National Express Coach Tickets On Sale

[StLewi]

As the title suggests, the National Express coach tickets are now on sale: https://www.nationalexpress.com/en/events/glastonbury

A return from London is around £70, or just over £80 for a fully flexible/refundable ticket. You can get a 25% discount if you’re travelling in a group of 4 or more.

I haven’t checked prices from other destinations, but does anyone else think this a tad steep? I understand they want more people to travel by coach, but surely that price will put people off massively. If you were travelling in a group of three, it would be £210. If three were to go in one car, with a parking ticket and petrol, it’d be less than half that.

Or is this nothing to do with the festival and National Express are just cashing in massively?

Edited October 9, 2018 by StLewi

[Daveograve]

Worth every penny, no hassle, no traffic jams and you’re dropped right by an entrance gate!

[gooner1990]

6 minutes ago, StLewi said:

As the title suggests, the National Express coach tickets are now on sale: https://www.nationalexpress.com/en/events/glastonbury

A return from London is around £70, or just over £80 for a fully flexible/refundable ticket. You can get a 25% discount if you’re travelling in a group of 4 or more.

I haven’t checked prices from other destinations, but does anyone else think this a tad steep? I understand they want more people to travel by coach, but surely that price will put people off massively. If you were travelling in a group of three, it would be £210. If three were to go in one car, with a parking ticket and petrol, it’d be less than half that.

I think I paid £47.50 for a return on the See Coach in 2015 and just had a quick look now and NE coach for 2019 from Oxford return is £55.

[Mawson]

Return from Manchester is £88, compared to see ticket's £70. That is a bit steep but actually ends up being cheaper than see if you book for 4 or more people. Worth finding people on here to book with if you are in a group of less than 4.

Edited October 9, 2018 by Mawson

[Mr.Tease]

They've usually been good, except for one year when for the journey leaving the festival, they for some reason sent a driver close to his maximum number of hours. So when we got held up in the traffic queues leaving the site, he no longer had enough time to get us back to manchester. This meant we then had to detour to Birmingham, where instead of just switching drivers, they then made us all get off and unload our luggage and que up for another coach which arrived an hour or so later. Ended up getting back to manchester many hours late and only just made the last train home.

Only other problem was going from Bristol to the festival in 2016 when the roads were all blocked- took about 7 hours I think, but that wasn't national expresses fault.

My main problem with them is i think they are a financial donor to the conservative party, so essentially by using their services I'm donating money to the Tories?

[Mardy]

71 quid from Canterbury. Hmmm. Bit pricey that. Need to have a ponder

[The Red Telephone]

I’m all for going on the coach one year. But £117 return from ‘Ull and the earliest it can  get me there is 3pm means I won’t this year.

[RarerThanDandyB]

If anyone wants to club together for Bolton or Manchester to make it cheaper then contact me. Me and my mate are going and would love the discount. Two or more we need. 

 

[RarerThanDandyB]

15 minutes ago, The Red Telephone said:

I’m all for going on the coach one year. But £117 return from ‘Ull and the earliest it can  get me there is 3pm means I won’t this year.

What’s so bad about 3pm? It is the Wednesday and people do go later.

[The Red Telephone]

4 minutes ago, RarerThanDandyB said:

What’s so bad about 3pm? It is the Wednesday and people do go later.

5 hours of festival time, my friend!

Get your point and having spent 13 hours getting onto site (arriving at 6pm) in 2016, certainly didn’t feel like I missed owt that year. But then everyone was in the same boat that year.

[paddyclark]

£88 from Leeds.  Leave Tuesday night 11.30pm. Arrive 5.45am. Ideal and booked. Can’t remember 2017 price but doesn’t seem much dearer.  

[Sasperella]

Has anyone ever got the bus from Reading? There's a chance I may have to leave by beloved Sheffield and move to Reading  () before Glastonbury. Most of the buses from Reading seem to change at Bristol - is that right? There's one direct one on the way there at a reasonable time, but the only direct one on the way back leaves at 3am (so yeh, fuck that).

And to add insult to injury, all the non-direct ones end up costing £2 for a return than it does from Sheffield - which is totally bonkers! £90ish from Reading and a bus change makes the coach option not worth it all I think...

[Mr.Tease]

27 minutes ago, Sasperella said:

Has anyone ever got the bus from Reading? There's a chance I may have to leave by beloved Sheffield and move to Reading  () before Glastonbury. Most of the buses from Reading seem to change at Bristol - is that right? There's one direct one on the way there at a reasonable time, but the only direct one on the way back leaves at 3am (so yeh, fuck that).

And to add insult to injury, all the non-direct ones end up costing £2 for a return than it does from Sheffield - which is totally bonkers! £90ish from Reading and a bus change makes the coach option not worth it all I think...

I'm not sure, but one solution is to go down to Bristol by train or normal coach on the Tuesday, stay over and then  book a national express coach from Bristol to the festival Wednesday morning- that's what I do anyways (only takes 1hr 15mins, as oppose to umpteen hours from up north)- that way you can sort out your journey to and from Bristol once you figure out where you'll be living!

[Sasperella]

8 minutes ago, Mr.Tease said:

I'm not sure, but one solution is to go down to Bristol by train or normal coach on the Tuesday, stay over and then  book a national express coach from Bristol to the festival Wednesday morning- that's what I do anyways (only takes 1hr 15mins, as oppose to umpteen hours from up north)- that way you can sort out your journey to and from Bristol once you figure out where you'll be living!

That's a good shout - have some friends in Bristol too so might be a good excuse for a catchup. Although I expect those will be far more frequent if I live in Bristol anyway!

[giantkatestacks]

On 10/9/2018 at 4:10 PM, Mardy said:

71 quid from Canterbury. Hmmm. Bit pricey that. Need to have a ponder

Cant decide whether to drive or shell out for the coach - we have always coached recently as the drive back after the Monday shift is murderous but it is spendy...

[Losing my hair]

Coach from Northampton £61.00, camp in Darble, sleep on way home or; 

Drive for 3 hours, queue to get in, pay £50.00 to park car, trudge miles to camp, trudge back again, queue to get out, 3 hour (at least) drive home.

I've booked the coach.

[incident]

1 hour ago, Sasperella said:

Has anyone ever got the bus from Reading? There's a chance I may have to leave by beloved Sheffield and move to Reading  () before Glastonbury. Most of the buses from Reading seem to change at Bristol - is that right? There's one direct one on the way there at a reasonable time, but the only direct one on the way back leaves at 3am (so yeh, fuck that).

And to add insult to injury, all the non-direct ones end up costing £2 for a return than it does from Sheffield - which is totally bonkers! £90ish from Reading and a bus change makes the coach option not worth it all I think... 

If you're going to/from Reading, you're on the same train line as Castle Cary so I'd expect a load of people go that way (hence the relative lack of direct coaches)

[Sasperella]

1 minute ago, incident said:

If you're going to/from Reading, you're on the same train line as Castle Cary so I'd expect a load of people go that way (hence the relative lack of direct coaches)

Yeh, I just checked trains, it's way cheaper especially with a young person railcard (which I'm still clinging on to despite being 33...ha! Student perk number 1 that is). I really hate having to negotiate the queues for the shuttle and then the train station in the morning, and the pressure to leave by 6am to try and beat them, but looks like it would be the most sensible option. 

[Keithy]

2 hours ago, Sasperella said:

That's a good shout - have some friends in Bristol too so might be a good excuse for a catchup. Although I expect those will be far more frequent if I live in Bristol anyway!

I always stay in Bristol on the Tues night. Generally one of the Glastonbury acts do a gig in the city that night. Last year it was The Avalanches.

Edited October 11, 2018 by Keithy

[Tartan_Glasto]

Anyone got the coach from Glasgow before? The other half gets travel sick but says he'll be ok if he can sleep through it. Having not got the coach from Glasgow before I'm not sure if people do sleep through it or if it becomes a bit of a party bus?!

[Tranquility of Solitude]

Just now, Tartan_Glasto said:

Anyone got the coach from Glasgow before? The other half gets travel sick but says he'll be ok if he can sleep through it. Having not got the coach from Glasgow before I'm not sure if people do sleep through it or if it becomes a bit of a party bus?!

Not Glasgow, Edinburgh but similar distance. Coach was quite quiet and you could sleep a bit. I know what you Glasgow party animals are like though....

[Tartan_Glasto]

4 minutes ago, Tranquility of Solitude said:

Not Glasgow, Edinburgh but similar distance. Coach was quite quiet and you could sleep a bit. I know what you Glasgow party animals are like though....

That's what I was hoping. Hopefully Glaswegians are the same haha A few hours kip hopefully before the excitement starts as we get closer to the site

[Mardy]

7 hours ago, giantkatestacks said:

Cant decide whether to drive or shell out for the coach - we have always coached recently as the drive back after the Monday shift is murderous but it is spendy...

Think we're just going to bite the bullet and do it. No cheaper option really. Train or hiring a car will end up just as expensive, maybe more so. This way, the only add-on is the train from Deal to Canterbury. Mind you, that'll be the 05.40 train. Ouch.

[Muffinmaiden]

5 hours ago, Tartan_Glasto said:

That's what I was hoping. Hopefully Glaswegians are the same haha A few hours kip hopefully before the excitement starts as we get closer to the site

We got the bus from Glasgow last year. A bit of chat and drinking until we got to the first service station (around 1am) then everyone seemed to sleep for a few hours so you should be ok! 

[Mardy]

Just booked coach tickets, 7am start from Canterbury, but should be onsite just after midday on the Wednesday