Tips for cost-effective travelling

For teachers planning an off-site school visit cost is increasingly playing a major part in deciding where to go and, in the case of residential trips, how long to stay.

St Helena School in Colchester recently visited FSC Kindrogan for a residential fieldtrip but initially had concerns about the cost of travelling there.

Head Teacher Mr Manning explains: “Having organised visits from my school to Kindrogan since 2006 I was worried that our visit in 2011 may not happen due, mainly, to the cost of rail travel all the way from Colchester to Pitlochry. The reality, however, couldn’t have been more different. I did some research into finding better value rail travel and found some simple ways to keep the cost down and enable the visit to happen.”

Mr Manning’s three key tips to help find the cheapest rail tickets are:

1. Book well in advance, ideally 12 weeks before travel which is the furthest possible in advance.

2. You need to be able to specify which trains you want to travel on.

3. Make sure the adults in the group hold Family and Friends Railcards. These cut a further third off the ticket price and can be used for up to four children travelling with each adult.

“This year we paid just £33.50 return for each child and £76.00 for each adult or £95.00 for one adult and four children using a Family and Friends Railcard” he continues.

“My advice is with travel being as easy and cheap as this what are you waiting for, get organising your residential course at Kindrogan today!!”

Tuesday, October 4, 2011