Thank you

[Chick28]

Thank you everyone for the replies and information very useful regarding my question about flying.

[devonian186]

Chick it was a useful and interesting topic.

Nervousness of flying generally is not helped when nervousness of the effect on surgery is added in. The trouble is that the alternatives to get from A to B are often so complicated. I mentioned about the costs of trains to Edinburgh for a short break and the sheer logistics of finding a functioning route.

Following that I looked at the cost of taking the train to Nice. Newton abbot to paddington. getting across to St pancras. train to Paris. travel over paris to the correct station. Train to Nice. couldn't really be done in one day. Total cost between £250 to 450 for a single journey for one person without a hotel en route.

A direct flight is much easier and cheaper but carries the concerns outlined in your thread.

[Lezzers in reply to devonian186]

Hi, it's interesting that you looked into traveling by train to Nice as I actually did the journey about 4 years ago. I travelled by train to Paddington & then Eurostar to Paris & I can highly recommend it. We stayed overnight in an cheap ibis hotel & took the train the next day. The train to Nice took about 6 hrs which just sped by as the journey was so interesting. We don't fly at all these days, flying might be quicker but taking the train route was so much less stressful. At the time we didn't find train travel that much more expensive than flying but obviously that was pre 'C' times! & we did have rail cards which reduced the costs of the UK travel by 30%. Rail journeys are/were so much cheaper in Europe!. If you're really interested in doing the journey have a look at the website seat61, that tells you where/how to to get the best/cheaper tickets. We bought our tickets through interrail as we found those to be the cheapest.

[devonian186 in reply to Lezzers]

Thanks. Yes, I use seat 61. it is very good. Unfortunately trains have become a silly price unless you can go at a highly inconvenient time. The hotels in Paris anywhere near the stations were also very expensive. So £1000 plus for the return train fares fr 2 plus a hotel at getting on for £200 and that was before food or Nice Hotels were factored in.

I will look at the Ibis as we quite like them.

[Lezzers in reply to devonian186]

Wow, that's astonishing, we never paid anything like that & we travelled first class all the way!! We had a lovely hotel in Nice with swimming pool, just minutes from the beach/promenade area. Hubby has just reminded me the Ibis was nearer the station you need to get the train to Nice, we felt it would be less stressful to make our way to that station the night before so we didn't have to worry bout getting to the Nice train on time. The Ibis was the very basic one but clean, friendly ect. As an added bonus, the pre-booked room on our return journey wasn't available so they sent us to a really lovely 5 star hotel somewhere across Paris with porterage, we had an upgraded room with coffee machine, seating area and breakfast was amazing instead of the usual croissant & muffin affair. And they paid the taxi fare each way for us so we also got a tour of Paris thrown in! It really finished the holiday off nicely! Tbf, I did do a lot of research before I actually booked anything!

[Lezzers in reply to Lezzers]

Ps: I don't think the Nice train had first class but it was it was certainly on a par with Uk first class just without food & drink, we took our own food & drinks

[devonian186 in reply to Lezzers]

I checked to see if our favourite Hotel on the Promenade Des Anglais was available and the price has risen from 120 Euros when we stayed there for the Carnival in February 2018 to 379 Euros for the End of April this year. The Paris hotels were at least as expensive as the London ones. I hate to think of the prices in Peak season.

[Lezzers in reply to devonian186]

Tbf because we were only doing overnight stays in Paris we wasn't too concerned about the hotel, so long as it was clean & did breakfast we were ok with that. We stayed at the Splendid hotel in Nice which was close enough to walk to the promenade, a side road leading off of it, but without paying the 'promenade prices, maybe look at something like that? Which one is your favourite hotel? There were some lovely ones there, but obviously movie star prices! I think we went in the middle of September if I remember rightly, weather was gorgeous, sadly we didn't quite make it to Monte Carlo or get the The Train des Merveilles, which were both on our agenda, always thought we'd go back another time & do those Definitely train journeys are less stressful than flying, we've done Scotland a few times though I definitely DO NOT recommend the Caledonian Flyer & we had an en suite cabin!!! My friend travelled to Seville by train, taking overnight sleepers, she got me into train travelling, which we hope to take up again one day 🤞

[devonian186 in reply to Lezzers]

Hotel West End Promenade is our Nice Hotel.. It must have been upgraded to command the current prices. We HAD been thinking of going up on the Caledonian Express to Edinburgh as the cabin including tickets are cheaper than just seat tickets. What was wrong with it?

I think it was upgraded a few years ago.

[Lezzers in reply to devonian186]

Yes, it was the new sleeper we went on not long after it went into service, it might have been teething problems but.... So at Euston, we along with all the other passengers were told to wait on the platform, the train was going to be late coming in but it would be coming in on that platform. The train was very late!!! But we waited & waited till I decided to check the board (nowhere near the platform!) to check the ETA only to find it was already in but at a different platform! So we all dashed to that platform but couldn't board as it was being made ready!! It was the middle of December, almost midnight & it was absolutely freezing! Got on board by which time it was a bit too late to sit & have a drink in the lounge car! (You can only use the lounge if you have a cabin) The cabin was tiny, you're supposed to be supplied with a bag of toiletries for the journey, ours wasnt in the room, so we had to ask as ours were in the suitcase under the bed! (Don't take large suitcases!) however the toiletries were not complete or as advertised! Neither myself or my husband are in any way large, but to enable us to dress/undress one of us had to sit on the toilet (again tiny!) otherwise there is literally no room at all, not sure how those without the en suite managed! And we literally had no sleep as it was absolutely freezing due to a draft coming through under the door & the noise the train makes on the tracks is just incredible, we were away from reviews the noise was an issue but it was way worse then we expected. There was no time to enjoy waking up to the scenery along the train journey as you had to get up, have breakfast & get off the train asap! Not a experience I'd ever want to repeat! Personally I'd just take the LNER train, do a day journey & enjoy the scenery.

[devonian186 in reply to Lezzers]

Yes, one of the troubles is that it is very late before it is even due to depart and kicking your heels at night in the cold and dark is not optimal.

We do have a train from Newton Abbott a couple of times a day to Edinburgh with no changes -but it is a long journey. The only reason to have to traipse over to Euston was to use the night sleeper. However it certainly doesn't sound worth the hassle. Thanks for the warning

We don't live far enough down to warrant getting the Riviera Express.

gwr.com/travelling-with-us/...

As far as I can see the cabin doesn't have an ensuite. Hmmm.

[Lezzers in reply to devonian186]

I've looked at the Riviera Express as well & no there's definitely no en suites on it. But having had one on the sleeper, I'm not sure how much of an issue that would be. It certainly wasn't worth paying the extra for the en suite

[devonian186]

I forgot to ask, but has your recent experience put you off flying or will you just adapt to it differently?