London to Scotland Trip (3 day trip)

Hi All,

In this blog I'm sharing my experience and providing some guidance on my travel from London to Scotland during May 2015.

I planned to visit Scotland on 2014 but couldn't make it somehow, this time I don't want to miss it. I was initially planning to go through Tours as they provide Veg food and also they will plan everything but after looking into itinerary it seems not so good as half of the time operated by tours is lost on bus travel from London. 

Hence I was looking for some other option and then my friend recommend the site call superbreak.com they are leading providers of Hotel Rooms at decent price apart from that they do provide train tickets and other sight seeing tickets as well. 

Considering travel time we planned for 3 day trips (Starting Friday morning and returning on Sunday Evening). 

For 2 Adults & 2 kids, SuperBreak offered me package for £632 which includes Train Tickets, 2 Nights & 3 day stay and Sight seeing

• To & Fro tickets from London Kings Cross to Edinburgh Waverley station through Virgin Trains (more details below)
• 2 Days & 3 Night stay at Holiday Inn with Break fast along one day compliment dinner. 
• Timberbush tours

• Over view of Train tickets
• To & Fro tickets from London Kings Cross to Edinburgh Waverley station 
• SuperBreak sends confirmed train tickets via First class mail delivery, still no online delivery not available
• Waverley station is the main station in Edinburgh, the station is at center of the city similar to Kings cross
• These trains are operated by Virgin Trains
• The tickets with open return tickets (except non peak hours). You can book tickets during peak hours as well with additional charge.
• The return ticket is valid for return within 30 days
• They do provide reservation option during booking but its not necessary you need to travel on booked train (unless you have chosen fixed ticket)
• Usual journey times is 4 hours with train operating for every half-hour.
• If your boarding for final destination then you can handover luggage at the beginning of train 
• Also superbreak provides tour document along the tickets. These tickets are valid only with tour documents. So keep them along the tickets.

Day 1:
We started around 7:30am from our house in Ilford and reached King Cross Stations around 8:30am. There was long walk inside the King Cross station from TFL to National services. And Kings Cross is quite big station and very nice old architecture. Also kings cross hosts 8 3/4 platform from Harry Potters. After reaching to platform, at the beginning of train Virgin staff asked us whether we are for Edinburgh when we said they offered to collect baggage and hand over at Edinburgh station (like Airports). We were not sure but we handover the luggage (mistakenly the luggage contains ready to eat food which we missed, but it was quite handy after reaching to Edinburgh). The train was full but as we already booked seats we need not to find the free seats. Train started on time at 9:00am and reached Edinburgh at 13:30. 

After coming out of station I wasn't sure where should I board bus for the Hotel, we walked wrong route initially for 10 minutes but bus operator suggested us the right place to board. After little walk we found there bus operating company and they provided details guide and map. And then we walked further for bus stop but we are not sure which side we need to board. We actually standing on wrong side but as soon as bus we have to run :-( which didn't look good. But the bus actually stopped just before the hotel which was good. We checked in hotel around 2:30pm and we have asked hotel staff whether we can move the compliment dinner from Friday Night to Saturday night they said fine. This was useful as we already have some food with us which we ate at night.

Holiday Inn City west was not as good as Marriot which we stayed in Birmingham. They don't offer free wifi service, when we enquired they suggested to be membership (which was free) and got subscribed. Even after subscription it didn't work easily have to call reception and they need to call support to fix it.

After check in and we took little rest for hour are so and then we are back to Edinburgh town (bus is for every 10 minutes and travel time was around 15 minutes. I initially wanted to start with Royal Mile but my wife was not interested but we went to castle and then to Camera Obscura (near beginning of Castle). It was worth visit both my wife and kids enjoyed really lot. Don't miss it. Please carry train tickets as they offer bargain for tickets if you have traveled via trains. Luckily I had tickets in my pocket they give tickets at discounted price. Also at the top of Camera Obscura you can see almost entire Edinburgh and they provided various binoculars to view it for free. After camera Obscura we had little walk around the castle and took our bus back to room. Was really long long day and very tired. 

I will try to cover my day 2 in my next blog.


Day 3: We were tired again with our timberbush tours and had very good sleep. We went for breakfast had good food and then back to room and took some rest. Initially we planned to check out early and keep luggage at reception, but it don't sound well for me as we need to again comeback to hotel to pick our luggage. Hence we took some rest and checked out around 12:00pm. As we already having day bus pass, we went around the city, took my first tram journey in life, we went up and down on trams (you can use same pass for trams except for Airport drops). Then we gone through some high street shopping market and then to Royal mile. At the end of the Royal mile took wrong bus and went to the end of the city (but good sight seeing) then took bus and reached to Waverley station around 3:00pm. Then took train for London and that's the end of the trip. 


Websites
Tour - http://www.superbreak.com/
Scotland 1 day tour - http://www.timberbush-tours.co.uk/
Local bus in Edinburgh - http://lothianbuses.com/ (multi vendor operated you can't board different vendor operated bus not like London).

Jet Airways - Mumbai / Bombay Transit (International to national) and vice versa

I'm writing this blog to share my recent transit experience in Mumbai airport. I recently traveled from London to Hyderabad (India) through Jet Airways. Mumbai and Delhi is common transit airport for Jet Airways in India.


While travelling from London to Hyderabad (Transfer from International to Domestic Airport)

• Reached Mumbai at 11:15 AM
• From terminal to Immigration its really long walk (almost 500m walk, but there will help cars available) (10 minutes walk)
• Immigration 10 minutes (you need to fill form if you are Indian Passport holder
• After Immigration we need to collect our baggage (Check In Baggage), this is the most time consuming. I have to wait for almost 25 minutes at baggage counter to get my suitcases.
• After collecting check-in suitcases there will be security check for Hand luggage only. (5-10 mts)
• After that customs clearance. We need to hand over the form which was filled with Immigration Authorities stamp on it. (< 1 minute)
• As soon as customs is done, immediately on right side you can handover the Check in luggage to Jet Airways counter for Internal Transit. Note: Liquor is not allowed as hand luggage in domestic flights, hence if you have purchased any liquor in Duty Free shop try to adjust the same in your check in luggage. (10 minutes)
• If the transit time is less than 2 hours usually you don't go to domestic airport. You will directly get into Domestic flight via steps.
• After handing over the check-in luggage at Jet Airways transfer counter there will be another security check this is for Domestic flights check-in (10 minutes)
• After security check for transfer to Domestic flight, Jet Airways as asked us to wait for few minutes at specific place. Then they arranged bus which will take only Hyderabad passengers. They are arranging separate buses for each destination.
• The bus dropped directly outside where the domestic flight is located and we get inside the flight via steps (didn't went inside the domestic airport) (10 minutes).

So key points - Immigration, collect check-in luggage, customs, transfer desk to handover check in luggage, security check and flight. Minimum time required 1 hour.

By the time I get in to Hyderabad flight is almost 1:00pm (This is because all of the Hyderabad transfer were asked to wait). So it almost took me around 75 minutes from getting out from International flight to domestic flight. But what I found out is that if the time gap is less, then Jet Airways will try to fasten the steps as they will be available at every step to expedite (only for those who have less time on connecting flight). In general if you have transit time anywhere between 90 minutes and above that would be sufficient. (This is based on my experience twice).


Update on Aug 2016: I travelled again from London to Hyderabad via Mumbai through Jet airways on July 2016, with recent update there is no need to travel between International to domestic airport. After custom exit within internal stair case or lift you can connect to main airport again and from there you go for domestic security. No need to travel between airports as state above. 

While travelling from Hyderabad to London (Transfer from Domestic to International Airport)

On return flight to London, Mumbai was transit point again and this time I reached Mumbai at 23:15 and my flight to London was at 1:45am

• You handover Check-in Luggage at starting point. In my case handover at Hyderabad and collect in London, no need to collect and transfer manually in Mumbai
• After arriving in Mumbai, while getting down from flight staff asked to wait all the transfer separately. Didn't get inside the domestic airport again.
• They arranged bus which goes to International airport. This time though your will be completely come out of airport and get into main entrance of International Airport
• Bus will drop outside the entrance counter
• You need to show tickets & Passport to security to get inside the Airport (Either e-ticket in mobile or paper tickets, they will check ticket name and passport name matches).
• After getting inside the Airport you don't need to get into check-in counter, Jet Airways staff will check your passport, ticket and valid visa and put a sticker with signature that they validated (will be used later)
• After that security check (really very long queue), there are too many flights from Mumbai and the queue is considerable long (again if there is no enough time staff arrange separate line for those people).
• Then Immigration again long queue (but quite fast)
• Then to gates (again long walk).
• In general it took me 45 minutes for me from getting to Mumbai and reaching to international departure gates. 

Overall Jet Airways review:

I'm not great reviewer, but in my experience Jet AIrways offers less price (atleast difference in 100 quids) compare to leading airways like Emirates, BA & Other leading companies from Middle East. In past I traveled via BA & Emirates more often.

• Staff - They are friendly and helpful
• Luggage - Very decent allowance from London it was 
• 2 bags x 23 Kgs check-in luggage
• 1 Hand luggage upto 8 kgs & 
• 1 Laptop bag or Hand bag
• Food - Since I was veg it was quite good Indian food (in other ways I need to explicitly insist for Veg, here its easy to get). Food was good 
• Seat space - Its ok as any other economy class

Overall it was good experience on my travel with Jet Airways, nothing to complain.