 
By far the hardest leg of your travel arrangements will be getting yourself from a nearby train station to Alton Towers without your own transport. Public transport options in the area are woeful.

I think you would need to stay in either Stoke-on-Trent or Stafford the night before and then get either the 32A or X41 bus in the morning at around 8.40 - note that there is only one service from each town per day - and on the second day take the return service at around 17.30, spend another night in Stoke/Stafford and travel back to London the following day. The other option would just be to fork out for a taxi but that's unlikely to be a cheap option. Of the two options, Stafford is probably the nicer town to stopover in.

Worth checking the bus timetables closer to the time of your trip as well just in case either of those routes get scrapped before you travel (a distinct possibility!)

I'm not planing to do something like that. I want to go on my fourth day to Stoke-on-Trent with a train from London. Then I'll take a taxi service to the hotel near AT and stay the rest for the day at that place without entering the park. My first visit would be the next day. On my last day I'll travel back to Stoke and get to an airport. Maybe Manchester, I haven't decided yet. I still need to check a good and cheap air route.

Edit: So you know I won't be back to London.
 
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