Holidaying in the UK and the cost

So the government likes us to use public transport to get to places, they love to encourage us out of our cars and onto the more environmentally friendly public transport system...

A group of use are going to Scotland this summer for a camping holiday - we are going to Fort William on the West Coast of Scotland, and we are going by car, but I thought i'd investigate other forms of transport and how much it would cost to get to Scotland and the length of time etc, and the results are very indicative of why people won't get out of their cars!

For arguements sake and for the sake of other forms of transport, I'm gonna say we are going to Inverness for the week, we aren't, and it would be even more expensive on other forms to put the destination on as Fort William! Dates are 18th July - 26th July

Journey: Haywards Heath to Inverness
Transport Researched: Coach, Plane, Train, Car, Scooter (I have done it on the Scooter before, all that way lol!)

Distance by Road: 610 miles

I'll start by showing you the stats for the car that I will be going in:

Car

Fiesta ST 2.0L - Two people sharing (3 for some of the way, but for this sake, i'll say 2)

Door to Door Journey: 10 Hours (including 2/3 breaks)

2 people driving, all luggage in car, tent, cooker, gas, clothes, sleeping bags etc etc.

Cost of Return Journey only: £180 (petrol) (£90 EACH)

Scooter

1 Person riding, backpack with some little bits in (not alot lol!)

Door to Door Journey: 10 Hours (including 2/3 breaks)

Cost of Return journey only: £134 petrol + £14 oil (2 stroke engine )

Coach

1 person with limited baggage (probably same as Scooter!)

Door to Door Journey - including allowing time to travel to/from start/end point: 16 HOURS 35 Minutes, via Central London (traffic???) and 15 Hours 55 minutes return journey with TWO changes and a 70 minute wait each way in Central London....niiiiice!

Cost per person: £64.50 cheapest - £80 Flexible

Train

1 person, limited baggage, probably the most scenic way of getting there!

Door to Door Journey (allowing travel to station etc: 10 HOURS 34 mins

Cost per person: £133.40 each cheap, £207.50 flexi

Plane

1 person has a luggage allowance of only 20KG - costs £5 for 1 bag each way - you can have an extra bag, but that is £30 each way. Flight is only 1 1/2 hours, but all the check in and faffing round adds a huge amount of time to that. (flying back into Gatwick is a nightmare on UK domestic flights, you are the scum of the earth, and are treated like shit - baggage reclaim takes over an hour on the retunr leg)

Door to Door Journey Time: 6 hours up, 7 back (absolute most) - definately the shortest time, but not the most relaxing way, it is hell flying these days!

Cost: £177.98 EACH

One thing to note with Plane, Train & Coach is once you get there, you then need to hire a car on top of the cost of getting there - cheapest budget car is £160.35 from Europcar for the 8 days - so if there are two of you sharing, thats another £80 each.

The cheapest way to get to Inverness from down here in the South is (taking all things into account, including hire car etc):

Per Person:

1. Car - £90
2. Scooter - £134
3. Coach - £144.50
4. Train - £213.40
5. Plane - £257.98

Is it no wonder we will not get out the car? At the end of the day, when it comes to holidays, most of us don't think "what will my carbon footprint be if I get there by X form of transport. Even wear and tear, insurance and tax for that period of time (8 days, journey up and back only - 1200 miles) would add not more than £20-£30 onto the cost of the trip.

The other thing is too, with the public transport, you have to arrange hire car collection and drop off, usually have to pay a massive excess in event of an accident - usually about £700.

If you were to work out the journey to Fort William, it would take another 3 hour each way by plane, so that takes the same time as by car (FW is shorter distance than INV by road obvioulsy!)