Thank you
Thank you very much. Have a good day!
[Driver] Have a safe journey
Thank you!
[Gordon] Thank you [Vendor] There you go
Thank you
[Announcement] Platform level
[Announcement] Doors open
Good morning, it's time to go back to London
There might be lots of trains. It's really busy!
It's the busiest we've seen so far
Look at what a beautiful day
It could have been like this yesterday
We're traveling with East Midlands again
They manage the Nottingham Station
So if your traveling to or from Nottingham,
chances are it'll be with them
This train is very similar to the last one
Except for one thing: there is free Wi-Fi
When you log in, it says it's for first-class only
But we're in coach, train C, and it still works
Halfway there
[Renata and Gordon] Hello!
First-class lounge
East Midlands Trains
An hour and forty minutes between Nottingham and London, easy ride
You arrive here at St. Pancras station
This is also the station where the international trains depart to France and Belgium, for example
at St. Pancras International, with Eurostar
This was our most expensive train trip here in England
We paid 26 pounds for both of us (update: actually it was for each!)
We could be paying half of that
if we had left at 10:30 in the morning
But we chose to leave at 8:30
so that we'd still arrive here early and we'd have the entire day to enjoy
From St. Pancras Railway you can easily get the underground at Kings Cross St. Pancras
It's all interconnected
You just follow the signs indicating "Underground"
[Announcement] Mind the gap between the train and the platform
[Annoucement] This is Kings Cross St Pancras
[Receptionist] How are you guys? Welcome to the hotel
Thank you
[Receptionist] Did you do mobile check-in?
[Renata] No, we didn't
[Receptionist] You did not
Okay. Let's do this very quickly and we'll get you to the room. Would you like some help with your luggage?
[Renata] No, we're fine, thank you
[Receptionist] Are you sure? [Renata] Yeah
Now that our train rides are over and we're staying here in London in the next few days,
let me share our experience with trains here in England
In a nutshell, service is great. All the trains we caught, all companies
They were clean, on time, except for one with Cross Country between Birmingham and Manchester
The train was cancelled
Service canceled!
But we ended up getting in another one,
basically at the same time, which was even better than the one we had booked
[Train Manager] Continue all the way to Manchester
There are bad things that come from good, right?
And that's the thing, there are so many options here
that it makes it very convenient
I'm creating a playlist here with all our train rides if you want to know more details about each
Come on, baby! You can do it!
But what was very interesting is that they were all different. Some had free Wi-Fi, some had paid Wi-Fi
Some didn't have Wi-Fi at all
Some had assigned seats
We obviously didn't pay attention
Electrical plugs, food and beverage for sale. Others had none of that
But it probably doesn't mean that the company doesn't offer
It's probably related to the line or to that service specific
For example, we were with East Midlands in two trains:
Between Nottingham and London
And between Manchester and Nottingham. In the part between Nottingham and London,
we had a free Wi-Fi
But between Manchester and Nottingham, there was no internet at all
But the most important thing: there are lots of ways you can save money travelling by train
The National Rail Service has something called "travelcards" and there are various forms of discounts
depending on your age, the number of people traveling with you, if you're a student
My husband and I, for example, we got a travel card
called "Two Together travelcard". We bought the digital version one week before coming here
It costs 30 pounds and it's good for one year
With this card, we saved more than 30% in every train ride that we took here
We're probably saving around 100 pounds, if not more
On some trains, we paid 5-6 pounds for both of us together
We're talking about a long distance train costing the same as the underground in London for two people
Which is crazy!
Also when you use the train sometimes there are promotions
associated with train rides that you can take advantage of, even a foreigner
We're both are foreigners
Keep these tickets now because we need them for the next attraction that we're going
For example, during our time here
there was something called "two-for-one". Meaning, if you travel by train, you can arrive in a new city
and buy a ticket to an attraction, get a second ticket for free
Now, for most of the fun we had, we ended up paying half the price in this entire trip
There are rules for this, you need to present a voucher
But in a nutshell, this is it
Of course, something like this only happens during low season
And for us it was great
For most foreigners, England is a very expensive country
But when you take advantage of all these deals plus all the free cultural attractions here,
your money goes much further
Now I understand why people insisted so much that we need to "tap out" after using the underground
At first, it seems obvious, of course you need to tap out
so the turnstiles can open and you go. But sometimes, let's say, at rush hour,
they just want to move people faster, they just tell people to go or someone will go and open for you
And then you wouldn't tap out
Meaning, touch the turnstile with your card or your phone to register your exit
That's the mistake, because if you don't do that, it ends up costing you way more than you would have to pay
This is only when you're using the Oyster card
or a contactless form of payment like a credit card or Apple Pay, Google Pay. Not when you buy a single ticket
We've been using Apple Pay for this entire trip and it's absolutely fantastic
You don't even go to the cashier, you just arrive at the turnstiles with your own phone
and it opens right there, it's amazing!
But, of course, to do this, make sure your credit card doesn't charge international fees
So, if you have questions about transport by train in England, or if you have more tips to share,
let me know! And in the next few vlogs, you are going to see some of the best things to do here in London
Thank you for watching!