Britrail

I feel it necessary to share more information about Britrail as i myself have been really confused while researching on this railpass.

The official website gives standard information on costs and the different type of railpass available. You will be amazed by the number of different pass available.

1. BritRail Central Scotland Pass - Valid for use within Edinburgh and Glasgow

2. BritRail Consecutive Pass - Valid for consecutive days travel within England, Scotland and Wales. Available in 4, 8, 15, 22 days and one month. I want to explain consecutive days travel further. Let's say we take a 4 days pass from say 1st Nov to 4th Nov, that means we can use the railpass everytime within that period, you may choose to not travel on any of the days but it would count as one of the days of travel.

3. BritRail Flexipass- Within England, Scotland and Wales, but the pass can be broken down into different days of travel. Eg. Travel on 1st nov, 2nd day: 8 nov, 3rd day 10 nov, 4th day 11 nov. This pass as the name suggest is more flexible but of course slightly more expensive than BritRail Consecutive pass.

4. BritRail England Consecutive Pass - A consecutive pass within England itself only

5. BritRail England Flexi Pass - Flexi pass within England itself only

6. BritRail London Plus Pass - Flexi pass within London itself with its boundaries extending to Bath, Bristol and Stratford-upon-Avon

7. BritRail Pass + Ireland - Flexi pass that includes Scotland, England, Wales and Ireland

8. BritRail Scottish Freedom Pass - Flexi pass within Scotland

Are you already confused??? hehehe, well i was at that point. Hope the short explanation helps. At this point, it really depends on how extensive you want to travel, one of my most expensive train journeys would be from Manchester to London which costs a minimum of 36 pounds up to 60 pounds per pax! Check out the NationalRail site to get single point to point fares within England so as to compute whether it's more worth it to get a BritRail or to just go for a point to point ticket.

Another point to mention, if you are travelling in a group of 3 and above, BritRail offers 50% discounted fare from the 3rd pax onwards (it's called the partypass) which is very good value. For more details, do go to the official site to check out the pricing in USD.

First or 2nd Class

I say 2nd class will do, as majority of the people travel by 2nd class. The first class carriage are usually lesser probably because of the demand.

Seats Reservation

Seats can be reserved in advanced via the ticket office, seats are then assigned and you get on the train and search for your seats number and you will find a small ticket slot at the back of your seat confirming your reservation. But alas, i found out that it doesn't really work for short distance train, such as the Liverpool - Manchester leg. Everybody just piled into the train, you will be lucky if you can get a place standing. So in my opinion, you can try your luck with reservations at the ticket office, but don't spend any money on reservations. If you wish to reserve it from your own country, you will need to pay about 10Euros!

There you have it, really hope this enlightens you rather than further confuse you. Feel free to drop me a note if you have simple questions to ask. If not, you can drop an email at the official site, they do reply emails quite efficiently. : )