Multiday Parking near London - Hillingdon?

alexlyne

Off to London for a long weekend with the family in the summer.

Last time, me and the missus took the train as she had a railcard. Now she doesn't and is going to cost a bit over £70 return each (2 tickets, I assume the nipper will be free). According to the Nat Rail website anyways. Haven't looked at split ticketing yet.

I am looking at a driving alternative, knowing that when my mum and dad visit the big smoke from the south coast they park at Morden and tube in, so I am wondering if this is possible from the East (approaching on the M4)

Initial research has led me to Hillingdon Station, which has a very reasonable priced NCP car park that is 24 hour. I reckon fuel and parking will cost a total of £50 (if it was today, it would be £40, but I'm allowing for fuel surge!). Can anyone recommend Hillingdon?
To anyone that uses it, will there be spaces before 9am on a Saturday morning?

Also, are there any better ideas?

Cheers!

theatretony

When I park in London I use https://www.parkatmyhouse.com

I can park for a full day for about £6. You can book more than one day as well..

alexlyne

Thanks tony, did see a link to the site but I'm not entirely convinced by the system.. of course I have yet to take a full look at it so I could yet be convinced.
CP charges at Hillingdon are £1 a day for weekends and £5 for weekdays. for a sat/sun/mon, that's £7 for 3 days, which seems like a real bargain.

Jeff_Bridges_hair

you know you could buy a friends and family railcard which currently has 10% off the price http://www.familyandfriends-railcard.co.uk/online and that would reduce the ticket price anyway down to around that mark you were thinking of of petrol plus parking.

If you tell us where and when your travelling then maybe we can help you out with the tickets too. Lots of folk have access here to the ticket machines themselves or look more indepth at splits for you.

alexlyne

F+F Railcard may be an option, I think the wife was going to look into that. I just thought all railcards were 1/3 off. So from £72 down to around £48, so still £100. Unfortunately just looking at your link the child has to be 5-15. No way our 18-mth-old-by-the-summer will get away as a 5 yo.

If we were going by train we'd go caldicot-> paddington preferably via STJ, though newport is an option.
Out - sat 30/07, return mon 01/08. 2 adults (baby goes free right?).
Would want underground tickets for the 3 days also (zone 1 only I'd guess)

I think I've heard that split tickets work at Didcot on the FGW london-s.wales route, haven't had time to permutate the options.

(I was a MSE in that I booked our travelodge for 2 nights separately, as the cost for booking them togetehr was £60 more!)

Jeff_Bridges_hair

alexlyne wrote: »

F+F Railcard may be an option, I think the wife was going to look into that. I just thought all railcards were 1/3 off. So from £72 down to around £48, so still £100. Unfortunately just looking at your link the child has to be 5-15. No way our 18-mth-old-by-the-summer will get away as a 5 yo.

If we were going by train we'd go caldicot-> paddington preferably via STJ, though newport is an option.
Out - sat 30/07, return mon 01/08. 2 adults (baby goes free right?).
Would want underground tickets for the 3 days also (zone 1 only I'd guess)

I think I've heard that split tickets work at Didcot on the FGW london-s.wales route, haven't had time to permutate the options.

(I was a MSE in that I booked our travelodge for 2 nights separately, as the cost for booking them togetehr was £60 more!)

Ahh now see the dates you are looking for tickets have not been released yet. Ive just had a look on FGW site for dates roughly 12 weeks from todays date and they are showing the full journey for £46 for the pair of you return. And yes the bairn goes free..

You need to work back from the date your travelling - 12 weeks - to get a rough idea of when the cheap ticks will be released.

wealdroam

As mentioned above, you are too early for the cheap tickets.

But using Sat 14 May and Mon 16 May as an example of what might be possible...
Saturday, dep Caldicot 10:41, arr Paddington 14:14. Advance Singles = £11.50 each.
Monday dep Paddington 14:15, arr Caldicot 17:30. Advance Singles = £11.50 each.
Total for all three of you return = £46.00. Child travels free.

Now with a Family and Friends Railcard, the total fare for all three of you drops to £34.80. That includes buying a ticket for the child (which you have to do with a F&F railcard).
Ok, you still have to buy the railcard, at £23.40 using the link above, but it will be valid for a whole year.

Your choice.

theatretony

alexlyne wrote: »

Thanks tony, did see a link to the site but I'm not entirely convinced by the system.. of course I have yet to take a full look at it so I could yet be convinced.
CP charges at Hillingdon are £1 a day for weekends and £5 for weekdays. for a sat/sun/mon, that's £7 for 3 days, which seems like a real bargain.

I have used this site only twice and I have never had a problem. Booking was easy and finding the properties was just as easy. May work out cheaper. Depends how confident you feel leaving your car in someones drive.

bigmuffins

As you are coming from Wales, have you looked at National Express or Megabus? They offer very good prices - Nat Express funfare £5.50 single from Cardiff to London Victoria last time I looked! Don't know how practical that is for you though. Need to print off your ticket yourself and is non-refundable/non-amendable though.

If coming off M4 you may find getting off at Junction 3 and heading to Hounslow West is quicker than going to Hillingdon - there is tube station there, Piccadilly line, and used to be free parking in surrounding roads but you may need to walk with cases so may not be best. Also it was a while ago that I was there so can't guarantee that they haven't put parking restrictions in place since. Maybe someone local could post? Maybe google the station on Streetview and have a shufty?

HTH

:beer:

alexlyne

Thanks everyone for responses...

Advance tickets look good, yes I was planning the trip waay in advance, so can certainly wait before making final plans. The railcard is a possibilty, will have to look into how much use we think we'd get out of it.

I'd rule out taking a bus as I imagine it will take longer and it is harder to keep a toddler entertained when you can't leave your seat.

Local parking near station, yes perhaps if there was an almost certainty of being able to do it - if we ignore irate local residents

Thanks again

Alex

agrinnall

alexlyne wrote: »

Local parking near station, yes perhaps if there was an almost certainty of being able to do it - if we ignore irate local residents

Last year I parked for several days (midweek) near Acton Town underground. I think it was on Gunnersbury Road, up the hill from the tube, there is a section of the road that is in between controlled parking zones and doesn't have any yellow lines. I was half expecting to find the car gone when I got back but it was just as I left it, and no problem with local residents.