Travelling to a wedding

susancs wrote: »

The cheapest option would be megabus £5-£7 each way from Aberdeen bus station to London Victoria coach station in March . Then get pick up transport to near the venue or your accommodation and then taxi (uber with the discount for a first time user on the app if you haven't used them before) to the venue. If you go overnight you may well have a row of seats to sleep on (a friend of mine goes to and from London and Edinburgh by Megabus and says it is often half empty).
https://uk.megabus.com/

Plenty of cheap Travelodges in Essex area if you want to arrive a day before the wedding and stay the night before and night of the wedding. it would involve you taking a days annual leave probably on the Friday to do that and travelling during the day rather than after work. You can also pay £10 to check in from noon in Travelodge hotels.

If you give an idea of where the venue is, can help look up public transport to near it from London.

I did that the last time I attended a wedding in London. £3 return on the Megabus from Glasgow to London. The heating was jammed on full blast so everyone on the bus ended up sweaty and minging. We all got put off the bus at some service station in Lancashire in the middle of the night until a replacement bus turned up....never again! As you say I would also need to use a day of annual leave to travel.

That's when I found out the hard way about 2pm check-ins. I'd left it to my boyfriend to sort out the accommodation because I was tired of always having to organise everything. We were staying in the same hotel as the rest of the guests but he had neglected to bring the hotel information with him or request an early check-in. Thankfully the hotel staff took pity on me and let us check-in at noon once we eventually got there (had to phone the bride to ask for directions).

The nearest travel lodge to the venue is 9 miles away. I found a very reasonable priced Airbnb in the same village as the venue which I've now booked but can cancel if something better comes along.

The venue is in a village near the Essex/Suffolk border. I don't want to say exactly where just in case I can be identified.

Ms_Chocaholic wrote: »

What about getting the train to/from Edinburgh and then flying to/from Stansted, would that be a possibility.

Yes, that was one of the options in my OP. The Easyjet flights are less expensive than the BA flights but by the time you take into account the train and tram fares there's not much in it. Stansted Airport is about a 45 minute drive from the wedding venue. No idea how much a taxi would be as it's been a long time since I've been in that part of the world.

Whereas if I go the London City airport route I would probably get the DLR to Stratford, then a train out to Braintree, and then a 20 minute taxi ride to the village.

Ms_Chocaholic wrote: »

Returning home you can get a Sunday flight from Stansted to Aberdeen, albeit via Amsterdam, 5 hours 5 minutes - 16:00 - landing at 21:50

I would be as well waiting for the 19:00 flight from Stansted to Dundee and then driving back up the road which would get me home earlier than those KLM flights.