Unsurprisingly, there are a number of different travel options for heading to UK Universities. Depending on the location of your event, it may be wise to consider travel options that are not dependant on travelling via London.
Travelling to Newcastle
When conducting your searches, please remember that it is “Newcastle upon Tyne”, not “Newcastle-under-Lyme”.
Travelling into the UK
Rail Travel - Eurostar
To check Eurostar prices, you can click on the following link. Eurostar Booking
Eurostar will take you into London St Pancras station, which is a direct neighbour to London King’s Cross station. Direct trains from London to Newcastle depart from King’s Cross (more information below in the Travelling in the UK section).
On the Eurostar website, it is possible to look at high speed links to Eurostar hubs from cities across France and western Germany as well as the Belgium and the Netherlands.
Train travel is the Green Option for travelling to and within the UK. It is, unfortunately, often quite expensive.
Air Travel
Depending on your nearest airport, it may be a good option to not travel via London Airports. We recommend you consider looking at the following alternatives to London airports (the links take you to the “where we fly to” pages for each airport):
- Newcastle Airport - NCL (Map and List)
- Edinburgh Airport - EDI (List with Search)
- Manchester Airport - MAN (List with Search)
- Birmingham International Airport - BHX (Map and List)
You should also note that if flying into London Heathrow Airport (LHR), you can fly directly from there to Newcastle Airport.
Bus Travel
There are a number of bus routes from mainland Europe into the UK. They may be cheap (Paris - Newcastle is approx. £40) but can be quite a long journey (Paris - Newcastle is around 20 hrs with Flixbus).
Travelling within the UK
If London airports are your only choice, approximate best journey times using public transport from London’s major airports into King’s Cross Station are:
- London Heathrow - 35 mins
- London City - 35 mins
- London Gatwick - 45 mins
- London Luton - 50 mins
- London Stanstead - 60 mins
Rail Travel
Below are a sample of journey times and return ticket costs to Newcastle Station. Please note that there are often many ways of doing the journies listed. The routes below are the most common, with changes listed in order for the outbound journey. See the General Advice section below for Ticket Types in the UK
| Start | Journey Time | Ticket Prices | Route |
|---|---|---|---|
| Newcastle Airport | 30 mins | £9 | Direct (metro) |
| King’s Cross Station | 2 hrs 50 mins - 3 hrs 20 mins | Advance: £87, Anytime: £164 | Direct or change in York |
| Edinburgh Airport | 2 hrs 15 mins - 2 hrs 45 mins | Advance: £53, Off-Peak: £81 | 1 change (Haymarket) or 2 changes (Haymarket, Edinburgh (Waverly)) |
| Manchester Airport | 3 hrs 5 mins - 3 hrs 45 mins | Advance: £55, Anytime: £142 | 1 change (York) or 2 changes (Manchester Piccadilly, Leeds) |
| Birmingham Airport | 3 hrs 30 mins - 3 hrs 50 mins | Advance: £87, Off-Peak: £144 | 1 change (Birmingham New St (BNS)) or 2 changes (BNS, York) |
Bus Travel
There are a number of cheap, long distance bus routes available accross the UK. Companies such as FlixBus, National Express and Megabus offer a variety of routes, prices (much cheaper than trains) and standards of comfort/security.
General Advice/Notes
Train Travel
Train Ticket Types in the UK: There are different train travel ticket types and staff will often be very strict about these:
- “Advance” tickets are generally cheaper but you are only allowed to travel on the specfied route at the specified time.
- “Off-Peak” tickets, if available, are generally more expensive than “Advance” tickets but cheaper than “Anytime” tickets, They have a designated time frame for travel (usually outside commuter times) and is dependant on the start and end points of the full journey.
- “Anytime” tickets are the most expensive and can be bought for any time train on a specific route.
There is a large number of different rail companies in the UK. When buying tickets you should double check what station and route the ticket can be used on.
Ticket machines at stations and apps such as The Trainline will usually display the route restrictions when you look at ticket types.
Taxis
The standard price-per-mile for taxis is very dependant on the city. The size of the town/city determines whether, for example, Uber or online booking is available.
While the iconic London “Hackney Cabs” are usually black, there are no standard vehicle makes or colours of taxis in the UK.
We would recommend you check the payment method before entering a cab.
Paying for things
In general, in the UK you can pay either by cash or by card. However, transport is more often paid by card (in stations/London Underground) or through transport apps. Since 2020, many smaller businesses have moved to card payment only.