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MilesT6060842

Start by searching for a "train ticket split" website, to see if there is a split ticket discount available.  But don't buy there, just take a note of the proposed routing.  Personally I use https://tickets.railforums.co.uk

For a long journey with a family the "Friends and Family Railcard" (30% discount, annual cost is £30 although sometimes discounted versions are available--trainline has sold discounted ones in the past) may break even or pay back on the first trip.  If you collect Tesco clubcard vouchers then you can buy Railcards with those.  You don't have to buy the railcard when you buy the tickets (you can buy later to start just in time for the trip), but you must request the railcard discount when you buy the tickets, you can't claim the discount later.

If you already have an account to book tickets on a train operator website (i.e. your local trains) then you should be able to buy tickets there without fees (trainline and others charge a booking fee).  Take the routing/split proposed by split train ticket website.

Usual rule of thumb is don't book until the train companies you plan to use have loaded the latest timetable for the proposed dates so you can be sure of the exact trains--usually about 12 weeks prior but can be sooner or later, and that's when the Advance fixed tickets will be opened up and will be their cheapest.  No harm researching now, though, put in dates to test about 10 weeks away to see what likely pricing will be (avoiding major public holidays, unless you plan to travel on a holiday...)

Your trip is likely to need more than one train company, sometimes a train company will have their own special discount on their own website but that is usually between stations they directly serve.

Although you are not buying a package holiday with a flight, travel insurance is still recommended in case there is an issue and you need to travel home early (on full price train tickets) or hire a car to get home, or there is a problem with your accommodation, luggage, theft etc.

t0rt0ise

You can get Advance train tickets which are cheap, are for a particular train and are available about three months before travelling. You need to book early while available but they won't be there for August yet.

DeadNice

All sound advice: get a Family Railcard (60% off for kids, 30% off adults), book ahead, and use any site that doesn't charge a billing fee. 

However, three months ahead is probably too early to look for this journey. It's highly likely you'll be using Transport for Wales for at least part of the journey and they do not make their their discounted 'Advance' tickets as early as other companies - they usually put them on sale six weeks ahead. If you try and book before this, you'll only see the more expensive flexible tickets available.

The Transport for Wales website will let you book the tickets you need, but you can use any train company site you like. Cross Country Trains can be a good choice when booking Advances, as they don't charge admin fees if you need to change your booking.

You've not said where you're travelling from, but looking at random dates in February as an example, I can see journeys from Cardiff Central to Blackpool North, changing trains at Manchester, starting from about £250 return for all of you, dropping to a little over £140 with a Family Railcard.

MilesT6060842

DeadNice said:

However, three months ahead is probably too early to look for this journey. It's highly likely you'll be using Transport for Wales for at least part of the journey and they do not make their their discounted 'Advance' tickets as early as other companies - they usually put them on sale six weeks ahead. If you try and book before this, you'll only see the more expensive flexible tickets available.

The Transport for Wales website will let you book the tickets you need, but you can use any train company site you like. Cross Country Trains can be a good choice when booking Advances, as they don't charge admin fees if you need to change your booking.

 DeadNice Didn't know that TfW is so late about posting the advances (is this because of lots of ongoing engineering for South Wales metro?), and good tip on using XC as a booking website if you have a changeable ticket and may need to make a change.

Even with TfW advance constraint then it may be still be worth looking/booking 12 weeks in advance, using a ticket split website as guidance, or searching the journey "by hand" in consultation with a railway map that shows the operating companies to see if mostly/totally non TfW routing is possible with the shortest TfW "leg" possible to get to a station where advances are available at 12 weeks;  e.g. first leg use a train or coach to get into a station in England with good connections then route from there.  This would work around the lack of advances on TfW (cheapest Anytime ticket) while the rest of the journey is at its cheapest, and having an Anytime/Offpeak/Super offpeak ticket flex ticket as the 2nd leg in a multi-ticket journey helps protect against late running trains breaking the spit ticket/multii-ticket routing.  The "manual" route may show some options that the National rail website (and split ticket websites) would not show (unless you put in a "via" in the advance searches) because the official routing manual (which all websites respect) wouldn't consider the route as "correct" for the journey.  If the tickets are "split" i.e. multiple tickets for the trip then less usual (but cheaper) routes would be valid, though, so no worries.