Above-inflation hikes in UK train fares may just be coming to an end, but ticket prices are already making a dent in wallets up and down the country. So here are some ideas for making your pennies go further on train journeys with our tips for cheap train travel.

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Tips for cheap train travel at home

1. Split-ticketing: Splitting your journey each way and buying two tickets instead of one could save you a considerable amount of cash. This is in line with train companies’ terms and conditions, and you can usually stay on the same train and even in the same seat. Here’s an example by the Money Saving Expert: if you’re travelling from London to Manchester, buying a ticket from London to Stoke-On-Trent and another from Stoke-On-Trent to Manchester is likely to cost less than the actual London–Manchester fare. Both Money Saving Expert and Split Ticketing have great tools to help you find cheap train travel.
2. Scout out special offers: National Rail publishes a list of available concessions. Keep an eye on those as they’re updated regularly.
3. Anyone for £1 fares? Yep, we thought you might be. Check out Megabus’s cheap train travel on regular services by established rail companies. Remember to select the ‘Train’ option – unless you’d rather go by bus, of course.
4. Tesco customer? Double up on Clubcard points: Exchange your cash vouchers on the Red Spotted Hanky website and make them work twice as hard for you as they do in the shop.
5. Get a railcard: No, these are not just for students and the over-60s. Get a third off rail journeys in the south-east of England and further afield with a Network Railcard, or use one of a range of other railcards for cheap train travel.

And finally a quick nod to overnight sleeper buses. We know – it’s a bit of a departure from trains, but a great alternative for longer journeys, and easier on the wallet. Check out Megabus Gold and their comfortable, inexpensive beds. WiFi, power sockets and refreshments are included. Daytime services also available.

Cheap train travel abroad

Try Deutsche Bahn’s English-language site for quick access to timetables of services across the continent and often cheap train fares. And check out Seat 61’s handy guide to booking cheap train tickets online, with answers to frequently asked questions about European rail travel.
And there’s now a bus service offered by Flixbus with comfortable new buses and incredibly cheap fares, e.g. London to Paris from only £14.50, or London to Amsterdam from £19.00. We’ve tried the service and were very happy.

We hope you found our little guide to cheap train travel useful – bon voyage!

Last updated 27 June 2018

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Many of our brilliant wellbeing holidays provide a great range of activities, treatments and accommodation at affordable prices. So how can you tell which ones offer the absolute best in terms of low cost and great service?

Good question. So good, in fact, that we’re starting a new series of blog posts, all about our best-priced escapes* – cheap retreats that also offer great value.

To give you plenty of time to pack, we begin with cheap retreats that offer amazing value this August. It’s a peak time for holidaymakers around the world, and especially all of us in the UK who’re trying to bag a bank-holiday bargain.

We travel across Europe, where the weak euro and warm sun beckon. And we stop off in Asia, where August’s monsoons are offset by low prices and the best period for Ayurveda treatment.

August cheap retreats in Europe

Sun and surf
Small classes for yoga and Pilates, surfing, white sandy beaches and a rugged volcanic landscape – all packed into this neat retreat on sunny Fuerteventura. See image at top.
From €465 for 7 nights.

August cheap retreats in Asia

Time for Ayurveda
Head to Sri Lanka for authentic Ayurvedic treatment at the best time of the year for this type of healing.
From £698 per week.

Looking for something different in August, or going away at another time? Check out all our great holidays by activity, date and destination, as well as our current offers and discounts.

Next week we look at luxury summer retreats – escapes that don’t only rejuvenate but pamper you in style too. Catch you then!

* How did we come up with the list? We looked at factors like quality of accommodation, board, choice of activities, airport transfers and other add-ons. We then compared these with length of stay and price to come up with a list of retreats that are not just fantastic getaways but are good for the wallet too.

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EHIC card, what’s that you may ask? A health emergency might be the last thing on your mind when you’re heading off on a wellbeing retreat abroad.

But we all know it’s good to be prepared. And, if you’re a British or other EU national travelling in Europe, there’s an easy way to stave off costly medical bills.

Four letters for you: EHIC. Since 2004, the European Health Insurance Card and its predecessor, the E111, have helped tourists from the EU and several other nations receive state healthcare free of charge or at a reduced cost in each of these countries. It’s quick and easy to apply, and it doesn’t cost you anything.

It’s a great tool for accessing local medical services, as I found out on a trip to The Netherlands. A cycling accident left me with a broken shoulder and an eye-watering bill for over €800, to cover ambulance time, x-rays and a doctor consultation. My EHIC card proved I was entitled to the care I’d received. I didn’t pay a single cent.

A quick run through…

…what the EHIC card is:

• proof you’re entitled to treatment that allows you to continue your holiday until it’s time to go home. Care for pre-existing conditions is also covered.
• available to EU nationals aged 16 or over, and citizens of a few other European countries. Get EHICs for your young ones by including them as dependents in your application.
• free and easy to apply Any charge for an EHIC card is a scam.
• potentially helpful in getting the excess on your travel insurance (medical) claim waived, so keep any bills and receipts.

…and what the EHIC card isn’t:

• a substitute for a travel insurance. Make sure you have good medical cover alongside EHIC.
• a guarantee you won’t have to pay – if locals do, so do you.
• no repatriation costs covered and additional charges for hospital stay, etc, may apply.
• private healthcare costs not refundable, so pick a state-run healthcare provider to benefit.
• not accepted in Monaco, San Marino, The Channel Islands, The Vatican and The Isle of Man.

Though this might seem obvious, remember to take your EHIC card with you when you set off to a European retreat, or you may be billed privately in a medical emergency. When it expires, renew it. Look after your EHIC card, and it will look after you.

Sources: MoneySuperMarket, NHS Choices

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In the recent BBC programme ‘Trust Me I’m a Doctor’, Michael Moseley tested Tai Chi and Zumba as forms of exercise to compare their effectiveness on our health. He asked can the slow movements of Tai Chi be as good for our health as the high energy activity of Zumba? – The result was astounding, read more in our blog on ‘What is Tai Chi?’.  Here we round up some of the best Tai Chi retreats for you.

For a sample of Tai Chi practice for health, see ‘Tai Chi 5 Minutes a Day for beginners’:

Note:
The old Western spelling is Tai Chi Chuan and Chi Kung. – In the early 1990 Chinese authorities decreed that the spelling in Latin characters should be Tai Ji Quan (or in one word Taijiquan) and Qigong. This more closely matches the Mandarin pronunciation and differentiates the two different ‘chi’ ­ – in Qi gong it means ’energy’, whereas Tai Ji Quan means the ‘Supreme Ultimate’ (‘Ji’ does not mean energy). So the modern spellings for short are Qigong and Taiji (but Tai Chi is still widely used).

Updated 7 November 2019.

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Along with the announcement of quantitative easing and the ongoing debate over Greece’s Eurozone future, you’ve probably picked up recently on the news of the weak euro.

Indeed, despite some positive news, the Euro recently slumped to its lowest value since the middle of 2010. The fall followed the announcement that the European Central Bank would begin a programme of buying government bonds.

The hard-hitting arguments over Greece’s debt and the pros and cons of the single-currency zone will continue to rage for a while. In the meantime, 2015 has already being heralded as a ‘windfall’ year for British holidaymakers, who can expect to save up to 15% on holidays in Europe. American visitors also stand to benefit substantially from the weak Euro.

So if you’re at all wondering how you can make your holiday savings go further… Well, you could make the most of it by picking a European location for your next wellbeing retreat.

There is evidence already that holidaymakers to Italy and Spain are making the most of the favourable exchange rates, with Greece offering plenty of good deals too. And at Neal’s Yard Holidays there’s no shortage of wellbeing retreats in brilliant European locations to help you make the most of the weak Euro. Getaways to choose from include:

• rejuvenation in Costa Blanca
• yoga and surf holidays on Fuerteventura
• yoga and hiking holidays in France
• and more retreats in Europe

And, with no guarantees that the Euro will continue falling, booking a holiday now would seem prudent. The figures speak for themselves: €500 cost us as little as £375 today, as opposed to £440 just a couple of years ago. So go on, cash in on your ‘continental spending power’ and grab the cheapest holiday season in years by the collar.

With a weak Euro seen as Europe’s chance to regain growth, this could be a win-win for both holiday makers and providers. Watch this space.

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You may have read our previous blog warning about the dangers of skin cancer during yoga holidays in Europe, (if not it’s here) and while covering up is a must in the sun, we should also be mindful of the amount, or lack of, vitamin D we get.

Why is Vitamin D important?

Our body creates vitamin D when our skin is exposed to sunshine, without it we can become ill. Vitamin D deficiency is a major problem, especially in the UK where sun exposure is rather limited to around two months of the year. In the past, vitamin D deficiency was linked with rickets, but recently it’s become evident that a number of other conditions can manifest including muscle weakness and osteoporosis.  Pregnant women are at risk of their babies being born with serious health conditions if they are vitamin D deficient.

Symptoms of vitamin D deficiency include tiredness and a general feeling of being unwell, muscle weakness and pain when bones are under pressure. Sometimes there are no symptoms at all, which means that serious health conditions such as rickets can develop without warning. Evidence also suggest that those who live furthest from the equator are at higher risk of developing muscular sclerosis, due to lack of sun exposure. Scotland has the highest rates of MS in the world with around 10,000 sufferers.

So while on a yoga holiday in Europe, be sure to cover up in the sun to prevent burning and skin cancer, but make sure you do have some exposure in the mornings and evenings. It is also wise to eat plenty of oily fish. If you are vegetarian or vegan, you are at a higher risk of vitamin D deficiency and so a vitamin D supplement may be beneficial, in particular D3.

Yoga holidays in Europe

We have some yoga holidays in Europe that offer plenty of sun, such as this retreat in a quiet beach town in Fuerteventura. The beach is a short walk away and surfing is available.

There are many other sunny yoga holidays on offer on our website, so you can top up your vitamin D and stay healthy. Remember that sun exposure is necessary for our health but too much can also be detrimental. For more information about health risks due to lack of Vitamin D (and right dosage) you can listen to the BBC Radio 4 Food programme (25min).

Next time we’ll be blogging about yoga retreats for first-timers.

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